Why 55 MPH is rediculous.

[shakey_snake]

YouTube video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=iskEUMRVuow&search=speed%20limit%20protest)

Discuss.

[Oprime]

I do think that the advances in automobiles such as
gas mileage,
handeling,
and saftey
have made the 55 mph obsolite.

[Nooblar]

They are not amazing.

However, they do prove a point. On such a big freeway with so few entrances/exits, 55 is silly. Especially when they don't enforce it.

As a side note:

The problem with 55 is that nobody obeys it, and nobody enforces it. This means that when it IS raised, people are used to breaking the law already. I try not to speed--even 5 over--because the speed limit is a law instituted for my own safety. Unfortunately, that other guy might not feel the same way and cause me to crash and burn. What an idiot.

So I plead with you all: drive the posted limit.

[netherspirit]

People's impatience makes the 55 MPH speed limit ridiculous.

[AmishBurrito]

They are not amazing.

However, they do prove a point. On such a big freeway with so few entrances/exits, 55 is silly. Especially when they don't enforce it.

As a side note:

The problem with 55 is that nobody obeys it, and nobody enforces it. This means that when it IS raised, people are used to breaking the law already. I try not to speed--even 5 over--because the speed limit is a law instituted for my own safety. Unfortunately, that other guy might not feel the same way and cause me to crash and burn. What an idiot.

So I plead with you all: drive the posted limit.

I have heard many times where they reduced the speed limit of 65 to 55, because everyone was going 75. They hoped to get people to go 65 by reducing the speed limit to 55. I think that is a stupid idea, but if everyone had of obeyed the speed limit in the first place, they wouldnt have reduced it.

therefore, i agree with nooblar

[Oprime]

I believe (and could be wrong) it was originally reduced due to autos with poor gas milage and a gas shortage.

Both thise reasons are no longer valid esp. with the rise of alternate fuels.

I would have no problem with the limit back to 65, as is the case in most areas in NE.

[Miniature Geek]

I say 55 is stupid, it just bogs down traffic and causes major problems on the road ways, but the law is the law and people should at least try to obey it, however when the guy behind you is doing 85 and is about to run you over, going a bit faster to get out of his way might be neccessary.

[netherspirit]

I say 55 is stupid, it just bogs down traffic and causes major problems on the road ways, but the law is the law and people should at least try to obey it, however when the guy behind you is doing 85 and is about to run you over, going a bit faster to get out of his way might be neccessary.

If he rearends you its his fault. So the neccessity is for HIM to slow down. :P

[AmishBurrito]

I say 55 is stupid, it just bogs down traffic and causes major problems on the road ways, but the law is the law and people should at least try to obey it, however when the guy behind you is doing 85 and is about to run you over, going a bit faster to get out of his way might be neccessary.

If he rearends you its his fault. So the neccessity is for HIM to slow down. :P

agreed :wave:

[Codeman]

I believe (and could be wrong) it was originally reduced due to autos with poor gas milage and a gas shortage.

Both thise reasons are no longer valid esp. with the rise of alternate fuels.

I would have no problem with the limit back to 65, as is the case in most areas in NE.

Yes it was to to the gas shortages of I think 1972 or 73. Droping the speed does improve the MPG, as a side benefit the government saw trafic fatalities take a huge drop - so it became difficult to win the argument - to raise the speed limit back - when we saw the benifits of 55

[reapersaurus]

I liked the video - thanks for linking it.

They made a GREAT point - laws are not there to actually protect the citezenry - the police and insurance companies prefer them to be unrealistically low, so that they can extort money from the citizenry anytime the police choose to enforce the bull**** law.

I got pulled over for basically driving the speed of traffic - on the freeway - while there was snow on the sides of the road and traffic to watch - DOWN A BIG HILL.

So - I guess the CHP believe that it is more important for me to be concentrating on hitting the brakes on the downside of a hilly mountain road and keeping my eyes pegged on the speedometer so that I'm able to travel the few mph range that i might be slow enough not to be pulled over, and yet fast enough not to be a public hazard. :roll:

The unrealistic laws and enforcement procedures are simply a justification to pull over law-abiding citizens, since it is impossible (as shown quite clearly in this video in spectacular fashion) to follow the speed limit safely in many states.

Insurance companies love it in addition to law enforcement agencies, since both get their coffers stuffed with the fines and increased rates that stem from unrealistic traffic laws.

