Projo Cars Blog

Some drivers across the nation apparently are cutting their speed slightly to squeeze more mileage out of $4-a-gallon gasoline, according to a USA Today review of preliminary state traffic data for the first five months of 2008.

Average speeds along some stretches of interstate highways were down in Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin and unchanged on others, electronic monitoring showed.

Of 20 states providing data on speeding citations issued by state troopers, the number of tickets was down in 13 states — Arkansas, California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington — and up in seven — Alabama, Connecticut, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina and Ohio.

The state agencies emphasized that the data are preliminary and apply only to roads patrolled by state police.

Transportation experts and some law enforcement professionals caution that it's too soon to establish a link between gas prices and driving speeds.

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