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Question of the Day: 55 MPH
By JLP | July 15, 2008
There’s been a bit of talk going around about taking the country back to the days of the 55 MPH speed limit. I thought this would make a good question of the day topic so here it is:
Should we bring back the nationwide 55 MPH speed limit? If we did, would you obey it?
My thoughts:
55 SUCKS!
I hated it with a passion. It took FOREVER to get anywhere—especially long trips. Traveling at 55 MPH feels like I’m crawling. To make matters worse, a trip to Kansas (where my family lives) would take over 12 hours at 55 MPH.
I realize the importance of conserving but of all the things we can do, the 55 MPH speed limit is the worst.
Topics: Question of the Day |
July 15th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Who ever went 55 mph? Whatever limit is posted, most people go at least 10 mph faster (you and I excluded, of course). It may take you longer to get somewhere, but you’ll more assuredly get there in one piece and save money to boot. The savings in gas can be substantial and many people would be willing to trade time for money saved. But unless the speed limit is reduced, it would not be safe for anyone wishing to make the trade, while so many others are traveling at much higher speeds. And, oh yes, and it might make us a little bit less dependent on our enemies for fuel. Most of us have let our servicemen make all the sacrifices for this war. Maybe we can help just a little bit!
July 15th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Few things make my blood boil than the 55 limit. I drive a Jetta diesel that gets 50+ mpg. No, I would not obey it. If we want to reduce the amount we spend on oil impose a tax on gasoline to take the price to $5 and then adjust the tax to keep gas at $5. If people know gas will remain at $5 for the long term they will change their habits and drive less, reducing overall demand. The “tax” that is already on the gas that gets sent to the Saudis will be recycled here in the US instead, and with assurance that the gas prices will not go down, the incentives to develop competitive technologies (solar, battery, etc) will substantially increase, further reducing demand for oil. FORGET 55.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
The government isn’t dumb on this point. They post 55mph so people will “cheat” and hit 60-70mph max before they back it down due to fear of getting a ticket. Posting a 65 or 70mph limit will encourage people to break 80 consistently.
As for myself I’ve slowed things down to save gas. I went from filling up 3 times a month when doing 80mph down to twice a month doing 60. I could care less what the government wants the “safe” speed to be really. I do it voluntarily to save money now.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Recently, I have been playing around with my vehicles speeds to determine the best fuel mileage. What I have found is that my car loses about 3 miles to the gallon when cruising at 55. I was totally shocked by this. It is like cruising at 80mph.
I have a window in between where I can get the best mileage of 26 - 30 miles per gallon.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
We should not bring back big brother controls. The market and the consumer will drive demand. We don’t need price controls or any other mandates from our government. If people are affected or troubled by fuel prices, let them make the decision on how best they determine to handle things.
Wage, price and other controls do not work - Nixon viewed them as one of the worst policy decisions he ever made.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Speed kills. 55mph is still too fast! The high speeds consumers have been spoiled with are one of the many things holding back electric/compressed air vehicles. Less speed means safer roads which means lighter, less crash-proofed vehicles, which means more mileage. If you need to go a long distance, start looking to rail travel as it’s a more efficient use of fuel and physical space, and the infrastructure is already there. In the meantime, something closer to 55-70kph is much safer. If you really need the exhilaration of speed, can I suggest skiing or roller coasters? Those are the places you’re supposed to actually have fun moving quickly.
And while I’m handing down laws, switch to metric already you backwards americans!
July 15th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Should we bring it back? No. Would I follow it? No, and neither would the majority of everyone else who are now used to faster speeds. There are plenty of other ways to conserve fuel.
I conserve gas in other ways. My new car is more gas efficient than my old one, it will also be a standard rather than an automatic. I car pool to work, and in fact car pool a lot of other places besides.
The biggest effect would be on long road trips and typically if you want to drive slower to conserve fuel there’s ample opportunity to pass. I do it all the time when I go to visit family. We typically go for a weekend and leave right after work arriving at about 11 or midnight. I’d rather not make that 1-2AM.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I’ve been the asshole that’s been driving 55mph lately on the highway to get to and from work and I did notice a considerably higher mpg than what I normally get. It’s been pretty sweet. It also helps that the car I am driving is a manual stick shift, which allows for better control of the car on the road so driving at 55 is not a huge issue for me.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
This idea is so ridiculous on so many levels I can’t even begin to express my thoughts.
