Isnt the EPA rating on your car(mazdaspeed 6) 17/23? Thats not very good either. my 3/4 ton Diesel truck gets nearly 20 mpg on the hwy and 17 in the city. Whats your solution? forced hybrids for the masses? My last car was a Saab 9-5 and my truck gets better city mileage and is pretty close on the hwy. I think it is pretty funny that people try to assume what other people are doing with their cars. How do you know that the small lady in the expedition isnt on her way to pick up her 6 kids or the guy with the truck tows a 6000 pound boat every weekend?

 

If you lower speed limits you have to drive for a longer period of time.. wouldnt that just equal out to driving 80 and getting there quicker? Time to hop on 75 and find out. Probobly to dangerous to try durring the day... guess I get to spark one up and find out. (I wont be driving of course)

 

Search for contradicting opinions and you will find just as many.
This is some guys blog that is the current president of a road club for drivers rights, not an economist.

Some of the points are just dumb:

He starts saying how this only effects 2% of the roads in the US. Then he goes on to saying 1/3 of our daily traffic is on the interstate and thats not all of the 55mph+ zones. He is using numbers to to make things look differently. He then says that if the states could change it from 55 to 65mph there is 'only' a .18% difference.

Gasoline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
we used 360,000,000 gallons a day in 2003


lets say we are using the same amount and now the cost is at 3.85 thats 1,386,000,000 a day. 1,386,000,000 x .018. That 'only' .18% difference is now 24,948,000 A DAY LESS. And we dont have a 65 ours is 70 so its even more. Im sure that could help boost the economy quit nicely instead of sending it back overseas.

More traffic cops to enforce the law? are you fucking kidding me? They already have to enforce the law a differnt speed wouldnt make them be there more since they are out EVERYDAY anyways. Also, stop acting like god damn conspiracy theorist, the money from the tickets doesnt go to new pools for their houses, they dont ever see it. Its sent to the state and redisperced.


Then he talks about wasted time. Fuck, id rather not go into anothe great depression then letting the dumbfucks of america having an extra 30 minutes to watch Reality TV.

 

yup, and my stang gets around 17-18 in the city and 23-24 highway unless i drive like a dumbass. You dont need a 4 banger to get good mpg.

 

The people defending this idea obviously do not drive on the highway every day, therefore shouldnt bitch.

Either that or they found some time space continuum at 55 MPH that makes you get there sooner than going the current speed limit.

 

*sigh* Preparing the AK's, 270, and .50 cal.

 

I only get 17 mpg IF i drive under extremely heavy boost and foot on the throttle HARD everywhere I go, 6k RPM shifts. Yes, that's terrible then.
If I drive NORMAL, which is also speeding every once in a while, I get 25MPG. If I drive conservatively, 27MPG. If i drive +5 speed limit only, mainly highway= 30MPG. I've done every test, many times. It always comes out that way.

That's 4 cyl turbo for you...




I'll assume what I want about those people because:

A. I work with a lot of people who do exactly this.
B. I see many of the same people on an almost regular basis, and their car is not needed for the activities and their necessities.

 

This is a car forum with racing in the name and people are agreeing with lowering the speed limit?

 

it'd suck, but yeah, it would cut down on fuel consumption, that whole aerodynamics thing, and higher rate of fuel flow for the higher RPM you're cruising at, and its not a huge difference per person, but MILLIONS of people doing it across the entire US would save a ton, and i don't see how people say it would up the fuel price? supply and demand dictates that with less demand, price goes down, correct?

less people buying the more they want to sell

on top of that, i'm sure fatal highway accidents would decrease dramatically, and it will also save on wear and tear on your car, over time, less tire wear, etc

the only downside to it would be longer travel times that i see

 

I wonder how many millions of gallons are wasted by millions of motorists slowing down and speeding up every day just to go over the millions of speed humps in this country?