On the same day Gov. Jennifer Granholm suggested the state consider lowering freeway speeds to conserve gas, speed studies released to The Detroit News on Wednesday indicate that $4-a-gallon gas has not put a damper on the desire to zoom across town.
The average speeds at nine spots around Metro Detroit actually rose from August 2007 to June, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. Speeds went down slightly at just three sites that MDOT routinely monitors.
It is classic time-is-money tradeoff, said David Greene, a researcher for the U.S. Department of Energy based in Tennessee. A motorist can save $12 in gas by going 10 mph slower over 500 miles. But it adds an hour to the trip.
“For a lot of people, their time is still more valuable than the fuel savings,” Greene said.
Police and others say slowing down too much can be dangerous. Some folks are tempting fate by dipping below 55 mph, said Jim Rink, a spokesperson for AAA Michigan. If most traffic is going 70 to 75 mph, the slow car becomes a danger, he said. “It’s a recipe for a potential crash,” he said.
For that matter, why are taxes being imposed for any purpose other than supporting government functions, and why is there such an obsession with taxing anything you don’t like?
If the government can give out incentives for hybrids, why not incentives for any car that exceeds 30 mpg combined? What about supporting a SUV buyback program if people are so hellbent on getting these things off the streets?
What is so attractive about beating people over the heads with excess taxes and excess regulations?
If the motivation is to save fuel, then instead of slowing people down, the goal should be the opposite — to get traffic to stop idling. Unless you drive a hybrid, your worst fuel economy is achieved in slow stop-and-go traffic, not at highway speeds.
BZ, they know what’s best for you. Now just shut up and color!
VW
BZ: “Yeah VW, sigh, good point. You got the Flesh Crayola?”
SOUND OF DOOR CRASHING, HEAVY BOOTS ON FLOORING.
MINDPOL: “Who still has the ‘flesh’ Crayola? All those were replaced years again and eliminated from all crayon sets!”
SOUND OF RACK OF SHOTGUN.
“You there!” Points at BZ. “You’re coming with us!”
SOUND OF HANDCUFFS, RATCHETING.
BZ
Yes they know everything that is good for us and that is why it always turns out to be so disastrous. We all better wake them up in D.C. _ God that pic of Carter makes me sick…ugh!
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Off topic, I am posting the conclusion of Rachel’s Story at Mid-night…you won’t be disappointed!
I think you are really missing the point BZ.
Let me help:
It’s easier to change the speed limit in a faux attempt to conserve gas, than to actually conserve fuel by doing the things you suggest.
It’s easier to put a bunch of regulations on gun ownership, and ban certain types of firearms, than it is to PUNISH those that use the firearms in an manner that endangers the public.
These things are the Demorat way, they avoid things like “actually Addressing the issue” and “Personal responsibility”
We should be used to it BZ in Cali, the “Easier” way has been on display forever.
Energy does not have to cost us this much, this bunch of f–king idiots currently setting on their fat asses in congress and the senate are not going to do a f–king thing to help the situation other than meaningless, yet showy crap like this brilliant idea. we have oil here, we have the ability to build safe, economical nuke plants here, we outrageous amounts of coal. the only thing standing between us and cheap energy is the f–king jerks we elected to “represent” us, a handful of envirowhacko’s and tort lawyers.
A 55mph speed limit was tried in 1975. Very few people paid any attention to it, so what makes them think it will work this time?
Stupid solutions are offered by stupid people!
I already have a mother. I’m getting pretty tired of the state trying to usurp her.
Bushwack: well, obviously, you completely NAILED “The Fornicalia Way.” Anyone ever wonder why I term it “Fornicalia’ instead of its proper name? Because whatever happens in Fornicalia fucks its occupants and will sooner or later fuck the REST of the nation.
BZ
Thanks for coming by and reading the conclusion. Your insight is on the mark!
Here is another one for ya… some places up here have idling bylaws with a $150 fine if you idle your vehicle for more then 30 seconds. NO ONE pays attention to it… especially when it gets down to -30 or -40 below….. just like no one pays any attention to speed limits … you can’t pay attention to the road if your driving the speed limit….
Originally traffic signals were meant to speed up the flow of traffic. Now they are used to increase local revenue… I’ve seen those ‘unnecessary stop lights’ going at 3am, and right close by was a police car hidden off to the side in a church parking lot. That was in suburban western NY, not some big city. As the off-ramp from the thruway gave me a clear view of them I did, indeed, stop at the signal rather than risk a point and $50. For a place like that I would do a ‘Texas rolling-stop’ by checking out both sides of the signal before going onto the road. Their sole reason for being there was to get one or two a night to meet a quota, that was it. I’ve seen the quota system at work, so don’t tell me it isn’t there… it has one purpose and that is to raise revenue, not increase safety. Even as bad as that *is* the double-nickel is worse.
Having been over the same interstates in NY and between NY and CO, I got to know where all the good speed traps were, including the ones run by aircraft. What you got was knowing when you could safely make up time. I was very glad when the interstates started to lift that as the federal government realized it was an obnoxious pain that was causing citizens to be non-law abiding just to get places efficiently. Basically, if I didn’t want to spend an extra day on the road on long trips, thus taking up more money, fuel and time, you learned the road skills to avoid the traps.
The Left forgets that enforced virtue is an evil in its own right and garners no good. If you want more fuel efficient vehicles, change in the auto industry and a shift over to different fuel platforms, you *want* an efficiently running road network. It delays the inevitable… as does restricting drilling, energy production from non-plant or ‘renewable’ sources that are inherently inefficient. We would have been well on our way to *that* by now if there were no speed, fuel, drilling, energy production and other regulations to restrict these things. That is what markets do: respond to reality.
Politicians respond to fantasy.
I’ve had it with ‘least worse’ politicians who are like doctors always prescribing leeches. Even when you finally get anemia, the leeches come out, again.
“The average speeds at nine spots around Metro Detroit actually rose from August 2007 to June”
Well of course it did, its harder to hit a moving target!!!
As for the 55 it may work in the east but here in Texas you would fall asleep on the 550 mile run to El Paso from San Antonio. Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.