Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider
this is more of a world problem and our country's first baby step towards fixing it. you guys have every reason to disagree with it, but after driving up and down the highway between yesterday and today, i see very little difference in the way people drive. gas isn't going to last forever, conserving some would help though.
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you are a woman, aren't you? well, at least you argue like one. when you are trumped in your argument, you change the topic. that's why we can never win arguments with our girlfriends and spouses - they don't fight fair.
anyway, you have ignored the gist again and again, so i will boil it down for you: you have the power, the freedom of choice, to drive whatever speed you want to. why do you feel the need to control others (those against the 55 mph limits)? there is no rationality to your argument, and now you want to get the whole world involved... huh? it wasn't enough to start pointing the finger at other states, now it's other countries, too. see, i really could care less what happens in other states (or other countries) because i live here. now, if a federally mandated 55 mph limit were imposed, then it would affect ALL states, including the one i live in, which i cannot accept. there is no argument for going slower other than this whim that it conserves energy. do this, get in your car and fill the tank. drive normally, stay with traffic, do all of the things you would normally do. write down the mileage. now, fill the tank again, and do NOT go over 55 mph on ANY street. write down the mileage. if the difference in mileage is more than 10 miles, i will buy your next tank of gas. i think what you will see, instead, is an increase in mileage because cars are not built the way they used to be - they are much more efficient and more capable to do speeds over 55 without a corresponding loss in mileage. the cars are more aerodynamic and the motors with their electronic fuel injection (soon to be direct injection) are so much more efficient than their predecessors... there is no comparison. if you really want 55 mph badly enough, you can build a time machine and travel back in time to the 70s and 80s and drive to your heart's content in 55 mph speed limits. i do not want any part of those years or the speed limits that they brought. i lived through that and i do not want to return.
btw, i have driven on the roads of other countries. one of them is italy, where the pollution problem, i have to say, is out of hand. on the autostradt, italy's version of germany's autobahn, there is only a speed limit near exits, and it is slower in the right lane. cars are going to be exiting and entering the roadway, so they know that there is no way to leave that part of it uncontrolled. btw, the left lane does not have a speed limit. i was pushing the little 4 banger in the fiat uno we rented to 180 kph - and i was being passed by mercedes going much faster than that. i learned how to drive there within a few hours and we were happily motoring along, paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 per gallon (it's a little hard to pinpoint because they pay for gas by the liter and then there was that pesky lire to consider...) so, hey, it's not a global problem. about the only problem i see is that we don't all do like montana and abolish speed limits, conditions permitting. then, if everyone learned to drive like that, i would be able to go as fast as my car would let me and i wouldn't have to worry about anyone blocking my lane because they would have learned to keep right or get run over.
and, even with abolished speed limits, you'd still be able to putt along in the right lane at 55 mph and not have to worry about getting run over.
ya see?