Drinking Improves Highway Safety (Apparently)

By Jim Baxter, NMA President

A new federal study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (part of the US Dept. of Health and Human services) just confirmed that states with the highest levels of self-reported drinking and driving also have the safest highways.

The State of Wisconsin was the overall winner with more than 25 percent of its drivers reporting that in the previous year they had drank an alcoholic beverage before (or perhaps while) driving. This was more than twice the national rate!

Clearly, this is compelling evidence that action is needed, but not in Wisconsin.

The “facts” from this federally sponsored survey, when correlated with federally produced highway safety data, suggest that many more states should follow Wisconsin’s lead and increase their percentages of drinking drivers.

According to the most recently published federal data Wisconsin’s highway fatality rate (fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled) is significantly lower than the national average (1.22 vs. 1.41 in 2006).

The same widely published press release pointed out that Utah with its anti-alcohol Mormon population had the lowest percentage of self-confessed drinking drivers.

In the interest of full disclosure it should be pointed out that the highway fatality rate in Utah is lower than is Wisconsin’s, but not nearly as low as Minnesota’s, another drinking and driving haven. Could it be that those Lutherans that charm Garrison Keiler are just better drivers than the Mormons?

OK, enough satire.

This so-called survey is a glaring example of government propaganda, sloppy and lazy reporting, and misinformation on a grand scale.

Let’s try a little dose of reality:

First, over a year’s time the percentage of Wisconsin drivers that drink and drive, at least once, is nowhere near 25 percent. The real percentage has to be at least 50 percent and probably nearer 75 percent.

A drink with dinner, a wedding reception, holiday gatherings, church picnics, softball leagues, retirement functions, euchre tournaments, bowling, community festivals, and a myriad of other occasions may involve having a drink, or more, and driving home. And, contrary to the characterizations blathered in the mindless media revelations, these are not automatically episodes of “drunk driving.”

There is no doubt that the ethnic make-up of Wisconsin and its neighboring states encourages and condones the consumption of beverages containing alcohol. That’s one of the reasons Wisconsin residents “self report” drinking and driving at higher percentages than other states.

However, they are not immune to the neo-prohibitionist jihad and therefore they are not as candid as they might or could be. The under-reporting in other states is undoubtedly equal to or greater than that in Wisconsin.

Here’s what you can take away from this federal “survey” and its subsequent circulation: Most self-reported behavior is disingenuous. Drinking and driving are NOT synonymous with drunk driving. Moderate drinking and driving are not synonymous with high accident or fatality rates. And, all governments produce self-serving propaganda, and an unthinking press prints and circulates that propaganda. End of story.

5 Little Things You Can Do To Save Gas

By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist

Saving gas is really about saving money — so it’s not necessarily a smart move to sell whatever you’re driving now (even if it’s a big SUV) in order to buy a more “efficient” car.

You could lose a pile of money on your old vehicle — especially if it’s still pretty new and so still in the steepest part of its depreciation curve, which lasts from the day you drive it home from the dealer until it’s about five years old.

And if you’re spending thousands — maybe tens of thousands — on a new car, it doesn’t necessarily matter how good it is on gas. Money spent is money spent — on $4 per gallon fuel or a $25,000 “economical” car.

So, what can you do to ease the pinch a little? You might be surprised. And the good news is it probably won’t cost you anything — yet could save you a bunch.

1) Smooth And Steady Driving
What burns the most gas is getting your vehicle moving, not keeping it moving. So the longer you can maintain forward momentum without coming to a complete stop, the less fuel you will consume.

For example, try to anticipate red-green traffic lights cycles — and keep your vehicle moving just fast enough that you get to the next red just as it’s about to go green. Let it coast gradually, using its own momentum; then pick up speed again as traffic ahead begins to move forward. Try to accelerate — and decelerate — gradually and smoothly.

The main thing is to try to avoid having to come to a complete stop whenever it’s possible to do so while still maintaining decent speed and not being obnoxious to other drivers. In city-suburban traffic, this is very doable. It’s also kind of relaxing, actually. And not only will you save a surprising amount of gas, you’ll notice your brakes and tires last longer, too.

2) Taking Advantage Of The “Sweet Spot”
Your car’s sweet spot — the speed at which it is most fuel-efficient — is approximately 45-60 mph. This just happens to coincide with the speed limit on many secondary roads. By choosing a more roundabout route, you can enjoy the scenery as well as up your MPG. Traffic congestion has also reduced the average rush hour speeds on highways in and around major population hubs — making it feasible to drive more slowly than the fastest-moving traffic without being a pain in the neck to your fellow motorists. Just be sure to keep right — and yield to faster moving traffic.

3) Making Yourself Slippery
Not in the political sense; the aerodynamic one. The less your vehicle has to fight its way through a wall of air, the lower its fuel consumption will be. If you drive a pick-up truck, for example, you can swap out the tailgate for a mesh net that holds cargo just as effectively — but allows the air that would otherwise be pushing against the raised tailgate to slip right on by.

If you have a car, keep the windows rolled up — and use your air conditioner. It is more energy efficient than keeping the windows open at highway speeds — which creates drag, which forces your engine to burn more fuel than it otherwise would need to. Even with the AC on. And if you have a vehicle with roof racks that can be easily removed, consider removing them — especially if you rarely use them anyhow. The less clutter on your car’s exterior, the more efficient its shape will be - and the less fuel it will consume.