Like Tom said above, he already gets good gas mileage, so why in the hell should he have to sacrifice for those who don’t?
And second of all, nobody is stopping you from going 55 mph right now, whether it is mandated or not. Get your sorry ass in the slow lane and putz along at 55 if you want to save gas, you’re free to do so. Those of us who already get pretty good mileage and might want to go 65-70 can do so in the left lanes.
Lowering it won’t do any good, because people speed when the limit is 70, and people (probably many more) will speed if it was reverted to 55. All that is going to do is result in more accidents because you have a greater disparity in speeds between cars on the road, and taking law enforcement away from more important things and being forced to crack down on speeders.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I don’t typically buy into “national sacrifice during war” arguments, especially when they are non-voluntary, which a speed limit is. I didn’t ask the servicemen to go to war; our president did. I pay my taxes in full despite my wish that the the proceeds not be used to subsidize wars, kidnappings, and torture, so I’m reluctant to sacrifice more at the request of the U.S. government. I’d much rather personally support the troops with letters and tangible goods than to sacrifice more freedom, inconveniencing me in a serious way, all for a vague sense of feeling like “I helped.”
On a different note, it’s common to hear frugality experts talking about how 55 MPH is the optimal speed for gas consumption, and thereby deduce that it’s foolish and wasteful to go any faster. Wrong again. What one is doing is temporarily sacrificing fuel economy in exchange for a getting to my destination quicker. (And given that my plain jane 1997 sedan gets 30 miles per gallon at a blazing 80 MPH, I’m not very worried about the extra one mile per gallon I may gain from slowing down to 55 MPH.)
Also, there’s the perennial rule that people will never drive faster than the speed at which they feel safe. Yes, some people may overrate their driving abilities, but the point is, that as a rule of thumb, people are responsible and always looking out for their safety, and it’s hard to get them to adjust their habits, even with speed limits.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Personally, I’ve thought for at least 10 years that people should slow down. I thought Clinton should have done less to help ease the pain of gas prices in his administration (which now don’t seem so high).
Then I thought that Bush, when gas initially started going up under his watch, should have used his ethos to slow people down. There was a time he could have asked for change from Americans and probably gotten it, without creating new laws and more regulation. He could have asked Americans simply to follow the posted speed limits. As a Christian nation at war, it would be the moral, ethical, and patriotic things to do. He could have asked us to do it for God and country and it would have blended seamlessly with his other rhetoric.
Of course Bush has no power to effect change now, so the moment has been lost. No one, Christian or pagan, pays attention to him these days.
Personally, I find it strange that people take it as their God-given right to speed. I’ve seen it with people I talk to, who otherwise seem like decent moral people. And it’s rampant on this forum as well.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Don said:
“Personally, I find it strange that people take it as their God-given right to speed.”
Actually, I do go over the speed limit but I STILL have people flying by me like I’m standing still. I don’t take it as my God-given right to speed. I just don’t want mankind to tell me that I can’t go faster than 55 MPH.
Like several other commenters pointed out: those who want to drive 55 can.
July 15th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I don’t have the exact numbers with me, but many newer cars have the gear ratio setup for the car to run at a better efficiency closer to what the speed limit is currently. The decrease on all cars will not be much going do 55. As dedicated has noticed, his car probably goes into a lower gear and drags his engine trying to go that speed.
Has nobody noticed the highway MPG on cars is BETTER than the city MPG, yes that has to do with stops and accelerations, but simply a consistent speed does more than slowing down very much.
When I am headed somewhere I want my 70mph speed limit, heck, some parts of Texas it is 80mph because there is NOTHING out there.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
It sounds practical if it does indeed save a lot of money for drivers, but it sounds like there is hardly a difference, if there is one at all. People are not going to stand for that. Especially when driving long distances and in rural areas with hardly any other cars. When I drive from my city to a city a few hours away to see my family, in many areas I’m in the middle of nowhere going down a straight line, and it would make no sense to not be able to go faster than 55. Nobody will follow it. They did it in Houston several years back and it was such a failure, they changed it all back to 60 and 65.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
When they did 55mph back in the day, they only ended up saving about 1% on fuel consumption per year. While that’s a lot when you add it up, it’s not nearly as much as they expected to save. For me, if I only saved 1%, it would save about 4 gallons per year which is fairly insignificant. Of course I would save more than 1% because I actually do the speed limit or much less and I try not to idle the car even in drive-thrus.
