Slow down, you drive too fast – got to make the oil last

Just for grins, let’s talk about lowering the speed limit on our interstate highways – say, to 65 mph on roads where it’s now 75 mph, and where most people drive 80 mph.

Go ahead, roll your eyes.


We’ve done this before, and I’ll admit it that it wasn’t much fun. That was in 1974, in response to the embargo of oil from the Middle East. We adopted the double-nickel limit of 55 mph. I got a rash of speeding tickets, two of them going 67 mph, and lost my driver’s license. I’m sure that my hair, which was back then down to my shoulders, did nothing to help my cause.

As oil prices dropped, we got back to 65 mph, and, in the mid-1990s, when discretion was given to the states, to 75 mph on rural interstates in most parts of the West. Oil was cheap, and time was valuable, or so went the logic of the time.

Now, we’re fast advancing toward our fifth year in a war that arguably is mostly about ensuring the orderly flow of oil from the Middle East, and we’re still roaring down the highway as if nothing has happened.

Salt Lake Tribune