Not Slowing Down

Gasoline prices are falling around the nation. Prices today in Iowa are about 15 cents per gallon less than they were last Friday. A number of locations report that the huge spike in gasoline prices appears to have finally decreased the demand for oil. The current price for a barrel of light, sweet crude was $63 at the close today. Whether this will cause many people to permanently change their lifestyles remains to be seen. If gasoline finds its way down to mid-August prices of $2.59/gallon on average, people may again believe that the problem is over and they can again do whatever they want, conveniently forgetting that two months ago they found such prices unacceptable.

The next big issue, of course, will be people suddenly discovering that the cost to heat a home has gone up quite a lot from last year, indeed, has doubled or tripled since 1999, as Ron pointed out earlier this week. In Iowa, the expectation is for heating costs to rise 40% to 60% this winter, depending on how cold things get here. This is one time where thinking about the concept of global warming brings on a small feeling of relief for me.

Peakguy (an excellent pseudonym) at the Oil Drum blog documents a list of ways that we might be able to cut gasoline usage in this country. #5 on his list is to again reduce the speed limit to 55 mph nationwide. Many Americans seem totally unaware that the internal combustion engine uses more fuel to go the exact same distance the harder it is forced to work. This is because the engine decreases in efficiency as it works harder – the extra energy obtained from increased fuel does increase the kinetic energy of the car, but a greater portion is lost as heat than at reduced speed.

Many older readers will remember that Richard Nixon, near the pit of his Presidential popularity, and Congress mandated that all states enforce 55 mph maximum speed limits on their highways. This took effect on January 2, 1974 and lasted more than 12 years. At the time, the problem was the oil embargo enforced by Arab countries in response to our support to Israel, and oil use desperately needed to be curbed. However, when the Arab countries lifted the embargo later in 1974, the speed limit remained. It was generally recognized that it was a good idea to reduce the use of gasoline lest we find ourselves in the same situation again someday.

However, by 1986, most people had forgotten about why we were ever driving 55 mph and the Reagan administration finally managed to kill the requirement. Even now, a quick check of the internet shows people who insist that there is no need to reduce the speed limit to 55 mph because our highways are perfectly safe at higher speeds. Of course they are, but that’s not the point, and I’m really distressed that so few people remember.

This week, I visited the Baltimore, MD, area and drove on its 8- and 10-lane freeways. Many of the speed limits on these highways are 55 to 60 mph, especially around the center of Baltimore. I was perfectly willing to drive these speed limits, but I was the only one I saw who did. I passed absolutely no one, but was passed by other vehicles an average of every 8 seconds (remember, they could pass me on two sides).

As this continued to happen, I thought about how great it would be if we could all drive 55 mph again, be safer, and use less fuel. Then it suddenly struck me that it would be impossible for that to happen. The USA is a much different place than it was in 1974. Thirty years of generally decreasing leisure time and adherence to the phrase “better, cheaper, faster” have turned us, on average, into an ultra-competitive people who are very different, for better or worse, than the people of 1974. Now we have Blackberries, super-computers, and high-speed internet access (among other things) that create a much faster lifestyle and leave us theoretically on the job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The people who maintain their rich homes in the suburbs and then commute 40 miles one way to a location in the center of a major metropolis, work 10 or more hours, then commute another 40 miles home again, are inevitably going to drive as fast as their neurological reaction times allow. It is simply yet another competitive advantage in their hyper-competitive worlds. Indeed, I imagine that it is such a basic part of their makeup now that it would take a major adjustment of character for them to slow down.

So while I would dearly love to see the 55-mph speed limit return, I don’t think it will be possible until we enter a much more serious situation, perhaps when we finally reach the time of serious fuel rationing. Other initiatives will have to be tried first before we can at last go to a 55-mph speed limit again.