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$5.00 per gallon gas strategy

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SL350 said:
When I look overseas to countries that have always had higher cost gas, small cc bikes and scooters are the norm. The little Honda single has sold in the tens of millions. India has those 3 wheelers and bikes all over the place. Lots walk too.

It is not fun to point out that the speed limit in west Texas went up recently. Last time we talked about lowering the limit so that smaller cc bikes could keep up with traffic, it was not a popular solution with many who claimed their machines got better mpg the faster they went.

Until we slow down to save gas, we are not really serious. Nothing like 80+ mph on a Hemi truck to wring as little mpg as possible.
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No one holds a gun to peoples heads and makes them drive 80. You're still free to drive 55 if you want. You don't HAVE to keep up.
 
STman said:
Because it makes it so much harder to text :lol2:

Seriously though, we don't believe people really need to know how to drive in this country to have a license. Even angled parking seems challenging to some. There probably would temporarily be more accidents til people learned how to drive in them.
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Good luck with that, they put in a roundabout by my house in Garland and 2 years later people still hadn't figured it out. Everything from not yielding correctly to going the wrong way in it. American drivers education is such a bare minimum requirement it's foolish to expect much out of the drivers here.
 
After having pulled trailers through some of the undersized/poorly marked roundabouts in East Texas, the Europeans can keep them.
 
YoDoc said:
Part of the problem here is cultural/infrastructure. Nobody wants to live downtown. Everybody commutes crazy distances. Not many folks are willing to commute two hours on a honda cub if the have another option.
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Another cultural factor is time demands. If we all start using public transport, our bosses have to deal with us being late if the bus is late, or with us really needing to be out of the office at 5 sharp to get to the bus stop, etc. Our culture isn't built around that flexibility (yet).
 
Hood Ornament said:
No one holds a gun to peoples heads and makes them drive 80. You're still free to drive 55 if you want. You don't HAVE to keep up.
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SL350 said:
Disagree. You just can't be safe riding 30 mph slower than traffic.
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All of the 80 mph interstates are in west Texas somewhere. What is this "traffic" you talk about?
That's also why the 80 mph speed limit on these roads is almost inconsequential as far as national gas use is concerned. The thousands of cars stuck in I-35 stop-and-go gridlock in downtown Austin waste way more gas than the tens of cars going 80 mph on I-10 between Ft. Stockton and El Paso.
 
Back when the national 55 limit was on, if you got stopped in Montana for 75 or under on the major highways, you were issued a $5 fuel wasting award.
 
A lower mph max is one method of dealing with $5 gas. That is is not voluntary is that it becomes a safety issue. Does anyone remember 55 mph speed limits? Why did we do that?
 
Ben Eberle said:
All of the 80 mph interstates are in west Texas somewhere. What is this "traffic" you talk about?
That's also why the 80 mph speed limit on these roads is almost inconsequential as far as national gas use is concerned. The thousands of cars stuck in I-35 stop-and-go gridlock in downtown Austin waste way more gas than the tens of cars going 80 mph on I-10 between Ft. Stockton and El Paso.
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Try driving 55 on 183 in Dallas when the other three lanes are all doing 65-70. Over a million cars a day. You won't live long...
 
SL350 said:
A lower mph max is one method of dealing with $5 gas. That is is not voluntary is that it becomes a safety issue. Does anyone remember 55 mph speed limits? Why did we do that?
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Same reason "we" did Prohibition in the 20's. So politicians could pat themselves on the backs and show their constituents that they are doing something. Meaningless politics is meaningless politics.
 
Hood Ornament said:
Nope, after 20 years of living in that hole, I finally got out.
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I'm not sure how long ago you left, but traffic is awful now. There is a fatal accident it seems like every two weeks, if not more.
 
YoDoc said:
Try driving 55 on 183 in Dallas when the other three lanes are all doing 65-70. Over a million cars a day. You won't live long...
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I'm sure there's just tons of data to prove that theory :rofl: Well, aside from the fact that DFW area drivers are some of the worst in America.
 
YoDoc said:
I'm not sure how long ago you left, but traffic is awful now. There is a fatal accident it seems like every two weeks, if not more.
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Fatal accidents in DFW are some of the highest per capita in the country according to my defensive driving instructor from 10 years back. Nothing has changed there in 10 years, much less in the year I've been gone. :rofl:
 
SL350 said:
A lower mph max is one method of dealing with $5 gas. That is is not voluntary is that it becomes a safety issue. Does anyone remember 55 mph speed limits? Why did we do that?
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55mph cost the economy more than it saved us, it didn't actually reduce national consumption and it turned out to have negligible if any safety effects.

