There might be hope speed limit

[Christ]

I personally set a top speed of 60 MPH... I drift fore and aft of 55 usually, but have been known to coast faster than 60.

[Chalupa102]

Originally Posted by Christ

I personally set a top speed of 60 MPH... I drift fore and aft of 55 usually, but have been known to coast faster than 60.

Exact same thing i do as well.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by pstrbrc

I guess what offends me about much of this is the following quote from the article:


"Antisocial behavior"? Excuse me? Antisocial behavior is behavior that alienates one from the culture around, behavior that irritates most everybody else, and predisposes them to not want to like you.
Like, just fer instance, DRIVING 55MPH IN TRAFFIC THAT WANTS TO GO 65+MPH.
Like, fer instance, what most people here call "hypermiling". If the average driver is doing it, it's not antisocial. If the average driver is irritated by it, it's antisocial.
The moralizing done here (as if YOU know what is best) is more than a little annoying. Yes, I want to get better mileage. Yes, my driving style is much more conservative than it was at $.999 a gallon. But that's my ethics applied to me, and I'm happy.
But I'm also aware that the world's known oil reserves just keep growing. I don't find any weight in the argument that we are running out of oil. All such arguments are based on flawed use of statistics. In fact, almost all "doom and gloom" futurecasting done in the past 60 years has been provably erroneous.
So knock off the "I can't WAIT to make everybody else drive as slow as I think they should be allowed to go!" It just makes ecomodders sound antisocial.

I don't really like the slow driver style of hypermiling myself, but you're way off about oil. There is a limited amount of oil, and it will only become more expensive to extract.

[tjts1]

The only thing a lower national speed limit will do is give police an excuse to bust hypermilers on down hill sections of the highway.

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

I don't really like the slow driver style of hypermiling myself, but you're way off about oil. There is a limited amount of oil, and it will only become more expensive to extract.

People will simply adjust their lives accordingly.

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

I don't really like the slow driver style of hypermiling myself, but you're way off about oil. There is a limited amount of oil, and it will only become more expensive to extract.

A lower speed limit will have absolutely no affect on oil price. The number of new drivers being added every day in China and India far outweighs the effect of a lower speed limit in this country.

[shovel]

Originally Posted by tasdrouille

Draw your own conclusions, but my point is injuried people and dead people are a huge societal cost in lost productivity alone.

Clearly, higher speeds = more kinetic energy = more likelyhood of death from a collision when one happens. And, depending on motorist skill and condition of the vehicle/road, an increase in potential for collision - but, it looks to me like people going somewhat faster than the posted speed limit appear actually less likely to be involved in a collision than those going right at the limit. Am I reading wrong?

But that graphic right there illustrates to me that people driving more slowly than the "flow" are more likely to get into a collision in the first place than even real speed demons.

So, that being said, we need to not just point fingers at speeders but also at slowpokes, not to mention people driving unnecessarily slow often infuriate "normal" drivers around them, provoking those infuriated to make stupid moves in an attempt to get around the congestion - I see that every time I choose to drive to work, inevitably at some point there will be 2 doofus' going 10mph under the posted speed limit on a perfect, clear sunny day, next to each other blocking dozens of cars behind them - and the first chance they get one of the drivers stuck behind 'em will make some sort of fast&furious move to get back up to a speed that respects everyone else's time & sense of urgency.

I have a solution to this problem: "slower traffic keep right" then when a police officer encounters someone failing to keep right while holding up traffic, the punishment for the driver should be to stand in front of a "slower traffic keep right" sign and stare at it for 6 hours, no breaks, no looking away, no cell phone.

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by tjts1

A lower speed limit will have absolutely no affect on oil price. The number of new drivers being added every day in China and India far outweighs the effect of a lower speed limit in this country.

Sure it would. Cut 1-2mbpd of consumption off and oil's price will drop a lot, at least until OPEC scales back production again and brings price back to ~$80/bbl. Anyway, at current rates, a ~1-2mbpd cut would take chindia ~5-10+ years to offset. If they have and can maintain the wealth, sooner or later they will suck it down, but chindia isn't adding that many new cars to the road so it'll take ~5 years per ~1mpd cut in consumption.

[tasdrouille]

Shovel,

Remove the speedsters and the average speed of traffic goes down, slowpokes still drive the same speed they have always been driving and crash rates go do. The same thing happen if you remove the slowpokes, crash rates go down, only more people die due to high speed fatal crashes.

So which came first, the speed deamon or the slow poke?

I don't think you can draw conclusions like that from the graph alone.

[almightybmw]

I honestly don't care what the speed limit is. In AK, its 65 on the highways. I did 70mph. In MT it's 75mph. I usually do 70-75mph (unless I'm sick of driving back to this middle of nowhere hole, then it's 85mph). If they decide to make the limit 55mph, I'll move. Or I'll never visit anyone outside my state. I can't dedicate 2 days just to drive to the coast. That's wasted time. I have no interest in the points between me and family in Seattle or Portland when that is my goal. This isn't an expedition. The road isn't dirt and the sights along the route are not amazing. When I can afford to fly there instead, I will. But for now I refuse to make a 12 hour drive longer.

So I guess I do care what the limit is. It'll determine whether I travel or not. If lowered, I'll stop traveling long distances by car and ditch my car for an EV instead. Now that gets the gears turning!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by tasdrouille

Shovel,

Remove the speedsters and the average speed of traffic goes down, slowpokes still drive the same speed they have always been driving and crash rates go do. The same thing happen if you remove the slowpokes, crash rates go down, only more people die due to high speed fatal crashes.

So which came first, the speed deamon of the slow poke?

I don't think you can draw conclusions like that from the graph alone.

Slow poke... had to crawl before we could run our asses off at high speed like idiots for no apparent reason to make it to the meeting that you don't really need to be at anyway.