(NEWSCOM)
Can you drive 55?
By Eoin O'Carroll | 06.10.08
With the national average gas price breaking $4 a gallon and looming fears of peak oil and catastrophic climate change, some advocates are calling for the American driving public to take its collective foot off the gas.
Shortly before Memorial Day weekend, the Sierra Club exhorted drivers to slow down with its I Can Drive 55 pledge to obey the speed limit. There’s also drive55.org, a site launched in 2002 by ecopreneur Tim Castleman that has been getting more attention lately. Mr. Castleman’s site includes statistics indicating that easing up on the gas saves money, the planet, and lives. His site also sells bumper stickers with messages ranging from “55 for peace” and “55: support the troops.”
Why does driving more slowly save gas? It’s a matter of drag. Your wind resistance increases as a square of your speed. So at 80 miles per hour, the wind resistance is more than twice what it would be at 55 miles per hour, because 80 squared (6,400) is more than twice 55 squared (3,025). But at 80, you’re only traveling 45 percent faster than you are at 55.
Take it from no less an authority than the Car Talk guys, whose website has some excellent resources on fuel economy:
Wind resistance increases dramatically with speed. That’s why aerodynamics have become so important in the last 15 years, and why all of our cars now look like jelly beans.
How much does it matter? Consider this: for every ten miles per hour you floor it, you lose as much as 15% in fuel economy. What’s that mean for your retirement account? For every 1,000 miles you drive, figuring gas at $2.50 a gallon [editor’s note: Hah!] and 25 MPG fuel efficiency, you’d save as much as $15 if you drove 10 mph slower. Over the course of the year, that’s enough to buy that nuclear powered, stainless steel cappuccino machine you’ve been coveting – and have enough left over for beans, too.
Our advice? Slow down. You’ll be a safer, more relaxed driver, and you’ll increase your fuel efficiency. And, believe it or not, due to an unexplained Einsteinian time warp, you’ll also get to your destination in about the same time.
The physics argument is unassailable (except for their bit about the time warp), but how does it work in traffic? In 2005, a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle tried to find out. Michael Cabanatuan took his Chevy Malibu about 100 miles down California’s Interstate 5 at 55 miles per hour. The result? Angry glares, a double-barreled bird-flipping from a preteen boy, and an average of 10 miles per gallon in fuel savings.
Is it worth it? A post at Treehugger argues that a reinstatement of the national 55 mph speed limit – like the one that American drivers ignored from 1974 to 1995 – would spur development of microcars, many of which can travel just fine at those speeds but have trouble going much faster. This, says Treehugger, would “reduce the cost of cars and could save Detroit.”
But even with gas prices as they are, reinstating the speed limit would be a hard sell for most Americans. But maybe there are enough people out there who are not in too much of a hurry to make it a point to slow down. If you’re one of them, the right lane awaits.
(For all of you who have that song stuck in your head, here’s the video.)
[Via GreenDaily via Treehugger]
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2. S. Purington | 06.11.08
I recently drove from San Diego to Homer, Alaska, 4000+ miles trying to keep my speed around 60 mph. I averaged close to 30MPG in a 10 year old Subaru Outback rated at 26 MPG highway. Frequently paying more than $5/gallon, it’s obvious to me based on the number of large V8 monster trucks zooming by me at 70+ MPH that the price of gas is still not too expensive for many people out there.
3. A. Kazakova | 06.11.08
It depends on the road. On Long Island, I give MYSELF agita when I drive 55 on the Long Island Expressway, which is all straight lines. But on the parkways, which were designed by Robert Moses (and curve very nicely), 55 is a reasonable speed, and others don’t seem to be bothered by it. So I take the parkways, and in a brand-new manual Yaris, I get about 50 mpg.
4. Jim Jordan | 06.11.08
I’ve just driven a 2200 mile circuit: Northern California, Eastern Washington, Puget Sound, and back to Northern California. In the past, I’ve driven at about 70 mph and averaged 26 mpg (in a ten year old Mercury Sable). Last week I didn’t drive faster than 62 mph, 55 mph on the two-lane roads, and averaged 30 mpg. My impression is that I wasn’t the only person driving slower.
5. Michael Ray | 06.11.08
I’m experimenting right now. My 2000 Camaro was rated at 19 and 29 from Chevrolet. I saw 30mpg on the interstate when she was new but have been averaging about 26mpg on my daily commute. I’ve inflated the tires to 35 and slowed down to 50-55 on the two lane roads and 65 on the interstate this week. We’ll see what happens. It definitely looks like the gas hand is dropping slower. I hope so.
6. Eoin | 06.11.08
I think it’s so cool to see all of you slow drivers coming out of the closet! If you’re interested in learning how to drive in the most fuel-efficient manner possible, be sure to check out this story on ‘hypermiling’ by the Monitor’s Mark Clayton:
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/06/11/squeezing-the-most-out-of-a-gallon/
Also, my fellow Monitor blogger Chris Gaylord offers a post on how to get the most out of every gallon:
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/06/11/hypermiler-driving-tips/
7. Alan | 07.02.08
So why pick 55? What about 50? or 45? or 20?
Or ****, lets just walk.
I’m all for driving slower, if that is what you want, just to do. Realize that sometimes you need to get somewhere on a deadline. I’d rather spend a few bucks those times and drive 70 if thats what I need to do.
I generally drive about 59 on the highway.
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1. Colin P. Varga | 06.11.08
A couple of years ago I started driving a little under the speed limit on the hi-way. My 12 year old car now gets 49 MPG on the hi-way and when it was new it was rated 34 hi-way. Nobody seems to mind, nobody honks, and anyone can pass me. I think driving slower is patriotic.