Quote:
Originally Posted by paulgato
If speed limits were lower - like 50mph - then all that safety equipment does become less useful. Lowering speed limits, and thus lowering the design speed of vehicles, would massively reduce their weight and could reduce overall fuel consumption by half.
A vehicle designed to cruise comfortably and safely at 110+mph on the German Autobahn - and that's almost all cars these days - needs a big heavy engine, crumple zones, airbags, sound deadening, etc. etc. Every single component from nose to tail needs to be bigger, heavier and stronger.
A standard 110mph car will use a lot less fuel driven at 50mph rather than 70mph, but a 60mph car driven at 50mph will use half that again.
If we had a culture of slower driving - and legislation to reduce speed limits would be an important step in achieving that culture - then not only would petrol-driven vehicles use far less fuel, but it would make cheap electric vehicles more viable, if they no longer have to keep up with massive, powerful petrol cars. It would also encourage cycling if traffic was calmer.
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How to you propose driving 500 miles in a day to go on vacation? 10 hours non-stop at 50mph or 6hrs 40min at 75mph. I will gladly pay $20 or however much it is to non be stuck in a car for an additional 3.3 hours.
Trust me, when the kids are screaming you just want to power that sucker up to 85 and set the cruise control.
As for how much fuel you will save by "designing for a lower speed"... give some numbers, preferably with factual data. Otherwise its just meaningless words.
In no way do I want to be offensive, but perhaps in Europe where the countries and cities are much closer this is practical. I have to drive 120 miles one way each time my employer wants me to come to the HQ.