**Moved** Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Thats all good and fine, but youre still having pipe dreams. Will never happen unless everyone's car is electronically limited to 55mph. And that can never happen. Not in the US at least.

No one is going to make those decisions themselves until it's forced on them. And nothing but a very tiny minority would ever go for legislation on the matter, and even if it was against the law, people probably still wouldnt follow it.

 

I don't think that's really true. When gas prices increased People voluntarily slowed down People voluntarily drove less and i think we really have to get a situation where it is simply too painful to beat wasteful

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

... vs 15 hours @ 500 mph. Save an additional 20 hours.

Save time. Counting 7 hours in the air (including acceleration and deceleration time) and 8 more hours standing around boringly twiddling your thumbs in airports, it still takes less than half the time of high speed driving.

Save fuel. At 80 mph, even a Prius (single rider) can't match a modern airliner for passenger-mile fuel economy.

Save money. On many routes the overall cost of driving (fuel, depreciation or repairs, maintenance, wear items, meals, lodging) is greater than the cost of flying.

Save lives. The mortality difference between driving and commercial flying is HUGE.

 

I don't agree. My experience is closer to Dave's in Olympia:

For people who work in downtown proper, it is great. But for those of us who live outside, and commute to a different outside area, it varies from mediocre to awful.

That is one of the reasons I frequently bicycle 18 miles each way. It is faster than taking the bus, waiting for a transfer, taking another bus, waiting for another transfer, and taking another bus.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Oh, I hear you! I feel bad that I have a 70 mile round trip commute. I did vanpool for about 6 months but dropped out due to deadlines at work. I did not rejoin because of other reasons. While I did like having "set" hours 8 - 5 pm, I didn't like the driving ability of the person driving the van (he tended to drive 75 mph, roughly 1 second or less behind the car in front of him....driving a piece of cr@p Dodge van with 6 people in it) and the fact that if I tried to read in the van, I started getting car sick.

The job market has been tough in biotech, thus switching companies is difficult and mine is one of the few that is in good financial shape. We don't want to move closer to work, because it would be a downgrade in family lifestyle and the school district we are in is in/around the top ten for the state.

Sooooo, I do what I can, I got the best gas mileage car I could get, inflated the tires, and drive 55 mph. Carpooling is tough because my hours are quite variable.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

I will go to considerable effort to avoid dealing with airlines. My present automatic drive instead of fly distance is 600 miles. If I can turn it into an interesting road trip, it's a lot further.

The mortality rate on an airliner is out of your control, the mortality rate while driving is largely under your control so the difference for a competent driver isn't nearly as big as the raw numbers would indicate.

I pee standing up instead of sitting down even though I stand a higher risk of falling down. Sometimes there are considerations other than ultimate safety.

Edit: reading your next post, after the one I resounded to you said you bicycled 18 miles to work. Balancing that against your airline vs car safety comment, you sound a bit conflicted. :cheer2:

 

Fuzzy1, I confess I did not claim King County's bus system was great, only Seattle's, I have not lived in every neighborhood in Seattle (only Queen Anne, Green Lake, U District and Ballard) But it has worked for me for 30 years off and on in multiple neighborhoods in Seattle and the county. (Issaquah, Bellevue, Kent, and Black Diamond)

I used it a lot to commute from Ballard to Issaquah, then from Ballard to the U District, Ballard to Kent, and now mostly from Black Diamond to do touristy things down town Seattle. Compared to mass transit in any other city I have lived in, it is very immpressive. You did not mention which US city's mass transit you thought was superior.

(Just discussing it I had to check, Wallingford map is still there! I worked in a gas station kitty corner to it in 1978)

 

Most of the time I refer to 'Seattle', I'm speaking of the Seattle MSA (see [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_metropolitan_area"]here[/ame] and [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Statistical_Area"]here[/ame]), an area larger than King County.

My best experiences with mass transit were not in North America.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Driving is rarely more expensive than flying when there is more than one person.

