🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul15.195450.14966@monster.saic.com> tomj@monster.saic.com (Tom Johnson) writes:
>While all this discussion is going on, PLEASE remember one thing:
>
>     Road construction is not the only determining factor for road speed.
>     Sometimes you need to drive slower so you don't squash our kids
>     into the pavement.
>
>     25 MPH is appropriate in residential areas even when the road
>     is straight and level.
>
>Just my $.02.

Oh come on, you can't be serious.  Everyone knows that the fool who drives
only 25 or 30 in a residential area will be hit and extinguished, probably
taking a few idiots who were on the sidewalks (too close to the roads, 
obviously) with them.  Everyone knows that faster is safer, and that we are
safest driving a road to its limits, bumper to bumper.  If your road is
straight and level, better count on 45 or 50 past your house.  Or maybe even
*through* your house, if you were stupid enough to build near a turn.

<sarcasm mode off>

What amazes *me* about this type of discussion (in addition to the logic
as apllied above) is that I remember how fast people drove when the limit 
was 65.  They drove 10 miles per hour faster than they do now!!!!  Why, why,
WHY do people think that we will not have 75 to 80 as an average speed if
the limit goes up?  Or is that a safe speed now, too?

What ever happened to "The faster you go, the harder you hit"?  What about
the *results* of adding 10 miles per hour to the impact speed of an
accident?  Why is the result less important than the "probabilities" of
being hit?

When somebody convinces me that the accident fatality rate will drop if
we increase speed, I will support such an increase.  Given the record
of the Autobahn, I sort of doubt that such an argument can be made...

			David Pipes
robear@digex.com