#784 X on Speed

Not long ago, I heard about a thing called an MPG rally, in which people competed to beat their cars EPA fuel ratings. The driver with the largest percentage increase over average mileage ratings was the winner.
In the course of learning about this, a fact emerged we probably all ought to be paying attention too. Slowing down saves gas. That’s right, if you’re almost out of gas, drive slowly to the gas station. Hurrying will burn up more.
The fact is, any increase in speed increases wind resistance, and any increase in wind resistance makes mileage go down.
It’s a pretty obvious proposition; breaking wind uses gas.
So obvious that even airlines are having their pilots fly slower. What they hey, passengers are already used to frustrating delays so why not save incredible amounts of money by slowing down.
I put it to the test last Sunday night when I drove to Seattle. I thought, I’ll go 60. 60, for all of you who apparently hadn’t bothered to read the signs on the freeway to Seattle, is the speed limit.
In the hundreds of cars I shared the freeway with, I was only able to pass one person, and thereby remove my sense of total road emasculation. A woman in a diesel rabbit.
She was going 55. Which, you may remember from the great 70s oil embargo, was the speed limit imposed by our government then to force everyone to save fuel.
A charming pre-hummer philosophy.
It was really hard staying at 60 when everyone was passing me going 75. Every now and then, when I was the only other person on the road for a stretch, someone coming up behind me would slow down, thinking I had a radar detector sensing a cop nearby.
But when another person would race past them, they’d speed up too and rush off. Figuring, I guess, that the imaginary cop could only stop one of them.
I felt like I needed a bumper sticker to explain my adherence to what, after all, was the posted speed limit.
Something like: Slow ain’t stupid, I’m saving 20%.
When gas hits five dollars a gallon saving that buck will make even more sense.
America, ya gotta love it.