**Moved** Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

The major problem with this study is that it was done at test sites. Temporarily changing the speed limit at one site does little to change driving behavior. The study clearly shows that.

For lowered speed limits to be effective requires widespread adoption to the point of becoming part of our driving culture. Just slapping up signs and expecting a change is like changing the name of poison ivy and expecting to not get a rash.

Tom

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

You are right, many things in life are not right. My mother died from breast cancer and the doctor told my dad it was his fault she got cancer because he smoked!

But 55 mph on the interstates only asks for trouble, around Atlanta is I285 and it has a 55 mph speed limit on most of it if not all of it. The average speed during times when it is not crawling was 84 mph a few years ago. I have been passed by guys on sport bikes that were running way over 100 mph.

Here is a little interesting reading:

Two-wheel speeders
Here's an unscientific sampling of what metro Atlanta police agencies remember about the fastest motorcycle seen on their highways.
* Georgia State Patrol: 163 mph, about 10 years ago at I-285 and Camp Creek Parkway. "We didn't even try to pursue," said Senior Trooper Larry Schnall, Georgia State Patrol spokesman.
* Forsyth County: 144 mph on Ga. 400 North several years ago. Sheriff's Office Capt. Frank Huggins said the sports bike rider had a helmet-mounted camera and was videotaping his high-speed run. He was apprehended and arrested in Dawson County.
* Floyd and Chattooga counties: In early September, the driver of a Suzuki motorcycle led police and the state patrol on a chase with speeds hitting 154 mph. Authorities said the driver was on his way to get his motorcycle license.
* Clayton County: 138 mph about two years ago on I-75 at Ga. 54. Motorcyclist not apprehended.
* Gwinnett County: 138 mph. Motorcyclist not apprehended.
Source: Georgia State Patrol and area law enforcement agencies



Some motorcycles leave Ga. police in the dust

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

One of the nails in Jimmy Carter's coffin, along with Iran hostages and the oil embargo, was the 55 mph speed limit--especially in the spacious west. But we can all thank him and Joan Clayborn of his EPA for making our cars cleaner 20 years ahead of Europe. Carter was a much better President than Reagan--maybe the most overrated in history.
Carter was unlucky.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

You need to keep up with those medications. Skipping doses is not good for your well being.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

i am beginning to think the most fool hardy thing one can do is try to have a discussion based on logic and common sense

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Anyone read Keith Bradshier's The High and Mighty? Although it addresses SUVs and the marketing, the buyer's psychology is interesting. It's not just SUV's that are marketed exploiting our caveman/cavewoman instincts...viral, sexy, powerful, intimidating, etc....these motives will sell more vehicles until gas prices are high enough people finally get pragmatic and value fuel efficiency. It's similar to Spock's theme on Star Trek of thinking vs feeling...vehicle choices and driving behavior are usually illogical. Hold that thought.

Note how emotionally charged this thread has been. Do you suspect defensive responses? A number of posts venting as if everyone that does not speed is carelessly, or worse intentionally is trying to obstruct everyone behind them, some of those posts tailgating my posts saying I do everything to let others by. Add to that most of us have driving experiences of tailgaters that feel EVERY lane is the passing lane - including the right shoulder!

Many had their minds made up before this thread started. It was less a true discussion and more of a behavioral exercise to rationalize their actions. The consensus of the speeding advocates:

• I'll defy the law. Most on the roads are going 10 or so over the posted limit. Already it seems like reasoning with a drunk to stop drinking.
• Don't care about impact at higher speeds are more lethal. Not going to look up their grade in Physics 101.
• Longer time to break, steer around a potential collision. Again, does not sound like they did well in Physics 101.
• Travels greater distances before evasive action can be taken.
• The force of impacts increase geometrically ("hockey stick"). So do the G-forces prior to it. Talk to ER personnel of passengers impaled with garage door openers, improperly fastened seatbelts do to waists. Anyone remember what those flying paint cans did to Jack Kris at only 45?
• Wind resistance at 50 and greater increases geometrically.
• They often demonize those that suggest even going the speed limit and see red with hypermilers.
• Daily 110-100 Americans die on the roads. DUI, distraction, recklessness, and speeding accounts for nearly all of those deaths. So condoning speeding will improve these stats?
• In the three years of media reports of hypermiling and the screaming of how dangerous it is, ONLY ONE article has reported a death caused by it. An 18yr man in Western Australia (Perth?) incompetently did a FAS by shutting the car off AND pulled out the keys...nobody recommended that and he paid dearly. Even if someone can honestly find confirmed hypermiling-caused deaths, the ratio vs speeding deaths is very lopsided, yet the hate is not focused at the speeders.

Again, it's useless to reason with people that feel entitled to engage in an activity that brakes the law, common sense and physics plainly tells us is more dangerous, and dismiss it as a leading cause of traffic accidents. And the defensiveness.

Moderating speed is not the only component of driving safely or being green but definitely part of the package.

Just my observations on this topic over the years.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Open your minds. Read history and don't repeat its mistakes


From the simpsons
1974:
Teacher: This year's topic is "Resolved: The nation speed limit should be lowered to 55 miles per hour."
Homer: 55! That's ridiculous! Sure, they'll save a few lives. But, millions will be late!



