If the speed limit is reduced to 55mph in the interest of saving gas what would be the pros/cons for this?

You would also see the accident rate decrease. Cons: people would have to work on patience, and plan their time more efficiently……

Jimmy Carter tried this idea. Lets just say it’s another reason he should rot in hell and leave it at that.

Modern autos are not designed to run at peak efficiency at 55 anyway. Car pooling is a much better idea.

Pros: better fuel mileage at 55 or less: Some vehicles will actually get less mileage at 55 than higher speeds: less accidents more or less. Better tire wear: Less wear on vehicles in general especially on cars with under powered four cylinder engines.
Cons: Takes longer to get where you are going. More accidents more or less because of road rage. Kids in car getting bored and whiny. Wife / husband complaining and nagging about it taking so long driving you nuts.

Pro would be better economy for old cars and con would be a loss in economy for modern cars. Con would be crowded highways, slower speed means everyone is on the highway longer, the gridlock would consume more fuel. Lower speed limit won’t help, most are efficient at 75.

Save gas yes depending at the rpm that your car is at at 55mph. And then there is the transportation industry.

Dropping the speed by 10 miles per hour means 10 minutes lost per hour(roughly)/(in states where the speed limit is not already posted at 55). 10 minutes times every hour of every day(for every truck)after the limit is set would cost everyone more. Not in the amount of laws and violations that would be broken but the cost of any and all goods moved at any point would go up.
The only way this would not affect the cost of goods is if the hours of service allowed to the drivers was increased by 2 hours. But increasing these hours will increase the risk of more and worse accidents.

Almost the entire interstate system has a minimum speed of 55 so you can go that speed. If it is possible take a secondary road if possible.

Note most large companies have already governed there trucks to be between 55 and 65 mph for insurance purposes. Having driven these trucks and from Michigan (where 80 is the general highway speed”not limit general speed”). The amount of blow by’s of trucks and people would lead to lots of accidents.

Here is a example that would put it in perspective. When the snow starts to fly and most people drop there speed 10 to 15 mph. The few that don’t in conjunction with the (multi tasking) general driver leads to a pile up.
The same deal would happen(for the most part) if some of the traffic was going the speed and most of the traffic wasn’t.

Goodluck

I actually have written on article on great ways to save gas. They are small things that everyone can do that add up!

http://www.ehow.com/how_4528551_save-gas-save-money.html

Pros (for the states) -
State & Towns can collect more revenue for speeding tickets
Insurance companies can charge more rates for traffic violations

Cons -
- Drivers will pay less attention and cause more accidents as they will distract themselves with make-up, BlackBerry and mobile phones because they feel they are going so slowly.
- Different cars have different RPMs so 55 mph in a 1.3L is not the same as a BMW 3L engine or different transmission types. Automatic vs. 6 speed manual.
- Get less bigger cars off the highway and you save gas – a BMW at 90 miles per hour burns less gas vs. a Hummer or huge pick-up at 55 mph. E.g. I drove a manual VW Passat 400 miles at 78 mph with avg mpg of 34 and an auto Hyundai Sonata from San Diego to Vegas at 85 mph with avg mpg of 32-33.
- Speed limit isn’t the biggest saver of gas on a highway – it is using cruise control. Too many drivers accelerate/deacclerate on the highway vs. find a speed and stay at it constantly.
- Burn more gas in stop and go traffic with all so the better alternative is build public transportation.
- It isn’t safer which is easily proven by comparing rate of death per vehicle in the US 55-75 vs. Germany or Italy mostly unlimited (autobahn or autostrate).
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Pros:
1. National fuel consumption would drop. It takes more fuel to propel a vehicle faster. Period. Anyone who says otherwise probably failed grade school science.
2. Wrecks would either decrease or be less serious. Fatalities would probably drop as well. Vehicles simply wouldn’t be hitting each other or hitting other objects as hard.
3. People would save money on fuel. Use less, spend less. Simple economics.
4. If consumption drops, fuel and oil prices may drop as well, but OPEC likes to keep oil no lower than $100 per barrel, so if it drops below that, they may reduce the supply to keep the price up.

Cons:
1. Enforcement is a nightmare. Last time we tried this, most people ignored it. There are simply not enough cops out there to keep everyone at 55.
2. Even with too few cops there will be a lot more speeding tickets written, causing a backlog for the court system.
3. Some people will obey, some won’t, resulting in a lot of vehicles going different speeds, which is a recipe for disaster. Tailgating, dangerous passing, all kinds of speed-differential wrecks, road rage. It will be chaos.
4. New speed limit signs will be needed on the highways. These things will cost millions to install.
5. More time spent driving. Theoretically, anywhere from 15-20 percent more time, depending on the current speed limits, which means that transit time for people, mail, freight, and anything else transported on the interstates where the speed limits are reduced to 55, will take longer to ship.