[Oprime]

I believe (and could be wrong) it was originally reduced due to autos with poor gas milage and a gas shortage.

Both thise reasons are no longer valid esp. with the rise of alternate fuels.

I would have no problem with the limit back to 65, as is the case in most areas in NE.

Yes it was to to the gas shortages of I think 1972 or 73. Droping the speed does improve the MPG, as a side benefit the government saw trafic fatalities take a huge drop - so it became difficult to win the argument - to raise the speed limit back - when we saw the benifits of 55

True, but again, outdated statistics.

We now have far superior saftey features
Airbags
Crumple zones
antilock bakes
better tires
etc etc

An '70 Impala @ 65 is alot more dangerous than an '05 BMW ( excluding driver ability of course).

[feekonea]

wow those kids had a great idea. I wonder if they ever sent it in to the highway patrol or something.

[Codeman]

I believe (and could be wrong) it was originally reduced due to autos with poor gas milage and a gas shortage.

Both thise reasons are no longer valid esp. with the rise of alternate fuels.

I would have no problem with the limit back to 65, as is the case in most areas in NE.

Yes it was to to the gas shortages of I think 1972 or 73. Droping the speed does improve the MPG, as a side benefit the government saw trafic fatalities take a huge drop - so it became difficult to win the argument - to raise the speed limit back - when we saw the benifits of 55

True, but again, outdated statistics.

We now have far superior saftey features
Airbags
Crumple zones
antilock bakes
better tires
etc etc

An '70 Impala @ 65 is alot more dangerous than an '05 BMW ( excluding driver ability of course).

I think we agree…. The traffic already travels at 5 to 10 mph over the posted limit on most roads. What most of us realize is once the limits are raised people will still travel 5 to 10 mph over that limit. So in reality we aren’t talking about what the speed we are driving today but the potential speeds we will be driving on our existing road network if the limit would be raised

I don’t have as much of an issue with speed as I do the number of roads or lanes to accommodate the raising level of traffic in the metro or growing areas of the country.

Back to my original points… it’s hard to agree against safety and it almost a no win situation. No matter of the safety advances and technology the new vehicles have you still can’t win an argument that a car going 70 or 75 mph is or as safe as a car going 55 if they should run into something. As far a gas mileage - a vehicle with identical frontal area will have better mpg going 55 than it would at 70.

[Codeman]

I liked the video - thanks for linking it.

They made a GREAT point - laws are not there to actually protect the citezenry - the police and insurance companies prefer them to be unrealistically low, so that they can extort money from the citizenry anytime the police choose to enforce the bull**** law.

I got pulled over for basically driving the speed of traffic - on the freeway - while there was snow on the sides of the road and traffic to watch - DOWN A BIG HILL.

So - I guess the CHP believe that it is more important for me to be concentrating on hitting the brakes on the downside of a hilly mountain road and keeping my eyes pegged on the speedometer so that I'm able to travel the few mph range that i might be slow enough not to be pulled over, and yet fast enough not to be a public hazard. :roll:

The unrealistic laws and enforcement procedures are simply a justification to pull over law-abiding citizens, since it is impossible (as shown quite clearly in this video in spectacular fashion) to follow the speed limit safely in many states.

Insurance companies love it in addition to law enforcement agencies, since both get their coffers stuffed with the fines and increased rates that stem from unrealistic traffic laws.

You have an interesting point of view of law, enforecement as well as insurance compainies, I can't say I agree with any of your views.

I smiled when I read "I got pulled over for basically driving the speed of traffic " - what did you mean by " basically " The times I've been pulled over I've " basically been driving the speed of traffic" I guess I was basically driving a little faster than the trafic that was already going 5 to 10 mph over the posted limit. My point is in all miles I've driven I don't belive I ever seen anyone pulled over for keeping up with traffic...

[reapersaurus]

That 1 personal experience that I related just to share a story with y'all has nothing to do with my long-understood views of how law enforcement and insurance companies benefit from unrealistic traffic laws.

That is a FACT, that they both benefit.

What you choose to think about that fact is up to you.

[Miniature Geek]

I say 55 is stupid, it just bogs down traffic and causes major problems on the road ways, but the law is the law and people should at least try to obey it, however when the guy behind you is doing 85 and is about to run you over, going a bit faster to get out of his way might be neccessary.

