I remember reading in the Wall Street Journal that better tires
accounted for more than half of it.

Tires are but one area that have vastly improved since the 1960s.

Cars in general are SO much better now. I remember my Dad trading his
Pontiacs at 50,000 miles, because they were about run out. People who
got 100,000 miles were in the local paper.

Now, I've got over 100K miles on 2 out of our 4 vehicles -- and I
barely drive the other two, so they'll likely last forever.

Driver's education is another area that is radically improved. In the
1960s, the majority of drivers had received NO instruction at all. My
son just went through it and received his license two weeks ago, and it
was WORK to earn that piece of paper, for both he and us.

Drunk driving laws -- something that barely existed until the '80s --
are now strictly enforced. This reduces fatalities dramatically.

There are some downsides, however. Traffic engineers have gone off the
deep end to ensure safety, often (IMHO) at the expense of common sense
and efficiency. In my neck of the woods, for example, traffic is
deliberately engineered to stop often, so that people can't drive too
fast. Worse, NO ONE is allowed to turn left at stop lights anymore,
without a specific, dedicated green arrow. We are no longer trusted to
determine whether it's safe to turn or not, regardless of oncoming
traffic -- or the lack thereof.

The fuel wasted due to these two measures alone is astronomical.
Hopefully the pendulum will swing back, and these types of "safety"
measures will be adjusted -- but I'm not holding my breath.

BTW: I thank Congress DAILY for raising freeway speed limits back to
70 mph. There was nothing sillier than driving slowly on a 6-lane
autobahn!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"