55 mph speed limit

[Fiddytree]

Feck no. The earth could go feck itself. When I am driving across the state, I prefer to get there in under 4 hours.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

Here are the stats for "deniers".:lol:


Speed Kills MPG

Unfortunately, it's true. Your car's gas mileage decreases once it gets past its optimal speed. For most cars, this is around 55-60 mph. This means that every time you go over this speed, you're essentially wasting gas and money - and creating unnecessary greenhouse gases.

You'd be surprised to learn that a slight decrease in your highway driving speed can significantly reduce your gas consumption, while only adding a few minutes to your travel time.

How much?

According to studies backed by the department of energy, the average car will be at its advertised MPG at 55 mph. But as the speed increases:

- 3% less efficient at 60 mph
- 8% less efficient at 65 mph
- 17% less efficient at 70 mph
- 23% less efficient at 75 mph
- 28% less efficient at 80 mph


Mpg For Speed - Fuel Efficiency Vs. Speed

 

[sawyerloggingon]

Speed limit should be based on safety, not dubious concerns over carbon emissions. Also, it should primarily be a State matter.

And no. 55mph is too darn slow.

If you are not a warmer there is no hypocrisy in your opinion.

 

[Goshin]

If you are not a warmer there is no hypocrisy in your opinion.

I am of the opinion that such climate change as may be occurring, is primarily part of a natural cycle; that any anthropogenic contributions are secondary, and that any climate change that may arguably be in progress does not constitute an emergency let alone global disaster.

So that'd be a no, I'm not a warmer.

 

[nota bene]

Speed limit should be based on safety, not dubious concerns over carbon emissions. Also, it should primarily be a State matter.

And no. 55mph is too darn slow.

My community switched to 75 mph on some long sections of freeways, and it's great. Have been waiting to see if there's an uptick in accidents, but so far, no.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

I am of the opinion that such climate change as may be occurring, is primarily part of a natural cycle; that any anthropogenic contributions are secondary, and that any climate change that may arguably be in progress does not constitute an emergency let alone global disaster.

So that'd be a no, I'm not a warmer.

I am well aware of your views on AGW. The interesting thing about this thread is how it is being ignored by the warmer crowd. The question makes them very uncomfortable as I knew it would. They will hide from this thread like it has the plague. :lol:

 

[sawyerloggingon]

My community switched to 75 mph on some long sections of freeways, and it's great. Have been waiting to see if there's an uptick in accidents, but so far, no.

Not long ago Montana had no speed limit, it was carnage.

 

[nota bene]

Not long ago Montana had no speed limit, it was carnage.

As I say, so far, so good. And there is a difference between no limits and a higher limit.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

As I say, so far, so good. And there is a difference between no limits and a higher limit.

Faster you go the faster things go wrong and the less time you have to react. Wrecks at high speeds are worse too. If we had a 5 mph speed limit there would be no fatalities but a happy medium must be reached. A mile a minute seems like a good speed IMO.

 

[DVSentinel]

Faster you go the faster things go wrong and the less time you have to react. Wrecks at high speeds are worse too. If we had a 5 mph speed limit there would be no fatalities but a happy medium must be reached. A mile a minute seems like a good speed IMO.

Screw that. I hate going through Oregon (Usually Ontario to Portland) when it drops to 65. Takes forever and you just seem to crawl all day long. Drop the speed limit below 70 and I guess I will once again have to invest in a radar detector.

I have also seen those displays and sometimes use them, just to determine the health of my engine. I have also had it tell me I used more gas than I actually did. I have seen as much as a 2 gallon difference between the display and what the tank will hold (I always fill my tank, except if I'm in Cali or Oregon, where it is impossible to do). The display and the tank are rarely the same and it is even more rare that I put in more than what it says I have used. It also does not show any difference in average between OR at 65 and other states at 75. Actually get much better going across Wyoming and other high altitude states without many steep climbs, cars today are set to run lean and the leaner air there just optimise's the fuel/air mix better. About a ration of 14.5/1 instead of an optimum 12.5-13/1.

