Wow, a lot of responses so quickly! Obviously, this is a hot-button topic.
Sorry
Lazarus, I did a search on 55mph and nothing came up … or else I would have resurrected that (interesting) thread instead of creating this one.
Yes, I know Bill O’Reilly is no ‘journalist’ in the truest sense (few are, in my opinion) but I often agree with his ‘propaganda’ (although on this issue I do not). At least he calls himself a ‘watchdog’ instead of a journalist … and sometimes brings up interesting things to debate. By the way, I like the way you acquitted yourself in the thread
Lazarus reference above.
WebShowPro had the best post so far … and is thinking along the same lines I am. If the task was to kill a fly and the ideal weapon is a flyswatter of a certain shape and weight, the government would have us flailing away blindly with a baseball bat and call it ‘progress’ or ‘moving forward.’ Remember, these are the same idiots that gave us dumbed-down EPA numbers rather than tell the public to fix their terrible motoring habits.
Web I think some of your ideas are a bit too much to ask for (unrealistic in terms of driver training, etc …) but many are interesting and definitely appreciated. Instead of STOP signs everywhere, how about something like more YIELD signs or a hybrid of the two that allows a rolling stop? (some intersections not controlled by a light
require a full and complete stop. I love the call for better (smarter) traffic lights that don’t stop the flow of traffic needlessly and cause us to idle needlessly and waste
more fuel.
I feel that idling is the real MPG killer in this country … and have countless stories of morons in parking lots idling their wallet away. If we came up with a cluelessness vaccine, we could raise the national speed limit on many thruways/expressways to 75mph and
still save 20% over what we are consuming now.
Speeding is selectively enforced … and if it isn’t enforced, it does no good. And enforcing it takes law enforcement resources that may be better deployed elsewhere. It’s simple, though, and I can see the politicians seizing on it … especially if it will give localities more revenue. That doesn’t make it right.
Think of all the fuel that is wasted in North America. (And the definition of that term alone would be an arguable point here) People doing stupid things like idling, harsh stop-and-go driving, running on underinflated tires then compare that number number to the difference between an average vehicle today (to say nothing of vehicles available for sale in the coming years) going 55mph vs. 65mph. It’s not exactly a drop in the bucket … but it’s not that much more than that.
The minimal, if any, gains in economy do not justify the hassle when we can (and will) do so much more through other (smarter) means.
