I CAN Drive 55

I was listening to an interesting radio program about energy and oil during my weekly pilgrimage to Merrill. It’s a 186 mile round trip and with gas prices the way they are, this is becoming more expensive. The radio program was going into all of the issues around energy use and energy prices. Whether or not you believe in global warming or carbon footprints, you can’t disagree with the fact that overall oil demand is going to exceed overall supply very shortly.

Gas prices and food prices are linked and they are going up. Our current levels of oil use are simply not sustainable and at some point we have to sober up to this fact. Not just intellectually acknowledge it, but really take it to heart and start thinking of ways we can cut down. There are some serious world problems linked to oil and food prices. One of the ways to alleviate (not eliminate) the supply issue is, quite obviously, for everyone to use less; and one of the suggestions on the radio program was to slow down.

This seemed easy enough so I thought I’d give it a try. I normally drive 63 mph on the two-lane, and 70 mph on the four-lane. I have a four-door Pontiac with a 3.8 liter V6 and this combined driving normally nets me fuel economy right about 26 miles per gallon. Not too bad, really. For my experiment, I slowed down to 55 mph on the two-lane and 60 (yes, just 60) on the four-lane. All in all, this seemed like it would be a fairly easy experiment that I could perform over the course of two tanks of fuel.

So now I’m driving like an old-man and everyone is roaring by and giving me dirty looks. They're probably saying things about my upbringing to the person on the other end of their cell phone call. And the semis blast past me on the four-lanes and ride my butt on the two-lanes. Clearly, America is not used to driving slower.

But behold; my average fuel economy comes in at 31 mpg! That’s average mpg, with a mid-size, V6 powered car. That nets out to almost a 20% reduction in fuel usage. Just for going slower. Didn’t have to buy a new car or give anything up. If we could all cut 20% of our fuel usage, I think the national conversation might be a bit different than it is today.

I usually schedule phone calls for when I’m on the four-lane so the extra minutes of travel time don’t eat into my productivity. For this reason, I plan to continue driving this way even though my wife and kids are embarrassed. If you drive slow with me, my wife and kids might not be so embarrased so I urge you to join me.