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I'm not necessarily against it, but that would be a hard pill to swallow. With flying becoming more and more of a pain due to congestion, security, cuts in flights, and increased prices, I much prefer getting cross country by car. Setting a 55 MPH limit would make those road trips much longer.
I'm not necessarily against it, but that would be a hard pill to swallow. With flying becoming more and more of a pain due to congestion, security, cuts in flights, and increased prices, I much prefer getting cross country by car. Setting a 55 MPH limit would make those road trips much longer.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on who is in the car with you. I've taken trips, invariably with members of the opposite sex, which were immensely more pleasurable than reaching the actual destination.
I have dropped my expressway cruise speed to 65 from 72 with an increase in mileage of about 2.5 mpg. The 7 mph drop in speed decreases the aero portion of the power reqiured by about 12%. Just enforcing the posted speed limits (many automatically drive 10 mph over even if the limit is 75 or 80) would result in overall fuel savings.
When I estimate the cost of a long trip the plane fare and automobile fuel costs are about the same. The auto travel costs more because of human food and hotel requirements. FWIW - I am too old to camp in picnic shelters while riding a motorcycle across the country. Darn, but that was a memorable trip.
All this ends up doing is increasing public disrespect for the law. Folks will speed and the resentment will increase.
Bad idea.
I agree,I think that having 55 mph as the national speed limit is a bad idea.Im only 16 and I don't drive yet,but Im still mad because when Im older I planned on traveling from city to city and this would make it much harder for me to do that.I don't really like rural areas very much and where I live you have to travel through states like Nebraska and Kansas when your traveling to bigger cities.And when you make big trips the gas can be expensive but you don't have to stop at hotels at night when you can go between 70-80 mph through those states.If 55mph was the speed limit your travel time is much slower and you really have to stop for the night at a hotel,so this doesn't save you money at all really.So this effects people who travel alot,or people like me who are planning on traveling alot.
Its a VERY small sacrifice to make to save energy. So many people are against this because its a small inconvenience, and in America today, people are so spoiled they can't accept anything that might inconvenience them.
At a bare minimum, they should enforce the speed limits already in place. In most urban areas, the speed limit is 60 or 65 on the freeways, but unless there is a traffic jam, if you are going anything less than 80, you'll get people flipping the bird at you and looking at you funny when they fly by you in their monster SUV. I can understand going 80 mph in West Texas or Wyoming, but there is no reason people should be going that fast (or faster) on urban freeways. Set up a system like in Europe where a device will detect when somebody is speeding, take a picture of their license plate, and send them a ticket in the mail. That should tame our urban freeways and reduce fuel consumption.
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