Drive at 50 instead of 70 mph

(Posted on behalf of Andy Schoenberg)

I submitted this letter to the editor this week:

We could do something immediately to reduce our gas consumption, improve air quality, reduce global warming, save money and lives. Let's drive at at 50 instead of 70 mph on our freeways. Department of Transportation studies show that such a speed reduction would increase average gas mileage by 20%. The reason is that the power needed to overcome air resistance increases as the cube of speed. If you cube the ratio of 70/50 you get 2.74 or a 274 % increase in power requirement. At $3.50 per gallon a 20% improvement of gas mileage will save you 70 cents per gallon. This is much better than the proposed savings by eliminating the federal tax on gas of 18 cents.

The proposed speed reduction will reduce stopping distance by half as well as the energy absorbed by your car and your body in a crash. This is due to the fact that kinetic energy is proportional to speed squared. A reduction in the 40,000 killed, 3 million injured, and more than $200 billion in car insurance per year would likely be another advantage. Contact your representative to propose such a change.

-Andy Schoenberg

Utah Vital Signs

For more information about UPEC's sustainability research project, Utah Vital Signs, see this site: http://www.utahpop.org/vitalsigns.