An oldy but a goody about what happens when you obey the law. At least
give it a look if you think the government should invoke interstate commerce again arbitrarily set the speed limit

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

jimbo, are you being disingenuous, or just rattling my cage?

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Ironic choice of words. Personally, I was in five accidents 2000-2004 (none that were my fault), but 3-4 could have been avoided if I was not speeding. Since 2006, the only accident was because I was distracted by my GPS.

Like my last post - there will be a number that will use whatever tortured logic available to justify speeding and satisfy their conscious....no amount of reasoning can change that. Therapy, probably won't either. A gas shortage and/or sharp drop in standard of living very likely will. Then the options will be more limited.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Not only unlucky, but very unfairly blamed.

The national 55 mph speed limit law was signed on January 2, 1974 -- by Richard Nixon, more than three years before Carter became President.

The biggest oil crisis, the OPEC Oil Embargo, was in 1973.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

I think you're just a poor driver. I've been driving for 45 years without an accident including the 2 years I lived in Germany and drove the autobahn to work in Frankfurt at 120mph 5 days a week.

Driving the autobahn is an awesome experience. Actually pretty relaxing not having to look for the police behind every rock and tree. Definitely have to stay focused though, which everyone seems to do. No one rides the left lane except to pass. Even at 120mph staying in the left lane will get you a Beemer or Benz on your rear bumper flashing his lights to pass.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

So how is 'normal flow of traffic' determined? It has to be a range of speeds, not a single speed. I am unaware of any highway segment in Washington with so few drivers obeying the limit that it is not within the normal range of speeds.

Unless we can identify a highway section where speed limit travel is abnormal, or the flow 'at the particular time and place' can be declared by a small convoy of speeders, your argument is just a hypothetical exercise.

Any driver ticketed for driving the speed limit based on this RCW 46.61.427, should try using RCW 46.61.425 as a first line of defense:
"(1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for ... compliance with law: ...".

It lists no exclusion for the speed limit law.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

I stated that with very few exceptions, you are legally able to go 55 MPH NOW on any highway. No need to wait until they make 55 the limit. Folks seem cranky that even those minor exceptions exist.

Three laws on Washington state books make it seem to me that someone in the Legislature likes to go fast:

1) It is legal to exceed the limit while passing.
2) It is illegal to impede the flow of 5 or more cars.
3) It is legal to pass on the right. (every state has unique laws*)

Should you (like me) choose to not do/exceed the speed limit on hiways, these sort of exceptions should be on your mind.

*When I lived in AZ, right turns on red were illegal unless there was a sign specifically allowing it; when I lived in NV, you could not make a left turn into a left turn lane, only out of a left turn lane.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

*In Port Huron, Michigan, the speed limit for ambulances is 20 mph.

This brings up a question: In Port Huron, if an ambulance is traveling at the legal maximum speed of 20 mph and 5 or more cars are stuck behind it, does it have to pull over and let them go by?

Of course, as long as we are talking about outdated laws, in Michigan a woman's hair belongs to her husband.

Tom

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Note to myself: Don't share too much personal info to flamers.

I think you are a poor reader - unintentionally or to win an argument at all costs.

jburns, say you are an agent at State Farm insurance and review my driving record: last six years one collision caused by a hit-and-run from behind @ 80-90 while I took 5 seconds on my GPS. Would the company let you tag me as a poor driver and jack my premiums? Would they let you dig up the only collision I caused in 1977 to jack up my rates?

How long would you last at State Farm if you said I had a poor driving record?


In the 2000-2004 period, I was rear-ended three times by distracted drivers in the Dallas area....the other person got the ticket in all the collisions in that period. Another collision was a sleepy neighbor pulled out in front of me while illegally parked on the wrong side of the road.

The point is I've had a lot less trouble since speeding and some of you guys are desperate to twist it around to win an argument and do it shamelessly.

When one side of an argument can't rest, resort to tortured logic on things like physics, ignore obvious fallacies pointed out, then make personal attacks, have they really won an argument?

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Passing on the right is legal only if you have your own separate lane to do so. It is illegal to pass in the same lane, or on the shoulder. E.g. if a car is waiting to turn left from a two lane highway without a center turn lane, no one may pass.

At least one neighboring state has the same passing on the right law, and a turnout requirement if holding up just 3 cars.

Decades ago, the state patrol issued red drivers license holders with the words 'STATE LEGISLATOR' across the top. The practice ended sometime around the 70s, but one legislative was caught handing them out in the 80s.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Last year I was traveling with my family on a tour in Tibet. They had had a lot of bad accidents in the mountain roads, so the authorities came up with a way to limit speeds. Our driver (we were in a Land Cruiser) had to stop at a police check in where they gave him a form with the time stamped on it. He was given, say 2 hours to the next check point. If we arrived before that,we would be fined.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

East Germany used to do that when you drove through the corridor to West Berlin. If you arrived at the second check point too soon, the would get you for speeding. If you arrived late, you would get grilled about why you stopped along the way.

Tom

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

Interesting.

I think the time may be coming when, with gps records and car data recorders, you will get a ticket in the mail every time you exceed the speed limit. No cops necessary.

 

Re: Imagine a 55 mph Speed Limit

They already do that on some tollways. Such as the Pennsylvania Turnpike, everything is timestamped.