🚀 go-pugleaf

E. Faubion wrote in message <3597c47e.7275192@news.okc.oklahoma.net>...
>grimrod@mindless.com (Brandon Sommerville) wrote:
>
>>If the old wife was a mathematician named Julie Anna Cirillo, then
>>you're absolutely right.
>
>Then this superb mathematician should be able to provide a computer
>program that supports the faster-is-safer theory.   Where is it?
>

I can write you a computer program that says anything I want it to.  What in
hell does that have to do with anything?

>>Since very few people know about the study, that logic doesn't stand.
>
>It salves the conscience of those who like to drive fast and that's
>all it does.   Try using it in a court of law to support your driving
>37 mph in a 25 mph zone after you've run over a child a see how far it

I posted the message that mentioned it and it was about freeways and
interstates.  Since there aren't any 25 mph zones on freeways and
interstates, you're getting a bit far afield.  Sometimes 25 in a 25 zone is
still too fast, but that doesn't have a hell of a lot to do with whether 85
is safe on a nearly empty freeway.

>goes.  For that matter, show me a single case where it's been used
>successfully as a defense for speeding anywhere in this country.
>

Who claimed that it was a defense against a speeding ticket?  Speed laws and
safety have been effectively decoupled for quite a while in this country.
Remember the idiots howling about the increase of 6400 additional deaths
that would result when the Nationally Mandated Speed Limit was repealed?
According to the National Safety Council, 1996 (the first year after the
repeal) saw the first decrease in traffic fatalities in four years.

>>The study best holds true (like any similar study) when people are
>>unaware of it or do not modify their driving styles to compensate for
>>it.  For those of us who habitually travel 10 to 15 mph faster than
>>the average, it is just a pleasant confirmation of something that
>>we've suspected for years.
>
>We can always implement this theory by starting an experiment on the
>street where Brandon lives.  For the sake of argument let's assume
>Brandon has children who like to play on his front lawn.  Assuming the
>current speed limit is 25 mph and the average speeds equal the limit
>then we'd all have to drive 37 mph to be 'safe'.  But now the average
>speed goes up so we've got to drive faster and faster.... oh, never
>mind.  It's only Brandon's kiddies at risk so that doesn't matter does
>it?
>

You obviously missed the fact that the original reference was to freeways.

>One has to be truly blind and gullible to believe this nonsense.   I'm
>truly surprised even you would bite on it.
>
>>You never did explain to me why it is ok
>>for the NHTSA to include "speed too slow for conditions" in their
>>speed related numbers to demonstrate the dangers of exceeding speed
>>limits, care to take a stab at it now? (wait, I know, snip snip snip!)
>
>Why don't you ask the good folks at NHTSA?  I have no idea.
>

It's because they have some fixed ideas they're obsessing on and a hidden
agenda they're pursuing.  Just like the Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety that publishes figures from states selected to bolster the case that
higher freeway limits increase fatalities when the overall trend was a
decrease.

>In the meantime I'll restate a challenge I made a long time ago and
>that no one could take up.  Find a single bona fide accident
>investigator anywhere who believes driving faster is safer or that
>speed doesn't kill.  Until you can do that *and* provide the name of
>this person(s) your arguments are just so much hot air.  Go for it.


Sounds like a truly scientific approach to me.  You don't suppose the
assumptions, training and propaganda in the background of the accident
investigator could color his judgement about what he sees at an accident
scene, do you?  Anyway, the guy who wrote "A Speeder's Guide to Avoiding
Tickets" is a former state patrol officer and he says freeway speed limits
aren't about safety.  Maybe you should read his book.  Maybe you should also
consider that about 5 of 6 fatalities happen in intersections, of which
there are none on freeways and interstates.  Funny thing that freeways are
the places where we drive fastest and also the places where the fatality
rate is lowest.  Maybe something other than speed kills?  What do you
suppose causes all of those single car accidents on rural interstates?
Going too fast to negotiate the corners?

--
Mark Folsom, P.E.
Consulting Mechanical Engineer
http://www.redshift.com/~folsom