Reducing the national speed limit to 55 to conserve gas

[NE2]

Yes, there are environmental restrictions on some of the potential off-shore oil reserves, which is bad for the pricing of the stuff, but realistically, trying to change NIMBYs' minds is going to be a futile effort, so why not just do what you can actually do?

Stupid NIMBYs. Who wouldn't want an oil spill in their backyard?

[Brandon]

Yes, there are environmental restrictions on some of the potential off-shore oil reserves, which is bad for the pricing of the stuff, but realistically, trying to change NIMBYs' minds is going to be a futile effort, so why not just do what you can actually do?

Stupid NIMBYs. Who wouldn't want an oil spill in their backyard?

Considering that blowouts from rigs tend to be very rare (yes, the one in the Gulf last year was a very rare event), I'd worry more about the transportation that the extraction.

[NE2]

True - it's illogical to want to live in a place designed for the car.

[vdeane]

True - it's illogical to want to live in a place designed for the car.

Care to elaborate?

[agentsteel53]

True - it's illogical to want to live in a place designed for the car.

Care to elaborate?

have you seen a suburb recently?  they're pure hell!!

[Zmapper]

It is not the suburb that is the problem. It is when everything is 3+ miles away down a 6 lane, 45mph highway.

[Brandon]

It is not the suburb that is the problem. It is when everything is 3+ miles away down a 6 lane, 45mph highway.

Not too many of those around Chicagoland.  Most are 4 lanes (maybe 5 lanes) with 35-40mph limits.

[mjb2002]

Reducing the national speed limit to 55 to conserve gas- are you for it or against it?

For it on all highways, except for interstates.

[vdeane]

It is not the suburb that is the problem. It is when everything is 3+ miles away down a 6 lane, 45mph highway.

Well, as someone who grew up in the suburbs of Rochester, NY, the idea of driving a mile to get anywhere is perfectly normal.  Besides, who wants to haul grocery bags more than a few dozen feet?  Granted, upstate NY was never affected by the housing bubble (either positively or negatively), so we've been artificially stuck in the 1990s for a while now.

I can't really understand why anyone would want to be stuck at 55.  It's so slow!

[1995hoo]

Reducing the national speed limit to 55 to conserve gas- are you for it or against it?

For it on all highways, except for interstates.

I hate that idea. There are a lot of roads that are as good as, or better than, many Interstates (especially when compared to older highways that were later designated as Interstates, like the Pennsylvania Turnpike) and it makes no sense to restrict them to lower speed limits just because they don't have the magic red white and blue shield.   

[Brandon]

Reducing the national speed limit to 55 to conserve gas- are you for it or against it?

For it on all highways, except for interstates.

We did that also once before.  It led to a proliferation of interstate shields here in Illinois such as I-39, I-88, I-155, I-72 west of Springfield.  I-39 and I-88 wouldn't exist if not for the 1987-88 law restricting 65mph to interstates only.

[corco]

Quote from: papaT10932 on May 02, 2011, 08:25:23 PM
Reducing the national speed limit to 55 to conserve gas- are you for it or against it?

For it on all highways, except for interstates.

You've never been west of the Mississippi, have you?

[Tarkus]

Quote from: papaT10932 on May 02, 2011, 08:25:23 PM
Reducing the national speed limit to 55 to conserve gas- are you for it or against it?

For it on all highways, except for interstates.

You've never been west of the Mississippi, have you?

To illustrate corco's point, does a road like this really make sense as a 55mph?  Out in the middle of the desert, nowhere near any population centers and with wide shoulders?

(Coincidentally, because of Oregon's backwards laws, that road is technically a 55 . . . it really ought to be at least a 70.)

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

True - it's illogical to want to live in a place designed for the car.

Guess I'm pretty illogical then - I live and breathe cars and I love driving, short and long distances.  I also hate high-density housing (apartments/condos/attached townhomes, save for the row houses in the coal region of E/NE PA.)  The only time I don't want to drive is when it's so short of a distance that the engine can't fully warm up - that's terribly bad for it.

[hm insulators]

True - it's illogical to want to live in a place designed for the car.

Care to elaborate?

Los Angeles and Phoenix.

[hm insulators]

 No passing on the right lane even if there is a slower driver in the left lane.

So in other words, if somebody chooses to do 45 in the leftmost lane of a 65-mph freeway, then the drivers in the other lanes just have to plod along at 45 whether they like it or not.

Well, if you're willing to put up with even more road rage than there is now...

[AZDude]

So in other words, if somebody chooses to do 45 in the leftmost lane of a 65-mph freeway, then the drivers in the other lanes just have to plod along at 45 whether they like it or not.

Well, if you're willing to put up with even more road rage than there is now...

Perhaps if you are already in the right lane when approaching the slower car then it may be an exception.  But with strict rules like that the left lane hog will get caught soon enough. 

The reason for no passing on the right rule is because the car you are trying to pass may abruptly merge right causing you to run into him. 

[vdeane]

What do you do in the case of left exits then?  This could never work in Rochester because most of our freeway junctions involve a left exit of some kind.

[yakra]

I-39 and I-88 wouldn't exist if not for the 1987-88 law restricting 65mph to interstates only.

I've heard rumours (Where? When? How true?) that's why the original I-495 was put on the Maine Turnpike from Portland to West Gardiner.

[NE2]

And I-335 in Kansas. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aEQyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fOYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2226,3184796&dq=kansans+can+drive+at+65+on+680+miles&hl=en implies but does not outright state that this was the reason.

[Alex]

Why speed limits are rising

Kansas recently raised the speed limit on more than 1,000 miles of divided four-lane highways to 75 mph; the new limit takes effect July 1. Louisiana reset portions of a rural interstate to 75 mph in April, after observing that 85 percent of drivers were going at or below that speed. The same month, Ohio upped the speed on its turnpike to 70 mph.

Late last year, Virginia raised the speed limit on its rural interstates to 70 mph. And the Texas House of Representatives recently passed legislation to boost limits to 85 mph on highways in west Texas.

If the Texas Senate goes along, these will be the first U.S. highways to break the 80 mph barrier (Texas and Utah have each tried 80 mph limits) since President Richard Nixon enacted a national speed limit of 55 mph in response to the 1973 oil crisis. The national limit was raised to 65 mph in 1987, and authority to set highway speeds reverted back to the states in 1995. Speeds have been rising slowly and sporadically ever since.

But it's hardly open season on the open road. Speed limits are rising where the highways are emptiest, and the consequences of a traffic ticket on your car insurance premiums aren't going to shrink.

[agentsteel53]

Why speed limits are rising

why does that link want me to update something called Microsoft Silverlight? 

I had no idea such an application existed.  it sure as Hell isn't something that is a plug-in to my Firefox!

[The Premier]

why does that link want me to update something called Microsoft Silverlight? 

You'll need it for the videos and stuff like that. There should be one available on Windows Update.

[NE2]

Silverlight is Microsoft's version of Flash.

[agentsteel53]

here I thought Microsoft had gotten off the "embrace, extend, and exploit" bandwagon, with their incessant need to clone everything.

I read the article just fine even without it installed.  I see no reason to upgrade just so that I am better served by advertisements.