I got a new car last year. It’s a cute little Honda Civic coupe.
I live 10 miles from town, and am disinclined to dawdle.
The highway speed limit is 55 MPH.
Many if not most drivers exceed the posted speed limit there.
BUT !!
Not only that.
I drove from Northern New York State to North Carolina late last year.
Some of the highways have posted speed limits of 70 MPH.
BUT !!
I had to do 80 MPH or more just to keep up with traffic.
There were signs along the way that said:
80 MPH is reckless driving
Yet we’d hit the occasional speed trap doing 80 MPH or better, and the COPs would just watch us pass by.
I saw no wreckage either way, on that ~1,800 mile round trip.
Perhaps we should both beware of confirmation bias.
My point is:
if those speed limits were set when stopping distances were twice what they are now; what makes these standards set over half a century ago so immutable?
Reductio ad absurdum:
If 55 is better than 70, then is 40 correspondingly better than 55?
And if 40 is better, why kitty-foot around?! Human life is at stake! Why not 20 instead of 40?
BUT !! If we change it from 55 to 20, why not seize the opportunity to maximize the benefit, and just make the speed limit one MPH?
You know the answer to that as well as I do.
That blade cuts both ways.
If 55 MPH is good, does that mean 110 MPH is twice as good?
Candidly, I wouldn’t want to see a 20 year old garbage truck full of left-overs and bird cage dressing careening down my local highway at over 100 miles an hour.
Thank you for helping me to make that point.
I’m not excusing it. I’m explaining it.
So please explain.
What’s magical about 55 MPH?
My personal physician, GP MD used to commute from home to office in familiar style.
- He’d usually have coffee.
- He’d usually have something to eat, a muffin, a doughnut, whatever (not quite sure what it usually was).
- And he’d usually have a newspaper as well.
His sons went to my school, and we got into a discussion about it on home room one day.
I don’t recall the doctor ever causing a problem with it.
BUT !!
“Distracted Driving” including talking on cell phone, or texting, is bedeviling law enforcement, and there are now laws against it.
Of course, exceptions are made for police, who are legally empowered to drive and talk on their 2 way radio at the same time.
It’s OK for them, but not for you or me.