The Fuel Crisis-Are We Taking Gas?
THE FUEL CRISIS-ARE WE TAKING GAS?
NE OF the biggest, if not the biggest, problems facing our sport today is the gas crisis. Some individuals in our society believe it is real. Others think it is a contrived maneuver designed to facilitate price increases. Someday we will undoubtedly know the truth, but that day is far off, as there is not now enough information available to draw an accurate conclusion.
So for the time being, we can only speculate on the situation as it is presented to us...that there is apparently a shortage of fuel, and the government is asking us to tighten our cumulative belt regarding consumption.
The following is an editorial by D. Randy Riggs concerning the motorcycle's involvement in the fuel crises, with a follow-up on page 41 of this issue. I wholeheartedly agree with his conclusions.—Bob Atkinson
I KAY. THEY tell us we are in the midst of an energy crisis. They tell us we have to cool off our homes this winter. They tell us we can no longer purchase gasoline on Sunday. They threaten us with a ban on Sunday driving. They threaten us with fuel rationing. Then they add the little tidbit about fuel costs rising considerably over the next few months, while at the same time, speed limits will be lowered on expressways around the nation to a rather absurd 50 mph. And wTe ask ourselves, why?
Good question. But most of us are in poor positions to do much about any of this, and whether or not the entire energy situation is contrived—planned and manufactured for the money interests in the world—or whether it is real, the effects are roughly the same. We will pay more for and get less of that precious gasoline, our freedom of mobility will dwindle and environmental atrocities such as the Alaska Pipeline will be whisked into completion. It is only too obvious who will suffer and who will gain when this is all over, and chances of changing this pattern are as slender as our fleeting hope.
As motorcyclists, we are placed in both a favorable and unfavorable position during the crisis. Recreationally speaking, racing and off-road activities are threatened, as are most non-essential sporting and leisure time activities (see feature story, p. 41). However, flip the coin and look at the favorable prospects for the street rider. If rationing comes into play, the average rider on the average street machine will be able to vacation on the fuel he doesn’t dump into his family car. But this is only if lawmakers don’t classify all motorcycles as recreational vehicles and shoot everything down the tubes.
Probably the thing that has bothered me most during all of this is the fact that not one politician has so much as mentioned or encouraged the use of motorcycles to conserve fuel. There are many people in this country who live in areas where weather conditions are quite favorable for motorcycle travel; many of these same people would find transportation by motorcycle not only economical and practical, but fun as well.
Just ponder this statistic for a moment. If 500,000 drivers switches from cars averaging about 15 miles per gallon to motorcycles averaging about 45 miles per gallon, rode the bikes an average of 21 miles per day, or about 600 miles per month, the fuel savings would roughly total 133,500,000 gallons per month. In a year’s time the savings would jump to an astronomical 1,602,000,000 gallons. Why, then, have we not heard word one from the politicians? If their energy saving interests were trj^fc sincere, Air Force One would not make trips to transplw pets, and economical (and rational) solutions to our problem, motorcycles for example, would at least be mentioned and discussed.
The mandatory 50 mph speed limit which has been proposed, and which will probably be in effect by the time you read this, raised questions in our mind as to the real savings of fuel such a law would create. The slowdown may, and probably will, increase low speed stop-and-go driving on major arteries and freeways, negating any savings obtained by the speed reduction. Studies performed by the Environmental Protection Agency back up this fact; stopand-go driving greatly increases fuel consumption and vehicle omissions.
Furthermore, studies and statistics have shown that generally, whenever speed limits are reduced, the percentage of accidents per mile increases. That is one of the main reasons why freeways and interstates have such excellent safety records. This is an area of critical importance because, with the new speed laws, truck and automobile traffic will be intermingled. I personally will miss the cushion 10 or 15 mph provides; so will many. Ah
Perhaps that is why talk of voluntary compliance vnth the President’s 50 mph suggestion has so far rung with all the enthusiasm of the laughtrack on an old Ozzie and Harriet rerun. Such enthusiasm will shrivel into non-existence if law enforcement agencies are not lenient in their enforcement. It is hoped that they can refrain from following the example of New Jersey state policemen, who responded with an unusual concentration of radar equipped patrol cars the day that state’s 50 mph law was passed.
In the end, our new speed laws will create numerous problems for drivers all over the country, and people will be more uptight than ever (witness the truck drivers’ present stand). If lawmakers continue on their present course and curtail many of our recreational and leisure time activities in the interest of the present situation, this country will be in for an upheaval of monstrous proportions. Problems are not solved by squelching people’s freedoms. Problems are also not solved by passing a rash of speed laws without considering their effect on traffic flow...an effect which will probably result in even more fuel being used due to increased congestion.
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