The Old Man In The Buick — And The Return Of Drive 55?
By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist
GOP Senator John Warner probably doesn’t drive himself anywhere; he is flown, or chauffeured — at state expense and top speed. Which may explain why he is peddling reduced speed limits to “save fuel” for the rest of us.
Just prior to the 4th of July weekend, Virginia’s senior senator (and very senior citizen) said, “Given the significant increase in the number of vehicles on America’s highway system from 1974 to 2008, one could assume that the amount of fuel that could be conserved is far greater” than under the old 55 mph National Maximum Speed Limit — which Congress repealed back in 1995.
Warner may be right about fuel saved — more on that in a moment — but he went on to repeat the totally discredited agit-prop mantra that lower speed limits “save lives.”
During the NMSL era, advocates claimed that 55 was responsible for reducing annual highway fatalities by 4,000 deaths per year. This claim was used to morph what had been a fuel-conservation measure enacted in 1974, during a previous era of high gas prices, into a “safety” issue — with consequences that went far beyond conservation.
If driving faster than 55 was not merely less energy efficient — but unsafe — then tickets could be issued, DMV “points” assigned and insurance premiums jacked up. Which of course is exactly what did happen — with the result being a nationwide fleecing program gussied up as a public safety measure.
Overnight — literally — speeds that had been considered both legal and safe became illegal and unsafe. People who had never received a ticket in their lives were now receiving them regularly. People who had never had an accident in their lives were being hit up with insurance premium “surcharges” — on the basis of their now “unsafe” driving habits.
But saving fuel and driving safely are not necessarily the same things.
Sometimes, in fact, they are mutually exclusive.
Doing 70 on a modern Interstate will certainly burn more fuel than doing 55. But doing 55 on an Interstate designed for speeds of 70-75 mph can actually be unsafe.
The old man (Sen. Warner?) doddering along at well below the natural flow of traffic creates a rolling roadblock; cars bunch up and jockey for position. They are increasingly tempted to resort to maneuvers that would otherwise not be necessary to get around the slowpoke.
The authorities can post all the artificially low, dumbed-down speed limits they like; people will ignore them — and drive at more realistic speeds. That is precisely what happened during the Drive 55 era. We all knew that it didn’t suddenly become unsafe to drive 70 mph on Thursday because on Wednesday evening the law changed — and the posted limit had been dropped to 55.
It was bunk – and we knew it was bunk. So we ignored it, en masse. The same will happen again if Sen. Warner’s brainstorm leads to a new era of Drive 55.
Attempting to force drivers to operate their vehicles at speeds 10-20 mph below speeds that are reasonable and prudent in order to save fuel is as ridiculous as insisting — at ticket point — that pedestrians walk 25 percent slower to conserve energy.
It’s also a great way to delegitimize legitimate traffic safety enforcement. The NMSL era completely corrupted the system by putting cops in the position of having to enforce laws everyone knew were BS.
The constant harassment created enmity where none, if any, had existed before.
When a person gets pulled for doing something he knows in his gut is probably not right — besides being illegal — he accepts his punishment with equanimity. But when you get pulled and ticketed for driving at perfectly reasonable and prudent speeds, you know you’ve been had.
And you resent it.
Do we want to return to this foolishness? If we do, it will be even worse this time because technology has improved to the point that catching “speeders” is much easier and more efficient than it ever was before. We have photo radar and the ability to track a vehicle via GPS — a computer determining its speed and (potentially) issuing a ticket automatically.
If Sen. Warner wants to talk about conserving fuel, fine. That’s a worthy topic — but a separate topic.
It has nothing to do with safety.
Please, No Mas. Not all of us have state-owned helicopters and private jets to whisk us to where we need to be — free of worry about being issued a piece of “payin’ paper” in the name of “conserving energy.”
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i notice the trackback article has confused john warner with ex-gov mark warner…
Just keep in mind that not all of us Buick drivers are confused old people driving to florida with our blinkers on ;-)
The Seattle Post Intelligencer just ran an editorial supporting a return to 55 mph speed limits (August 18, 2008). So I would encourage anyone who lives near Seattle to write a reasoned letter to the editor opposing this nonsense. I first got my driver’s license in 1965, so I’ve been through this absurdity once and do not wish to do so again.
Until religion starts another war.
I would like to share this data, I think It’s interesting reading material:
VITAL STATISTICS
1. Avoid riding automobiles because they are responsible for 20% of all fatal accidents.
2. Do not stay at home because 17% of all accidents occur in the home.
3. Avoid walking on streets or sidewalks because 14% of all accidents occur to pedestrians.
4. Avoid travelling by air, rail, or water because 16% of all accidents involve these forms of transportation.
5. Of the remaining 33%, 32% of all deaths occur in hospitals. Above all else, avoid hospitals.
6. .001% of all deaths occur in worship services in church. Therefore, logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is church.
