Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dciem.UUCP
Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt
From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Re: RE:request for help, more inform - (nf)
Message-ID: <608@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Jan-84 18:29:22 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.608
Posted: Fri Jan  6 18:29:22 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Jan-84 20:27:11 EST
References: <3045@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 29

Martin Taylor thinks that fast driving is GOOD and the German autobahn is
an example.
The only time I have seen the autobahn is on TV and in newspapers when there
has been a 130 car pileup.  Even the worst stretches of the US. highways don't
get more than 30% of that!  The 130 car pileups seem to
occur every couple of years too!
=================
If I said fast driving was GOOD, I misspoke. I intended to say that
it was not in itself BAD. There's a world of difference.  My point is
that good lane discipline makes fast driving safer.  As for 130-car
pileups, they occur on highways wherever there are erratic fogs,
regardless of speed limits.  Didn't I hear about a 250-car pileup
in England only a few weeks ago?  The problem is that you don't see
the fog bank coming (I know. I've had it happen more than once) and
when you suddenly get into it you have to choose whether to slow
or not.  If you do, the fool behind you hits you, but if you don't,
you hit the fool in front of you.  Either way, you are all fools,
and have to await the wrecking trucks (no, that hasn't happened to me).
I seem to have heard of 50-car pileups of the same kind in whiteouts
on the 400.

For my own safety, I drive about the same speed on the autobahn as
here, but I feel MUCH safer there.  The reference to double speed
was intended to deal with cars whose speed I measured as they
passed me.
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt