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Even if slowing down will help, we don't want to

By Sue Carlton, Times columnist
In print: Wednesday, July 23, 2008

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If you have ever made the mistake of riding along in the left lane of a major highway at the posted speed limit and no more, you know one true fact about America.

You know it from the inevitable wild-eyed driver who jams up behind you a whisker from your back bumper, from his unkind statements concerning your parentage that you lip-read in your rearview, from his middle-finger salute.

That truth is this: We do not want to slow down. Slowing down is not the American Way.

In a related development, we do not want to be told how fast we are permitted to go, either. We are important and we need to be there now, and it does not matter whether "there" is a big job interview or just the 2 p.m. matinee.

In the face of this fact comes Republican Sen. John Warner's well-intentioned idea that Congress might want to consider a national speed limit to save gas and maybe even Band-Aid our pain at the pump.

Excuse me.

Limit?

Did someone say limit?

You'll recall we did this already, back in the 70s, when the speed limit was set at 55 mph nationwide because of the Arab oil embargo.

One study says the lowered speed saved 167,000 barrels of oil per day, or 2 percent of our country's highway fuel consumption. The senator says modern fuel savings could be far greater.

Oh, and then there were those thousands of lives that the lowered speed limit is credited with saving.

But no.

We will kick and scream and rebel, though it seems to me the only people with real complaining rights should be truckers and others whose very livelihoods depend on getting there fast.

We will dust off that creaky old rock anthem, I Can't Drive 55.

We will rail against government interference.

Except, wait.

Doesn't government already interfere? Are we free to fly at 90 down Interstate 75 anytime we like without the potential for flashing lights not far behind?

There are other arguments, including the very real possibility that motorists — and states — won't comply. Okay, so then drivers would risk fat speeding tickets at a time when they deliver a special economic pinch, and states would risk the penalty of highway construction funds shifted elsewhere.

Yes, more fuel-efficient cars are key to solving the bigger problem. Last week I climbed into a roomy Key West cab that turned out to be an energy-saving hybrid. An out-of-town friend showed up at my house in a hybrid rental he was offered at the Tampa airport at no extra charge.

Good signs.

And add this to the motivators for slowing down: www.fueleconomy.gov says you can assume each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying 30 cents more for every gallon of gas.

The question is, have we become such a bloated, because-I-want-it-that's-why, Rush Limbaugh-happy nation we won't consider these kinds of possibilities?

With tough times come sacrifice. Think of people serving in the military and families making do with less.

We are the self-same country — at least according to those high school history books — that endured food rationing and planted victory gardens.

We can't drive 55?