This info in from my church’s Sunday bulletin.
55 is laughably low and mind-numbing, most people will all ways drive at speeds that are reasonable and prudent regardless if it saves time or not, or if it saves a few pennies going 55 then let’s say 75. That is also questionable, today’s state of the art highly efficient cars cannot compare with the 4 barrel wobbling square barges from the 70′s.
It certainly seems that there’s two Americas, one for politicians, police and their families that don’t get tickets for speeding and one America that police love terrorizing citizens with unrealistic 55 mph posted highways. Especially states like NJ and NY that still have the dreaded 55 on interstate freeways wide enough to land an A380 Airbus.
Some female senator from California just proposed a national 60mph speed limit. What rock do these creatures hide in?
[...] http://www.motorists.org/blog/speed-limits/old-man-buick-return-of-drive-55/ [...]
Sen Warner is from what the only US state to define 80 mph as per se “reckless driving”?!
By that “standard” then Europeans are “reckless” drivers for driving at legal speeds.
Just another example of the criminal Commonwealth of Virginia as bearing false witness…
I’m really getting sick and tired of the media ramming this 55 mph speed trash down our throats. It kind of reminds me of nuns forcing me to eat liver and fish when I was a boy;by the way both of these I horribly despise. I HATE 55 EVEN MORE It’s a DEAD ISSUE which needs to be buried alongside NIXON’S ROTTING CORPSE!!! The 55 mph limit was wholeheartedly ignored then and certainly will be all the more ignored now; I DON’T CARE IF SENATOR WARNER (ELMER FUDD) AND THESE OTHER IGNORAMUSES ON CAPITOL HILL IMPLEMENT HITLER’S “FINAL SOLUTION” TO ENFORCE IT!! WE WILL NEVER DRIVE 55 SO THEY MIGHT AS WELL FORGET IT!!!
Umm, and exactly why do we need the law to help us save gas?
This this not the 70′s; there are no lines; there is no shortage to justify mandatory conservation or rationing.
Gas is not expensive because it is rare; it is expensive for a bunch of reasons–most of them contrived and artifical–but it isn’t because the tanks are running dry.
People will cut back on something when they feel the financial pinch, but some politicians think we are too dumb to do even that.
Trust me, when toilet paper is 3 bucks a sheet, people will crap less.
Here we go again with the “Wrong Arm of The Law” :(
Going back to a 55 mph PSL is a terrible idea. Did Senator Warner even think about traffic bottlenecking and backup concerns. Why just yesterday, I noticed an older lady going 55-60 in the left lane in a 70mph speed zone. Their were 17 cars behind this lady that wanted to pass her but she was “hogging” the left lane. I don’t agree w/ going “backwords” to a 55 mph PSL. It’s simple, LEAVE THE MOTORISTS ALONE!
I’ve not seen any statistics, but I suspect that less than 10% of our collectively driven miles are on those highways with limits greater than 55. Most popualtion centers are currently at 55 mph. For example, driving from Gary, IN, all the way though the northern Chicago suburbs, the limit is 55 even though the majority of the drivers are moving 65 – 70 mph. Any universal 55 limit savings would be insignificant.
Senator Warner is not running for reelection he is retireing when his term is up in January so it is not a simple matter of voteing him out of office but we can still vote others out of office that support this the poll numbers show that between 60 and 80 percent don’t support this also the AAA two thirds of the state governers including some from states that did not raise the speed limit think it should remain up to the states even Obama thinks it should remain up to the states he says he wants to promote technology instead.
Good news/bad news:
http://www.hothardware.com/News/Speeding_Radar_Gun_vs_GPS/
It’s not surprising to hear of Senator Warner’s ideas. Unfortunately, the vast majority of our senators and representatives suffer from cranial-rectal inversion. Their arrogance and elitism is why this country is the mess that it is. The filthy masses (the citizens that elected them) have no idea what is best for them, just ask the congress. They’ll tell you. LOL.
Incidently, driving 55 does not save enough fuel to make a real difference, most people will not see the savings that they will be led to believe will occur. The vehicles that have been built since 1974 to the present are more efficient at todays freeway speeds, also, SPEED DOES NOT KILL, STUPIDITY KILLS, THE REAL DANGER IS SPEED DIFFERENTIAL (some vehicles going significantly slower than the majority of traffic. That is why traffic slowdowns occur. So get your B**t in gear!!!!
Sen. Warner was against the repeal of the NMSL back in ’95, in fact I believe he was the chair of one of the important committees the repeal bill had to get through. That he advocates such silliness now is no surprise.
I truly hope most of our politicians burn. Why are they so stupid they cant see the facts and how bad most of there ideas are