Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site cae780.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!amdcad!cae780!gordon
From: gordon@cae780.UUCP (Brian Gordon)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: 65 MPH? (why not!)
Message-ID: <1859@cae780.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Feb-86 18:32:50 EST
Article-I.D.: cae780.1859
Posted: Sat Feb 15 18:32:50 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Feb-86 05:50:43 EST
References: <152@ttidcc.UUCP> <680@ttidcb.UUCP> <379@weitek.UUCP>
Reply-To: gordon@cae780.UUCP (Brian Gordon)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc. (CAE Systems Division), Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 36

In article <379@weitek.UUCP> neal@weitek.UUCP (Neal Bedard) writes:
>In article <680@ttidcb.UUCP>, svirsky@ttidcb.UUCP (William Svirsky) writes:
>> In article <152@ttidcc.UUCP> paulb@ttidcc.UUCP (Paul Blumstein) writes:
>> >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.  ...

Let's see, now.  The "Sunday drivers" will still drive at 28, the bulk of the 
drivers will drive at 72 instead of 62, and the speeders will drive at 80
instead of 70.  Where does the narrowing of the speed distribution come in?
It seems to me that (80-28) > (70-28).

FROM:   Brian G. Gordon, CAE Systems Division of Tektronix, Inc.
UUCP:   tektronix!teklds!cae780!gordon
	{ihnp4, decvax!decwrl}!amdcad!cae780!gordon 
        {hplabs, resonex, qubix, leadsv}!cae780!gordon 
USNAIL: 5302 Betsy Ross Drive, Santa Clara, CA  95054
AT&T:   (408)748-4817 [direct]    (408)727-1234 [switchboard]