|
55 mph Speed Limit Resurfaces |
Posted: Monday, January 28, 2008
OLYMPIA, WA - Freeway drivers take note. An old idea for saving gas is resurfacing as a response to global warming. Environmentalists in Washington State and California are lobbying to bring back the 55 mile-per-hour highway speed limit. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.
History buffs will recall we once had a nationwide 55 mile per hour speed limit. President Richard Nixon pushed for it in response to a 1973 oil crisis. It lasted until 1995.
Rasmussen: “We did it for 21 years for an emergency. I think we’ll do it again.”
Leavenworth, Washington environmentalist Pat Rasmussen says reducing the speed limit from 70 to 55 would cut tailpipe emissions by about 15 percent. She now drives 55 voluntarily.
Rasmussen: “I stay in the far right lane and I save a lot of gas and it doesn’t take that much more time.
The Washington governor’s climate change advisors recently considered lowering the speed limit. But the state traffic engineer worried about creating a new safety problem because some drivers won’t slow down. And the idea was dropped.
On the web:
Comments on 55 mph speed limit submitted to WA State:
Drive 55 Conservation Project
Copyright 2008 KUOW
Listen |
|
| |