60 mph is a good speed. I still can't drive 55.

Wow, is that the sound of fireworks already?

Sorry, it was just rightwing heads exploding.

Oh fuck! This nation is plagued with morons electing morons to office.

Not again!

Jesus.

If we are doomed to relive the seventies, can we at least bring back hot pants?

Me personally I like a big rig in front of Me and a big rig in back of Me. That way I can be sucked down the road and conserve fuel. Of course it's nuts but nobody ever accused Me of being in the right mind.

Larry

Warner is a tool.
Send him back to the private sector where he can do no harm.

Doing 55 on an interstate would drive me insane... 75+ or get the fuck over to the right.

Me personally I like a big rig in front of Me and a big rig in back of Me. That way I can be sucked down

Please tell me there's no video of this.....

Thumbs up of the hot pants!

"Please tell me there's no video of this....."

Posted by cookfish

There will be now.

Youporn is insatiable.

And it's ALL YOUR FAULT!

Cookie...I seem to recall there was an experiment done in the early '80s by some tech college that used a big rig to slowly get a bicyclist up to around 60mph or so by the cyclist staying in the vacuum created by the trailer. I think they cheated and towed him up to speed, but once he got in the pocket, the only pedaling he had to do was to stay slightly ahead of the turbulence. Anybody else remember that, or is all that acid I did in '60s catching up with me?

It's called Drafting Cookfish. Oh and Mythbusters did this one and they said they saved something like 40% on fuel economy by following a big rig at 10 feet. I never knew it was that much but does make sense because that is how close I like to follow the truckers when I am traveling alone. I don't do it when I have someone with Me. I get damned good gas milage. Which is a good thing.

Larry Mohr

Doing 55 on an interstate would drive me insane... 75+ or get the fuck over to the right.

Posted by Rob_The_A_Hole

Always nice to see willingness to help the nation solve its problems.

Are you guys ever willing to sacrifice anything (except other peoples' kids, of course) for the national good?

Just a question.

We have enough drivers with a lead foot here in California. 60 mph would be okay.

Let the states decide their own limit - even if the Feds mandate something it's still going to be enforced locally anyway with lots of local discretion....

A Republican. Say no more.

I have absolutely NO problems with speeders. They are there and gone before You can blink. It's those old geezer and geezerettes that drive 40 MPH in a 70 MPH that really chap My hide. It's like they don't give a shit if they get there or not. Like Well shit When I get there is when I'll get there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Larry Mohr

Once again instead of suggesting a solution to a problem one of our great politicians is offering a band aid and a used one at that. If driving 55 would have produced more oil we would have been self sufficient in oil supply by the end of Jimmy Carter's presidential disaster.

Drill now, off shore, on shore and even in the sacred ANWAR! Require that 80% of all electrical production be with nuclear plants. While these will not lower the price of gas quickly the result might surprise everyone.

dread......YES!!!!!!!!! and amen and HARUMPF.......
I DIDNT GET A HARUMPF OUT OF THAT GUY.....movie please??????

I have been saying that all along. it wont bring the price down even next week but if you also throw in an INTENSIVE alternate program like the manhatten project or the shot to the moon and it will also put the oil barons ON NOTICE that their days are coming to an end......NOT TOMORROW but soon.....

Driving 55 MPH would be no problem for me unless I was still riding my old Kawasaki 900 but to make it the national speed limit again wont work in the long desolated asphalt stretches of the West. There are places out here you can drive for miles and miles and never see another car or even a long abandoned homestead. You can bet the Highway Patrol will continue look the other way at anything under 80MPH on those roads national speed limit or not.

dread......YES!!!!!!!!! and amen and HARUMPF.......
I DIDNT GET A HARUMPF OUT OF THAT GUY.....movie please??????

I have been saying that all along. it wont bring the price down even next week but if you also throw in an INTENSIVE alternate program like the manhatten project or the shot to the moon and it will also put the oil barons ON NOTICE that their days are coming to an end......NOT TOMORROW but soon.....

Its easy to go 55 from DC to NYC. But give me a fucking break, Wyoming and Nevada are impossible. One rule does not fit all.

