55-mph speed limit notion resurfaces

<p>Pssst. Want to save money in the face of spiraling gasoline prices?</p><p>Slow down.</p><p>A national 55-mph speed limit helped America weather the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Gasoline consumption stopped growing the next year and remained nearly flat for the next decade.</p><p>Now, with gasoline at $4.50 a gallon in California and people forced to make sacrifices, some officials are suggesting a similar strategy. But only suggesting.</p><p>The California Energy Commission, for example, notes that vehicles lose roughly 1 percent in fuel economy for every mile per hour driven above 55 mph. A car that averages 30 mpg at 55 mph typically gets 25.5 mpg at 70 mph, the commission said.</p><p>Going slower is "an option for consumers" to reduce the sting at the fuel pump, said Suzanne Garfield, a commission spokeswoman.</p><p>But there's no hue and cry, in fact barely a whisper, about reviving the 55-mph limit.</p><p>"We live in a very fast-paced world," Garfield said. "We're usually in a hurry to get where we need to go."</p><p>Three years ago, the New York Times wrote about the 55-mph limit, recalling its impact on America's thirst for gasoline in the 1970s and '80s. "An unmentioned energy fix," the 2005 headline called it.</p><p>Tim Castleman, a Sacramento Web site developer and one-man band for the 55-mph limit, said he pitched the idea at Energy Commission and Air Resources Board hearings.</p><p>"They laughed out loud," he said.</p><p>He launched the Drive 55 Conservation Project online in 2001, hawking bumper stickers to promote a voluntary 55-mph limit.</p><p>"It's modern day alchemy," Castleman said. "Changing the lead in your right foot to gold in your pocket."</p><p>U.S. fuel consumption is falling slightly this year, but no mainstream politicians are calling for a slowdown in a culture that loves cars.</p><p>"It's curious that we haven't heard that solution bubble up," said Brian Sobel, a Petaluma political analyst.</p><p>The federal 55-mph limit may have helped 30 years ago, but Sobel said it was never popular and political pressure prompted its undoing in the late 1980s.</p><p>The CHP is neutral toward the idea of reviving the 55-mph limit. "We're comfortable that the speed limits now are adequate as far as traffic safety is concerned," CHP spokesman Tom Marshall said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer</p><p>Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com.</p>