Surely bike riders and patrons of mass transit wish to scream the same in your ear.

Are the tablespoons of fuel you are saving by driving 55 really an accomplishment when compared to the gallons you are still sucking down?

Trust me, I walk, bike, ride mass transit and car pool, as much as possible. Also, I try to buy local producs that haven't been shiped half way around the world. I'd like to set up my life so I'd never have to get in a car and to only buy stuff made locally, but I can't right now. Maybe one day, though.

the sooner we run out of fuel the sooner we find an alternative.

supply and demand.

Wouldn't it be a better world if you could talk to your fellow commuters? Maybe an electronic sign on the back of your car. This is much easier when you're on foot (of course) except when you're walking next to a goddamn highway.

TheNerd: you should also consider the teaspoons that she saved by making everyone behind her also drive at 55 mph. :) Especially if she was doing this where a HOV lane alternative was available. I think it's conceivable to actually accomplish a net savings in fuel if you slow enough people down from a high enough speed and make them consider alternatives in the future.

The sooner we run out the sooner we'll have no choice but to find an alternative way out but the longer we wait the more fucked we will be when that time comes. The sooner we have an initial crisis that makes us realize this the better.

as the supply goes down and the demand goes up so does the price. When the price reaches a certain level then alternative fuels become attractive.

brette, I must say you are crazy. The highway is a community that you join as you merge on. The community follows rules. When the rules are not follows people get hurt. Members of this highway community are often rude rageaholic, and in a hurry. They don't follow rules posted on the side of the road. They follow the highway rules.

The highway isn't a place to make a statement. Drive at the speed of traffic or else someone may get hurt. Ambulances don't drive 55.

Get a bumper sticker or carpool.

love dan

Isnt the rule to a certain rate? They do call it the speed limit afterall. Whenever Ive seen a lower limit on a highway it is usually about 40mph. 55 seems pretty acceptable if the speedlimit is 65 or 70. Besides, most highways have multiple lanes, so if you are slower you just drive in the right lane.

It is dangerous to drive a lot slower than the speed of traffic on a highway, but its not like brette is talking about driving 35 or riding a horse... although biking is legal on hwy 26 here, speedlimit is 55..

The problem with waiting until fuel becomes scarce enough that the price becomes high enough for alternatives to be palatable is that we could be too entrenched in the current paradigm with not enough time to find a solution out... and a lot of people get hurt. But it's possible to plan ahead rather than being a slave to the market. The market can come up with a "solution" but it could come at the price of tons of suffering.

Ambulances are in a genuine hurry to get somewhere.. they are hurrying to get to the scene of a car accident where some asshole was going too fast and not paying attention.

Accidents happen with the difference in speed is large. It isn't when someone is going 75. Its when the difference in speed between that person and everyone else is 20.

55 isn't a problem. But if the majority of the highway is stacking up behind you and weaving around you, then it is.

The only people who might get hurt when we start to run out of fuel are people we go to war with for their fuel (think warcraft). Telecommunting will be very popular and a bullet train industry will appear in the US.

It really didn't take that long to build the entire highway system. Its actually pretty amazing when you look at it. Rebuilding infrastructure will happen rather quickly if its deemed important enough.

If suddenly tomorrow all the cars stopped working. In two years we would have nice public transportation anywhere. Promise.

Dan, I love your optimism.

What I wrote was more tounge in cheek that I guess it seemed.

For the record, in NY the speed limit is 55. I do go 65, against my own wishes, when I'm places where the speed limit is 65.

"Accidents happen with the difference in speed is large. It isn't when someone is going 75. Its when the difference in speed between that person and everyone else is 20."

Dan, this leaves out the real cause as well as missing most accident cases. Accidents don't happen when you approach someone driving slower than you, it happens when you are going so fast that you can't react to a sudden, unexpected change in front of you. When someone goes from 75 to 20 right in front of you, the faster you're driving the more likely you will rearend them. The person who consistently drives slow isn't going to surprise anyone. However, that person will make it more likely that the people behind will have enough time to react to any sudden changes, making the whole road safer, as well as being safer for that person. Perhaps marginally safer, I still think that driving is "unsafe at any speed." The maximum limit in Michigan is 70 which means most people go at least +10 in the slow lane (when traffic isn't stopped) and there are almost no cops on the highway.. it's great!

As Americans, we feel we are invincible. (What happens when two invincible people battle?) Anyways, how can you say that we won't suffer any losses if we have to battle other people, both in terms of donating American lives as well as the financial costs. We are already paying for this.

We can't just reupholster the American transportation fabric to have a nice or even adequate public transit system "everywhere". Because of highways, we are now spread out so thin that it would be very painful to do so. Can we move everyone in the US into high density cores and corridors in 2 or 20 years, or whatever period is "fast enough"? We can make these kinds of changes, but we can't always do them fast enough without causing serious pain. That's the problem with not being prepared for surprising changes in oil supply, with surprisingly quickly decreasing supplies of oil over a period of time which is not long enough for markets to react without serious disruption.

Love 1073

Sammy Says: "I can't drive 55"

Get a Hybrid, and go a little faster....