I cant imagine going only 55 from sanantonio to say.....el paso on I-10..........long stretches of nothing but rattle snakes and tumbleweeds......AND THATS LUBBOCK..........LOL

Our town today is chock block full of big ole pickups and big ole SUVs parked with their big ole boat trailers... and their big ole boats are roaring up and down the lake burning off all that ole $4-$6 gas.

Conserve ? Hell No ! We got a few good men laying down their lives for us and our Gawd giv'n rights to burn all the friggin ole gas we want.

YES!!!!!!!!! and amen and HARUMPF.......
I DIDNT GET A HARUMPF OUT OF THAT GUY.....movie please??????

Blazing Saddles. We don't need no stinking badges. Oh and the N-word. The movie is now banned.

And dont forget the Affairs of state.

Work work work, hello boys, have a nice rest, I miss you.

We have to protect our phony baloney jobs gentlemen.

YOU ARE CORRECT SIR..........

of course that was a pretty easy one.....

I like this one........HELLO BOYS.......when he puts his face in the HUGE chest of the good looking redhead.........WOOF.........

and their big ole boats are roaring up and down the lake burning off all that ole $4-$6 gas.

wifey was in a restaurant yesterday and heard the guy in the next booth bitching that he just put $800 worth of gas in his cabin cruiser. He should let it sit and sell it for $900 next month.

limits on speed are wrong...especially for those that have these cross country trips. Fatigue resulting from nothing new to see will lead to more accidents and loss of life. Not only that but we are a free country. Free not only to voice opinions but also freedom to drive within limits across our great land in a reasonable time. Let us keep our freedom!!~!!!

Warner is a complete MORON...

A national speed limit won't save gas, it will cause more to be used. Why? Simply because if you slow up the general traffic flow, you will cause more traffic jams and cars not moving are burning fuel while not going anywhere.

If this clown wants to save fuel, start with government.
How many vehicles do the federal, state and local governments own? How many of those are hybrid or electric?
Just looking at the USPS, they own over 212,000 vehicles. How many are hydrogen driven? TWO!!
Of the last 25,000 vehicles bought by the Post Office, only 500 were electric drive vehicles and none were hybrid. A large number were flex-fuel but that just means they can burn either gasoline, diesel or ethanol. Ethanol is more expensive than gasoline once you add in the federal farm subsidies to grow crops to produce ethanol. Plus, ethanol gets less MPG than gasoline so it is even more expensive yet than burning gasoline.
Do you know how much fuel the Post Office uses in a year?
In 2008 they used 122,418,612 gallons just for their owned vehicles. This doesn't count contracted vehicles and such which are used extensively for Rural Delivery.
If they were to switch to hybrid vehicles, they could save up to 2/3 of the fuel they currently use. That would be around 80 million gallons.
I know this because my brother is a mailman and he switched from a conventional car to a hybrid. Instead of getting less than 10 MPG he now gets as much as 40-50 MPG on his rural delivery route.
That is just ONE Federal Agency. While the military can't really switch to hybrids for combat, they can for non-combat vehicles and state-side transport. Then there is the Justice Department and all of the other Federal agencies.
Then there is State County and Local police patrol cars. They rack up many times as much fuel usage as the Post Office does since they patrol 24/7 and they are ideal for benefiting from hybrid vehicles since much of their patrolling is cruising at low speeds and most hybrids operate on electric power at speeds up to 25-35 MPH, which is top speed in municipal areas.
There will be arguments that they have a need to drive at high speed, but that is the exception rather than the rule. One or two conventionally fueled vehicles per district would be enough to deal with any high speed chases that may develop. After all, that is how they handle SWAT situations, with a limited number of specialty vehicles while the majority of their fleet consists of conventional vehicles.

After all, right now there are some cities that have actually begun patrolling using GOLF CARTS because they can't afford the fuel costs to put conventional vehicles on the streets.

Then there are Taxi cabs. How many thousands of those are there? If they were hybrids, how much fuel would that save since they are also on the streets 24/7.

