Corporate Thug
Lifer
I would not be able to keep it at 55 on the interstate.
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Fuel prices and speed limits
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LTC8K6
Lifer
Be glad you don't have to deal with PACE cars blocking the flow of traffic...
http://www.durhampolice.com/pdf/pace_car_brochure.pdf
Not only do Pace Car participants set the
example by adhering to the speed limit, they literally
set the pace for other vehicles driving behind
them.
Citizens who commit to the Pace Car Pledge
agree to display a Durham Pace Car program
magnet on the rear of their vehicle. This yellow
and black magnet, featuring a bull slowing his
speed, is designed to alert other motorists to be
mindful of the designated speed limit.
In addition, a static window sticker featuring a
triangular version of the program logo is to be
placed inside the Pace Car vehicle as a reminder
to the driver of the Pace Car Pledge.
http://www.durhampolice.com/pdf/pace_car_brochure.pdf
Not only do Pace Car participants set the
example by adhering to the speed limit, they literally
set the pace for other vehicles driving behind
them.
Citizens who commit to the Pace Car Pledge
agree to display a Durham Pace Car program
magnet on the rear of their vehicle. This yellow
and black magnet, featuring a bull slowing his
speed, is designed to alert other motorists to be
mindful of the designated speed limit.
In addition, a static window sticker featuring a
triangular version of the program logo is to be
placed inside the Pace Car vehicle as a reminder
to the driver of the Pace Car Pledge.
bobross419
Golden Member
I drive 45-55mph on the Interstate (70mph zones), and always stay in the slow lane. On occassion some prick/prickess will tailgate me, even though there are 3 other lanes to pass me in, but generally nobody really bothers with me. The savings in gas on a 45 mile one way trip to work definitely add up. The difference between going 50 and going 70 is ~7 or 8 mpg for me and only adds an extra 10-15 minutes to my trip. Plus there is a huge added benefit to this... I don't rush!!! When I rush I get pissed at other people that are in my way (road rage) and I hate feeling like that.
I don't think that lowering the speed limit would really have much of an effect, people will still drive like douchebags on the road, but better enforcement of speed limits would help out a great deal. Why pull over someone driving with parking lights on when there is someone doing 20 over the limit right next to them?
A previous poster is right, a lot of the problems with fuel efficiency happen stoplight-to-stoplight and during rush hour. It is fun coasting to a light from a 1/4 mile away, have someone blow past you doing 10 over the limit (only to slam on their brakes at the last second), catch up to them just as the light changes, and pass them =p
I don't think that lowering the speed limit would really have much of an effect, people will still drive like douchebags on the road, but better enforcement of speed limits would help out a great deal. Why pull over someone driving with parking lights on when there is someone doing 20 over the limit right next to them?
A previous poster is right, a lot of the problems with fuel efficiency happen stoplight-to-stoplight and during rush hour. It is fun coasting to a light from a 1/4 mile away, have someone blow past you doing 10 over the limit (only to slam on their brakes at the last second), catch up to them just as the light changes, and pass them =p
Thump553
Lifer
Most of the big-rig motor carrier companies have already turned down their governors-Scneider just set theirs to 60 mph. Sucky thing is their drivers get paid by the mile and no increase in rate = pay cut for the drivers, who are already pretty low on the totem pole, financially speaking.
JulesMaximus
No Lifer
God, I'd love to ram those fuckers off the road. :|
DanTMWTMP
Lifer
:thumbsup: hahahah. I have no idea why people want to rush to the next light. It wastes gas, brakes, stress on car frame, stress on person, etc... Some people have no logic at all. My mom does this and it drives me nuts. She had to change her brakes @ 15k miles, and transmission fluid at 20k. wtf? :roll: She also spends twice as much on fuel than I do (ok, not fair to compare a mazda3s to a lexus IS250, but my friend has a IS250 as well and gets ~24mpg.. mom barely gets 19-20. I get around 28-30).
And to respond to the OP's question:
No. Most of the gas wasted is from stop/go driving anyways. So to save fuel on a national level, something must be done to improve the logic of signal lights (haha ya right... i'm not sure if it can be improved much better w/o sacrificing safety) and significantly improve traffic in our metro areas, and rework the friggin lame zoning laws in the sprawling california cities :|
But I do try not to drive over 70...
hydroponik
Senior member
These people would def get run off the road if they tried to pull that shit in NJ.
