RE: Motoring News - 65 MPH speed limit results in CA (no Audi

[Anton Gaidos III <anton_gaidos_iii@firepower.com>]

This is a great post and an accurate observation. What I fail to
understand is this. Why is it that with so many intelligent people, like
on this list floating around that outrageous policy and political
mouthwash prevails in our society? Should we spend a little less time
under the hood and a little more time conveying the power of the vote?

Anton J. Gaidos, III
PC Design
Motorola Computer Group
"The fortunate man knows how much he can safely leave to chance"

>----------
>From: 	Gross Scruggs[SMTP:GScruggs@wposmtp.nps.navy.mil]
>Sent: 	Friday, February 21, 1997 10:04 AM
>To: 	quattro@coimbra.ans.net; steveb@falcon.kla.com
>Subject: 	Motoring News - 65 MPH speed limit results in CA (no Audi 
>
>-- No Audi Technical Content, Just Audi Driver Content --
>
>Steve, your observation supports a little known NTSB-commissioned study, the
>name and authors of which I don't recall.  I saw the study reprinted in an
>issue
>of Road&Track about two years ago.  The great fallacy that the politicians,
>law
>enforcement and other ignorants keep stating is that without speed limits
>people
>would drive faster and faster until our highways were slick with blood of the
>innocents.  Well it don't work that way.  The previously mentioned study
>found
>what actually happens is that when unrestrained people tend to drive at the
>speed at which information comes to them at a personally comfortable rate.  
>
>If one were to suddenly abolish speed limits there would of course be an orgy
>of
>'wow this is neat' triple digit excursions but very quickly the vast vast
>majority of drivers would settle to 70-80mph where they would be comfortable
>processing the data involved in driving.  My own experience indicates that
>when
>I try to drive at a speed too high or too low for my existing mental
>condition,
>affected by sleep, fatigue, anxitey, excitement, and yes, alcohol, that I
>have
>to devote a great deal more energy to the process than when the speed is
>synchronized with my mental condition.    
>
>The 70-80mph figure mentioned previously is not a 'universal human being'
>number.  It is affected by things like the culture you've grown up in,
>personal
>skill assessment, road conditions, vehicle conditions, weather, and the like.
>The heart of the matter is that we all process information/data at rates
>which
>are personally confortable and when we are stuffed into a politically decided
>limit we rarely operate at optimum efficiency.  
>
>I do not advocate a pedaltothemetal limit because there are very few of us
>that
>are capable or trained to deal with the physics and decisions required at
>high
>speeds.  No brag...just reality.  Graduated Drivers Licenses is a very good
>idea
>that has no chance in our climate of 'equality at any cost.'
>
>Regards,  Gross Scruggs
>
>