DRIVING’S UPS AND DOWNS

ALBANY, N.Y. -- As other cars zipped by at 70 mph or more, Mike Papin and his wife, Joann, kept rolling along just below the 65 mph limit as they made their way from their winter home in Florida to a summer place in Vermont.

They've typically done six or seven miles above the speed limit during the annual migration, but with gasoline prices roaring toward $4 a gallon nationally, Joann suggested they ease off the pedal during the 1,500-mile drive this year.

"I read somewhere that around 62 or 63 was the best speed to drive to make the most of your gas," she said.

Drivers have known for years that throttling back is a sure way to improve gasoline mileage, and the Papins are among those slowing down to save. Several airlines have adopted the same tactic, adding a few minutes to flights to save millions on fuel.

But most drivers still appear to be winking at speed limits, because their time is worth more than the gasoline they'd save by slowing down.

Kelley Goodman, a New York therapist, says gasoline prices haven't gone high enough.

"I know it could save some money and I really should. But I'm always running late," Goodman said as she pumped $3.80-a-gallon regular unleaded into her Honda Accord.

Las Vegas drivers don't seem to be slowing down.

"I can't speak for everyone, but it doesn't appear that anyone is slowing down in my experience," said Kevin Honea of the Nevada Highway Patrol.

Honea said troopers still see "ridiculous" speeding by drivers on the stretch of road from the California border to Las Vegas. He attributed that to newly paved roads and an extra lane in each direction.

Researchers say today's cars are most fuel efficient at speeds between 30 mph and 60 mph. Mileage drops sharply at speeds above 65 as engines work harder to overcome wind resistance that rises exponentially. If drivers were forced to slow down, the thirst for fuel could be reduced, which could ease prices.

Surveys show many drivers have changed their habits, but the changes tend to be ones that bring immediate gratification, such as using the Internet to find stations with the lowest prices and putting less gasoline in the tank instead of filling up, said Larry Compeau, of the Society for Consumer Psychology and an associate marketing professor at Clarkson University.

"If you buy a more fuel-efficient car or find cheaper gasoline, those things are right in front of you," Compeau said. "Whether you do 65 or 55 is much more nebulous. There's no way for you to immediately see the impact."

Throttling back to 60 mph from 70 mph could reduce gasoline usage between 2 percent and 3 percent, which is about what happened when the 55-mph limit was imposed in the 1970s, said David Greene, a researcher at the U.S. Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Lab.

"We're talking about a 2-to-3 percent reduction in demand, which would mean a much larger percentage reduction in price, maybe 10 percent."

Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., agreed that a 2-to-3 percent cut in demand might reduce prices. But he noted that previous price spikes were linked to refinery shortages, while this surge has been tied to crude oil prices.

"I don't think there's a particular downside to conservation, but that doesn't mean that if we cut back on our gas consumption, that the price of crude oil worldwide is going to drop."

President Nixon and Congress imposed a national speed limit of 55 mph in 1974 during the Middle East oil embargo against the United States. Gasoline prices quadrupled from about a quarter to more than a dollar in places, and long lines were common at gasoline stations.

Congress repealed the national speed limit law in 1995, and 32 states have limits of 70 mph or higher on some highways, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Texas already has an 80-mph limit on some roads, and Utah's legislature has voted to raise the limit to 80 on part of one interstate.

Despite the benefits, Congress has shown little appetite for a new national speed limit.

"We haven't been able to find anyone to champion it," said Clayton Boyce of the American Trucking Association, which is advocating a 65 mph national speed limit.

Some truckers are slowing down anyway as the average price of diesel heads toward $4.50 a gallon.

"I'm saving between $100 and $200 a week by cutting back from 72 to 73 miles per hour to 60 to 65 miles per hour," said Dennis Sheridan, who owns an 18-wheeler and hauls freight in the Northeast.

Sheridan is an owner-operator, paying for his own fuel and other expenses and getting paid for each load delivered. And so far, slowing down hasn't hindered his ability to make deliveries on time.

"If you're going from say, New York to California, you might lose an hour over the run," he said. "But on the East Coast, what are you going to lose, 10 minutes? You know as soon as you step on it you're going to hit traffic anyway."

Drivers who work for a trucking company have no incentive to slow down, because the companies cover fuel and other costs and pay drivers by the mile. The more they drive, the more they earn.

"I haven't slowed down at all. It's not worth it to me," said Earl Wood, a driver for Allen's Foods, a Seaford, Del.-based food production and distribution company.

But Boyce says many of the trade group's members have dialed back the maximum speed on their rigs.

Con-Way Freight of Ann Arbor, Mich., lowered the top governed speed of its 8,400 tractors to 62 mph from 65 mph.

That will save roughly 3.2 million gallons of diesel fuel annually, about $13.3 million worth at today's prices, while increasing the time it takes to move freight within the company's delivery regions by about 20 to 30 minutes, a spokesman said.

Review-Journal writer Francis McCabe contributed to this report.