Imposing a law to lower speed limits is dumb, let the people decide. This is the land of the free, isn't it?
JulesMaximus
No Lifer
I just hate it when people camp out in the left lane going to speed limit or only 5mph above when there are lanes to the right that they could be going slowly in.
Huh? They're not forcing you to do anything. As long as they aren't sitting in the left lane, I don't see the big deal. And on a two lane road....deal with it. When I leave work I have to drive about 8 miles on a curvy two lane rd until I get to I-95. The road has a 35mph speed limit I usually go 40mph. Every day someone tailgates me, honks at me, flips me off, or passes me on the double yellow. People take driving way too seriously.
exdeath
Lifer
I didn't say I was taking a side, just offering a psychological analysis on why people take driving so personal.
My take is that speed limits should only be enforced when in vicinity of other vehicles. I.e.: go 90 all day if you want, but you have to slow down to 55 when you are coming up to another vehicle and wait until you pass through to clear road before doing 90 again. Speeding in and of itself is not inherently dangerous; it's the relative speed difference between vehicles, and reckless maneuvering around other vehicles that causes loss of control, not the speed itself. I tend to drive like this naturally, letting off a little as I near and pass someone in the other lane, regardless if I'm speeding or not.
Obviously this only applies to highways where some kid isn't going to run out from behind a parked car.
But in the end, I don't get why people are so butt hurt and concerned over what someone else does. You get butt hurt that people are riding your tail and want to pass, while the person behind you is butt hurt that you are in front of him. If he goes flying by you at 90, and he didn't hit you, who cares? Yeah it's annoying, but I hate it every time someone opens their mouth about how "there should be a law against that" without even thinking twice what the implications are of 300,000,000 people taking something personally and wanting their own list of laws. In reality it's just a way to feel smug and redeemed that you caused someone else to be punished who doesn't act, talk, and think, just like you.
It's not the sensible unifying common laws (ie: murder and stealing are wrong) that I'm talking about. I tire of the infinite number of tiny minuscule "preventative" laws in this country regulating how we brush our teeth because 1 person MIGHT use his toothbrush to kill someone. All this law based on fear and anticipation of what someone MIGHT do or what MIGHT happen, empowering government to invade and restrict our individual choices more and more, all in a vain attempt to prevent something that IS going to happen anyway.
I also tire of laws aimed at enforcing economic values, such as what is proposed here. Law to force people to save money on gas? What if someone doesn't care about gas prices? It's their money to waste. Who am I to tell you there needs to be a law that puts a ceiling on some aspect of your lifestyle so you can save money? Whether intentional or not, without being aware of it, it's a form of socialist control, forcing a lifestyle change for economic your own economic concerns. Most people will reach their own individual point where they have to make that choice on their own as free market forces shift. Everyone will have their breaking point. That doesn't mean there needs to be a law to arbitrarily bring someone else down to your level just because their breaking point is higher. Yet another form of social equalizing associated with socialism/communism.
FWIW I don't mind being behind someone doing 5 over. It paces me. I'm more likely to ignore my speed and get in trouble and when there is wide open road in front of me and I have no point of reference.
LTC8K6
Lifer
Ummm... I get angry at tailgaters because I know they cannot avoid me if I have to stop suddenly.
I know they are going to plow right into me because they are way too friggin' close to me.
I know that when I successfully avoid an accident by stopping in time, they will shove me right into the accident that I just successfully avoided.
I know that on a 2 lane road, they are probably going to shove me right across into a head on with some other unfortunate soul they've decided to take with them that day.
I know they are going to plow right into me because they are way too friggin' close to me.
I know that when I successfully avoid an accident by stopping in time, they will shove me right into the accident that I just successfully avoided.
I know that on a 2 lane road, they are probably going to shove me right across into a head on with some other unfortunate soul they've decided to take with them that day.
LTC8K6
Lifer
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/2...postversion=2008032709
"Pushing air around actually takes up about 40% of a car's energy at highway speeds, according to Roger Clark, a fuel economy engineer for General Motors (GM, Fortune 500).
Traveling faster makes the job even harder. More air builds up in front of the vehicle, and the low pressure "hole" trailing behind gets bigger, too. Together, these create an increasing suction that tends to pull back harder and harder the faster you drive. The increase is actually exponential, meaning wind resistance rises much more steeply between 70 and 80 mph than it does between 50 and 60.