 

[Darby]

I recently bought a new car that tells you how many mpg you are getting in real time and it was interesting to play around with different speeds to see what my mileage was. I always knew the faster you go the worse the mpg but seeing it as it happened was informative. My Subaru got 38 mpg at 55mph and dropped to around 31 mpg at 65 mph. When Carter made the speed limit 55 everyone had a fit until it was changed but in this age where so many are so convinced we are warming the planet with fossil fuel it makes me wonder how many of them would be willing to slow down in order to put less carbon into the air. It's put up or shut up time.:lol:

I drive slower than I might want to to reduce my fuel consumption. No big deal.

 

[Surtr]

I hated when the maximum speed limit was 55. I was so happy when that changed in the 1990's. On my last road trip I would often drive around 80 when the speed limit was 70 MPH. Driving 55 is just too slow on the open road. I don't care if I save a few miles a gallon or not.

Same. I drive fast, and even going 80-90 most everywhere highway, I average about 25 MPG. I'm not worried about it.

 

[Porchev]

Same. I drive fast, and even going 80-90 most everywhere highway, I average about 25 MPG. I'm not worried about it.

I usually keep it around 80, however I will occasionally get it up to 90-95 for brief periods to get away or around rude slow drivers that hangout in the fast lane blocking traffic behind them. On our last trip I was driving my wife's Mercury Mountaineer with a V8 and it is very fast for an SUV. Faster than most cars on the road these days I think.

 

[Surtr]

I usually keep it around 80, however I will occasionally get it up to 90-95 for brief periods to get away or around rude slow drivers that hangout in the fast lane blocking traffic behind them. On our last trip I was driving my wife's Mercury Mountaineer with a V8 and it is very fast for an SUV. Faster than most cars on the road these days I think.

I have a Ford Escape with a 3.0 V6. It's got some some zip to it, and it's surprisingly good on gas. The stop and go of city/town travel is what kills fuel economy. On the highway, the engine is basically at a steady high idle while the transmission does all the work.

 

[Simon W. Moon]

I recently bought a new car that tells you how many mpg you are getting in real time and it was interesting to play around with different speeds to see what my mileage was. I always knew the faster you go the worse the mpg but seeing it as it happened was informative. My Subaru got 38 mpg at 55mph and dropped to around 31 mpg at 65 mph. When Carter made the speed limit 55 everyone had a fit until it was changed but in this age where so many are so convinced we are warming the planet with fossil fuel it makes me wonder how many of them would be willing to slow down in order to put less carbon into the air. It's put up or shut up time.:lol:

I already drive "like a grampa" [read as "the speed limit"]. My wife and all the other drivers on the freeway would laden me with curses if I was driving 15mph below the speed limit. Sound dangerous to me. No, thank you.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

I already drive "like a grampa" [read as "the speed limit"]. My wife and all the other drivers on the freeway would laden me with curses if I was driving 15mph below the speed limit. Sound dangerous to me. No, thank you.

My question was meant to be should we bring 55 back as law not would you drive slower than the law. Funny part is the warmers are running from this thread, I wonder why.:lol:

 

[PirateMk1]

My question was meant to be should we bring 55 back as law not would you drive slower than the law. Funny part is the warmers are running from this thread, I wonder why.:lol:

Like the fabu Red Rocker himself the great Sammy Hager said in his music, he had a whole song about this very subject, and I agree with his premise "I cant drive 55!!!"

I have an image to maintain, I am only THE founding member of Habitual speeders club of California, and the very popular Speeders Anonymous where teach people that speeding is good and how to do it better.

:mrgreen:

 

[Buck Ewer]

Nixon implemented the 55 national speed limit and one surprising side benefit found was a huge decrease in highway death toll. Massachusetts kept the 55 limit on the Mass Pike for many years after the rest of the country raised the limit, for that same reason.
I still drive a 5 speed 1986 Honda CRX si and the mileage I get varies tremendously depending on how I drive it. I have always done clutch coasting whenever going down hill to save wear on the engine and to increase gas mileage and I regularly get 40 MPG, when the car is EPA rated at 33MPG.
Compression braking by leaving the car in gear whenever going down hill, as most manufacturers advise, will save the brakes but will prematurely age an engine and transmission all the while wasting gas. I do all my own mechanical work and I know that brake pads are one of the cheapest components on the car if you do the work yourself. I figure that clutch coasting when ever possible has saved me tens of thousands of dollars over the years all the while reducing pollution without ever compromising speed.
The clutch on your car , when used judiciously is one of the biggest money and pollution savers you have at your disposal
BTW the car has 346,000 miles on it and still runs like a top and accelerates like a jack rabbit.
jus'sayin'

 

[PirateMk1]

Not long ago Montana had no speed limit, it was carnage.

