Texas: Considering letting drivers crank it up to 85 mph

The Dark Side of a Higher Speed Limit

Texas is considering letting drivers crank it up to 85 mph on some rural stretches of highway, igniting a national debate.

By Josh Max

The Texas state legislature is considering a law that would let drivers crank it up to 85 mph in some rural stretches of highway. But if drivers care about how much money they are spending at the gas pump, they will stay in the right lane and below the limit.

Drivers can assume that each 5 MPH they drive above 60 MPH, according to the Governor's Highway Safety Association (GHSA), is like paying an additional 20 cents a gallon for gas. Additionally, aggressive highway behavior such as speeding, rapid acceleration and braking can lower gas mileage by a whopping 33% at highway speeds and 5% around town.

According to a GHSA survey of state highway safety agencies, Wisconsin, for example, has reported a noticeable level of slower vehicle speeds stemming from recent price hikes. Officials there say traffic volume is down slightly, but speeds are also down, which may account for fewer and less serious traffic crashes across the whole state.

Commercial vehicles are slowing slightly, State troopers report, with many traveling at or below the speed limit. That's not surprising because independent long-haul truckers are known for ruthlessly watching their costs, andtruck fleet managers do the same. A handful of other state officials noted the reduced speed of commercial vehicles, likely resulting from more trucking companies setting policies that require their drivers to stay below a set speed, such as 67 mph. Some companies' trucks are wired so that fleet managers know if the drivers have topped the speed.

In addition to helping fight the cost of record-high gas prices, slowing down also increases the likelihood of surviving a crash. "I try to remember to slow down," says Eduardo Rodriguez, a resident of upper Manhattan in New York City. "But today, it's always hurry, hurry, hurry everywhere you go. Everybody's gotta be there yesterday, and if you do the legal speed limit of 55 or 60 MPH, people tailgate you or beep their horn. You can't obey the law even if you want to without getting grief on the highway."

In a high-speed crash, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a passenger vehicle is subjected to forces so severe that the vehicle structure cannot withstand the impact of the crash and maintain survival space in the occupant compartment.

Further evidence comes from a recent study that showed even a small reduction in speed can have a big impact on lives saved. In the report, published in the Transportation Research Record, author Rune Elvik found that a 1 percent decrease in travel speed reduces injury crashes by about 2 percent, serious injury crashes by about 3 percent and fatal crashes by about 4 percent. These reductions are critically needed, traffic safety experts say, as speeding remains a serious highway safety problem. Nearly 13,500 people died in speed-related crashes in 2006.

Nationally, GHSA members report that they are not seeing much noticeable decrease in travel speeds by passenger vehicles. "However, given the extremely high gas prices and life-saving benefits of slowing down, we urge the public to ease off the accelerator," says GHSA Chairman Christopher J. Murphy says.

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VW Looks For its New Beetle

VW Looks For its New New Beetle To Push It To New Heights

A car based on the world's most loved "Bug" has its work cut out as VW strives for huge sales

By: David Kiley

It's not often that the unveiling of a single car by an automaker makes history. But then not every car has the history and legacy of the Volkswagen Beetle. On April 18, the German automaker will unveil an all new design of its Beetle, only the second time since the original Beetle first showed in Germany in the 1930s.

Though the last "New Beetle" design, which was unveiled in 1998, went out of production and dealer showrooms in 2009, the Beetle is the company's, and the brand's, most important product ever, at least in the U.S. The New Beetle arrived on the scene 19 years after VW dealers in the U.S. stopped selling the original, and did nothing short of of save the Volkswagen brand in the U.S.

How? The public was so excited about a comeback of the Beetle, perhaps the most loved vehicle of the twentieth century, they began taking an interest in Volkswagen again two years before the car hit showrooms. The publicity and attention drove people to VW showrooms to check out, and buy the models it did have on sale -- Jettas, Golfs andPassats.

Having recovered from its near-death experience in the 1990s from which the sensation around the New Beetle rescued Volkswagen, the new New Beetle design, which will go on sale in showrooms this Fall, does not have such heavy lifting to do. But make no mistake: Volkswagen is counting on a revival of interest in "Beetlemania"to help it meet its ambitious sales goals. VW, which sold 257,000 vehicles in 2010, has publicly stated its mission to reach 800,000 vehicles a year by 2018.

Back in the mid 1990s when the anticipation was building for the arrival of the New Beetle, Volkswagen was struggling with fewer than 100,000 sales a year, and just three model lines--Golf/GTI, Jetta and Passat. Today, VW has seven model lines, and the new "New Beetle" will make eight. "The New Beetle doesn't need to play quite the same role as it did a decade ago for VW, but it is going to be very important for sales and for our brand," said Volkswagen marketing chief Tim Ellis in an interview last year at the launch of the 2012 Jetta. Today, Jetta is the company's top selling model in the U.S.

The old "New Beetle" was on sale with very few upgrades or changes for a decade before ceasing production in 2009. And the last four years or so, sales slid as interest in the bulbous car waned. The other problem for Volkswagen was that the Beetle had been predominantly a woman's car; men having largely viewed the car as too feminine.

The new New Beetle seeks to attract more men, Ellis said. The design, while unmistakably a Beetle, is sleeker and a bit more muscular; less soft looking than its predecessor. Even tuners, the shops that accessorize cars with special wheels, spoilers and body kits have told VW they believe the new design has many more possibilities for attracting men, and their customers, than the previous model.

The importance of the Beetle has always gone beyond mere sales. Consider that in Volkswagen's climb from post-war Germany, the original Beetle served as the underpinnings of all the VW models--the Microbus van, the Karmann Ghia coupe, the Squareback station-wagon and "The Thing" SUV. It was one of the most versatile feats of engineering in automotive history.

The car also ushered in an entirely new era of advertising--all advertising, not just that done for cars. Volkswagen's ad agency from the late 1950s through the 1990s--Doyle, Dane Bernbach--advertised the Beetle and other models in the 1960s against all conventions of the time. Where GM and Ford were glamorizing cars in ads, DDB was self-deprecating in ads for the Beetle, or "Bug" as it came to be known. One famous ad ran a small picture of the Beetle, with the headline "Think Small." In another, it advertised the Beetle using an unthinkable (for the day) headline--"Lemon." That ad was meant to call attention to how ruthless VW engineers could be in rejecting seemingly good Beetles for having minor problems.

Today, quality is perhaps the biggest thing standing in VW's way of achieving its ambitious sales goal. VW has been losing ground in J.D.Power and Associates quality surveys the last two years while brands like Hyundai,Kia and Ford have been gaining.

Volkswagen of America CEO Jonathan Browning, who took over the reigns last Fall, says that improving quality and customer service is the most important piece of VW's plan. "We've got exciting products coming, but we also have work to do in this area and we are going to do it."

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