Are you in favor of lower speed limits?

Question

It seems to me that lower speed limits will conserve fuel but at the same time frustrate and aggravate drivers. If a driver feels he needs to conserve, he will do so voluntarily.

Answer 1

Absolutely!!!  If the national speed limit was 55 mph, we would save nationally 25% in fuel consumption.  That alone would lower demand and increase supply.  You would see at least $1.50 reduction in fuel cost.  Couple that with limiting oil future market to only traders of comsuming buyers (such as oil companies, power utilities , etc...) would pop the speculation bubble on reduce oil to 50-60 dollars a barrell.

That alone would reduce fuel cost to about $3.00/gal.

The president could invoke this tommorrow  under emergency action executive order.  The speculation bubble would immediately begin to deflate, thus charging up the economy in general.  Will he? NOT. The president and vp is oil and congress vote by special interest

Answer 2

I favor responsible drivers!

Why should we need a law to get us to drive smart?

I owned a car once that got better gas mileage at 70 then it did at 55. Seems to me that one law fits all is idiotic reasoning.

Answer 3

no

Answer 4

My 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe gets between 24 to 25 mpg at 75 mph.

It is built for that speed as are most modern fuel efficient cars today.

At 55 mph it only gets 19 to 21 mpg

A net loss of 4 miles per gallon. That would really aggravate drivers and me.

We did that 55 once before when more than half the cars on the highways were built in the 1960`s. They were old heavy cars that got 9 to 15 mpg it did supposedly save some gas but everyone hated it. That is why it is no longer is the law.

If you want to drive 55 go ahead, do it.

Glad you asked

Answer 5

It did not help in the 70's so I say lesson learned.  It drives the cost of freight up because it takes longer for goods to arrive.

j

Answer 6

h**l no! if a driver wants to go slow, they can go to the right lane and do their slow speed ther eya know? its legal to go under the speed limit not over ya kno?

Answer 7

Finally, finally, FINALLY someone suggests here that we lower speed limits to lower gas consumption!  I am all for lowering the speed limit on Interstates to 55 mph but every time I suggest this to friends and family they all vehemently disagree with me or look at me like I have snakes coming out of my head.  Is America's need for speed greater than its need to conserve gas and save money?  Apparently so!  People moan and groan at the pumps but aren't willing to slow down it seems.

Answer 8

I'm definitely NOT in favor of lower speed limits-because that's the wrong attitude to have towards this issue. The laws don't need to change; the enforcement of the laws need to change. Traffic officers, in a very general sense, tend to go about tickets in the wrong way. Instead of having "speed traps" and that manner of thing, where they sit in a likely area and simply blanket punish everyone doing over 5%, it would be a lot more effective to have a system in which punishment falls when an accident occurs, a reactive assault on speeding rather than a preventative, because, in my humble opinion, they are preventing nothing, and simply providing yet another drain on the taxpayers of a given county, when so much gas is guzzled when they perform operations of this sort. Now, on the other hand, I am a supporter of checkpoints, checking for whatever. That's a safe, but effective, and also cost-effective, way to remind the general public to abide the law.

Answer 9

I love this question. So many different ideas come to mind, but first a quick story. My youngest, when he was two, used to make me laugh! If we ran into some traffic, I would always say "Who are all these people and what are they doing on MY road?" With his limited vocabulary, he struggled to find the right words to respond. He knew what he wanted to say though, and would every time yell from his car seat "It's the partner's road!" lol

Out of the mouths of babes, but if you think about it, Americans might do a better job of getting along with each other on the road than anywhere else. Considering we're all in 5000 pound+ high speed projectiles in close proximity, I'd say we have formed quite a partnership for the greater good. How rare is it that we ever have an "intentional" instead of an accident?

Getting everyone to partner on the idea of driving 55 makes sense in the ways you've set forth, but I don't see it happening. Almost all my driving is work related, driving to clients' homes or places of business. Driving 75 vs. 55 isn't worth it if I'm seeing a client 5 miles away, but if I'm making a 2 hour round trip to see one, driving 55 could add 45 minutes to my trip.

In addition to the time spent driving, I bill my clients door-to-door, so they get a bill from me which includes the driving time. I also bill door-to-door for my guys. If I send a team of six (two techs and 4 helpers) on a two hour round trip job, my client pays for that too. A team of six bills at $370 per hour and the work we do typically lasts from a few days to chunks of a two year period. The direct monetary cost of driving 55 can be quite substantial in my case.

Besides, I've already done a lot. When gas hit $4.00 per gallon, I parked my 6000 pound, 10 mile per gallon truck and bought an Accord. My fuel bill the month before I bought the Accord was $1200 just for my truck! If I'd financed the Accord, my payment would be around $375/month. Filling the Honda will cost me about $400 this month. That's a free car plus about $425 dollars in my pocket at the end of each month!

So, I've cut my gasoline usage by 2/3rds, and if you don't mind, I'd like to keep driving the open highway at 75.

I don't remember if it was Newt or Rush that suggested we dump 1/3rd of our strategic reserves on the market to s***w with the speculators. Also one of your responders said we could all drive 55 and achieve the same effect. Any idea that includes messing with the speculators, in my opinion, is a good idea. I would drive 55 for a while to achieve that goal!

Answer 10

I agree with you, 55 will conserve though, most roads that are higher in speed limits are 4 lane, people can choose there.