55 mph saves lives

[Boomin33]

I was in the US for the 80's during the last energy crisis when the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph to save on petrol and apparently it also correlated with a reduction in road deaths.

What about latest news from Spain, eh. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080729/tpl-spain-energy-oil-inflation-politics-9eb7866.html


With the average speed on British motorways easily probably around 75 mph in the middle lane and 90 mph+ in the fast lane....

recon Britain will ever succumb to this horrible-ness???



from what I remember 55 made for some boring cross-country journeys...

[markc]

Ohh dear... common sense seems to go out the window as soon as any subject gets politicised :(

There's a very real propsect that we (the UK) could also end up with further reduced speed limits, this time the name of energy/planet saving.

Speed, as in vehicle speed as a killer, was politicised in the UK about 10 yrs ago and now we have silly cameras in silly places supposedly making us all safer. Never mind poor road engineering, dangerously maintained vehicles or some unbelieveably bad driving standards, if you slow everyone in their cars down enough we can all bump into each other with gay abandon and hardly anyone gets hurt. Never mind that no one and nothing actually gets anywhere and the country and economy grind to a physical and financial halt.

Now that Global Warming, Energy Efficiency, blah blah are en vogue, it and the old Speed Kills chestnut make perfect bedfellows with which to attack the poor old car and motorist.

"Reduced lighting on roads"... I'll wager this won't get a look in as a cause of increased pedestrian injuries/fatalities once in place for a few years. No doubt speed will be to blame yet again so we'll have another round of speed limit reductions.

I love the "Height Kills" analogy (to Speed Kills)... http://www.abd.org.uk/ht-kills.htm

A fun, but factually correct parallel, way to poke fun at the "Green" and "Speed" lunatic fringes... if only they were just fringes :(

I supposed that ultimately there will be a new source of employment as every car owner/driver will need to employ someone to walk in front of their car waving a red flag like the good old days.

Were all doomed :)

Rant over... I enjoyed that :)

Mark

[Senninha]

Ohh dear... common sense seems to go out the window as soon as any subject gets politicised :(

Rant over... I enjoyed that :)

Mark

Mark, I enjoyed that too! Common sense, the most under-used gift we are all given, but so few can use effectively :rolleyes:

regards, Paul

[eclipse1501]

With only a narrow dual carriageway built in the mid 70's serving most of the east coast from Barcelona to Gibraltar during the summer holiday traffic we can't do much more than 55MPH anyway....although my last two speeding fines were slight exceptions and probably adversley affected the Spanish GDP referred to in the article - as well as UAE oil reserves.

[Nick Graves]

Ohh dear... common sense seems to go out the window as soon as any subject gets politicised :(

There's a very real propsect that we (the UK) could also end up with further reduced speed limits, this time the name of energy/planet saving.

Speed, as in vehicle speed as a killer, was politicised in the UK about 10 yrs ago and now we have silly cameras in silly places supposedly making us all safer. Never mind poor road engineering, dangerously maintained vehicles or some unbelieveably bad driving standards, if you slow everyone in their cars down enough we can all bump into each other with gay abandon and hardly anyone gets hurt. Never mind that no one and nothing actually gets anywhere and the country and economy grind to a physical and financial halt.

Now that Global Warming, Energy Efficiency, blah blah are en vogue, it and the old Speed Kills chestnut make perfect bedfellows with which to attack the poor old car and motorist.

"Reduced lighting on roads"... I'll wager this won't get a look in as a cause of increased pedestrian injuries/fatalities once in place for a few years. No doubt speed will be to blame yet again so we'll have another round of speed limit reductions.

I love the "Height Kills" analogy (to Speed Kills)... http://www.abd.org.uk/ht-kills.htm

A fun, but factually correct parallel, way to poke fun at the "Green" and "Speed" lunatic fringes... if only they were just fringes :(

I supposed that ultimately there will be a new source of employment as every car owner/driver will need to employ someone to walk in front of their car waving a red flag like the good old days.

Were all doomed :)

Rant over... I enjoyed that :)

Mark

If it's any consolation, I am also one of the ABD "nutters" - as we are widely portrayed.

[nigel]

I'm in the states and i'm sure it won't be long before some pillick gets on the slow down wagon and then California will get involved and it will raise its ugly head again.
It took years to get rid of it the last time.

Cheers
nigel