Essay 2

To conserve fuel and save lives the 55 miles per hour national speed limit should be restored. The reason I think it should be restored is because it would certainly save lives and it will most definitely save gas. However if the price of gas goes down then I think it would be still exceptional. The distribution of speeding tickets would also go down. I do think that since gas prices constantly go up people will not be happy to have to move so slow while paying a high amount for gas. Higher gas prices have forced some American drivers to trade in their SUV's for smaller, more fuel efficient cars. They are also forced to combine errands in an effort to drive less. Most drivers have ignored one easy way to conserve fuel, easing up on the gas pedal. The national 55 miles per hour speed limit was put in place after the 1973 Arab oil embargo was repealed by Congress. According to the Congress's Research Service, the speed limit reduced gas use by about 167,000 gallons a day. Over all gas demand remained flat in the first decade. More reasons why the national speeding limit should be restored is to save lives and lower speeding tickets. it would give police officers the time to catch any extreme perpetrators. Time consuming drives are key to speeding tickets. If more and more people followed the speeding limits every day then it would save time and the lives of many. Many fatal deaths are caused at high rates of speed. We know fuel consumption goes up pretty rapidly if you drive 75 miles per hour versus 55 miles per hour. The cars policy director, Tim Castleman, founder of the Drive 55 Conservation Project said "a driver would save only 10 minutes going 80 miles per hour instead of 55 miles per hour on a 30 mile trip in an average car but would spend $3.20 more for gas", but a national speed limit is likely to prove difficult. When it was in place the law was very unpopular in some areas with wide open highways. Rather than not agree with the law and risk