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Speed Administration  I love to zoom! I've always loved to zoom. I meet a lot of new people (most of them in uniform) when I go zoom! But now, I am giving zooming a little more consideration. I'm not sure I can afford to zoom anymore.......
Lots of people drive Ford F150 pickup trucks, so I'll use the F150 as an example - not picking on Ford, just using the F150 as an example. According to the EPA, a standard 2-wheel drive V8 F150 can be expected to get 19 mpg on the Highway at 55 mph. The question is what happens when you drive faster?
Well, at 65 mph, the mileage is projected to drop to 17.1 mpg, at 75 mph to 15.39 mpg, and at 85 mph to 13.85 mpg. That's costing me a lot of money to go zoom, and we won't even think about the cost of citations, insurance costs, increased risks in the event of an accident or the liability costs if involved in an accident that in which I am judged to be guilty.
I was following a guy the other day that had his cruise set on 97 mph. I don't think he was getting very good mileage, and I don't think his employer (whose name was all over the vehicle) would have been very happy either.
So, does it make sense to slow down? According to EPA, your cost for driving our hypothetical F150 would be $11.63 per day for driving 50 miles at 65 mph. At 75 mph, the cost increases to $17.45 and that saves you a whopping 6 minutes in driving time!
If you could maintain lower, practical vehicle speeds, it could save you (and me) a lot of money ($1,047 per year for the preceding example based on fuel cost of $3.49 per gallon). If you could get speed under control for a cost of around two dollars a day, wouldn't that make sense? We think so!
Want to know more about the effects of speed on fuel consumption? Go to www.info4u.us/slowdown.pdf.
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