"Aero drag is proportional to Cd. Reducing Cd will reduce fuel burn at 70, 55, or 35 MPH by the same proportion."
I understand ... but there are, of course other factors involved such as gearing, weight, the way the engine is timed (any valve overlap in the name of higher peak power?) and the fuel mixture settings, etc ...
So, exactly how much would we save by speed limit alone? And aren't there better ways to save that (I'm guessing relatively small) amount of fuel?
Enforcement is another issue I'm not quite willing to concede. Sending hundreds of thousands of police officers out on the roads in immensely thirsty V8 pursuit vehicles chasing after Honda Civics driving 62mph makes little sense to me ... especially if the goal is saving fuel. We won't get 100% compliance ... so how much WILL we get? And at what cost? And is it all worth it?
Heck, if we could just get people to stay bellow 65mph we'd probably save a million barrels per day. What about excessive idling? That costs us another few million every day.
I started this thread hoping we could really compare and contrast the various ways we could save fuel nationally ... and hopefully, without limiting our freedom to travel just a bit more briskly on the open road.
