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I lived in Helena Montana during the mid nineties when the speed limit reverted back to "" reasonable and Prudent ""
My car during most of that period was a 1992 Mercedes 560SEL sedan.
On I-90 in the eastern part of the state you would see car traffic at an average speed of 85 to 100 MPH with some pushing that 20 to 30 MPH faster.
I enjoyed an average travel speed on I-90 of approx 90 MPH.
In that part of the state one can easily drive 100 MPH for two hours without running into anything but tumbleweeds.
The dangerous part of all of that was much slower truck traffic and cars being driven my some tourists and senior citizens.
The Montana Highway Patrol had public service announcements running numerous times throughout the day warning motorists to stay clear of the left hand lane other than to pass.
They actually stated in the commercial "" If you value your life you will not remain in the left hand lane. ""
That ad had a chilling affect on people who loved to bog down traffic by remaining in the left hand lane instead of moving over.
That's lower than during the days of the 55mph speed limit.
In my home state of Ohio, the best year for the 35-mph NMSL was 1,331 deaths (in 1943, with gas and rubber rationing too). The best year for the 55-mph was 1,585 deaths (forty years later in 1983). In 2011, Ohio had 1,016 traffic deaths.
In raw numbers it's not quite true for the U.S. overall (the low point, in 1943, was 22,727 traffic deaths). I imagine that's due to the faster growing populations, say west of the Mississippi since WW2.
The May 2013 estimate by NHTSA says "34,080 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2012. This represents an increase of about 5.3 percent as compared to the 32,367 fatalities that occurred
in 2011."
Yeah I looked at the source I used again and it wasn't including the full year of 2012. Sorry about that! But that's still irrelevant to the point I was trying to make. Thanks for the correction though.
Have you seen some of junk driving on American roads? Germany is really strict on car inspections and driver testing.
I seen a car trailer today with four miss matched car tires in different sizes being towed by truck that was junkyard refugee. Of course the lights were all busted off and the pigtail was nothing but a shredded bundle of wires dragging on the ground.
This.
This, coupled with 80 year-old grannies and teenagers who got their license yesterday, all sharing the road with eighteen wheelers.
We'll never have enough restrictions and enforcement to make high-speeds reasonably possible.
I agree with another poster that we already have autobahn-style roads to some degree, but anything approaching 100mph as the norm would be absurd considering our driving culture and tendency to buy autos not remotely worthy of going that fast.
That's lower than during the days of the 55mph speed limit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnought
Yeah I looked at the source I used again and it wasn't including the full year of 2012. Sorry about that! But that's still irrelevant to the point I was trying to make. Thanks for the correction though.
No problem! Facts should be solid and verifiable. It's interpretation of the facts that makes for debate.
Thats no where near your original statement.. theres not a car avaliable in the US that you can actually do a whole tankful/ 400+ miles at 90-100 mph and return mpg of the 40s. And the fuel and tune/spec of the TDIs certainly are not the same between the US and the Euros. The claim is absolutely ridiculous to bring up with no documentation of actual AVERAGE MPH. A guess of average MPH is about as accurate as a guess at MPG.
I understand, and I guess I was misunderstanding the original point. If it's point in time then no, it's not a 40 MPG cruising vehicle at 100 mph. I was looking at it as average MPG for typical driving...including access to and utilization of high speed driving. I didn't consider many differences in my driving in Germany as opposed to my driving in the US, surface streets had similar speed limits, and included stop lights...the Autobahn had speed limits in most spots too, simply a bit higher than the typical US ones...terrain wasn't much different with hills, valleys, but no real mountains in the part of Western Germany where I was.
Another note, our last roadtrip showed an average speed of 73 mph, and after fillup we averaged 49 mpg. Didn't stare at the average speed on the way back, but our MPG ended up being about 47 and included an awful lot of runaround in the smoky mountains. Fuel economy in South Eastern Tennessee was pretty awesome though, as long as I stayed off the main drag through town, my intown fuel economy was still around 40mpg average from start/stop which is significantly better than the 30 City / 40 Hwy EPA ratings they post on the diesels....Seems the EPA simply doesn't like oil burners.
As to tune differences, I'd like to see them. VW offers several TDI variants in europe, including multiple available tunes. From my understanding, the 140 hp, 2.0L TDI offered in europe is the same 2.0 140 hp TDI offered stateside...it is not the 170 hp TDI that is also offered, or the smaller TDI engines offered as well.
Have you seen some of junk driving on American roads? Germany is really strict on car inspections and driver testing.
I seen a car trailer today with four miss matched car tires in different sizes being towed by truck that was junkyard refugee. Of course the lights were all busted off and the pigtail was nothing but a shredded bundle of wires dragging on the ground.
Vehicle inspections, in my opinion, have dubious effectiveness, at least for newer vehicles. While the occasional tailpipe-dragging clunker catches my eye, I recognize it as a rarity among the hundreds of commuter vehicles I see daily. Certainly no indication that such vehicles account for many travel-miles (especially on interstates) or disproportionate crash frequency.
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