Recently, there was a letter to the editor in my local paper imploring people to drive on highways no faster than 55 miles per hour in order to conserve fuel.
In terms of simple physics (if such a thing exists) and simple economics, there is no arguement. It takes less fuel to move a vehicle one mile at 55 miles per hour than it does to move that same vehicle one mile at 60, 65, 70, or more, miles per hour. If one is using less fuel per mile travelled, one will travel more miles using the fuel in one tank of gas, one will less frequently need to refill said tank, and will over any course of time, spend less money buying fuel. Also, this just in - the sun rises in the east, the ocean is moist, Friday will follow Thursday during the third week of next April, and 2+2=4. You get the picture. We know all of that. There's no questioning that. And yet, when I read the letter, my immediate reaction was not, "She's right," or, "Good point," or anything like that. My immediate thought was, "If I tried that, I'd get killed."
My daily commute home from work includes more than 25 miles on Interstate highways. (I take a different route in the morning to avoid the highways and their traffic at that time.) For pretty much all of my driving life, I would go the speed of the prevailing flow of traffic, which tends to be about 5 - 10 mph over the posted limit. I considered that to be the safest way to go, and figured my chances of getting a speeding ticket would be pretty minimal if my speed didn't stand out among the other vehicles. And in fact, I have not had a speeding ticket in more than 10 years, and that was a case where there really wasn't any other traffic. It was very late on a Sunday night in a rural part of West Virginia. Not a lot of folks around.
It's kind of funny, really. It was coming home from a road trip - my sister, her 2 kids and I drove from Wilmington, DE to around Memphis, TN to visit my brother who was doing his post-bootcamp Navy school in Millington, TN. I drove most of the way there (seriously, it was like a 20-hour drive, and I drove the first 19 hours), and it was a long weekend where sleep was not the top priority. I then drove the whole way home without stopping other than for gas, snacks and bathroom. Nearing pitch-black midnight on a near-empty stretch of rural West Virginia highway, I have to confess that I was not at my sharpest mentally. I recall thinking it odd that the headlights in my rearview mirror did not seem to be either advancing or receding, tho they had been at that same distance behind me for quite a while. It did not occur to me that doing so would be an accurate way for someone to determine the speed at which I was travelling. It further did not occur to me to concern myself with the speed at which I was travelling. I did wonder why he put his highbeams on behind me for what I could only assume was no reason. And what's with the colored flashi..... aw, crap. But, I digress.
After reading the letter, I reconsidered my driving M.O., and determined that it would be a better course of action to drive at the speed limit on the highways - using my cruise control to maintain that speed, and further conserve fuel, when the weather and traffic permit - which they typically do this time of year, and at the time I drive home. I've done this for about a week.
For those of you who are not fans of "The Simpsons," first of all, what the hell is wrong with you? That show has produced some of the best comedy writing, and specifically some of the best satire, in the whole history of American television. I realized that doing so is, to quote Dennis Miller, "like being the valedictorian of summer school," but it must also be realized that those responsible for "The Simpsons" are not responsible for the other content of their genre. Secondly, for those of you who are not familiar, one of the characters on the show is Mr. Burns. He is the 104-year-old multibillionaire owner of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. In one episode, an oil field is found underneath the grounds of the local elementary school. Mr. Burns plans to get access to the oil for himself, stating that he could not bear to see such a valuable resource be left in the hands of "Betsy Bleedingheart and Maynard G. Muskievote." Mr. Burns favors the unbridled consumption of energy-producing resources, particularly when said consumption produces profit for Mr. Burns. As he is 104 years old, there is much humor around his being hilariously decrepit. In another episode, he joins a bowling league team. In one scene, he sends his ball down the lane so slowly that each of the 4 memebers of the other team bowls a strike (with the pins of course having to be reset between each one) before his ball reaches the end of the lane, falling into the gutter before it hits any pins. It's funnier in animation than in text.
This past week, with my cruise control set on 60, and briefly on 70, I have felt like Mr. Burns' bowling ball, making my way along in the right-hand lane, while SUV after pickup after sports car after 18-wheeler zips by me. I'm on I-94 for 9.1 miles (according to Mapquest). One day I counted, just in that stretch, 28 vehicles passing me. It's not that only those types of vehicles are on the road. There are sedans, coupes and more-efficient vehicles. But they seem to be the minority. I see a LOT of SUV's, pickups, sports cars and big rigs. The majority of the vehicles I see, or at least the ones I notice whipping by me, are less-efficient vehicles to begin with, and are driving at inefficient speeds. Screw you, Maynard. Here, Mr. Burns, take more of my money. Add it to the pile that's already too big to count.
Now, I realize that this may come off a little haughty seeing as how I earlier admitted to, until recently, driving at less-efficient, higher speeds on the highways myself. I have a couple of responses to that:
- First, my car gets better gas mileage than a lot of the other vehicles to begin with. I'm not "wasting vehicle," as I see a lot of people doing - driving a pickup with an empty bed, an SUV with no passengers and no (visible) cargo, or a sporty convertible that, despite the driver's hope and wish, does not have any real effect on his penis size.
- Second, wasting gas involves more than just highway speed. Getting up to speed slowly from a stop; decelerating coming up to a red light or stop sign rather than jamming on your brakes 2 feet from where you want to stop; avoiding congested roads - these are things I've done for years, and things I see a lot of people not doing, which save gas.
- Third, the whole point of my post is that behavior is modifiable. At least, it is in theory. There's the whole "recognize that there are other ways to behave than what I already do / think and evalulate / conscioiusly choose to engage in behaviors that are different than things I have done in the past" thing that waaaaaaaaaaay too many Americans seem incapable of. Too many people seem too willing to shell out increasing amounts of money for their tank of gas without giving any real consideration to taking actions that would alleviate the situation. On the other hand, I did all those things inside the quotes in the bullet.
I wonder how high gas prices will have to go before a noticeable number of people start taking real action. There was a time in my life when I thought that line of demarcation was about $2/gallon. We're nearing the point where that figure is doubled, and signs of change are few and far between. The Friday before Memorial Day, I saw on the news that whoever puts out such studies put out this year's study, and all the doomsayers on the news were jumping all over it. For the first time since 2002, said the study-putter-outers, the number of Americans travelling 50 or more miles from home for Memorial Day would be dropping. Then they put up the graphic that showed that the projected drop was all of 0.9%. Is this trip really necessary, indeed.
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