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Thread: March 7th, Albert's doomsday

  1. #1
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    March 7th, Albert's doomsday

    As a reaction to rising oil prices and a potential shortage due to a cut of Libyan supplies, the Spanish Government has reduced the maximum speed on motorways from 120 to 110 km, as of March 7th....
    Protesting opposition and automobile clubs claim that the people cannot be force by decree to economise on fuel....
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

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    In the Netherlands they will just increase the fuel prices, instead of reducing max. speed limit.

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    HA! So, out of curiosity, how much would I save in hard cash money assuming my 8L/100km car drives a 1000km per month?

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    I'd be more than happy to be forced to slow down facing a possible fine, instead to be forced 1.5 € per liter of gasoline if not more, without any chance to get cheaper fuel.
    KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008

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    ^Agreed. In Sweden, they raise the fuel price to deter people from driving so we can 'save the environment'.

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    On a side note, the kind of car I'm going to (be forced to) buy wouldn't be comfortable at high speed any way. With the allowed limit at less than 55kW/ton and a maximum power of 70kW, I'd be driving in the 110-120 km/h range on the motorway anyway, but a a 0,2 € decrease in fuel price would make a larger difference at the end of the month, especially considering the gf will be lucky to get a first job close to the 1.000 € mark. Not the first time I reckon engineering wasn't the best university to enter, especially over here.
    Oh wait, it gets better, my prime minister is a joke.
    KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008

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    Quote Originally Posted by Man of Steel View Post
    In the Netherlands they will just increase the fuel prices, instead of reducing max. speed limit.
    not only that, to please the vox populi, they will shortly introduce an increase of the maximum speed from 120 to 130 (and will only fine when you are doing 139) on certain parts of the motorway network.
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

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    Well the oil embargo in the '70s is why they did the "double nickel" 55 mph speed limit here in the states, but as gas went down again the limit crept back up. But I always thought somewhere along the line somebody figured out it was a bunch of bunk that there was a speed at which you saved more fuel than others?

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    Quote Originally Posted by ScionDriver View Post
    Well the oil embargo in the '70s is why they did the "double nickel" 55 mph speed limit here in the states
    & yet the most commen speed limit around the world is 60 mp/h , & dropping out of the jetting "sweet spot" & torque curve will make your car less economical at 50 than it would be at 60 mp/h

    i understand dropping from 120 down to 110 - that would actually be making the vast majority of cars run closer to their most economical speed/rev/gear/jetting area

    but to drop 5 mp/h down from 60 conversly would have no effect , to an actual worse consumption rate

    it was bill clinton who finally allowed the 50 states to make their own minds up. some actually dropped another 5 mp/h again after the law change!

    i would go bonkers sitting on 50 mp/h during town to town journeys

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    Quote Originally Posted by henk4 View Post
    Protesting opposition and automobile clubs claim that the people cannot be force by decree to economise on fuel....
    a stance which reminds me of this cartoon


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    Quote Originally Posted by Badsight View Post
    it was bill clinton who finally allowed the 50 states to make their own minds up. some actually dropped another 5 mp/h again after the law change!

    i would go bonkers sitting on 50 mp/h during town to town journeys
    yeah, but it was awesome to have an 80 mph speed limit when driving though west texas... though i was still breaking it by 20-30 mph.
    Honor. Courage. Commitment. Etcetera.

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    My Volvo used rather a lot less fuel at 110 than at 130. It was something like 8-8.5l/100kms to 10.
    Life's too short to drive bad cars.

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    Brilliant! In America we were smarter than the rest of the world and showed that a 55 mph national speed limit would decrease fuel consumption and save buyers money. The other thing that the rest of the world was too dumb to follow was marking the federal speed limit on your speedometer in very clear text. That's why our speedos clearly indicated the "55 mph" limit. We also made sure to limit speedometers to indicate no more than 85mph because there was no need to go faster than 85 under any circumstances.