Overall, like the gas tax holiday before it, this is just another bad idea that does nothing to solve the underlying problems.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
If you drive 55, STAY TO THE RIGHT! Keep the left lanes open for those who are speeding.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
It is still 55 max everywhere here in Oregon (65 on the non-city Freeway). As I’ve gotten older (26 now, vs 16) I’ve come to realize that speed is stupid. I used to dive 80 or 90 on the freeway, and 60-70 on the highway… too fast! Looking back, I was such an idiot. I drive the speed limit. No more tickets, and no more fear of instadeath.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Ever since my last ticket, I’ve driven the speed limit and it’s done wonders for the gas mileage!
But 55 going from state to state? Oh man that would be slow.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I wonder how much it would cost to change all of the 60/65/70 mile per hour speed limit signs to 55. I’m sure it’s in the 10’s of millions of dollars, if not higher.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Here’s something that will actually help get rid of all the cars that get less the 20 mpg
July 16th, 2008 at 5:05 am
I live in the Philippines…and I don’t have that problem *laughs* because you cannot travel more than 30 with so much traffic on most major roads here!
Anyway, I don’t think the 50 speed limit won’t make any difference there. Ensuring that people would drive within that range is simply difficult. There are other ways to save gas and the 50 speed limit is the worst ive heard so far.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:43 am
@Joe: How is this supposed to get rid of low MPG vehicles? By supposedly increasing their MPG you give them reason to stay in their current vehicle.
@Billy: Plus to get crews out there to change the signs all over would take a lot of driving to the signs, and you know they would send a whole crew to each one and drive big trucks to do it. This would waste plenty of fuel.
The difference in not driving vs driving 55 is MASSIVE!
July 16th, 2008 at 7:47 am
The government stepping in on most issues usually ends up worse than it started. I bet the state/local governments are drooling thinking of all the extra income from fines. The police aren’t overworked enough and don’t have anything better to do then having to deal with a period of transition for a reduction in the speed limit.
And, adding more tax to fuel to raise the price to $5/gallon. Like the average persons wallet isn’t getting hit hard enough as it is.
And please explain who these ‘enemies’ that we are dependent on are? Here I was thinking it was the US that started a war. I hate everything being made into a patriotic duty. Drive 55 to support the troops. That helps the reality of the situation as much as ribbon magnets on cars. I think the servicemen and women would much prefer coming home then people driving 55 mph.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Setting the speed limit at 55 would not change anyone’s behavior on Michigan’s freeways. The police here DO NOT enforce any kind of speed limit on the highways except for select areas where driving fatalities have been an issue. Instead, they hang out along 25 MPH or 35 MPH zones in quaint little towns and hand out tickets left and right to those who dare wander over those limits by even 1 MPH.
July 16th, 2008 at 8:24 am
@JLP: “Like several other commenters pointed out: those who want to drive 55 can.”
This is simply not true. I have on one occasion chosen to drive the posted speed limit on interstate highways for a 13 hour trip from Missouri to Georgia. It is simply not safe to drive the posted speed limit in many places because it is too far below the flow of traffic.
I did it one time, and it was a harrowing experience. In similar situations I now maintain a speed typical of the cars around me, perhaps slightly slower, but usually over the posted limits.
I don’t actually propose changing the speed limits to 55mph. I really only suggest a campaign of asking people to drive the posted limits for the sake of conservation and duty to country. I don’t see that following the posted laws should be too much to ask.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I’ve always cast a skeptical eye toward the blanket statement of “55mph is the most efficient speed to save gas.”
Really? You’re telling me for every single vehicle on the market, 55mph is “the” speed that maximizes efficiency. It’s not 62 mph for one, 55 for another, and 72 for another.
