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From: phil@osiris.UUCP (Philip Kos)
Newsgroups: net.legal,net.auto,net.consumers
Subject: Re: Congressmen propose relaxation of 55mph speed limit in rural
Message-ID: <215@osiris.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 10:13:17 EST
Article-I.D.: osiris.215
Posted: Tue Apr  2 10:13:17 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Apr-85 05:59:50 EST
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Distribution: net.consumers
Organization: Johns Hopkins Hospital
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>     LAW IN THE FAST LANE - House bill asks 65mph limits for rural roads
> 
> 
> More than three-fourths of the cars on rural interstate highways exceed the
> 55MPH speed limit, according to a study by the National Research Council of
> the National Acadamy of Sciences . . . .
> 
> Twenty-one congressmen have co-sponsored a House bill under which a governor
> could ask the Secretary of Transportation to increase speed-limits on certain
> four-lane rural roads to 65MPH.
>
> . . . . Transportation groups
> estimate that it has saved an estimated 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day.
> 
> But with more fuel-efficient cars and more plentiful gas, the law is probably
> still on the books for a different reason - the 9,000 to 10,000 lives it is
> estimated to save every year . . . .

Some very interesting comments here.  How can the 55 mph speed limit be
saving 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day and 9000-10000 lives a year when
more than a 75% of the cars on rural interstate highways exceed it?

Also, it is (and always has been) possible for any state to deliberately
(AND LEGALLY) raise the maximum speed limit on any road under their juris-
diction to more than 55 mph.  The reason it hasn't been done is federal
extortion.  Raise the speed limit, lose revenue.

I would like to see the government drop its current blackmail policy and
allow speed limits to go back to whatever is appropriate for the road and
the conditions, rather than having to conform to yet another arbitrary
standard.  It seems, however, that the part of Ronnie's brain which knew
anything about his 1980 campaign promise regarding this is long since
defunct, so I'm not holding my breath.

				Phil Kos
				The Johns Hopkins Hospital
				...!decvax!grendel!aplvax!osiris!phil