Petrol Prices Revisited!

technopersia

SHIPSHAPE wrote: »

Although one can be booked for driving too slowly on a motorway.

Yes, that is true some people will take the mick. I was trying to make a point on people being able to drive the economical 50 on the motorway either way.

grizzly1911

technopersia wrote: »

Yes, that is true some people will take the mick. I was trying to make a point on people being able to drive the economical 50 on the motorway either way.

In the first oil crisis the US quickly dropped the speed limit to 55mph to conserve fuel it has gone back up to 65.

The trouble with trying to maintain a slower speed on the Motorway is that you get squashed on Lane 1 by trucks and people won't let you out when you need to overtake them. Secondly you get "sucked" up to higher speeds when you enter the main flow.

I think allowing higher speeds through some traffic works when no work is going on, weekends and later evening would help more.

Pocket_the_lot

grizzly1911 wrote: »

In the first oil crisis the US quickly dropped the speed limit to 55mph to conserve fuel it has gone back up to 65.

The trouble with trying to maintain a slower speed on the Motorway is that you get squashed on Lane 1 by trucks and people won't let you out when you need to overtake them. Secondly you get "sucked" up to higher speeds when you enter the main flow.

I think allowing higher speeds through some traffic works when no work is going on, weekends and later evening would help more.

You have answered something I had in mind while reading through the posts but in a very concise manner.


Sometimes I like to stay in the left hand lane and let every one else speed by in the middle lane. It is like having the road to yourself.
Eventually though you catch up with the trucks and caravans which means it is necessary to up the speed to pass them by and eventually the middle lane hoggers are caught up and there may be a whole lot of cars travelling fast but bunched up because they are not observing the safe stopping distances for such speeds. So then it is necessary to get clear of them so its into the right overtaking lane to pass them. All of this means that you end up travelling much faster than intended. Eventually when the road looks clear ahead it is back into the left lane.

Pocket_the_lot

Last week I did a trip to Plymouth 120 miles away and decided to drive between 60 and 70 mph just to see how the mpg compares against the faster London trip. I have always regarded the motorway as a means to drive distances economically because of the steady rolling speed without the interruption of constantly starting and stopping.


The motorway trip to London gave an mpg of 47 which is the same as my daily commute to work of 10.5 miles (total). The trip to Plymouth gave 55.3 mpg but that included about an hours worth of gridlocked bumper to bumper across Plymouth the following day. It still cost me £31 instead of the £20 or so that it used to for the trip.

Pocket_the_lot

This link may go some way to explaining my observations as mentioned in post 25, http://www.civitas.org.uk/press/prco21.htm




Emissions Trading System shrinks economy but not Britain's carbon footprint




No money for low-carbon energy




After the carbon traders have taken their profits, the British government is expected to receive in the region of £5 billion annually from the sale of carbon credits. [p. 37] However, the Government has explicitly refused to channel any of these funds towards environmental ends and lowering the cost of low-carbon energy production, even in the face of being asked to by the EU. This means that consumers face higher prices but with little prospect of the economy adapting to be less reliant on fossil fuels.

mattyprice4004

Pocket_the_lot wrote: »

Quote:

However several weeks ago I did find out how driving at such a speed hit my pocket because even though my car has been fitted with a new starter motor, clutch,and flywheel recently resulting in about 20% efficiency in suburban driving conditions that jaunt to London on the M4 at 80mph and a bit more resulted in a 50% increase in the cost of the journey since the last time I made that trip several years ago.

Don't see how a new starter, clutch and flywheel will increase efficiency by 20%. In fact, I don't think they actually can.