🚀 go-pugleaf

George Conklin wrote in message <7a1cin$18k$1@nina.pagesz.net>...
>In article <7a0oqi$eji@nnrp2.farm.idt.net>,
>Douglas A. Willinger <dougwill@idt.net> wrote:
>>
>
>>This is consistent with my long held observations, and those of others who
>>remember how the 55 mph speed limit subverted safety upon our highways.
>>
>>Douglas A. Willinger
>>Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
>>
>>
>
>  Doug, I use the data on auto fatalities from 1973-1974 to
>teach statistics...you need some data base and it was also
>obvious that govenment propaganda was largly a lie.  They
>claimed 9,000 lives per year were 'saved' due to the
>lowering of the national speed limit to 55.  Some states,
>such as MD, showed the same predicted drop in fatalities
>even though they always had a 55 mph speed limit.

Always?  I believe I remember 70 mph (60 mph for trucks?) upon I-95 around
1970-72.  However, it is indeed true that most of the drop in fatalities
occurred upon roads unaffected by the 55 mph speed limit law, e.g those that
always had speed limits of 55 mph or lower.

> Given the
>regression trend line, which was downward every year, at
>best maybe 1,000 lives were saved.  When the 55 mph limit
>was repealed, the same trend line showed that, at best,
>there were an additional 700 lives lost, not the 10,000 or
>more predicted by 'experts'.


>  However, higher speeds do increase the capacity of the
>road without putting down more pavement.

Interesting how the officials have apparantly totally overlooked this.
Indeed, it would almost seem that a good number of public and private
entities involved with transportation planning are driven by a fear, if not
downright hatred of limited access highways.  [See the chapter about
Boston's Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project (otherwise known as the
"Big Dig") in the recent book Resucing Promesius, regarding once
Massacusetts Governor Michael Dukakis's resistence to the project when
proposed.]




Douglas A. Willinger
Takoma Park Highway Design Studio