So if the Federal Government mandated conversion to hybrid vehicles for its own fleet and recommended the same for state and local governments, reinstated the tax credits for those who purchase hybrid vehicles and did something to improve the synchronization of our traffic light system, we would save many times the amount of fuel that this hare brained scheme would save!

One obvious solution would be to not allow any vehicle that gets less than 25 mpg on the highways.

Back when we had the national 55 mph limit, Montana would only charge you $5 if you never went over their old speed limit. The $5 was for fuel waste. The old limit was 'reasonable and proper' in the day and 55 at night. That was a law I could live with unlike Wyoming who charged me $80 for going 65.

The feds shouldn't get into the speed limit business. I had a 96 Firebird WS6 that got 28 mpg at 80 mph, so screw them.

Typical Republican thinking: control the peons.

following a big rig at 10 feet.

Posted by LarryMohr

Larry, all your blubber is not going to save you when that rig has to make a move and the driver can't see you and doesn't know you are there. I drive a moving truck and I've hit people who do that because you simply cannot see them. Stay out of the "No Zone".

Hey You worry about the road ahead of You. I will worry about the piece of road ahead of Me. Deal??

Larry

So if the Federal Government mandated conversion to hybrid vehicles for its own fleet and recommended the same for state and local governments, reinstated the tax credits for those who purchase hybrid vehicles and did something to improve the synchronization of our traffic light system, we would save many times the amount of fuel that this hare brained scheme would save!

~Shy Guy

Pretty much THIS.

75+ or get the fuck over to the right

~RtA

Aaaaand THIS.

If we are doomed to relive the seventies, can we at least bring back hot pants?

~Silver Ironist

But especially this.

FF fer the Silvery Ironic One.

Seems to me that building roads straight would do more for safety, fuel use, and improve productivity. It would cost more to build roads this way but use less land and save more in the long run.

Bee Swell

Hey You worry about the road ahead of You. I will worry about the piece of road ahead of Me. Deal??

Posted by LarryMohr

We'll see if you feel this way when my tire pops your head like a ripe zit.

Gnarly Dude Like Totally Trippy.

Larry

"Let the states decide their own limit - even if the Feds mandate something it's still going to be enforced locally anyway with lots of local discretion...."

Actually, the Feds had that one all figured out last go-round. States' Federal highway funding was contingent on posting and enforcing the double nickel. Like all rules, it got flouted a lot, but the basic idea was pretty good.

For those of you debating whether or not the double nickel would actually save gas, the answer is yes, because that's the most efficient speed for most cars. But the 55 mph speed limit was only partially about saving gas, in case anyone's forgotten, or is too recently weaned to remember it. The double nickel was about reminding assholes that there was a real problem, and that their actions had a bearing on how long the problem continued and how bad it got.

For that reason alone, I cannot wait to see it reinstated.

BUSHLOVERTWO:
No matter what the speedlimit is, they have to get rid of the toll booth on the Lepetomane Thruway if you want to speed up traffic.

NJ--how many toll booths are on the Thruway?

We have a couple of toll roads here in So Cal.

They buy FastTrak passes for the dashboard and never have to stop.

They also installed booths at the on ramps to pay before you get on.

But there is only one "stop" set of booths on both sides of the freeway where folks who don't have the FastTrak will have to stop to pay the toll.

And this is for 18 miles of freeway--cost $4.25 the entire stretch.

WE are on our way back to Carter, withg him Blaming us, telling us to wear sweaters and Only able to get gas on Odd or Even days according to your license plate. Warner is a freaking idiot, Does he pay for gas or does he use a governement credit card in his Taxpayer leased car. WHY DON"T THEY DO WHAT WE ASK THEM.. No one is elected them to make things harder. We only ask two things.
1. Make those professors in college start actually researching and developing alternative energies, instead of teaching then Columbus was a mass murderer, Bush is Hitler and 9/11 was an inside Job, Give energy companies some incentive to create alternate energy cars on a mass scale, Build some safe Nuclear Plants and Tell Kennedy we are putting some windmills in his back yard and if he don't like..Two Words .."Imminent Domain"
2. F***ing Drill, until they do it.

There is nothing wrong with conservation--which is what lowering your speed would be.

