Why 12-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Disastrous for Safety
Blah.<p>I remember when the speed limit was raised from 55 to 65.  Politicians paraded all kinds of studies from engineers, PhD's and mothers crying on TV.  The claim was that blood would run down our streets and highways.  The effects of making this change, the "experts" and politicians said, would be cataclysmic.<p>What happened in reality?<p>Nothing of the sort.  Actually, some of the opposite.  Accident and fatality rates went down.<p>So I call hogwash.  Maybe this guy has some sort of bias, financial or political interest in this idea.  Maybe it is about hiring a million new union workers across the nation to repaint all of our streets and buy votes for the democratic party in 2016.  Maybe it is about giving a few huge corporations juicy contracts to try to buy financial support and votes for republicans.<p>I don't know.  My life is about science and data.  So, yes, I do value honest studies with solid data and conclusions.  I also know that you can't take a sentence or two our of a study and quote it completely out of context to support your case.  When put into context the reality of the study could be very different and the conclusions could be really flawed.<p>Ask almost anyone who drove pre-65mph how they feel about the change to 65.  I would be surprised if anyone said it got worst.  It's a lot more relaxed.  You don't have to be constantly focused on the darn speedometer or become a human highway patrol detector.<p>In fact, I think the speed limit ought to be raised to 80mph.  People are not suicidal.  They'll drive at whatever speed is safe and comfortable for them.  On average, today, that seems to be somewhere around 75 to 80mph, except when CHP gets on the road and everything slows down causing traffic backups, etc.<p>If we are really that concerned that blood will run down streets it is a relatively simple technological matter to legislate that no automobile sold in the US can go faster than, say, 70mph.  An automatic speed limiting system could also be put into place to limit speeds everywhere in real time.  A low power emitter in every traffic signal in the nation could tell cars what the max speed limit might be and the software in the car keeps you from exceeding it.  Done deal.<p>If the issue is so serious let's just do that.  I'd rather have cops devote their time to chasing bad guys than hiding behind a fence to give dumb traffic tickets to all the mommies taking their kids to school during the first week of class (happens almost every year here).