I can drive 55: a proposal

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By Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

What is the most radical, craziest, looniest suggestion yet to deal with America’s gasoline crisis? Lower the national speed limit to 55 mph, an idea so subversive that the well-known socialist Richard Nixon imposed it on the U.S. in 1974, during the first oil shocks. The federal government’s power to regulate speed limits, before and after, the purview of the states, was rescinded in 1995. But it’s perfectly legal and plausible. So I say bring back the double nickels. I observe this because, recently, I drove a Saturn Astra with an instantaneous fuel economy readout. At 55 mph, the car achieved above 33 mpg. Above 75 mph it achieved around 23 mpg, a 29 percent reduction in fuel economy. Now, there are many considerations here: national productivity, the cost of transitioning to lower limits, the potential safety issues caused by a sudden rise is highway speed differentials -- between compliant drivers and the non-compliant.

However, the argument -- and it will certainly be mounted against any such movement for the 55 mph speed limit -- that is it somehow not effective in reducing fuel consumption, well, that’s flat wrong. It absolutely would be effective, as long as it is effectively enforced.

Other radical ideas:

Tire-inflation tickets. Police and DMV could be empowered to check cars and trucks for proper tire inflation and write citations if they at less-than-optimal pressure.

Junker laws: Mexico recently stipulated that no car older than 10 years could be imported into the country -- the idea being to prevent Mexico from becoming a depository for America’s crappy old cars. Well, why not here in the U.S.? Let’s work to effectively phase out less efficient older cars. And before anyone raises the spectre of big guvmint taking away our ‘freedoms,’ rest assured you will search the Constitution in vain for a passage that provides the unfettered freedom to drive whatever hunk of junk you want, heedless of the greater good. Also, don’t fail for the collector car canard. No one is saying you cant own a rare antique car; you simply can’t license for the street. Eat that, SEMA!

Scrap current fuel economy standards and start over with a carbon gram/mile standard, modeled after Europe’s. Carbon is a definitive indicator of efficiency since it it the result of combustion. Our current EPA/DOT regime is a failure. Re-write so that manufacturers, without obfuscation, achieve a fleetwide equivalent of under 150 g/km.

I’ll be awaiting the pitchfork wielding rabble at my office...

Photo by Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times