Thread by @homemadeguitars

Ramifications of slowing.
I write about slowing, as regular readers know. Just for fun, here's some of the outcomes one would see from slowing.
First, immediate reduction in energy throughput.
Speed is literally a form of energy. To "make" speed, we convert other forms of energy.

2. So, the less speed you make, the less energy you use.
With automobiles, moving vehicles, there is a second factor in air resistance. The resistance of air to moving vehicles is a big deal, and makes a big difference in the fuel cost of motion at varying speeds. Fast is worse.

3. So like, in my Subaru Forester, driving to Kansas City (about 40 miles of open highway) at 60 mph, I get 33.0 mph, but at 55 mph I get 34.2 mpg. By the car's calculations. About fifty miles one way, I reduced my CO2 by over 30 pounds, at 22 lbs/gallon. Not big, but... Real.

4. But, even when you're below whatever the cut-off speed is for efficiency significance, and disregarding that factor for a moment, the slower you go the less energy you use per hour or unit of time.
Let me follow that thought a little. We have learned to think of fuel in mpg.

5. Which is one measure.
But distance is a cost, that is, moving anything, yourself, your groceries, anything, over distance requires energy.
It would be not too big a stretch to say that if a person in a developed country is awake, that person is using fossil energy. Lights,

6. TV set, this phone is charged nightly with fossil energy. Driving or at home, we're consuming energy. The machine within which we live provides the energy, seamlessly, and we withdraw from the pool.
So, if we're driving, we're not home watching TV or cooking.
We live by hours.

7. It's not about miles per gallon, it's about pounds of CO2 per day. So, less energy per day is the objective.
So, back to speed and fuel. Say you've got a Ford Expedition that gets 12 mpg. Leave out the efficiency slope. If you go 60, that's 5 gallons an hour.

8. If you go 12 mph that 1 gallon per hour.
So at 60, that's 110 lbs CO2 per hour.
At 12 it's 22 lbs.
At 24 it's 44 lbs.
Per hour. And you're not home doing the wash.
Although the Internet of Things is increasingly about enabling us to expend energy in our physical absence.

9. If all the moving vehicles in the United States were slowed to the speed limit or below, by some magic force, it would make a measurable reduction in US emissions. Just slowing to the speed limit.
The onset of Covid showed us the way.

10. But let's say we did the Whole Enchilada, 5 mph / per year until the high speed machine ceases to exist. What would happen, and why?
First thing is, it would take a little longer to get anywhere. Close up places, Walmart ten miles away or whatever, we wouldn't notice at all.

11. For people commuting 50 or 60 miles it really wouldn't make a noticeable difference either, but maybe a couple minutes. Traffic lights are the Great Equalizer. If you get into town and hit a light or two, start averaging zero mph times into the overall number, five mph 🤷

12. For people driving all day it's noticeable. On the open road, five miles an hour slower means five miles you don't go that hour. Ten miles that two hours. Fifty miles that ten hours.
This isn't optional. I'm talking real numbers. So, truckers for instance, them too.

13. Services would be demanded at shorter intervals. By the time the national speed limit was 35 there'd have to be a cafe and probably an inn or hotel in every small town.
It would take significantly longer to go long distances by then, but there's been six years to get ready.

14. The reason things are so far apart is because we've got cars. It's not the other way around. People didn't get cars because it was ten miles to Walmart, they got cars coz they were cool and made noise and went fast.
Walmart came later, after everyone had cars and freeways.

15. Materials also move far, fast. Centralized manufacturing requires high speed. England dug the canals for the Industrial Revolution, but they were soon out-speeded by the railroad. Steam. Fire. Coal. The slower we go, the longer it will take material goods to move distances.

16. Our ability to provide raw materials as inputs to industry would also be reduced. Distances would appear greater, and there would be incentive to take care of needs closer.
It's not enough, not even close, we'd have to change a million things, or one thing. Our value system.

17. You'd get measurable reductions in emissions this year, though.
All the world's leading hotdogs all gathered together in Scotland can't offer you that.
So - whatever.