{"id":3339,"date":"2008-08-18T17:39:25","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T23:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3339"},"modified":"2008-08-18T17:39:25","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T23:39:25","slug":"driving-55-mph-saves-gas-and-saves-lives-or-causes-more-road-rage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/driving-55-mph-saves-gas-and-saves-lives-or-causes-more-road-rage\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving 55 M.P.H.: Saves Gas and Saves Lives? Or Causes More Road Rage?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Once again, the idea of driving 55 miles per hour is out of the closet.<\/p>\n Once mandated in the 1970s — but eventually discarded for 65-75 m.p.h. limits handled by individual states — the concept has resurfaced as oil and gas prices have rocketed<\/a> to record heights.<\/p>\n A news story published this morning in USA Today<\/a> brought out the naysayers in droves. An overwhelming majority of the story’s commenters online booed and hissed at the notion that they should do any such inconvenient thing.<\/p>\n Some main complaints are being echoed throughout the comments chamber:<\/p>\n In general, the comments are largely filled with complaints and sarcasm and anger. (Ahhh, the modern American way: Call everyone with ideas idiots; “Status quo or bust!”)<\/p>\n Now, I don’t know if driving 55 m.p.h.<\/a> saves the world or not. But I’m willing to find out the information before spouting venom with abandon.<\/p>\n (By the way, where are all of these passionate voices about things that matter, things that impact more than mere individual conveniences — such as for global warming and recycling and…?)<\/p>\n The USA Today story says Senator John Warner (R-Va.) introduced a bill last month that orders a study be carried out to test the effects of a national 60 m.p.h. limit.<\/p>\n Spearheading an effort that goes five notches lower, Tim Castelman, is promoting the Drive 55 campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n By the way, Castelman is being lambasted in the string of comments left at USAToday.com. (Maybe I will be too once I publish this blog post, but such is life with 21st Century media.)<\/p>\n But he must be used to it, judging by the hate e-mails he posts at drive55.org. It’s astounding the seething, loathing, misspelled, incoherent, babbling hatred of this guy and the project as a whole.<\/p>\n (Digression: Again, let global warming and poverty and countless other ills of the world go un-noticed, but send a man with ideas that may just be worthwhile notes that proclaim undying love for Exxon and BP and include words that George Carlin wasn’t allowed to utter on stage.)<\/p>\n Like I said, I don’t know the numbers on benefits from driving slower. Obviously neither do a lot of other people or we wouldn’t need Warner’s proposed study to be done for the latest and greatest understanding of this situation.<\/p>\n What I do know is that when I drive 55 m.p.h. — I have to in my 1973 VW bus; and we sometimes choose to in our 2008, 30-plus m.p.g. Honda Civic — I am more relaxed. I slip into the right lane and just coast, letting all of the madness and road rage roll around me.<\/p>\n (Then I get to where I’m going, really not all that much later than those who’ve freaked out, white-knuckled and high-blood-pressured, all the way home.)<\/p>\n And that, even if only for that, is reason enough to love 55 m.p.h.<\/p>\n Related posts:<\/p>\n Gas Hole the Documentary: History of Oil Prices and Alternative Energy<\/a><\/p>\n Petroleum-Based Products Shape Our Lives: Are We Irreversibly Oil Dependent?<\/a><\/p>\n High Gas Prices: Empty Tanks Are The New Black in California<\/a><\/p>\n\n