Speed Limits Vary State To State

Planning a summer road trip? Watch your speed because how fast you can go varies from state to state.

Thirty-six states have speed limits of 70 mph or above on some roads, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The highest in the nation is in Texas with an 85 mph limit on a 40-mile stretch of divided toll highway between Austin and San Antonio.

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey the highest posted sign is 65 mph.

“We believe that speed limits have to be set in a way that improves mobility, safety and respect for the law, so it’s really an individual thing about the location,” says Jenny Robinson, with AAA Mid Atlantic. “We urge states to use engineering studies [and] traffic studies to figure out what that safe best maximum speed limit should be for that particular roadway.”

Robinson says higher speeds present safety issues in terms of potential crashes and more gas is used when traveling more than 65 mph.

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Youth Driving Less and Less

It now appears that driving has become less popular as it has been on the decline these past years. Teens and twenty-somethings have begun to prefer walking or riding bikes, and the rush to obtain a Driver's License has faded. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the estimated miles driven on all U.S. roads has plunged 8.75 percent since June 2005.  It is not uncommon to drive less during recessions, since fewer people are working, and most are looking for ways to save money, but it seems with the new generation what has decreased the "drive" to drive may have to do more with online social interaction rather than the recession. It is more common now to interact with friends via social media outlets, and many of today's youth do not feel the need to physically travel to establish contact.

This new trend is contrary to the previous generations for whom driving was a birthright and the open road a symbol of freedom. That is no longer the case. As we continue to dive into the 21st century, and as online life continues to develop, social interaction will evolve with driving subtracted from the equation. Communications technology, which provides young people with new social-networking and recreational possibilities, has become a substitute for some car trips.

There has also been a startling drop-off in the car culture of American youth: "From 2001 to 2009, the average annual number of vehicle-miles traveled by young people (16 to 34-year-olds) decreased from 10,300 miles to 7,900 miles per capita—a drop of 23 percent,” reads a Frontier Group study published last April.

The same study also outlines other telling trends. From 2001 to 2009, 16- to 34-year-olds took 24 percent more bike trips and were 16 percent more likely to walk to their destinations. Meanwhile, from 2000 to 2010, the share of 14- to 34-year-olds without drivers’ licenses increased from 21 percent to 26 percent. Many young people now prefer to live where they can walk, bike, or take public transportation. Some are ditching cars for environmental reasons. Other contributing factors may include improved public transportation, as well as laws that make it more difficult to obtain a driver’s license.

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Zachary Quinto vs. Leonard Nimoy: "The Challenge" Audi Commercial

In preparation for the release of upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness, which opens in theaters on May 17th, Audi teamed up with the film franchise and produced a commercial featuring both the original Spock and the successor (Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto) in a battle of wits. This may be only entertaining to geeks like myself but surely everyone can appreciate the splendor of the Audi as Zachary Quinto so lavishly boards it as if it were the Enterprise itself! Well, I guess you would have to be a geek to identify with that as well huh...

Suffice it to say that the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, steals the show from the franchise's new Spock, Zachary Quinto. I particularly enjoyed the Bilbo Baggins chant he so candidly sang. Zachary Quinto has quite a task before him to fill such big shoes! So far he's doing grand :). 

After we are led to believe Leonard Nimoy to be the winner of the Challenge, the final scene of the commercial serves as enlightenment as Audi manages to amaze both these Vulcan's and we all realize that the winner was Audi all along. 

The video was ultimately clever and entertaining. I am excited to see how the movie pans out.

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Cost of owning a car is on the rise

Overall, the costs of car ownership have risen compared to last year, according to an annual study by AAA, which says it now costs 2% more to own a sedan than it did last year.

The costs vary a lot according to the type and size of vehicle, though. It costs about $7,000 a year to own a small car in the United States but about $11,600 to own a four-wheel-drive SUV, according to AAA.

The study factored in costs such as fuel, maintenance, insurance, tires and depreciation.

Maintenance costs have risen the most, according to AAA, going up 11.26% compared to last year. Maintenance costs almost 5 cents for every mile driven. Those costs have gone up because of increases in labor costs, replacement parts prices and extended warranty prices.

Insurance costs have gone up 2.76% for sedans, AAA said. The drivers' group based its annual estimate of $1,029 assuming that a driver has a clean record. Insurance companies in seven states showed small increases for sedans of all sizes.