Good info from Shyguy on the gov't own vehicles.

There could practice what they preach and set the example.

MURPHY:
Just one, ten cents. And someone's gonna have to go back and get a shit-load of dimes!
It was a Blazing Saddles reference as per BUSHLOVERTWO.
But we do have our share of toll roads in NJ. Fortunately, I don't have to travel them on a regular basis so I don't know how much it costs to travel the length of the Garden State Parkway, NJ Turnpike or Atlantic City Expressway. And we don't have FastTrak, we have EZPass. I don't have one in my car, but if I traveled those roads everyday, I would get one for sure.

"Make those professors in college start actually researching and developing alternative energies, instead of teaching then Columbus was a mass murderer, Bush is Hitler and 9/11 was an inside Job, Give energy companies some incentive to create alternate energy cars on a mass scale, Build some safe Nuclear Plants and Tell Kennedy we are putting some windmills in his back yard and if he don't like..Two Words .."Imminent Domain" "

It's "Eminent Domain", not "Imminent", but I'll let that pass, because for once, Hillbilly, you're on to something. Our gummint has behaved about as stupidly as possible when it comes to energy policy. Bush and his Congress passed a namby-pamby, monor upgrade to CAFE standards, when what is needed is entirely new automotive tech. Two manufacturers - BMW and Honda - actually have hydrogen cars right now, but do you thing DubyaCo has given Amurrkin carmakers any incentive to produce anything like that? Fuck, no- GM's allowed to beat its fast-disappearing corporate chest about the Chevy Volt, a kludge if ever there was one, overly complex and underly efficient for what it costs and what it does. And it still uses gasoline, which is probably why it's being allowed to move forward instead of being killed off like the EV-1 was.

If U.S. automakers were told "get with hydrogen and get tax incentives - stick with gas and we'll let you die," we'd see some damn motion in a fucking hurry. It would be the salvation of the American auto industry - people would be very interested in being entirely freed from OPEC's grip, and would buy cars that could accomplish that goal, boosting automakers' sales. And it would help more than anyone could presently imagine when it comes to dealing with the Middle East. America would be morally apart from the fray, instead of funding it on a wholesale basis, and hostage to supply disruptions.

But nooooooo - we done got us a Prez-dent in thuh ohl bidness. Yee-fuckin'-hah.

There is nothing wrong with conservation

Watch it, Murph, you're straying off the reservation.

Disagreeing with Rush can lead to thinking for oneself.

And I think we all know how painful that can be.

Unbeleiveable..Blame Bush?, This has been going on Since 1973, when the Mooselams, who hate us now as much as then, embargoed us,

The DEMS owned congress from 1954 to 1994, so How is this Bush's Fault. I voted for Idiots and I take my share of the blame. I haven't voted for a democrat since 1988 however, when ever i think I want to I just say to muself 'Pershing II" and I come to my senses. Not only have your beloved Dems not done anything about it since 1976, But now environmentalists nuts are running the show..And F*** you, if you think after working my ass off for 25 years, I am going to live in a mud hut and say "Okay, you win, I will ride my bike to work and turn my AC to 80 when it is 98 degrees outside"..GO GET OUR OIL, and make all those politicians, Buy there own car and pump their own gas so they know what the F we are talking about

MTW's entire 1:31 post was memeworthy stuff.

Spud especially liked...

the Chevy Volt, a kludge if ever there was one

"Unbeleiveable..Blame Bush?, This has been going on Since 1973, when the Mooselams, who hate us now as much as then, embargoed us,

The DEMS owned congress from 1954 to 1994, so How is this Bush's Fault. I voted for Idiots and I take my share of the blame."

Hillbilly:

I remind you that gas was under $2 a gallon when the Dems owned Congress, '73 oil embargo or no. After eight years of DubyaCo, it's now just over $4, and headed higher. If the Dems were so fucking wrong, then Dubya has had eight - count 'em - eight years to straighten this nation's collective ass out. Can you genuinely say he's done anything constructive in that regard? You cannot.

