Subject: Re: Speed Limits Irrelevant?

From: [email-masked] (Persepolis)
Date: 16 Jun 1995 19:35:42 GMT

[email-masked] wrote:
: }by saying 'what if the truck had a blow-out'?  Safe distance or not at 55
: }a 10 ton truck will probably do less damage than at 75.

: It will make absolutely no difference to you if the truck hits you at
: 55mph or 75mph.  It will probably make a difference to the fifth or
: sixth car in front of you, though.  Of course, the safe distance is
: greater at 75mph than at 55mph.  

Actually this does make a difference as the greater mass and speed of the
truck will make your average bruise and sprain into spine compression
injuries and brain hemorages.  I know that you may feel this will never
happen to you, and we all hope it wont happen to any of us contrary to
some insensitive comments I have seen regarding 'natural selection'- but if 
and when it does in addition to the persons involved we will all pay for it
through our insurance premiums- you see, its a small planet we live on.

: }[BTW. From your message I take that you are a proponent of a higher and
: }homogenous speed limit- but you never said what the # should be- I 
: }would like to know of your opinion on what this limit should be set at]

: I personally would prefer most interstates to be unlimited.  But if you

One thing you fail to address is the point you originally made (and if
I recalled this incorrectly please correct me) which was cars getting
passed on the right.  No matter how fast you will be travelling in an
unlimited speed limit zone there will always be someone who will be
driving faster than you and pass you on the right- and this brings us
full circle back to the original problem:  The problem IMHO isnt really the
limit on how fast you are allowed to go but how slow you are allowed to go
-it is an issue of bottlenecks.

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 14 Jun 1995 14:21:30 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
Persepolis <[email-masked]> wrote:

}I have seen several references to the autobahn in various posts and articles,
}but I personally feel that such a system would be impossible to port over to
}the US for the following reasons:
}	1: vehicle density on roads-- in europe cars are more equated as a

But when the vehicle density gets too great, speed limits become
irrelevant anyway, as traffic becomes congestion-limited.

}I think that on the surface many people and yourself may desire highways with
}unlimited speed limits, but I know that deep down many of such view know
}that this is a blessing in disguise and will create all sorts of new problems.

I tend to doubt things would change much at all.  Some of the people
driving 60 or 65mph specifically to avoid a ticket would speed up to a
speed they are comfortable with, but I don't think we'd create a whole
new class of maniacs.

A speed limit of 55 probably has less effect on people's actual speeds
than a speed limit of, say, 70mph would.  A speed limit in the
ballpark of speeds people would actually like to drive would probably
be acceptable to those who like to drive slightly faster, whereas
nobody likes 55mph.

---

From: [email-masked] (Charles Day)
Date: 19 Jun 1995 15:02:29 GMT

> be acceptable to those who like to drive slightly faster, whereas

The speed limit on major roads in the UK is 70 mph. This doesn't seem to
cause too much trouble. However, given the higher limit, it does mean 
that the police feel justified in pulling you over if you're driving at
80 mph.  There's also less opposition (than in the US) to unmanned speed
traps because the speed limit is not unreasonably low.

I really don't see why the speed limit in the US can't be a higher. The
current, low limit is not only over-cautious, it also encourages contempt
for the law, since driving at 65 mph, say, is not perceived as a crime.

Charles