If he rearends you its his fault. So the neccessity is for HIM to slow down. :P

Uh yeah but just because it's his fault doesn't mean it hurts any less.

[bunjee]

I can pretty much say that posted speed limit won't make much difference. Here in Seattle the posted is 60 for most of the highways, and if you go 60, you had best be in the right few lanes or you will get a lot of people angry at you.

You could put a line of cars across the highway going 60 and experience the same problem. Through Seattle during non-peak times (few) the bulk of traffic is regularly traveling 65mph. When you get down south of Seattle around Tacoma, the average seems to kick up to about 75. And the posted limit is still 60. Keep going south until you are out of the metropolitan area and the speed limit is upped to 70 (I think) because the exits are farther apart and there are fewer towns.

Evidently WA state has a process to decide the limits, I'm not sure how other states do it.
From the Washington State website (link is a pdf):
The posted speed limit for a road is set in slightly different ways in different counties. The most common way though, is to use the “85th percentile” speed. 85 out of 100 drivers will choose this speed no matter what the signs say. Many studies have shown this method to be safe, practical and enforceable. It also doesn’t depend on the opinion of one person. (http://www.crab.wa.gov/wsace/Documents/AOKArticles/Article03-04SpeedLimits.pdf)

Oh, and to quote a friend of mine:

All the right of way in the world doesn't help you if your dead.

[Agent Minivann]

Speed limits are non-laws. They aren't observed and they aren't enforced. If I go 5 over for the rest of my life I probably won't be pulled over for over five years. If I go 10 over I expect about the same. Personally I follow the posted speed limit unless the drivers around me make me feel unsafe doing so. Since I chose to do that, I get on the freeway, get up to the speed limit and hit the cruise control. It makes driving nice to never have to worry when you do see the occaissional highway patrolman. The thing that really pisses me off is when stupid people get all intimidated by the trooper driving on the freeway and decide to go 5 under the speed limit in a huge caravan behind the patrol car. I hate slowing down for idiots that are always going 10+ over.

[ultradoug]

the audeo was pretty low, the video itself played out like an interview of the drivers, the looping of the best shot of how slow the trafic was towards the end was a bit unessary, they only needed to loop it twice, over all the director skills are in question, they could have done better editing. Sertenly, the camara work inside the cars could have been inproved, you did not get to see the near crash they talked about, so they could have prepared better.

Wait I'm sposta talk about the 55 mph law not the video ? oh.. uhh well they rased this speed to a faster speed to be safer and people just go faster anyway...

[CornPuff]

The fact that speed limits aren't completely enforced allows the police to pick and choose targets using other metrics. Its is hipocrisy.

But why are speed limits so low? Because highway death costs the government a lot of money. Its not unreasonable to limit people to an arbitrary speed. The slower the speed, the fewer people die on the roads. It is unreasonable to use arbitrary enforcement as a means of choosing victims.

Hence, this controversey. This over edited college video doesn't address really any of the problem, it just shows that most people drive over the speed limit. Duh.

[AmishBurrito]

The fact that speed limits aren't completely enforced allows the police to pick and choose targets using other metrics. Its is hipocrisy.

But why are speed limits so low? Because highway death costs the government a lot of money. Its not unreasonable to limit people to an arbitrary speed. The slower the speed, the fewer people die on the roads. It is unreasonable to use arbitrary enforcement as a means of choosing victims.

Hence, this controversey. This over edited college video doesn't address really any of the problem, it just shows that most people drive over the speed limit. Duh.

well said

[StarSlayer]

I still notice a change in my gas milage at higher speeds. Yes 55 is on the slow side.

I see my best gas milage between 65 and 70, over that it starts to drop off.

When I drive in to work, trafic is lite so I can drive at 70, in the slow lane. Posted max is 75. but when I drive home, it is usually closer to 80/85 to stay with trafic and not slow it down.

But I really have a problem with roads that are 4 to 7 lanes wide that have a speed of 45 or less. That is really just stupid.

[NiteRaider]

You know what Ron White says about Texas:

Texas's speed limit is 70 MPH




unless...




you're in a big rig, then it's 65 MPH




unless...




it's at night, then it's 60 MPH




unless...




you're in a carpool, then it's 55 MPH. :lol: :D :lol: :D