Greg Folkert wrote:
First, my mileage doesn't go down until I consistently cross the 80 mph barrier. Second, on my 125 mile commute to work, one way, the time saved at 10-15 mph faster than 60 is considerable. It's the difference between spending 12+ hours a day away from the house, to spending between 11 and 11 1/2 hours away from the house. Over the course of a work week that's a lot of time saved.On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 10:16 -0800, Paul Johnson wrote:Ron Johnson wrote:On 03/01/07 19:25, Paul Johnson wrote:Steve Lamb wrote:Mitja Podreka wrote:[snip]Who's rich enough to afford to waste gas driving faster than 60 MPH, much less more on a regular basis? Fuel economy on most vehicles takes a massive nosedive after 60MPH due to wind drag.It's a time-money problem. People would rather spend the extra money to get there faster. Saving only 5 or 10 minutes on a 90 mile trip? Irrelevant.True, but it still doesn't work out rationally: Unless you make a lot of money or gas is unbelievably cheap, that few minutes saved will cost you more wage-hours than it's worth...Unless you lose you job being late and you don't want to leave any earlier. Its a choice.
Also, I have a buddy that lives in southern Oregon and it's a 560 mile drive to his house. It takes him more than 12 hours to make the drive. I make the drive in around 9 hours. That's a huge difference in how tired a person is by the time they finish the trip. Is the 1 or 2 mpg I lose by driving faster than he does worth it? You bet. I am still getting 35 mpg so how much can I be losing? I get about exactly the same mileage if I drive at 60 - 65 only I'm far less tired after driving for 9 hours than I am driving for 12 hours which means I am far more alert and thus a much safer driver.