We have a second energy crisis fuelled not by an embargo, but by rampant speculation and the geopolitical turmoil fostered by Mr. Mission Accomplished hisself. Unchecked speculation and deceptive mortgage sales practices have tanked our housing market. The Constitution of these United States has been described by a sitting President - in front of witnesses - as "a God-damned piece of paper," and the actions of that President have more than convinced a lot of this country that that's what he truly believes. FEMA couldn't get to New Orleans and distribute rations, ice, water and insulin when every TV network in the world could figure out how to get in camera crews. Our prestige abroad is in tatters, shredded by a host of factors from bad policy to unwanted neck rubs to Presidential speeches that would be funny if they weren't so offensive (the recent one in the Philippines was a gem, yeah, uh-huh). Our dollar has lost huge chunks of its value.

The fact is, HillbillyJihad, that this administration is a disaster. Whether or not you like Bush, hate Bush, or are neutral about Bush, you cannot deny that this country has gone to hell in a handbasket compared to the shape it was in when Chimpy took office.

You say Dems are evil. I say bring on the Dems, because nothing like this administration ever, ever happened on their watch.

Driving 55 sounds good on paper and makes a good political speech if your trying to get votes from senior citizens but the reality is no one drives 55 it is un-enforceable always was and always will be. What will happen is law abiding citizens will all the sudden be charged with new speeding violations which puts more money into the local governments pocket and also creates more cash flow for the car insurance industrySenator Warner rides in a chauffeur driven limo and Im sure he is not concerned to much with the price of gas because he can afford gas no matter what the price...as most politicians can.the drive 55 measure will not counter the price of gas because it is based on the price of a barrel of oil not the speed limit...also there is not a shortage of gas because not one gas station in the USA right now that is out ..There are no lines at the pump...so driving 55 should be a personal choice not one prompted by the rich and famous...and pompousdont be fooled by political promises this close to election time..anything the government would do to try and help gas prices would fail ...Even the new political slogan to drill for more oil in Alaska and many off shore places in the USA right now would not change the price of gas one penny >>>"WHY" well for one thing once we let the oil companies invest their money into drilling lots of new wells on our pristine park lands means they are not interested in helping farmer John fill up his suv truck with $2 a gallon gas..That is not profitable what is profitable is selling the said oil which is now a global commodity to Asian markets for $143 a barrel..Thats right the newly drilled oil would just become another source of income for mega oil companies and their shareholders (Only a small percentage maybe like 3 0r 4% of Alaskan oil is used in the US it is sold to Asian markets)Now even if we built 5 or 6 more new refineries (which were not at the moment) it wouldnt change a thing because they would only be refining gas from oil at the current price of $143 barrel..Many toes would have to be stepped on to change the current system to make the oil more affordable to the American public"not going to happen oil companies own many politicians and they are not going to mess with the feeding trough...we cant live in a capitalistic society and then all the sudden take over all the oil in the USA and sell it only to USA companies to be used in the USA...nope just a pipe dream....so you see all the speeches in the world from all the new candidates are just empty promises of great things to come when you elect them nothing will change and if it did it will be very slow in the mean time keep your wallet open cause gas prices are not coming down only going up ...so vote for your favorite candidate but ask them the right questions dont believe lies and bull shit that I am seeing and hearing on the tv news...every time I hear them talk about drilling new oil wells makes me want to puke what a pretentious lie they are telling us...Also I think hybrid cars are a good start to help on the issue of gas efficiency but not gas prices and why make cars that will do 80 mph to 125 mph then say hey you can only drive 55 come on lets get real here
But thank you for letting me rant on your blog free speech is still alive and well in the USA.

"why make cars that will do 80 mph to 125 mph then say hey you can only drive 55 come on lets get real here"

That's like saying that since most men are physically equipped to commit rape, we should let them do as they jolly well please.

You know, you're even less well-equipped to join in the debate on this site than most people, which is saying rather a lot.

But there is only one "stop" set of booths on both sides of the freeway where folks who don't have the FastTrak will have to stop to pay the toll.

And this is for 18 miles of freeway--cost $4.25 the entire stretch.

Posted by MURPHY

And we shouldn't have to pay the fuel tax on toll roads because they are built and maintained with private money.