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From: jackh@zehntel.UUCP (jack hagerty)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: 55 mph kills
Message-ID: <1589@zehntel.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Sep-84 12:45:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: zehntel.1589
Posted: Wed Sep  5 12:45:15 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 08:12:53 EDT
References: <77@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Organization: Zehntel Inc., Walnut Creek, CA
Lines: 27

One does not need to use esoteric units like "man-years/year wasted driving
55 vs 67" to show that an artificially low limit is dangerous; all it takes
is the good ole' human guilt reflex. Allow me to illustrate.

I commute daily on Interstate 680 between Pleasanton and Walnut Creek which,
for those of you not in the Bay Area, is a modern 6 lane freeway, built in
the late '60s with full interchanges, decreasing radius turns and everything.
When it opened, in 1968, the speed limit was 70, the higest allowed in Calif.
The traffic volume has been increasing steadily due to all of the new business
parks springing up, but the traffic still flows with no stoppages.

Recently, I was coming to work in normal traffic which reporters like to
characterize as "heavy, but moving at the limit", i.e. the fast lane was
moving about 70, the middle lane about 65 and the slow lane around 60. There
was little crowding as most folks were leaving decent spaces. Suddenly, the
road in front of me became a sea of brake lights as cars dived for the pavement,
tires smoked and there were lots of panicky last instant lane changes to
avoid rear-enders.  The cause of this near-massive fender bender? A CHP
cruiser had pulled onto the freeway about a quarter mile ahead!

From a victim's standpoint, we were doing just fine until the artifice was
lowered. I also have a simple, but airtght, argument against the "fuel
saving" aspects of the NMSL, but I'll save that for another time.

                                -- Jack Hagerty, Zehntel Inc.
                                   !ihnp4!zehntel!jackh