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Automotive News & Views Should the US government bring back the 55 mph max speed limit again?
1418 messages, Last post on Dec 16, 2008 at 11:21 AM
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Dec 05, 2007 6:30 am) I've made a couple 350 mile trips for business lately. It's mostly highway miles and I set the cruise control at about 75 mph, which is 5 miles over the posted limit. I get 31 mpg in a 6 cyl. Honda Accord Coupe rated at 240 hp. The RPMs at this speed are just under 2300. While I don't have the patience to attempt this I'm extremely confident that if I slowed down to 55 I would not be getting the 40 mpg that some people are claiming. Let's say I got 35 mpg. So in this 350 mile trip I will have burned 10 gallons as opposed to 11.29. At today's gas prices that's a savings of around $4 but I spent 1 hour 40 minutes longer on the road. For me spending $4 to save 1 hour and 40 minutes is a no-brainer. These projections of the potential fuel savings are way overstated. First off we don't currently do all our driving on the highway at speeds greater than 55. Let's say 50% of our driving falls into this category even though I think that's a little high. Even at higher speeds this highway driving produces gas mileage that is about 30-50% better than our city mileage, depending on the vehicle . So only about 40% of the fuel we burn is done at these highway speeds. Now let's say slowing down to 55 saved 25%, which I seriously doubt. Well 25% of 40% is only 10% savings. And finally this whole idea is predicated on drivers actually complying. They didn't in the 70s so they sure as heck won't do it now with today's cars being significantly more capable of handling higher speeds. |
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Dec 05, 2007 6:30 am) Some people love to speak of others submitting, perhaps they themselves should submit to the real world for once. |
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Yeah, same old socialist arguments for "saving gas" and "saving lives" offered by folks who think everyone ELSE is doing something wrong. Just when you thought the 1970s was over. "more revenues will be garnered from speeding tickets, and that money can be used to finally bring our roads up to better than a third world standard." Really? What happens to all the CURRENT revenue from speeding tickets? It simply boosts the budget of whatever agency writes the tickets, so they can hire more officers to write more tickets. We lowly citizens never see any benefits trickle down to us. BTW, even the gasoline tax revenue doesn't all go to build roads. Here in TX, the state siphons off 25% of gas taxes for its 'general fund.' Check the rate of theft in your own state. You'll find that even revenues supposedly dedicated to one purpose get stolen by our trusty bureaucrats. So, forget the 'more money for the government means a better life for us' canard. "We can save more than 30% of the oil supply before it is completly depleted." "Experts" have been predicting the end of oil for about 50 years. It's always about 20 years away. Kind of like global warming. Our grandchildren will pay the price. 30 years ago, it was global cooling, the coming Ice Age, that was going to kill our grandchildren. Guess what -- WE'RE the grandchildren! And we're not dead. We're also not out of oil. "Nobody is so important that they can't start out on their journey sooner than later." Nobody is so important that they can dictate the daily schedule of everyone else. The post that facetiously argued that if 55 is good, 45 would be better, and 35 even better took this argument to its logical end. This country is full of "experts" who swear that if everyone did some prescribed action, the world would be a better place. Hey, if everyone gave me $1, I know MY world would be a better place. C'mon, it's only a dollar, and it'll put $300 million in my bank account. And all the extra stuff I buy will boost the economy, create jobs, increase tax revenues, and trickle down to make YOUR lives better! Yes, we need federal legislation that requires everyone to pay ME! It's for your own good! .
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| 55 MPH was a dumb idea then and a dumber idea now. Anybody who is actually driving 55 MPH on an interstate is a hazard. Heck, anybody driving 55 MPH on I-95 through Philly is going to be an extreme hazard to other motorists. The 55 MPH speed limit was nothing but a source of revenue generation via tickets. | |
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 7:18 am) Yecch!!! What's next? Speedometers calibrated to only 85 mph and anemic 115-hp V-8s? No thanx!!!!  Maybe we should bring back Shaun Cassidy, 8-tracks, and plaid bell-bottoms while we're at it?
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Replying to: lemko (Dec 05, 2007 7:25 am) |
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Ah, yes, the 85 mph speedometer. Another useless attempt to manipulate people's behavior. It didn't work, but it sure made the do-gooders feel important. And that's what really matters to them. Don't kid yourselves -- if these folks had their way, ALL cars would be electronically governed to a speed dictated daily by a nationwide, multi-trillion dollar monitoring system. The system would detect your car wherever it is, regulate its speed (never more than 50 mph), and, of course, automatically charge you a new tax every time you drive (to pay for the nifty monitoring system, of course). "But what about lost revenue from speeding tickets?" you ask. Tut-tut, my little useful idiot. Not to worry. The speeding tax will be replaced by the new "Congestion Tax." Again, the monitoring system will automatically extract this from drivers, but only during "congestion" periods. Those include, but are not limited to, weekday morning rush, 6 am to 10 am; lunch rush, 10 am to 2 pm; and afternoon rush, 2 pm to 7 pm. In addition, supplemental congestion tax will apply during the period between 7 pm and midnight, to encourage family time at home between parents and their children. And the period between midnight and 6 am will be taxed at twice the normal rate, to encourage everyone to get a good night's sleep. Weekends will offer reduced taxes to encourage social activity, except holiday weekends, including, but not limited to, President's Day, Memorial Day, Indepndence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, all of which demand special tax rates to reduce congestion. Yes, everything would be perfect if (sigh) we only had the political courage to make it so.
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 7:18 am) Good post! In CA it is all dumped into the general fund. Hard to tell that they spend much on our roads. They are better than Mexico, by a little bit. I was very pleased with your highways in TX. On my trip to the Hill Country I stayed off the Interstate as much as possible. You have hundreds of miles of very nice 2 lane highways. They must be spending a good portion on roads. Many were posted 70-75 MPH except through little towns. There it dropped to 55 MPH. |
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 8:01 am) Traveling across Montana in 1976 I was ticketed twice in one hour. First was 75 MPH second for 76 MPH. The cop took my money sitting in his car. It cost me 5 bucks each time. The tickets were for "Wasting Natural Resources". Montana was never happy with the 55 MPH limit. I guess that was their way keeping the Feds at bay. |
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 8:01 am) |
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