Congress is considering imposing a nationwide speed limit of 55 mph (story here). This wasn’t popular in the ’70s, when Congress did the same thing in an attempt to get people to use less gas; it won’t be any more popular now. It is not Congress’s job to reduce gas prices by forcibly reducing consumption. Safety, road design, and car design are all valid reasons for limiting the speeds at which people travel; gasoline consumption is not one of them. This is akin to banning steak, not because of mad cow, but because it takes more water to raise cows than to raise chickens.
Furthermore, that which is viable and sensible in the Boston-DC I-95 corridor hardly makes sense in the flyover states*. When exits are several miles - or dozen miles - apart, when the only company on the road is some tumbleweed, and when you’re driving three hours each way to get to the nearest Target, you don’t need to be going 55 mph because Senators with private jets don’t think you have a right to use the gasoline that you lawfully purchased.
*Note to Congresscritters everywhere: it’s a nickname, not a directive.
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I drove those “flyover” miles from Sacramento, CA to Chicago, IL in January 2007, without a heater, and my car full of my earthly belongings…
110 mph across Wyoming in the dead of winter on a weekday is the only way
Here’s to “reasonable and prudent”!
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Haha… 110mph across Wyoming, Matthew? Nicely done. I’m surprised that you didn’t get pulled over in Albany County.
It does seem a bit backwards in some ways… driving 55 out east is torture because there’s nothing to look at and everybody’s mean… but maybe people should drive a little slower out west to take in the pure awesomeness.
That said, what is now a 6 hour drive from my house to Denver going about 75-80 on average would be insanely long at 55 mph. I don’t do math, but I’m pretty sure that would up the trip by an hour or two.
Matthew - ROFL. That’s great… maybe the friction from the car’s tires on the road provided some heat.
Tieki - there’s so much awesomeness out West, and it’s so big, that you can take it all in going 75 mph.
75 mph * 6 hours = 450 miles. Going 55 mph = about 8.5 hours. Yuck. You would just never get anywhere.
For me, law school to home was 10 hours if I slightly ignored the speed limit (did about 70 the whole way). I once did it in nine, and I was flying (made the first 260 miles in just over three hours). 55 mph - no freakin way. It would go from a 10 hour drive to a 12 or 13 hour drive.