    At least Spain is smart enough to see what the Carter administration showed the world in the 1970s. What took you so long to realize the US had already shown the world the way to a fuel efficient future.

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    Speed limits were reduced to 50 in some states and 55 in others under Nixon in 1973, directly related to US handwringing over our fuel crisis. Which in that case was caused by something real: OPEC nations decided that "free" markets denied them appropriate profit.

    Carter, having been elected in 1976, had nothing to do with it.

    HISTORY: 55 mph National Speed Limit
    As of November 20, 1973, several states had modified speed limits:[2]

    50 mph: Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington
    55 mph: North Carolina and Oregon
    California lowered some 70 mph limits to 65 mph.
    In late November 1973, Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe recommended adoption of a 55 mph statewide limit.[3] On December 4, the Texas Highway Commission, with a 3-0 vote, adopted this 55 mph speed limit, citing unsafe speed differentials between the flow of traffic and people driving too slowly to comply with President Nixon's and Governor Briscoe's requests for voluntary slowdowns. The legality of the measure was questioned, and two Texas legislators threatened to sue to block the limit.[4] However, by December 6, Texas Attorney General John Hill ruled that the speed reduction "'was in excess' of the commissioners' legal power," citing that a 1943 Texas Attorney General's opinion held that the legislature holds the power to set the statewide speed limit and the Commission's authority was limited to changing it in specific locales where safety factors required lower limits.[5]
    As an emergency response to the 1973 oil crisis, on November 26, 1973, President Richard Nixon proposed a national 50 mph speed limit for passenger vehicles and a 55 mph speed limit for trucks and buses. That, combined with a ban on ornamental lighting, no gasoline sales on Sunday, and a 15% cut in gasoline production, were proposed to reduce total gas consumption by 200,000 barrels a day, representing a 2.2% drop from annualized 1973 gasoline consumption levels.[6][7] Nixon partly based this on a belief that cars achieve maximum efficiency between 40 and 50 mph and that trucks and buses were most efficient at 55 mph.[8]

    The California Trucking Association, the then-largest trucking association in the United States, opposed differential speed limits on grounds that they are "not wise from a safety standpoint."[9]

    [edit] EnactmentThe Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act was a bill in the U.S. Congress that enacted the 55 mph National Maximum Speed Law.[10] States had to agree to the limit if they desired to receive federal funding for highway repair. The uniform speed limit was signed into law by President Nixon on January 2, 1974 and became effective 60 days later,[11] by requiring the limit as a condition of each state receiving highway funds, a use of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.[12]

    The legislation required 55 mph speed limits on all 4 lane divided highways unless the road had a lower limit before November 1, 1973. In some cases, like the New York Thruway, the 50 mph speed limit had to be raised to 55 mph to comply with the law. The law capped speed limits at 55 mph on all other roads.[11]

    A survey by the Associated Press found that, as of the Wednesday, January 2, 1974:[11]

    12 states already had maximum speed limits of 55 mph.
    9 states had maximum speed limits of 50 mph.
    29 states had to lower limits.
    This includes some states that voluntarily lowered their limits in advance of the federal requirement.
    (Wikipedia)

    Automakers complied with the 1979 NHSTA requirement of 55 MPH (marked) and maximum 85 MPH speedometers, but decided just two years later they did nothing to improve motorists safety (NHSTA's primary function)... and in fact saved less fuel than imagined. I'll never forget driving a new 1980 911 Turbo with one of those asinine things.

    We should always remember that spikes in fuels prices are artificially controlled by the commodity markets, and rarely from actual shortages caused by brief political turmoil. Otherwise, why would the fuel at the local depot delivered last month be subject to today's events?

    Gasoline prices in Europe are substantially higher than the US, but they get superior roadway infrastructure and mass transit in exchange.
    Last edited by csl177; 02-26-2011 at 08:29 PM.
    Never own more cars than you can keep charged batteries in...

  15. #15
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    Sorry, I forgot it was Nixon, not Carter. Of course the rest of my post was 100% factual

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