Fuel costs rose only 1.93% compared to last year. While the price of gasoline rose 3.84%, that was partly offset by improvements in the fuel economy of new cars. The cost of tires was unchanged from last year.

Article from: http://money.cnn.com

Defensive Driving Texas

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Google Does Not Want You To Drive

Getting you to take your eyes off the road could be worth billions in new search revenue to Google.

Google has never said exactly how it will make money off the self-driving vehicles it has been developing. Will it manufacture cars? Try to become the operating system for our highways?

The patent, titled “User interface for displaying internal state of autonomous driving system,” covers the idea of a vehicle dashboard that uses lights to cue a driver when it’s safe to relinquish control of their vehicle to a computer.

The patent includes an extremely telling schematic (shown below) of a driver behind the wheel of a self-driving car. Because what will people do when the car is driving? Obviously, they’re going to play with their iPhones.

While Google has never said how it plans to commercialize automated vehicles, it’s clear that keeping people’s eyes on the Web instead of on the road could itself mean a substantial boost to the company’s revenues.

Baloney, you say. Well, getting people to use Google services instead of doing something else is already a key strategy of Google’s. That is one reason the company can afford to maintain its free Android operating system for smartphones. All those phones mean more people on the Internet, searching via Google, and clicking on ads.

So just how much could Google earn by making sure drivers are not distracted from the Internet?

Based on U.S. Census Data there are 250 million adults in the U.S., of which 119 million work. Of those, 76 percent drive to work alone spending about 25 minutes to get there. Round trip, call it an hour. Times 260 workdays per year. That comes to about 23,514,400,000 extra person-hours a year to play with phones out of about 1,460,000,000,000 hours American adults spend awake each year. Or about 1.6% more free time overall.

Given Google’s revenue of $46 billion a year (and assuming the rest of the world behaves like Americans) the calculation suggests that by freeing up commuters to surf the Internet driverless cars are worth an additional $736 million in search revenue to Google.

Oh, and let’s not forget the point of this patent: Google’s car will tell you when it’s safe to start searching.

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Driverless Technology from Google Inc.

     With breakthrough technology from Google Inc., you may soon be able to sit back, relax, and take a nap in the driver seat of a moving vehicle. With the collaboration of 15 engineers, Google has developed the driver-less car technology. Operating much like the cruise control mode installed in many cars today, the driver-less system allows human drivers to take control of the car if they wish to do so. Although, that is unnecessary, because the creation is organized by elaborate maps that include the details of speed limits down to the slight curvature of the lane lines in the roadway.

     Unfortunately, most law makers are finding it difficult to digest this new innovation. The laws seem to be inadequate in the sense that they were initially structured with the notion that humans would be operating the vehicles. However, Nevada seems to be in favor of the technology. According to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, they have promptly accommodated the new machinery by passing a law on June, 29 2011 that permits the operation of driver-less cars, and even issued the first license for a self-driven car.

     The self-driving car may perhaps cause a revolution in terms of driving. Concerns of designating a sober driver on a night out could easily vanish if a vehicle has the capability to reliably drive your group home without a worry of harm. It certainly raises questions for many folks in terms of receiving moving violations as well. How will we hold a vehicle at fault in the event of an accident? Much more, determine if the human or contraption was in control? Clearly there is much work to be done in order to iron out these trepidation's,  but it is surely an exciting prospect of future normality.

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How Empty Is Your Tank?

     When your fuel light comes on, it is usually an indication that your gas tank is empty and must be filled as soon as possible. However, the website Tank on Empty is giving drivers a much different view point on their low fuel light with the motto: “How far can you go after the gas light in your car comes on?”  

     The site is solely dedicated to collecting figures from its visitors and turning that information into an estimated measurement of how many miles a vehicle may have until it completely runs out of gas. Even though it might not be the brightest idea to run your gas tank until the last drop, we must be thankful for those who have done so for the sake of others awareness. 

     With over 3 million page views, the site has quickly developed a plausible rating with all recognized car models. For example, a Honda Civic can go an average of 44.12 miles after the fuel light comes on, according to the 255 voters for that specific model. Each car model is also represented by its own easy-to-read chart that depicts how many people have voted for each distance they have gone. So, if you’d like to know how far your car can go, head over to Tank on Empty and type your car's make and model in the search bar! 

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Comedy Driving Inc has 5 Houston Locations as well as our online defensive driving course!

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