Want to save 94 cents per gallon on your next tank of gas?
I was just browsing through the Environmental Protection Agency's website earlier today and ran across some information and thought I'd share it with you. It turns out that driving the speed limit reduces more than just the chance of you getting a speeding ticket or into a serious accident. It could reduce your gasoline bill--A LOT!! In fact, according to the EPA (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/driveHabits.shtml), for every 10 mph we drive over 60 mph, our car's gas mileage decreases about 15 percent.This brings me to my next topic--the speed limit.
If you're young, you may not even remember this, but the speed limit on our nation's highways has not always been 70 mph. What?!? That's right, in the 70s and early 80s the speed limit on most interstates was only 55 mph. Then, in the mid 1980s sometime, it was raised to 65 and eventually to the current 70 mph.
To make my point here, I'll use 55 mph as the example. If you're like many, if not most, you may use the popular rule of thumb that as long as you only go 10 over the speed limit, you won't get a ticket. This means that in 1979 when the speed limit was 55 mph, the average person cruising down our interstates was traveling about 65 mph. Today, the speed limit is 70 mph meaning the average person cruises about 80 mph on the interstate which I have found to be pretty close to accurate. In other words, as a country, we drive about 15 mph faster and use 23 percent more fuel on our road trips than we did 30 years ago.
To make dollars and cents out of it, this means with the current national average of $4.08/gallon, the typical American driver could effectively save about 94 cents/gallon by driving the same way we did 30 years ago. That's an effective price of $3.14/gallon! Add in the fact that if every American did this, it would significantly cut gasoline demand and actual prices at the pump would likely take a tumble as well if we would all just hurry up and SLOW DOWN!!
So, would lowering the speed limit back to 55 or even 65 mph bring down the price of gas? My opinion is that it would. Of course, with the "hurry up and wait" lifestyle we live these days, don't look for that to happen anytime soon.
What do you think?
Posted by
on 06/30 at 11:58 AM
I think there are many things we did 30 or 40 years ago..that if we applied them to today’s life..it could only mean better living..
“Sometimes to get where you are going..you have to look at where you have been”..
Speed limit was slower…fast food wasnt super sized..we actually took the time to enjoy life a lil bit..most of us had morals and scrupples..
Somewhere in the 80’s we experienced an “energy crunch”..it was our first taste of today’s life…you had to actually sit in long lines to get gas..the price climbed a penny or two..life as we knew it was over..
But on the bright side..the disco era ended..
Slower speeds…smaller portions of fast food..and wise thinking will get you somewhere faster than 10 miles over the speed limit ever will..
Funny thing is…out here in the country..I have noticed that alot of the folks on the roads are actually driving slower than the speed limit..as much as 5 to 10 miles per hour under the posted limit..
I suppose it is possible that what I am seeing is the different degrees that today’s high fuel prices are having on different folks..the slower they drive..the more they must be effected…it is possible that at some point everyone will be effected and everyone will slow down..
I agree Chris..the speed limit should be lowered..it is near impossible to drive slower and save a dollar or two in fuel…when the guy behind you is trying his best to break the sound barrier..because he isnt as effected by high costs as you are…
I look for more highway deaths and cases of road rage before we get it lowered tho…