Instead of producing more fuel efficient cars, how about a speed limit cap...

Well, I'm all for cleaner air and moving to electric or hydrogen, or whatever is cleanest for the environment. I am all for mass transit and being more efficient with out entire spectrum of transportation options.

However I do have a problem with mandating slower speeds when the major causes of accidents are inattentive drivers, alcohol and drugs, distracted drivers, and differences in speed.

Cars today are generally designed to achieve their best economy around 55mph (in general). Why not design them to achieve better economy at 70? When my Camaro was stock it got better mileage at 55. Now it gets better mileage than it did when it came from the factory and does so at higher speeds.

I would really like to see a full out push for electric vehicles as I believe they are the most viable alternative in the near future to greatly reducing our foreign oil dependence and cleaning the environment. My electric vehicle has a top speed of 140mph and can travel 120 miles between a charge and it takes six hours to re-charge. Of what benefit would lower speed limits be in that type of scenario?

 

this has to be the dumbest thing i've heard in a while... someone gave this guy the wrong coolaid.. he's still talking...

 

design cars to do 70 mph?? will make us safer??

are you on CRACK?

with overcrowded freeways, you are suggesting we create a scenario that makes safe freeway density 25% lower?? increased speeds means increased safe following distances (something that aint gonna happen btw)

oh man, thats like putting a pile of cocaine in front of an addict with a small spoon and saying "as long as you use the little spoon, you will be ok"

 

Please point out ANY country in the world where this, or something very similar was done. If you can find any, what where the results ?

If you can't find any or the results were not promising, please explain why or why this plan would work in North America when it hasn't worked anywhere else.

 

Stacked -

- 15mph in the city, 25mph on large, 4 lane or better roads, and 45 mph on limited access freeways?
By your math, my 55 mile commute to work with 10 miles of 65MPH freeway, 35 miles of 55MPH, 2 lane rural roads and 10 miles of 35 MPH community streets which takes 1:15 would take me at least 2:15. No thanks! I'd also be willing to bet that while collision fatalaties would decrease, the number of accidents would increase exponentially as would the number of road rage related injuries and killings.

-45 MPH max on freeways?
Have you ever driven on I-70 , I-80, I-90 or I-94 accross the middle of our country? Wall Drug would have to double their advertising just to keep people interested! What would you regulate commercial truckers to? You'd better not have them going faster that commuters for safety reasons, but I'll be the first one to start an illegal trucking business for expedited deliveries. Just like running moonshine - oops my bad - i forgot prohibition was a bad comparison. Is your goal to eliminate travel or just give the airlines a monopoly?

- Raise the CAFE to 75mpg, and apply it to all personal use vehicles?
Does that include personal trucks, SUVs & vans used to tow trailers? If so, I'm guessing you'd like to see motorized recreation eliminated - probably, since we can hurt ourselves having fun.

- Raise the gas tax $1 every 2 months for a year until gas costs $10/gallon and then re-evaluate the situation.
That is too agressive for consumers and technology to keep up with. Try going $0.50 / year for the next 10 years. Again, that gas tax needs to go to R&D to push technology. You might even be able to split it with public transportation & infrastructure to support public transportation.

- I do not advocate eliminating cars, just properly regulating their use. Just like we do with alcohol.
If you mean restricting immature drivers from high speed cars on the street, you may have a point. then again I think that if a young men or women have the right (and in some cases, a mandated duty) to risk their lives for their country, they should certainly have the right to a beer when they get home.

- In the last several years gas has gone up 3X that amount ($1) and very, very little has been done to improve the situation. Drastic solutions are called for.
Look around and see what cars are collecting dust on the lots and which ones can't be found in the showroom. The change is already taking place. You can't expect markets to react over night, especially when you are dealing with consumer spending on durable goods during a recession.

I'm not advocating that we do nothing, but you don't just drop a bomb without looking at all of the consequences. On a good note, your ideas will never become law in the near future. Just trying to pass a $.50 / year gas tax would be next to impossible in this political climate.

BTW - Have you ever watched Demolition Man? Please don't try to sanitize my world.

 

drive 55 miles one way to work?? live with the additional commute time or move.

as far as the suggested speed limits. might as well be talking anti gravity devices... not gonna happen...

i dont see any changes on surface streets being necessary. only the freeways. cap them at 60 mph and triple the speeding fines. go to camera enforcement and mail the tickets out... payable with penalties when renewing tabs if not paid ontime... if you didnt get the ticket... pay a penalty for not keeping your info current.

 

There is absolutely NOTHING stopping YOU from driving 55. So DO IT and get your nanny state legislation off my butt.

If anything, slower speeds will cause greater congestion by lowering the number of cars that can be carried by a given portion of freeway at any one time. Thereby causing rush hour congestion to start earlier and/or continue longer. Way to go.

 

55 mph may not reduce accidents but it will reduce fatalities.

55 mph won't add that much to a commute unless the commute is already very long. In which case....move closer to work or work closer to home. More than an hour one way isn't sustainable. 55 or public transportation.

