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From: neal@weitek.UUCP (Neal Bedard)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: 65 MPH? (why not!)
Message-ID: <379@weitek.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 17:28:41 EST
Article-I.D.: weitek.379
Posted: Fri Feb 14 17:28:41 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Feb-86 05:17:41 EST
References: <152@ttidcc.UUCP> <680@ttidcb.UUCP>
Organization: Weitek Corporation, Sunnyvale
Lines: 40

In article <680@ttidcb.UUCP>, svirsky@ttidcb.UUCP (William Svirsky) writes:
> In article <152@ttidcc.UUCP> paulb@ttidcc.UUCP (Paul Blumstein) writes:
> >LA TIMES, 2/12/86 (excerpts):
> >
> >The California Highway Patrol and Caltrans (California Department of
> >Transportation) recommended ... that the 55-mph speed limit be boosted
> >to 65 mph along hundreds of miles of the state freeway system outside
> >metropolitan areas. [...]
> 
> I saw the same thing on the news.  Now my question is if people are
> averaging 8-10 mph over the speed limit now, why wouldn't they do
> the same with a 65 mph speed limit?  My observations are that
> most people drive the highway at 5-9 mph over the posted speed
> limit regardless of what that limit is.
> -- 

Could be so, however the thing to keep in mind is that 55 mph is considerably
lower than the `design speed' (60-70 mph) of most major highways. I would
infer that if speed limits were instead set at `design speed' and not 55 mph,
more motorists would drive at or near such speed limits since they would be
the most `comfortable' for the majority of drivers (certainly the frequency and
magnitude of deviation in speed would be smaller than is the case presently.)

This has an obvious safety benefit: fewer motorists would be trying to pass
slower vehicles, since the distribution of speeds would be narrower. Now,
given that motorists would adjust following distance properly to correspond
with the higher speeds they would be travelling (begging the question a bit,
but would most likely be the case) there really isn't an inherent danger in
removing the 55 mph limit. Or so say I (given the above news item, apparently
the CHP agree.)

No matter how we feel about it, we should remember that the 55 mph speed
limit was enacted as a conservation law that was badly needed at the time.
It is not needed now, and should be abandoned until it is needed again
(hopefully never.)

-Neal
-- 
"If I owned half of that dog, I'd shoot my half." -Pudd'nhead Wilson 
UUCP: 		{turtlevax, resonex, cae780}!weitek!neal