4) Getting Into Overdrive
Perhaps the single best improvement, efficiency-wise, of the past 25 years is the overdrive transmission. Simply put, in top gear, an overdrive transmission reduces the engine speed (RPMs) that would otherwise be necessary to maintain that speed. A modern car with an overdrive transmission can truck along at 65 mph with its engine barely turning over a fast idle (under 2,000 RPMs) while an otherwise similar car from the 1970s without an overdrive would have its engine spinning 800-1,000 RPMs faster at the same road speed — and burning up a lot more gas.

You can make the most of overdrive by using it as much as possible — without lugging the engine, of course. Most modern cars can be shifted into OD at around 40 mph on a level road — and have enough available power to maintain that speed without having to downshift. With a manual-equipped car you can do this for yourself, of course. But it’s also possible to encourage an automatic to shift up into OD at around 40-45 mph by simply easing back on the gas — at which point the transmission should slide into overdrive. (You can tell this has happened by watching your tachometer and noting the RPM drop.)

If you have an automatic-equipped car with a “sport” setting, only use it when you want to have fun. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting gas as the “sport” setting typically causes the transmission to hold gears longer before upshifting and may even lock out overdrive completely.

5) Add Some Air
By now you have probably heard about the importance of not driving on under-inflated tires. Fuel economy can drop by as much as 5-10 percent if you do. Well, another way to save even more gas is to inflate your tires to the maximum recommended pressure listed on the sidewall — which may be a couple of PSI higher than the “normal” pressure listed in your owner’s manual. This will decrease rolling resistance — so your car will get going (and stay going) more easily and with less fuel consumption. The same trick is used by some hybrid vehicles and other ultra-efficiency cars to wring out the best-possible mileage.

The downside is you’ll notice the ride quality may suffer — and your tires might not last as long as they used to. But if you can eke an extra couple of MPGs out of your car, the savings could make the trade-off worth it.

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www.ericpetersautos.com

Why Don’t Politicians Care About Transportation Issues?

By Jim Baxter, NMA President

In what has to be history’s longest political campaign, I have yet to hear anything meaningful about public policies that directly affect motorists.

Sure, there have been inane and uneducated comments stimulated by major events, like the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota. But there has been nothing of substance indicating that any of the candidates have spent a whiff of time developing a cogent, rational, and consistent set of transportation policies for the greatest system of personal mobility that the world has ever known.

Yes, the same criticism could be made for many other important subjects and government dominated functions. And, what politicians say during the campaign and what they do in office are often only vaguely connected or consistent.

Still, what bothers and confounds me is that something so important to the economic well-being and social fabric of our country doesn’t even merit a perfunctory or patronizing comment from the “stump?”

Consider that well over 200 million citizens drive, and many millions spend two, three or more hours each day traveling on public roads. Hundreds of billions of dollars in fees and taxes are collected every year from highway users, ostensibly to build and maintain our system of roads streets and highways.

Without this system of vehicles and roadways the United States would have the economy of a third world country. Literally, every single person is reliant, in some fashion, on this system that provides products, services, jobs, recreation, and security to all of us.

For starters I’d like to know where the candidates stand on converting our freeways, expressways and other major highways into toll roads. What is their take on mass transit systems? Should they be run as a public welfare program funded by highway user fees, as is currently the practice, or should they be operated like a transportation system, one that is supported by its users?

Do they have any proposals for replacing user fees from liquid fuels if there is a major shift to electrically powered vehicles? How do they feel about camera and surveillance based enforcement systems? And, do they see the funding of court systems with traffic ticket revenue as a conflict of interest?

There have been obtuse references to highway infrastructure and the need for more money (what else is new, government needs more money!) but little recognition that major chunks of state and federal highway user fees are regularly siphoned off to balance budgets, fund non-highway projects, or fund projects that diminish travel system capacity.

It’s probably too much to hope that subjects like speed traps, speed limits, breathalyzers, red light ticket cameras, and “professional courtesy” might at least rank up there with knocking down shots in small town taverns or bowling prowess.

But, one should be careful about what one wishes for, the campaign staff would probably go to AAA and MADD for advice on position papers. Wouldn’t that be a disaster!

Image Credit: fabrisalvetti

Is New Technology Creating Bad Drivers?

By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist

I got into writing about cars because I enjoy driving — which is why I sometimes find myself less and less interested in new cars.

As our roads have congealed into mobile parking lots where it doesn’t matter whether you’re driving a ‘78 Chevette or brand-new Corvette; as the automakers fall over each other in their frantic scramble to idiot-proof their products against an ever-less-competent driving public; as traffic laws become more and more over the top, the joy of new cars — even very powerful ones — wanes.

What, after all, is the point of owning a 500 horsepower Ford GT or Corvette Z06 in a world where using even half of that capability (if you can find a place to do so) risks a felony? (Driving faster than 80 mph in many states can subject you to immediate curbside arrest and a few days in the clink — if the judge doesn’t like your looks.)

And that’s just the law. Other forces are also hard at work to suck the joy out of the driving experience.

For example, most new performance cars have some kind of “dynamic” or “active” electronic controller that will only permit so much hooliganism. Spinning the tires is either not allowed at all — or severely limited — by the electronics. There indeed may be an “off” button, but these system sometimes don’t shut themselves all the way off.

The transistorized nanny is a suffocating omnipresence that makes driving even a very high-powered car far less engaging than driving a non-neutered car of far less potential capability. Having 100 percent control of a “50 percent car” is better, in my mind, than having 50 percent control of a 100 percent car.

The automakers are systematically working to take the driver out of the equation; it may not be deliberate — and is probably more due to the convergence of piranha lawyers on the one hand and mewling mobs of “safety” advocates on the other. Still, the end result is the same: New cars are increasingly defined by the presence of “perpetual training wheels” that not only presume incompetence — but arguably encourage more of it.

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