appropriate expressway speed?

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Your math is flawed about the 160/day because you can't possibly average 75 mph over an 8 hour day. You would have to drive much much faster than 75 part of the time to make up for slow downs for hills, traffic, rest stops, etc. If my goal is to drive about 58, then for the whole day I might average around 45 or so. If your goal is to drive 70, then you might average around 55. So in my 8 hours I would cover about 8 times 45 = 360 miles. You might cover 8 times 55= 440. So, I guess that would be a significant difference but to me, not worth the extra fuel and danger.

The point of my post was you said that "it's not your fastest speed that depends on how far you can go but your average speed for the day and the difference in the average between 70 or more and 58 or 60 is only going to be a few miles/hr. maybe 25 or so miles more in a day, not 160."

Then by your own math you say it's now an 80 mile difference not a 25 mile difference. Which by your own words you say is now significant.

So you went from 25 to 80 and from non-significant to significant.

That was the only point I was trying to make. Speed IS significant in a days travel and YOUR math proves it.

BTW, you're fudging your math; a LOT. You are correct that I can't average 75 MPH but you can't average 55 MPH either. You're way off on an only 80 mile difference. In all reality it's more like 130 to 140 miles / day.

Like I said, I live in a 55 MPH towing state and this is not my first rodeo. When I get to 70 to 75 MPH towing states it makes a huge difference in time on the road which in turn makes a huge difference in my vacation time and what I do and see.

It does use more fuel, but in my case it's like $15 bucks a day. A pittance really, when a person only gets a few weeks for vacation a year.

As far as danger. You might want to read this. It's a mathematical analysis of the speed kills arguments written by a person that does theoretical physics for a living.

In short, his conclusion basically says: the faster you drive, the less exposure you have on the road. IOW's the less time you're on the road the less chance you have of dying on the road.(Me) And contrarily, the more time you spend on the road the more chance you have of dying on the road.(You)

Although complex and debatable, I agree with the person that does physics for a living. :)