The Dreaded Double Nickels

How long until some idiot Democrat (or John McCain) suggests that we roll the speed limit back to 55 like they did in 1974?

With fuel prices now hitting $4.50/gallon in California and even topping $5 in Hawaii, it may be time to ask the question, Can you drive 55? The original national speed limit came about in 1974 following the first Arab oil embargo and stayed in force for 19 years before it was finally repealed. While the premise of the 55mph speed limit was a perfectly valid one, the effectiveness of the rule was debatable. There is certainly no doubt that driving at a lower speed would consume less energy. The problem lies in the fact that the national 55mph speed limit was perhaps the most universally ignored law in history apart from prohibition. With some people obeying the law and perhaps far more openiy flouting it, the latter were constantly speeding up and slowing down. That fluctuation in speed may have actually consumed more fuel than was saved by driving 55. If the spread among speeds on the roads is smaller and people are driving at a more constant speed, their mileage will be better. Unless we can find a way to actually bring down the speeds to 55-60mph and keep the spread smaller, we may not actually get much real benefit. Perhaps now that gas is closing in on $5 and their is widespread concern about both the environment and energy independance, a lower speed limit would actually work. Would people actually slow down this time?

Nope. The speed limit in Southern California is 55 and people here regularly go 80 (when it's not rush hour). If the speed limit was dropped to 55 it would become the most violated law in history, and anyone attempting to maintain 55 would be a rolling roadblock and would be more likely to cause a wreck than anything else.

The secret to better fuel mileage is constant speed, not slow speed limits. If we had enough roads to handle the volume of cars we would use much less fuel because our travel times would be much shorter and we wouldn't have thousands of cars idling and creeping along.

Don't bring back 55. It will be anarchy on the freeways.