Why is California's speed limit set at 55?

Said no one ever.

 

There are lots of nice places to drive east of 35.

Tennessee is great.
Georgia is nice.
Had an easy time in FL overall.
Michigan, rough roads but driving was easy, even in Detroit. I was surprised.

North East sucks hands down.
Ohio is alright until you get into the cities.
Inner city Dallas sucks.
Minneapolis sucks.
Indianapolis in the city is just gut wrenching. I occassionally pick up from warehouses there and take the stuff to Chicago.

A lot of y'all probably is just another day doing all that stuff half asleep. But I'm still wet behind the ears.

 

In some mountainous parts of CA, a 55 MPH limit makes sense.

In the rest of the state, they are using 50 year old data to guide their decision.

50 years ago, most decent cars got about the same fuel mileage as modern trucks. My 1970 Ford F100 Custom got 7.5 MPG, for example. Muscle cars frequently got worse.

My current truck averages 7.1 MPG, all miles, and I haul a dedicated route where the vast majority of loads are over 40k.

Old trucks were incredibly inefficient. They were also rarely aerodynamic to any meaningful degree. That 4 MPG at 55 MPH in an old cab over truck rapidly went to much less than that as the speed of the truck increased.

Modern trucks are still not really aerodynamic, but they are MUCH better than older trucks.

Modern trucks that are configured for efficiency rather than power are also configured for running at 60-65 MPH. Running slower is less efficient, especially on long rolling hills.

CA lawmakers simply need to embrace sanity and allow 65 MPH speeds on non-mountain interstates and state highways. Especially on the ones that are not in urban areas.

However, asking CA lawmakers to embrace sanity is futile.

 

I was a local driver in California for 7 years. Yea, most stuff said on here can be true. Traffic, CARB compliant trucks, slow speed limit. But, it wasn’t all bad. I don’t regret it. Some of the most beautiful places in this country are in California and I got to experience it. Doing road work in Big Sur (coast highway 1), desert lands, and redwood forests. Gotta take the good with the bad. Plus I’m sure nobody on this forum wouldn’t scoff at those beautiful hay hauler rigs headed east.