Is your car happy doing 20mph in top gear ?

[Greybeard]

- or does it want to be in third gear ?

 

The govt. are proposing to impose a 20mph limit on residential roads and main roads close to schools as part of a new road safety campaign.

 

Our little car protests quite obviously if driven in top at 20mph, but if everyone is going to have to drive around in third gear to comply with the new speed limits the vehicle CO2 emissions are surely going to increase substantially, - and fuel economy will suffer too.

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3941769.ece

[Paulmat]

I use 5th gear for pretty much everything about 20mph...

 

(Except when accelerating of course)

[Baz1]

Its absurd- who can even keep to that speed- and common sense should be enough, motorists generally slow down in residential areas/schools so why try to penalise them now?? It will probably cause more accidents as one car slows down abruptly it will have domino effect.

[medusa]

My car's automatic so I can choose to limit the gear upwards but not downwards (i.e. can limit to only using up to 3rd, but not to stay in top gear).

[Zomoniac]

If I go into 5th at anything below 35 my car has a fit. It generally works as:

 

1st 0-5, 2nd 5-20, 3rd 20-30, 4th 30-35/40. 5th 35/40+.

 

That's working on a flat. Increase all numbers for an incline.

[Little Buzz]

Fuel consumption won't suffer if you are in the correct gear. Petrol engines are most efficient at the point at which they generate maximum torque, I think. As a rule of thumb, if your car feels like it is struggling, you are in too high a gear. It'll be more fuel efficient in a lower one.

[Warden]

- or does it want to be in third gear ?

 

The govt. are proposing to impose a 20mph limit on residential roads and main roads close to schools as part of a new road safety campaign.

 

Our little car protests quite obviously if driven in top at 20mph, but if everyone is going to have to drive around in third gear to comply with the new speed limits the vehicle CO2 emissions are surely going to increase substantially, - and fuel economy will suffer too.

 

 

A price that would be worth paying if it saved a single child's life

[Mathom]

Depends on your car and how you drive it. If you don't drop into a lower gear when the car is struggling you're wasting more fuel anyway so the pollution angle is a red herring. Every VW I've driven has complained when driven slowly though, even in the right lower gear!

 

Will it make any difference if there are no cops or cameras to enforce it? Our road is already 30mph and is one of the most dangerous around being single track and on one of the steepest hills but that doesn't stop every other car going at well above the speed limit. I even saw two vans from 'Osbourne Plumbing' having a 50mph+ uphill race round a blind corner up here last week. Right where the local kids play out and past three road junctions. Bumwads.

[Heyesey]

A price that would be worth paying if it saved a single child's life

 

Er, no.

 

I don't know whether the OP's argument has merit - I'm very foggy on how cars work - but this idea that one life is worth any amount of money to save, is patently ludicrous. Particularly if we're talking about CO2 emissions that could cost untold millions of deaths in the long term.

[Guest]

Er, the emissions are to do with engine revs not what gear you're in.