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Automotive News & Views Should the US government bring back the 55 mph max speed limit again?
1418 messages, Last post on Dec 16, 2008 at 11:21 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
| 55 MPH was a dumb idea then and a dumber idea now. Anybody who is actually driving 55 MPH on an interstate is a hazard. Heck, anybody driving 55 MPH on I-95 through Philly is going to be an extreme hazard to other motorists. The 55 MPH speed limit was nothing but a source of revenue generation via tickets. | |
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 7:18 am) Yecch!!! What's next? Speedometers calibrated to only 85 mph and anemic 115-hp V-8s? No thanx!!!!  Maybe we should bring back Shaun Cassidy, 8-tracks, and plaid bell-bottoms while we're at it?
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Replying to: lemko (Dec 05, 2007 7:25 am) |
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Ah, yes, the 85 mph speedometer. Another useless attempt to manipulate people's behavior. It didn't work, but it sure made the do-gooders feel important. And that's what really matters to them. Don't kid yourselves -- if these folks had their way, ALL cars would be electronically governed to a speed dictated daily by a nationwide, multi-trillion dollar monitoring system. The system would detect your car wherever it is, regulate its speed (never more than 50 mph), and, of course, automatically charge you a new tax every time you drive (to pay for the nifty monitoring system, of course). "But what about lost revenue from speeding tickets?" you ask. Tut-tut, my little useful idiot. Not to worry. The speeding tax will be replaced by the new "Congestion Tax." Again, the monitoring system will automatically extract this from drivers, but only during "congestion" periods. Those include, but are not limited to, weekday morning rush, 6 am to 10 am; lunch rush, 10 am to 2 pm; and afternoon rush, 2 pm to 7 pm. In addition, supplemental congestion tax will apply during the period between 7 pm and midnight, to encourage family time at home between parents and their children. And the period between midnight and 6 am will be taxed at twice the normal rate, to encourage everyone to get a good night's sleep. Weekends will offer reduced taxes to encourage social activity, except holiday weekends, including, but not limited to, President's Day, Memorial Day, Indepndence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, all of which demand special tax rates to reduce congestion. Yes, everything would be perfect if (sigh) we only had the political courage to make it so.
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 7:18 am) Good post! In CA it is all dumped into the general fund. Hard to tell that they spend much on our roads. They are better than Mexico, by a little bit. I was very pleased with your highways in TX. On my trip to the Hill Country I stayed off the Interstate as much as possible. You have hundreds of miles of very nice 2 lane highways. They must be spending a good portion on roads. Many were posted 70-75 MPH except through little towns. There it dropped to 55 MPH. |
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 8:01 am) Traveling across Montana in 1976 I was ticketed twice in one hour. First was 75 MPH second for 76 MPH. The cop took my money sitting in his car. It cost me 5 bucks each time. The tickets were for "Wasting Natural Resources". Montana was never happy with the 55 MPH limit. I guess that was their way keeping the Feds at bay. |
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Replying to: 1stpik (Dec 05, 2007 8:01 am) |
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Replying to: fezo (Dec 05, 2007 7:08 am) Studies have consistently shown that people who drive faster than the flow of traffic on limited access highways are the better drivers (i.e. they have fewer accidents), and there is no definitive link between higher speeds and more fatalities. Also note that the fatality rates (as expressed in fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles travelled) have been declining for decades, even as average speeds increased - long before safety equipment became standard and long before the 55 mph speed limit. And while the effects of more safety equipment are certainly beneficial - and appreciated - they only undermine the "we should all go slower for safety" argument even more. If new vehicles are more capable of handling these speeds - well, then why not drive them?
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are geared to cruise at 65-70 mpg. For ones equipped with an automatic that drops the RPM into the 1900 range. Dropping the speed limit to 55 isn't going to help much when your best highway fuel mileage is calculated with a locked torque converter at 65. I have to agree with whoever said diesel would be a much better solution. It will make half of the tree huggers mad but it would be a better solution than a 55 MPH speed limit. |
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Replying to: grbeck (Dec 05, 2007 10:21 am) Because they burn more gas? (Please don't forget about the Who Pays for our Roads? discussion either.  )
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