(2800mi)/(40 miles per gallon) * (3USD)/(gallon) = 210USD

At 40mpg which is what I average at speeds between 90mph and 110mph it is 210USD, and at 42mpg which is what I get at about 80mph is about 200USD.

Round trip from here to Detroit is $299USD. To get to Toronto it is $680. Either way, that doesnt include the additional charge for baggage and even then it is only 50lbs with the extra $50 charge.

We pack the car full for the drive and take back loads of stuff. Not to mention all the food + drugs we can smuggle back in the car that we cannot do on the plane.

Generally it is 4 people, but I have done it by myself, so obviously saving $470 + $50 per person is quite the deal for a day of driving. Also you have your car when you get there, and dont have to rent.

And we don't lodge or stop for food or any of that crap. We leave at night one day and arrive the next day. As for maintenance, thats the point of imports. They are built to take it. And you cant really argue meals since you still eat when you fly, you just eat at different places. And they even charge you to eat in the sky now, so really there is no point.

When I do fly, I go with one of my friends who's father is a pilot for a major airline. $25USD for him, $50USD for me first class. :rockon:

 

Being bounded by Puget Sound and Lake Washington helps focus the traffic a bus might carry, once out of those confines, it is hard to guess where to route folks wisely.

While seven agencies are co-operating enough to have an ORCA pass, no one agency has authority to schedule mass transit in the entire MSA.

ORCA: ORCA Smart Card Facts

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Jet Airliners run between 50 to 90 passenger miles per gallon based on which aircraft and how full it is. A Prius with two passengers is good compared to that.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

I dodged the insurance agent question because it had nothing to do with what we were talking about. I have no interest in being an agent. However I will answer in a round about way. Based on what you have posted I would personally not take $1500 from you and cover your liability for a year. I doubt you would find many on here who would.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

State Farm is taking my $900 annually with no problem or increased rates. They know more about my record than what's on this post...sorry - their assessment of my driving record is far different than your's - invalidating your attack of my driving record.

Everyone else has moved on from the attacks - let it go.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Glad to let it go but it wasn't an attack. You repeatedy insisted on a response so I gave you one.

Good luck and don't forget to wear a helmet. (that was a snark attack )

 

We are headed.to disneyland in sept figuring 5cents per mile so about$ 130 in gas for rt for three. Can't get tickets for that

 

i want to go to disney!arty:

 

You would enjoy the Autopia ride, governed to 7 mph and no passing

 

I've been there ... over six thousand five hundred times ... you do the math how many years of work that is.

"Imagine" a 55mph speed limit? Um, that IS the limit - for trailering vehicles and big rigs. Plus, the last time I checked, no one's holding a gun to our heads to stop us from doing 55 along with the vehicles already set to that speed. But heck, I probably do 55 anyway, at least 90% of the time or more. Yep, I LIKE getting over 60mpg. It's a great trade off for the extra 10min it takes to do a 40+ mile trip. The REAL efficiency point for the Prius is around 50mph-51mph ... but I'd be too embarrassed to admit to knowing that.
.

 

26? you lucky mouse! probably wears off tho?

 

A little math

So, what is the best speed to trade-off how long a drive takes with how much gas we burn.

Variables we'll need:
price of my time: $20/hr (how much would you pay to save an hour)
price of fuel: $2.60/gallon
mileage at 65 MPH: 50 MPG (my numbers)

Relationship we'll need:
MPG varies as 1/MPH^2 (approximate, and good for freeway speeds)

Calculate alpha such that MPG=alpha*MPH^(-2)...the mileage performance coefficient.

Then after some calculus, a miracle happens:

best MPH = (value-of-time * alpha / price-of-fuel / 2)^(1/3)

and with the above numbers, my best speed is 93 MPH.

For 55 MPH to be the best speed to make the time/fuel trade-off, my time would have to be worth a paltry $4.10 / hour.