Right…
July 16th, 2008 at 9:08 am
LOL. Well, typically, the faster I can get someplace the happier I am. Lately though, I have been trying to keep a slower steadier pace to save on gas.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:44 am
There’s a sound reason why states and cities can set their speed limits rather than an arbitrary national speed limit. I’d like everyone in favor of the 55mph limit to have to make the drive from San Antonio to El Paso (or even just Houston to Dallas) driving 55mph. The lower limit adds about an hour to the Houston->Dallas trip and over 2 hours to the San Antonio->El Paso trip. If saving money on gas is more important to me, I’m perfectly capable of slowing down on my own. And believe me, plenty of people decide to drive below the speed limit. But if I feel like it’s worth a few dollars to spend less time in my car and have more time where I want to be, then that should be my decision.
Setting a national speed limit based on the “omg global warming” argument would be like mandating no buildings over 200ft tall because they might disrupt the windflow patterns we’ll need for our eventual switch to 100% wind power.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Lower speeds are much safer and more fuel efficient - so lowering maximum speed to 55 mph (or 90 kph in Australia) would be great. Unfortunately speed limits are only partially effective, and are often used more as a revenue raising exercise than a safety one.
The best way to save both fuel and lives would be to make the maximum speed part of tightened fuel efficiency regulations applying to all new cars, rather than just a traffic rule. With modern cars it should be quite easy to program them to not be able to exceed 55 mph.
As someone else pointed out, restricting the top speed of fossil fueled vehicles would also make alternative vehicles more attractive to consumers.
Unfortunately I don’t think such changes have any chance of actually being introduced.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I find that my new vehicle gets the best mileage between 60 and 65 MPH. What sucks is that city highways in Oregon are 55, which isn’t optimal, but at least the open freeways are 65. I used to speed everywhere, but I am finding that it is more relaxing and easier to drive at the speed limits. I just get into the right lane and set the cruise control.
I would rather that they kept a speed limit of 70 on open freeways and then strictly enforce the limit. Originally people got an extra 5 MPH due to court cases that showed the accuracy of radar to be +/- 5MPH, so the courts would not strictly enforce…I am sure that radar has become a bit more accurate since the 1970s.
Cross state driving seems to be fine with 70 MPH, but 55 is just too slow. That, and I am not a fan of federally mandated speed limits…this should be handled by the states.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I can’t believe that people are seriously discussing a return to a 55 mph speed limit. Don’t people ever learn?
July 16th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
“Save gas, just don’t ask ME to sacrifice in any way.”
That’s what it all boils down to, isn’t it?
I don’t think the government ought to make it
mandatory, no, but doing it on your own would
make a difference, yes…….
July 17th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
@Don:
It is useful to remember who invented speeding. Once upon a time there were two things: safe driving and unsafe driving, and eventually governments started deciding that there are magical numbers that separated the two, such that anything faster than an arbitrary posted limit is unsafe, which is bullshit.
July 17th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I’d be in favor of making an MPG display standard in all vehicles. That could motivate people to find their own “optimal” trade-off between mileage and speed that favors mileage a bit more. I think we’d see a lot more people sticking closer to the current 65 limit, which would probably be a significant improvement.
And in response to everyone reminding 55ers to stay in the right lane, I’ll remind any maniacs out there to not pass at 80 mph in the right lane.
July 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
@stef: I’m not sure whether you’re being sarcastic, but I can say for certain that you don’t live in Texas. I’d be happy to use rail transport if it were practical, but the only pragmatic solution to traveling distances of 100-500 miles out here (a typical trip) is on the road.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:05 am
My car gets its best mileage at around 65mph. Actually I still get 30mpg at 90mph if the people around me are moving and I don’t have to slow down and speed up so much. But that isn’t the case anymore - most people are driving at 65mph.
July 19th, 2008 at 12:34 am
55 is fine is that’s how slow you want to go, but please stay to the left, because I’m going to be going 70-75mph. Time is money, and I drive a lot for business. I’m not going to add time to every trip so I can go 55. Besides, I get 35 miles per gallon on the highway (at 70-75mph).
July 29th, 2008 at 8:26 am
It’s funny(sad) how we justify our actions. 55 is too slow because it will take too long to get to get to where you want to go? Then move closer and it won’t take so long.
Because oil is a declining, non-renewable resource, every drop you use is a drop I can’t use later. And the more you use now, the more I can’t use later. And it’s costing more and more to find more oil, increasing the basic cost of non-Middle East oil. So enforced conservation is needed for all you greedy, selfish people.