Suburbans (and full sized vans) in my experience get peak efficiency at around 55 mph. Above that, efficiency drops drastically (by my calculations, 10-15% per 10 mph), below that it begins to drop as well, although not as fast.

I drive 15 miles into town every day. I drive at 55 mph, only increasing speed if I am behind schedule. Other than that, I follow the normal rules of driving. No jack rabbit starts, keep engine maintained, etc., etc., etc.

I had stated:

There is absolutely nothing that says that diesel fuel has to see the same increases that gasoline does.

MasonM said:

Except for history . They never just add to gasoline, it's both gasoline and diesel. In fact the taxes on diesel are already higher than they are on gasoline and another 5 cents would add a great deal to the cost of operation. While it's true that those costs do eventually get passed to the consumer, there is a lag. And it's that lag that hurts the truckers and causes a good many to lose their trucks. Trucking is highly competitive and the margins aren't nearly as big as some people think they are, and operating at close to a loss for even a few months can put a small outfit out of business.

{Bubba mode} I feel the pain {/Bubba mode} of the truckers, or at least understand the pain that might be inflicted here, but I don't believe it's wise to keep putting off what I see as fairly immediate needs to address the transportation situation in this country.

MasonM also said:

I am still not convinced that these taxes even need to be raised and won't be until the billions in waste and the misplaced priorities are cut out or at least severely reduced.

Again, I agree with that, but there are different pools of money for different things, and as I stated in reply to your article about priorities, different people have different priorities.

I actually supported, and still support, the building of the new ballpark for the Washington Nationals even though I know that D.C. is just a few years removed from being broke (financially) so badly that they had to have someone brought in over them to manage their money and make them work within their budget.

The money spent on that stadium, the surrounding area and infrastructure, etc., will come back to them in the form of taxes on goods and services from the businesses that will flock to the area much the same  as those the flocked to the now reborn area around the former MCI, now Verizon Center, in D.C.  That area was a rotting rat-hole before that place was built, as was the area where the convention center has been built, etc.  The city has invested tens of millions, and now hundreds of millions of dollars in building these new structures, but it has seen that money coming back from the businesses that moved in and/or that stayed and made improvements of their own.

Like I said above in reply to Dr. Guy and others, there are other places to get money from, and there are perhaps areas like the ear-marks and set-asides that the pols have tucked into the roads and transportation bills, for making things like the infamous bridge to no-where, that should be addressed, but in the end all of those set-asides and pork-barrel projects make only a tiny portion of the spending needs we currently have, which admittedly are already woefully underfunded.

Where we should have been spending nearly a half-trillion dollars, we've spent more like a quarter-trillion.  Lots of money for sure, with 20-60 billion dollar in projects that are questionable, but what about the other $200 billion (give or take) in needs to keep up the roads we already have and/or to build the additional roads we need to handle all of the traffic that is riding on the existing roadways?

If we really fully funded all of the necessary road projects, even if we cut out every bit of pork, then we are going to be spending money that doesn't exist and oh, yeah, by the way, we'd be setting ourselves up for bigger money problems in the future when the repair bills and up-keep bills come due for all of the miles of roadways that would exist at that time.

Putting off things now may help the wallets for the short-term, but eventually we will have to do something about the problem.  (God, do I sound like the Clueless One here or what?!?  I really don't mean to, but I do see this as a pressing problem and one that needs attention now.)

I would suggest this Mason - get your pennies saved up now.  Eventually an increase will probably come.  Once one of the liberals gets swept into the Presidency compliments of a fairly incompentent and unexciting set of GOP candidates for the next election, things will likely change for the worse tax wise.  If it does, then I'll probably be somewhat tolerant of increases in the gasoline tax while screaming long and loud about any other taxes that are raised or allowed to go back to pre-W. levels.

Oh I have no doubt that taxes will increase. I also have no doubt that waste will also increase, and the net result will be more of the same old crap we've seen for decades.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

I should also point out that I don't even own a car, nor do I have to pay for the fuel for my truck, so I have no personal investment in fuel taxes directly. I am however a consumer just the same and know first-hand how transportation costs affect everything else.

I would even support a small fuel tax increase if I could be convinced that it would actually result in the improvements and repairs needed, but I am convinced of just the opposite. It will be more money out of the people's pockets with no benefit to them at all as long as funds continue to be wasted as they have been for decades.