55

[junkman42]

The fuel consumed in both My Wifes duramax and My 02 zo6 vette are so close to actual consumption that it suprises Me just how good these modern systems work.  Lower speeds seem to have no effect on mileage  with the duramax.  The vette turns 28 MPG at 75 MPH with no effort.  Even a ocasional blast to 160 or so doesnt bring it to much less than 26 MPG.  No question that modern technology works.  I have always wondered why no one uses power recovery turbines like many of the recips I flew in the air force used.  I recently noticed that the latest DD has of all things a turbine in the exhaust geared back to the crank.  Technology used in WW2.  Sorry for the rambling.  John

[kingfa39]

dont see what the alaska pipe line has to do with the first oil shortage, i lived in Tampa during this time and we had oil tankers in the bay waiting for 2 wks to come in, they wouldnt allow it, as for the pipe line all the oil that came down the pipe line went to Japan, in short we were lied to again, the middle east says there is no shortage, now they say a price increase is built in because of there dealing with iran and what they might do, we were lied to before and probly are lied to again. 55 all that does is create more revinue for the states when they give out tickets, as for me i feel they might as well go ahead, they control more and more of our lives each day like we are a bunch of morons that cant do anything for ourelves. I spent 20 yrs workig on my bus so i  could use in retirement, now it sits as a ornament in the driveway.
Frank Allen

[Don Fairchild]

Ned;

If you can get if for next to nothing I would buy it. If the block and heads are good it will give you some spare parts including an up dated turbo. Plus all the ddec parts.Do you know what version it is.

You econoline would be a tire burner. You could build another little red wagon.

That would be cool.   Be a great bike hauler, maybe then Ron wouldn't mind the ride on a Honda so much either. lol

How are you and Wilma doing.

Don

[JohnEd]

Frank Allen,

All true!  Remember they also sold the 55 deal as a real safty move.  Everybody...insurance, gummint, think tanks and cops said that we would save a bunch of lives and property.  Well, they were all correct and once again we learned that speed kills.  Of course we could have elliminated ALL traffic deaths by not driving at all and nobody proposed that.  I guess there is a happy medium but mine is not 55, personally.  Do you or anyone else remember the insurance rates taking a dive because the industry "payout" dove with the reduced carnage?  Me neither.

John

[kingfa39]

John ed, only thing i seen taking a dive is my income leaving my pocket.
Frank Allen

[Sojourner]

Speed Doesn’t Kill
The Repeal of the 55-MPH Speed Limit
by Stephen Moore

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa346.pdf

FWIW

Sojourn for Christ, Jerry

[JohnEd]

Jerry,

Thanks for the CATO reference.  I sincerely appreciate your getting more info.  My eyes are pretty much shot for today but I did get through the exec sum and into the first graphs.  The ex sum says "by any measure the fatalities and deaths decreased after the repeal of the 55 limit in 95"(loose quote).  The charts/tables show fatalities going up and # of wrecks going up.....injuries going down.  I think the injury thing can be attributed to air bags making their entrance as standard equip on more cars.  It seems reasonable that increasing the limit would increase the number of accidents and it did.  At least according to the charts from the National agency that they quoted in their report.  Hope I didn't miss a great deal but as  said I ain't seeing that well right now.

About CATO:  It is reputed to be a "conservative agenda bull horn" that can generate the report you need on demand.  I deeply dispute that...as a conservative.  They seem to collect a wide assortment of felons and publically disgraced individuals and have their reports disputed often.  False speaking, missrepresenting facts and double speak are not conservative traits....those are "liberal" traits....by definition.  The conservative trait is truth, plain and simple.

Don't missunderstand, I sincerely thank you for the reference .  I think a better argument is that there are a certain number of deaths associated with increased speed.  There is also an associated reduction of manhours consumed per task that is interpreted as efficiency.  A civil engineer that built highways in Australia and California was a next door neighbor of mine.  He once told me that miss designed and under signed highways accounted for way more carnage than anyone was willing to admit.  He said that a sure fire killer was the "unequal" radius curve.  Most don't even understand what that is in terms of highway design.  I think that was Mac's pet peeve and he said they were all the result of some engineer not being willing to spend a few more buckets of fill or gouging out a few more yards of bank.  We can save more lives in ways that are popular with way more people and would probably put a lot of guys to work improving the nation but it would require tax dollars and liberals want to line their own pockets at the expense of everybody and anybody they can shaft with higher death rates and insurance costs.   Oh, well....don't get me started.

[Eagle]

I think we have beat this dog enough.  Lets get back to busses.

[JohnEd]

Eagle,

I agree..mostly.   The link of this thread to our "buses" is that it is about the asinine laws that some are trying to implement, lies that are being spread about it, safety conditions that are a poor excuse to ram more BS down our throats and how our tax dollars are spent .  I see a loose relationship here and I don't think any owes another any apology.  But as I said....I agree.   And, thanks for sharing.

John