🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <16F42770CS85.M21502@mwvm.mitre.org> M21502@mwvm.mitre.org writes:

}I don't quite understand why people feel that speed limits unduly infringe
}on their rights.  The U.S. has a very safe surface transportation system.
}Within that system the safest mile that you can drive is on an interstate
}where there is, on average, slightly over one fatality per 100 million
}vehicle miles.  This is several times safer than your basic picturesque
}country road.  It is also much safer than Western Europe.  The U.S. ranks
}third in highway safety behind Sweden (I think, but it may be one of the
}other Scandinavian countries) and Great Britain.
} 
}Recent studies have indicated that, in fact, states that increased speed
}limits from 55 to 65 on rural interstates around 1987 do experience an
}increase in fatalities.  While the total number of fatalities has been
}dropping quickly both in total deaths and deaths per vehicle mile traveled,
}deaths on interstates have shown a gradual increase in both measures.  My
}personal theory is that this results from violation of the traffic
}engineering mantra "Uniformity is safety".  When the speed limit increased,
}most drivers stayed pretty much with 65 (even where speed limits remained
}at 55).  This is no longer the case, with significant numbers of people
}beating the speed limit by 15 - 20 miles per hour.

Here's an alternate theory for you-- when the speed limits increased,
people now saw a disadvantage in taking the winding two-lane
country roads with a speed limit set at 50 miles per hour.  They now
stuck with the Interstates, increasing traffic and making those more
dangerous, while simultaneously making the total situation less
dangerous because people weren't taking the more dangerous roads.

}One other thing:  Although deaths are decreasing for autos, we as a country
}still kill about 40,000 people annually, with a disproportionate number
}being young men.  Even with the Amtrak wrecks in '93, they killed fewer
}per passenger mile.  Air carriers are even safer.  However, when rail or
}air carriers do have fatalities, a great cry goes up for government
}intervention (read spending) and people saying that they will never
}[fly | take the train] again.  The question is when will we realize that
}the purpose of most driving is to get from place to place and take our
}recreational driving and expressions of frustration to appropriate places?

Our chance of injury while driving is very much a function of our own
driving-- it is something we can control.  This makes it a much
different sort of risk than the risk of an air crash or train crash.


There's no point in making it hellish to drive from place to place by
driving at a speed which feels ---and is--- far too slow.  When the
speed limit on 4-lane each way divided highways is the same or only
5mph more than that on two-lane winding roads, something is VERY
wrong.

-- 
Matthew T. Russotto	russotto@eng.umd.edu
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