Eco-driving or Why Drive Above 55?

Submitted by MarkBarker on 2008-Aug-09, 11ยท47

I live in a village on the outer edge of a small city in New England. Usually it's easier for me to drive into the city on the nearby Interstate/motorway. As a ‘holier than thou’ Toyota Prius driver, recently I've been setting my cruise control to 55 mph (88 kph) on the highway. I remembered from the 1973 oil crisis that the most fuel efficient speed for a vehicle is supposed to be 55 mph. Graph: Fuel economy vs speed for 1997 vehicles

Unfortunately, this seems to really annoy quite a few other drivers, who pass me even where the speed limit is 55 mph. I haven't tested it, but the fastest passers seem to be the big pickup trucks, SUVs, and 18-wheelers (juggernauts). What amazes me is how inconsistent this behaviour is with the complaints about fuel prices.

Subset of a table of gasoline prices
Country/
Territory		 US$/L US$/USgal Local units Date of price Sources
Canada 1.3086 4.95 C$1.30864/L 2008-08-07 GasBuddy.com
United Kingdom 2.29 8.67 £1.16/L 2008-08-03 petrolprices.com
United States 1.012 3.83 $3.83/gal 2008-08-07 GasBuddy.com

One of the things I'd like to do is get a speed gun with a camera attached to capture the political bumper stickers and flag decals, and correlate that with their driving speed. Recently, social psychologist William Szlemko at Colorado State University studied the driving behaviour of drivers of ‘decorated’ vehicles. The content of the bumper stickers doesn't matter. The stickers mark one's ‘territory’, which Szlemko linked to aggressive driving behaviour. (Oops! That's me! I have bumper stickers and a ‘vanity plate’. That must mean that I am likely to be a ‘road rager’. Is my cruise-controlled speed one of the ways in which I manifest road rage?)

After some consideration (of other-driver anger and the graph of fuel economy vs. speed), I now set my cruise control to 60 mph (96 kph). It still saves petrol and might reduce the amount of rage engendered in other drivers.

Dewey Classes:

 
Dewey Nº Topic/Category
152.47 Anger
302.5 Relation of individual to society
363.1251 Road rage
388.3144 Speed limits
629.283 Driving

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