Drive 55? Again?
I first heard this while going to Mom’s for the 4th of July, but Time Magazine is reporting this week that John Warner, Virginia Senator thinks he has a brain storm way of conserving gasoline. Bring back the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit;
Warner told TIME his concern is for “the many millions and millions [of Americans] of limited means, sitting around their kitchen table trying to figure out how to make ends meet.” Unlike long-term alternative energy sources, Warner says, a speed limit would work to bring down gas prices immediately. “Maybe some guy’s got a better idea,” he says. “But I haven’t seen it.”
Yeah, the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit worked so well to bring down prices in 1973 when prices went from 35 cents to 66 cents and again in 1979 when it went from 60 cents to a dollar. If people want to make the choice to drive slower to save fuel, well it’s up to them, isn’t it? We don’t need government regulation to tell us to save fuel. Warner should focus his energies and charms on the Democrats and convince them to drill rather than impose further restrictions on the citizens he’s supposed to help.
According to fueleconomy.gov, a website run by the Department of Energy, “each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.30 per gallon for gas.” Warner approvingly cites a congressional study showing that “the law resulted in reduced consumption of 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day.” With millions of more cars on the road now than there were in 1974, the volume saved could be even greater.
No one obeyed the 55 mile-an-hour speed limit then and they won’t do it now – unless they want to drive the new limit. Congress should concentrate on increase the supply instead of maniputing the market to decrease demand – their job is to help people not rule over people.
I ride a bike and the subway, so I’m fighting for the rest of you.
Can you sell me your oil credits?
Petrol, and the oil industry is a bubble, it will pop, just as the dotcom bubble did. As for me I would like to cruise in the left-most lane, however to do that I would have to go 85, or maybe even 90 to not have people pass me. In my Land Rover Discovery I keep the cruise control on at about 70-75, and get about 20-22mpg (better than the EPA est of 18). My opinion, if you lower the speed limit to 55, people may slow down to 70 or 75, or they will go the same speed, and citations will increase to record high charges.
On the plus side, there could be a resurgence of Sammy Haggar on the radio!
Finally got a picture of Jonn enroute to the Metro. (Holy Gigantic!!!!)
Jonn wrote: Ladies, my feet really are that big. And the earring was just a clip-on.
My favorite quote is from Johnny Carson when the original 55 mph limit was established. He said the new 55 mph limit was responsible for hundreds of deaths in California. Drivers going 55 kept getting out of their cars to see why they’d stopped. LOL
There is actually a guy in my neighborhood who rides a unicycle to the trian station! I absolutly promise you, it almost caused me to wreck the first time I saw him!
Last time Jamie and I were driving home through Austin we went 80 just to stick it to the hippies, but as soon as we got out of the city limits we hit the holiday traffic and spent the next 3 hours bumper to bumper at 40mph. Karma is a cruel mistress…