Now...if the Gov. is going to go back to the 55 mph cap.....then they better put a lot of money into increasing all forms of public transportation.

 

Where I live the price of a home close to work is often (certainly not always) as much as 100K more than a house in the boonies. There is no public transportation due to low population density. For many people moving closer to work is simply not an option.

I believe the private sector will embrace a virtual workforce as much as possible to avoid added costs. I also see increased use of web based communications and further investment in online buy/sell technology.

The majority of accidents happen in low speed zones, not highways so i would not anticipate much difference in the fatality rate regardless of the speed limit on highways being 55 or 75 due to the increased safety devices installed by default in most vehicles. Also, vehicles travelling of similiar speeds in a relatively straight path with guardrails have a much lower fatality rate than those negotiating corners on rural country roads.

If you look at the general fatality rate of sanctioned drag racing as opposed to sanctioned automotive sports that involve taking corners the results are quite clear, despite the higher speeds (in general) of drag vehicles. I'm not talking a single season but in general... Under relatively normal circumstances i would expect this trend to hold true on public roads as well.

Also, the Autobahn (last i knew) had a lower accident rate than any road in the USA...

As far as efficiency, as demand for less expensive transportation grows, and awareness grows as to driving techniques and modifications to existing vehicles to extend their useful life in terms of cost effectiveness, we will end up driving less and driving more efficiently (wasting less).

I have improved the gas mileage of my 1998 Mercury Sable wagon by 5mpg simply by making intelligent modifications and adapting my driving techniques to the specific car. It won't be long before others do the same.

I'm all for clean technology but the fact is that most people have older cars that are expensive to replace and the trade in value on inefficient vehicles forces them into a situation where they will remain in service longer due to the decreased trade in value.

Long term, the switch to more efficient vehicles will happen, but decreased trade in values are already taking a bit out of people wanting to trade for more fuel efficient cars.

As a Toyota salesperson, my wife is finding it increasingly difficult to sell fuel efficient cars to people who have large SUVs due to the decrease in trade in value.

 

lets look at the relationship between speed and the rate of fatalies since you obviously have not.

 

i believe you will find that has nothing to do with speed. its more to do with
greater skills of european drivers that comes from much more training, instilled responsibility and courtsey

having been there, i can tell you, the accident rate is lower simply because there are much less IDIOTS on the road there.

 

Non hybrid cars use up more gas when they are not on the freeway. Capping the speed limit, which I personally, feel is a bad idea, won't stop that 1969 Camaro SS from blowing through its fuel when it sprints to 55.

 

Last I knew, the fatality rate per mile has dropped steadily from 1995-2006 in the USA.

In regards to the driver being the cause of most accidents I agree with you.

So if the answer is doing a better job with driver education, perhaps even continuing driver education, what does that have to do with speed?

If we truly wanted people to be safe, as opposed to feel good law, one of the things we could do is to enforce the laws already on the books. If we truly wanted people to be safe, we would have ongoing driver education and higher penalties for disobeying traffic laws. If we truly wanted people to be safe we would start training them to drive at a much younger age so the necessary skills become more engrained into a person. Driving, like riding a bike, playing table tennis, tossing a football, or any other eye/limb co-ordination activity is a skillset best developed during youth. It would also be better if we eliminated foot controls as is is fairly well established that most people have better muscle control and reflexes in their hands than in their feet.

 

No to the speed limit, yes to noise regulations on Harley's

 

How about electronic fuel use restrictors on all vehicles under 5 tons?
A vehicle must use no more than 40mpg for more than 30 minutes, if it does power is reduced and the vehicle speed restricted to 55mph until the vehicle achieves better than 40mpg, at this point an alarm sounds and 10 seconds later full power is restored. Impose massive fines for driving a car without the device fitted and working.

 

you have a self-imposed speed limit of 60mph? dave, if you're in the south sound, our speed limits don't go above 60. you didn't set the law, they did.

people set caps for themselves that high when the normal speed limit is 70mph, then that 60mph is something to talk about.

i go 50-55mph on the highways and byways around here all the time, and olympia is one place where i feel safe doing it. i drive through it every weekend.

 

you ever ridden a motorcycle on the road? if you have, you know that everyone is trying to kill you and half of them can't see you. the noisier you are the safer you are on a harley because people know you're coming.

 

bingo. if everyone follows the rules of the road, us that go 50-55 can get along safely with those that go 65-70. personal responsibility, not government intrusion!

 

I have an idea, we should reduce, and make a national speed limit of 45mph, wait, no, let's do 25mph. After all, the slower we go, the safer we all are on the road and the less fuel we use. You know what? I have a even more progressive thought.... let's make the limit 15mph. 15mph is the typical speed in school zones. If it's safe enough for school zones, it should prove to be an "ideal" speed to safely navigate our open highways. Just think, at 15mph we won't have to worry about automobiles overtaking most bicycles... that has to increase safety considerably.