Anyone listed to "Car Talk" on NPR?  Saturday, one of the Tappet Brothers (I
think it was Click) went ballistic over the Federal Gov't decision to leave
the speed limits to the states.  Apparantly people are predicting huge highway
deaths because of the lifting?  

Maybe they are right, but it seems like people drive at speeds which have very
little to do with posted limits now.  I would be surprised if the average
changes that much.  Perhaps some morons will try supersonic speeds with the
go to work crowd????   Have you read anything about these predictions and how
reliable they are?

10 responses total.

I've not read anything of note.  Just as an observer I don't see what good
it will do.  If the speed limits are raised, then the cops wont pull anyone
over till they are going 10 MPH over the new limit.  Just leave it at 65
since cops (and judges) don't raise an eyebrow unless the ticket is for 75
or over.  With people passing to the left of me, to the right of me and on
the median, and too many not being able to handle slow-downs without 
exchanging body parts and paint, I don't see any good coming from it.

I think the 65 limit is too slow, but I've learned to live with keeping myself
to 75.  I think there are now two proposals, one of which would get rid of
the urban area speed limits and make everything 70, and the other which would
get rid of the urban area speed limits but leave everything at 65 (urban areas
are now 55).  I'd like to see the freeway speed limits in the 75 to 80 range,
but getting rid of the urban areas, even if it still leaves us with a 65
limit, is definitely a step in the right direction.

There is a definite correlation between higher speeds and more deaths.  As
one NPR editorial piece put it, "If the murder rate was anywhere near the
traffic death rate, we'd be living under martial law".  I'd like to drive
faster too, but I'd prefer a bit safer highways too.

I feel there should be more education in drivers education 
and that dirving test should be more then getting a few questions right.

I agree.  I also think that there are many better ways of improving traffic
safety while still having higher speeds.  Looking at the current traffic law
enforcement situation is such that speed limits are the only things that are
enforced (perhaps becasue it is easier to sit in the median with a radar gun
than to go out and look for things that are really dangerous), while things
that are much more dangerous, and with probably necessate slower speeds, like
lane changing without signaling and looking to make sure there's enough room,
or tailgating, go unchecked.  Instead, we currently have a situation where
people are allowed to drive as dangerously as they want, but the people who
get tickets are those who aren't driving slow enough to be prepared for every
stupid traffic move these people might make.  Go after the dangerous drivers
rather than scapegoating those who just need to get somewhere without spending
all day in the car, and they'll do a lot more to improve traffic safety than
speed limits ever will.

Question:  Do you think SAFETY or REVENUE GENERATION is the primary reason
           for speed & traffic laws?

Safety.  If it were for revenue they'd be out there passing out tickets.
(Which brings up another point.  Revenues collected from traffic violations
do not go to the police department, or any other traffic related area.
Hence passing out tickets cost money at the local level but makes money at
only the state level.)

Is that true?  Why would anyone set up a speed trap then?  

Public outcry?  Political?  The above may not be 100% true but it's not
far from the truth as I've been told by the person in charge of Wash.
County roads.

Didn't Ann Arbor hire more police and start ordering black rather than white
police cars a few years ago because the city was low on revenue?

What you say about the state level rather than the local level actually makes
some sense, when you look at how many state police speed traps there are,
compared to local police speed traps.  Even if the fine doesn't go to the
police agency giving the ticket, there's a lot more to the ticket than just
a fine.  The only ticket I've gotten, for going "70" in a 65 zone, was a $60
ticket, even though the actual fine was only $20.  The other $40 was made up
of things like a processing fee for the court, various administrative costs,
and a "highway safety fee," which I interpreted as paying the cop for giving
me teh ticket and the lecture telling me that I was young and shouldn't expect
to be able to get away with the sort of things that people who are older than
me can get away with.

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