Sammy Hagar famously professed an inability to maintain a driving speed of 55 miles per hour. According to Mr. Hagar,

When I drive that slow, you know it’s hard to steer
And I can’t get my car out of second gear
What used to take two hours now takes all day
Huh, it took me sixteen hours, get to L.A.

I think that Mr. Hagar’s difficulty relegating himself to a speed under a-mile-a-minute is rooted in math. Some years ago, I found myself mired in a daily commute of about 85 miles each way. Luckily, traffic wasn’t bad during my travel times and almost all of the driving was on the highway, so I found that I could make the trip in about 90 minutes or less. My old car came with a feature that allowed me to get various mileage-related readouts. I found that I got about 20 miles per gallon if I drove quickly but could get about 25 mpg if I drove under 60 miles an hour.  But when I bought a Smart Car, I decided that I’d do my best to get the best mileage possible.

My trip includes almost exactly 75 miles of highway driving. If I do that part of the drive at the never-ticketed speed of 74 mph, then the highway stretch takes just over an hour. Driving that part at 60 mph adds 15 minutes to the trip, but it saves a tremendous amount of gasoline. If you make that trip five days a week, as I do, then the increased miles-per-gallon quickly add up. Even tho my car is rated for 41 mpg on the highway, I’ve been able to average 46.1 mpg since I got the car (I’ve kept track of every tankful since Day 1). During the course of a year, and at about $4 per gallon, this means that I’m saving about $350 if I can drive 10% more efficiently and about $700 if I can drive 20% more efficiently.

In the three-plus years I’ve had the car, that means I’ve saved nearly $3,000 on gas. I’ve also spewed that many fewer gallons of gasoline into the environment. Yes, I can definitely drive 55. (Actually, I try to average about 53 miles per hour. It’s also a lot safer.)