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It's funny, before I went to the States a few years back I'd always assumed that you guys still had a 55mph limit, so I was surprised when some highways were posted at 75 which is higher even than the maximum permitted in the UK. I was even more surprised to sit at that speed and having big-rigs edging past at 80mph+... when again, over here all heavy goods vehicles are limited to 56mph.
I'm torn on lowered limits though. Seven years ago when I started driving I would have hated the idea - I've never been an all-out speed-freak who travels everywhere at more than the limit and believed it was my right to do so, and admittedly my 60bhp Ford Fiesta wasn't really the vehicle in which to trouble speed limits too much anyway without the whole thing rattling like it was about to deconstruct itself. However, when on motorways I'd usually sit at about 80mph - the car seemed happy to do so and it got me where I wanted to go.
Things have changed since then. I'm still a performance car enthusiast, but I also appreciate fuel efficiency too. I got to the stage where I'd take a lot more care with my driving and go for better fuel figures - my average consumption went from 35mpg when I first started driving to mid forties instead (UK gallons) over the last couple of years. Now, I have a Mazda MX-5. It's not as fuel efficient, but if anything I drive it even more sedately most of the time (perhaps I feel like I have nothing to prove now that I have some performance to expoit should I want to). I can't remember the last time I touched 80mph on the motorways - now I travel at between 65-70mph. It's enough to clear lorries, and as long as I keep checking my mirrors I can usually pass at that speed and pull in before I get in the way of someone doing 75mph+.
Motorway driving has become a rat-race with plenty of people doing 85+ - I don't want to compete with that, I'm quite happy doing 65/70.
But would I want to do 55mph? I don't think I would. Although I'd appreciate the fuel savings, I suspect that at low speeds other drivers' concentration would be even lower than normal ("why bother looking where I'm going? I'm only doing 55...") and the roads would actually become more dangerous. Speed is also a liberty, no matter what you think too. Speed is useful and can be exciting, and reducing roads to a relative crawl just takes away that extra frission of excitement you get from a car journey. And much as there probably isn't much difference in journey time between 70 and 80, I suspect that for longer journeys there's quite a large difference between 55 and 70.
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