I call BS. My sister lives there and has for sometime. The reason they got rid of the no limit law was outsiders coming in with Ferraris and whatnot driving like idiots. Out in eastern Montana they don't bother you if you are speeding unless you are being a twit about it.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

I call BS. My sister lives there and has for sometime. The reason they got rid of the no limit law was outsiders coming in with Ferraris and whatnot driving like idiots. Out in eastern Montana they don't bother you if you are speeding unless you are being a twit about it.

Not the way I remember it and I drove in Montana a lot because I worked there a lot but whatever, that is not the real issue of this thread.

 

[Porchev]

I have a Ford Escape with a 3.0 V6. It's got some some zip to it, and it's surprisingly good on gas. The stop and go of city/town travel is what kills fuel economy. On the highway, the engine is basically at a steady high idle while the transmission does all the work.

We are actually thinking about buying a Ford Escape or Mercury Mariner, and if we do then the Mountaineer will become my daily driver.

As far as the whole 55 MPH federal speed limit coming back, I really hope it doesn't. I did some quick research about the Act (then law) that repealed federal speed limits (55 MPH), and it passed with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans. 80 to 16 in the Senate. 419 to 7 in the House.

 

[PirateMk1]

Not the way I remember it and I drove in Montana a lot because I worked there a lot but whatever, that is not the real issue of this thread.

I used to run 94 across ND and MT and that is a long lonely stretch of road. I used to run with bullracks coming down that way and we would routinely do 80 mph and plenty of times when would be doing triple digits. Of course that was when you could get diesel for 1.25 or so. Wouldn't do that now. Too expensive.

Quick note on aerodynamics. Speed and wind resistance correlations don't become a major fuel burn factor till after about 50 mph and increases in a fairly logarithmic fashion afterwards.

 

[Buck Ewer]

Out in eastern Montana they don't bother you if you are speeding unless you are being a twit about it.

The speeding law in Montana originally, as I recall, said something about "prudent speed for the driving conditions".
One thing I have learned over the years is that there is nothing prudent about the way most Americans drive.
You can call BS all you want but slower driving does save lives and statistics bear that out. You are entitled to your own opinion ...but not your own facts.

"During the first year there was a drop of almost 17 percent in fatalities after the speed laws were reduced to 55 miles per hour," said Lee Friedman, assistant research professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at UIC and lead author of the study.

Higher Speed Limits Cost Lives, Researchers Find

 

[Surtr]

We are actually thinking about buying a Ford Escape or Mercury Mariner, and if we do then the Mountaineer will become my daily driver.

As far as the whole 55 MPH federal speed limit coming back, I really hope it doesn't. I did some quick research about the Act (then law) that repealed federal speed limits (55 MPH), and it passed with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans. 80 to 16 in the Senate. 419 to 7 in the House.

I like the Escape. It comes off as "soccer momish" but it's fun to drive, and has pretty good handling for what it is. Lots of cargo space, too. 55 is just too slow. Especially when driving long distances on open roads where there's no civilization. Some of the roads out here should have no speed limit at all because the traffic is light, there's no civilization, and there's no pedestrians. Yet they still post state troopers on these low traffic, low danger highways to catch people in speed traps. Pretty sure they should just chill in Houston, where cops are desperately needed.

 

[davidtaylorjr]

I recently bought a new car that tells you how many mpg you are getting in real time and it was interesting to play around with different speeds to see what my mileage was. I always knew the faster you go the worse the mpg but seeing it as it happened was informative. My Subaru got 38 mpg at 55mph and dropped to around 31 mpg at 65 mph. When Carter made the speed limit 55 everyone had a fit until it was changed but in this age where so many are so convinced we are warming the planet with fossil fuel it makes me wonder how many of them would be willing to slow down in order to put less carbon into the air. It's put up or shut up time.:lol:

Where is the option for we won't slow down and don't believe or worry about AGW?