can't drive 55?

the days of the nationwide speed limit may be returning, if one Senator's proposal goes through.

it isn't such a bad idea, really.

i haven't gone over 55 mph since my last visit to the airport.

a more straightforward approach to reducing fuel consumption, though, would be to stop whining about high prices and just accept them as being permanent. this will continue to push people into more efficient vehicles, independent of what the gov't wants.

the only thing the gov't should do is make the mpg ratings on cars meaningful. the current ones are rubbish.

doing it right would be simple:

when a car is new model, use an estimate for the first year

after the first year, the only data used is the actual data measured by the onboard devices that every car has. the dealer would record the mileage data and pass it to an independent organization, which would publish real life average fuel consumption

and viola - people can have real data based on reality instead of wildly inaccurate guesses based on silly models. and cello - there would be rejoicing.