In other words, it didn't effing work. Yet another feel-good piece of stupid legislation.
 
SL350 said:
A lower mph max is one method of dealing with $5 gas. That is is not voluntary is that it becomes a safety issue. Does anyone remember 55 mph speed limits? Why did we do that?
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Yes.
Arab oil embargo: drive 55 to increase mpg's.
And I'm an old coot now!
 
Hood Ornament said:
You can disagree all you want, but the reality is, any hiway you can actually travel at 80 MPH is NOT going to have traffic.
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Define traffic. It only took one to rear end me on the way to the beach in Corpus a couple of years ago. He was doing 90 and I 65. Not much traffic but it still was not safe.

If it has not already happened to me I might agree with you.
 
YoDoc said:
Try driving 55 on 183 in Dallas when the other three lanes are all doing 65-70. Over a million cars a day. You won't live long...
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I'm throwing the BS flag: There are plenty of people that still drive 55 everywhere, even in West Texas where the sign says 80, and their safety is only at risk because they think the left lane is where they should be.

Back to topic: I tend to keep my Grand Cherokee around 65mph and I follow the advice of an older gentleman when I encounter hills or overpasses. I just hold the throttle in the same place and just let the vehicle slow down as you go up the hill; as you head back down then regain your pace. This netted me 24 mpgs with a small lift and slightly over size tires while cutting across Northern New Mexico.
 
JTM said:
Back to topic: I tend to keep my Grand Cherokee around 65mph and I follow the advice of an older gentleman when I encounter hills or overpasses. I just hold the throttle in the same place and just let the vehicle slow down as you go up the hill; as you head back down then regain your pace. This netted me 24 mpgs with a small lift and slightly over size tires while cutting across Northern New Mexico.
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The old carbs would go into enrichment mode if vacuum pressure dropped going up hill under throttle. That caused lower mpg. I don't know how fuel injection and computers handle it.

Back on topic - it looks like the Chevy Volt is dead. No demand.
 
I haven't been to West Texas much but I occasionally drive on I-40 and I-25 in NM where the speed is posted 75 mph. I see no reason to go that fast so I drive 65-70 and there is a lot of traffic that goes about my speed. In fact, if you really want to go 75, you find yourself weaving and lane switching a lot. You go 75 for a couple of miles and then there's another clump of 65 mph 18 wheelers that you have to brake for and weave around. I find it less stressful to just go 65 or so with them, besides, I'm only on I-40 for about 20 miles and then it's back to highway 84 with its 65 mph speed limit.
 
SL350 said:
The old carbs would go into enrichment mode if vacuum pressure dropped going up hill under throttle. That caused lower mpg. I don't know how fuel injection and computers handle it.
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EFI goes "open loop" when the absolute manifold pressure goes above a certain point, it amounts to the same thing.
The mixture needs to go rich at high power mostly because a rich mixture can take a higher compression ratio without detonating than a lean mixture can. At part throttle, detonation is less likely so the mixture can go lean for economy. This allows a somewhat higher compression ratio for better cruise economy.
The rotton egg smell you smell when a car is passing or climbing a hill is from unburned hydrogen in the exhaust combining with sulphur that collects in a catylitic converter to form H2S. This is because in "open loop" mode, the mixture is rich. When the car is cruising in "closed loop" mode, the EFI constantly moniters the oxygen sensor in the exhaust and corrects the fuel mixture for a stoichiometric mixture.

Many cars also have a feature called deceleration fuel cut off. If the throttle is completely closed and the engine rpm is several hundred rpm above idle, like when you coast downhill, the fuel is completely shut off. I don't think many bikes use this because it causes riders to complain about abruptness as you roll on the throttle in a corner. I think some early BMW K-bikes had it but riders didn't like it.
 
JTM said:
I'm throwing the BS flag: There are plenty of people that still drive 55 everywhere, even in West Texas where the sign says 80, and their safety is only at risk because they think the left lane is where they should be.
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Throw it all you want, you are still wrong. My wife and I both drive 183 twice a day, every day. Minimum speed (when you aren't stopped) is around 60. That puts you in the far right lane, which disappears and reappears with exits and merges and splits, and also puts you right in the way of people getting on the freeway who want to go 80 and not look where they are going. I don't know why you think that west texas traffic is the same as DFW or Houston traffic, but there is absolutely no comparison. 183 is disgusting. I'm talking 80 mph, one car length in front and behind, dangerous.

So, if you think you can drive at 55 on 183, when everybody else is doing bare minimum of 60, come on out, my friend. Don't ask me to come with you though. I'll be keeping up with the flow of traffic, at around 65-70. Rush hour sucks.
 
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