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Re: 65 means 65



In article <404ns0$7st@news-e1a.megaweb.com>,
KENNY MORSE <kennystar@megaweb.com> wrote:
>This is true. The majority of my class students have little or no experience with
>75mph speed limits.  But since the relativity they DO have is going from 55
>as the law to 65 in the boonies, and NOW they have a chance to fly at a 
>speed they think is more "fair", they go 75-80.  YOU may have found
>a few places where the 65 mph has traffic below it, but those are few and
>far between.  Remember....YOU know what happens to you and your friends...

OK, Kenny, I won't be so confrontational this post.

You've often mentioned the fact that people with tickets from city driving
(limit 55) are often about 70 or so, and people with tickets from rural
driving (limit 65) are often about 80. You say that this means "people
will go 10-15 mph over the speed limit." I think you're misinterpreting
the facts here. I think people go 70 in the city and 80 in farm
country because those are appropriate speeds in those areas, not because
those appropriate speeds happen to be 15 miles per hour over the speed
limit. There's less traffic out on the 5, the road is much straighter,
there is less merging and exits/entrances. Of course the ambient
speed is higher. But 65 is no more a reasonable limit in farm country
than 55 is in the city. Think about it: if people drive 70 in the
city, then why would they go down to 65 in the country just because
it's legal? 

The T&W study is not being touted as showing "People drive at the
same speed no matter what the limit is," it is being touted as
showing "People drive the same speed no matter what the limit
is *on a particular road*." This is an EXTREMELY important difference.
The roads that have 55 mph speed limits today are different roads
than the ones that have 65 mph speed limits. The real comparison
that you want to look at is the difference in speeds on the 5
before the 65 mph limit at after the 65 mph limit. This is the
kind of information that you need.




-- 
Adam Villani
addam@cco.caltech.edu
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~addam
"I was in this prematurely air-conditioned supermarket..."


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