Every 10 mph faster reduces fuel economy by about 4 mpg, a figure that remains fairly constant regardless of vehicle size, Clark said. (It might seem that a larger vehicle, with more aerodynamic drag, would see more of an impact. But larger vehicles also tend to have larger, more powerful engines that can more easily cope with the added load.)
That's where that 54 cents a gallon estimate comes from. If a car gets 28 mpg at 65 mph, driving it at 75 would drop that to 24 mpg. Fuel costs over 100 miles, for example - estimated at $3.25 a gallon - would increase by $1.93, or the cost of an additional 0.6 gallons of gas. That would be like paying 54 cents a gallon more for each of the 3.6 gallons used at 65 mph. That per-gallon price difference remains constant over any distance.
Engineers at Consumer Reports magazine tested this theory by driving a Toyota Camry sedan and a Mercury Mountaineer SUV at various set cruising speeds on a stretch of flat highway. Driving the Camry at 75 mph instead of 65 dropped fuel economy from 35 mpg to 30. For the Mountaineer, fuel economy dropped from 21 to 18.
Over the course of a 400-mile road trip, the Camry driver would spend about $6.19 more on gas at the higher speed and Mountaineer driver would spend an extra $10.32."
"Pushing air around actually takes up about 40% of a car's energy at highway speeds, according to Roger Clark, a fuel economy engineer for General Motors (GM, Fortune 500).
Traveling faster makes the job even harder. More air builds up in front of the vehicle, and the low pressure "hole" trailing behind gets bigger, too. Together, these create an increasing suction that tends to pull back harder and harder the faster you drive. The increase is actually exponential, meaning wind resistance rises much more steeply between 70 and 80 mph than it does between 50 and 60.
Every 10 mph faster reduces fuel economy by about 4 mpg, a figure that remains fairly constant regardless of vehicle size, Clark said. (It might seem that a larger vehicle, with more aerodynamic drag, would see more of an impact. But larger vehicles also tend to have larger, more powerful engines that can more easily cope with the added load.)
That's where that 54 cents a gallon estimate comes from. If a car gets 28 mpg at 65 mph, driving it at 75 would drop that to 24 mpg. Fuel costs over 100 miles, for example - estimated at $3.25 a gallon - would increase by $1.93, or the cost of an additional 0.6 gallons of gas. That would be like paying 54 cents a gallon more for each of the 3.6 gallons used at 65 mph. That per-gallon price difference remains constant over any distance.
Engineers at Consumer Reports magazine tested this theory by driving a Toyota Camry sedan and a Mercury Mountaineer SUV at various set cruising speeds on a stretch of flat highway. Driving the Camry at 75 mph instead of 65 dropped fuel economy from 35 mpg to 30. For the Mountaineer, fuel economy dropped from 21 to 18.
Over the course of a 400-mile road trip, the Camry driver would spend about $6.19 more on gas at the higher speed and Mountaineer driver would spend an extra $10.32."
JulesMaximus
No Lifer
Get the fuck out of the left lane if there are people behind you who want to go faster. It's not your place to police the roads.
If I'm going 10 or 15 mph over the posted speed limit and someone comes up behind me I'll move over and let them by when it is feasable for me to do so.
bobross419
Golden Member
I drive slow regularly and have people do this to me all the time when I'm in the right (slow) lane....
Isn't this what (in effect) home owner's associations do? Ensure that their financial investments are secure by enforcing regulations on others?
By simple supply and demand (ignoring all conspiracy theories and speculative hiking), the more people speed, the more they need gas... this increases the price and the guy that actually cares about stretching his dollar is squeezed a little bit tighter because some guy that wipes his but with $100 bills wants to do 90mph in his Hummer.
This is completely incorrect and illogical. A larger vehicle will take a bigger fuel economy hit. There is a reason that vehicle makers strive to lower the coefficient of drag on cars. The fact that a larger, less aerodynamic car has a larger, more powerful engine surely isn't going to diminish the fuel-economy penalty, since that larger, more powerful engine is only more powerful because it burns more gas.
No. Home owners associations only impose restrictions on willing participants. When someone is decides to move into a development the home owners association is already there. They have the choice whether they want to accept that agreement and move in, or if they don't like it and want to live somewhere else.
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