Posted on 07/07/2006 4:37:35 AM PDT by libstripper
It's another summer weekend, when millions of families pack up the minivan or SUV and hit the road. So this is also an apt moment to trumpet some good, and underreported, news: Driving on the highways is safer today than ever before.
In 2005, according to new data from the National Highway Safety Administration, the rate of injuries per mile traveled was lower than at any time since the Interstate Highway System was built 50 years ago. The fatality rate was the second lowest ever, just a tick higher than in 2004.
As a public policy matter, this steady decline is a vindication of the repeal of the 55 miles per hour federal speed limit law in 1995.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
"The 55-mile speed limit really does lower gas usage. And wherever it can be required, and the people will accept it, we ought to do it." - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
The next thing she will propose is a return to prohibition!
Aww, come on. You know we're not safer because we raised the speed limit. We're safer because we're finally getting just about all those dadgum Corvairs off the streets...
Government bureaucrats, insurance companies, and cops hate the higher speed limits too. Bureaucrats because they hate seeing the peasants have even a tiny vestige of freedom, insurance companies because there are fewer tickets to stick it to us on rates, and cops because it makes their job (enhancing government revenue through giving tickets) harder.
New Yorkers voted for her in a rather large majority - yet another reason to hate New York.
The initial mix of big SUVs and little cards made for dangerous driving.
actually the limosine liberals like hitlary would order everone to use mass trasportation and outlaw all civilian drivers.
A lieutenant in the Toronto PD told me that they are thinking that they have allocated too much attention to traffic and are shifting their emphasis. We should do that too, We are good drivers an do not need a bunch of cops harassing us to raise money for the Christmas ball. By golly, we can even manage for days withut traffic lights after hurricanes.
New York City is actually considered one of the safest cities in the nation for motorists based on some measurements -- primarily because the auto accident fatality rates are extremely low. I can assure you that this isn't a function of safe driving and/or well-designed roads, since New York likely has one of the highest rates of unlicensed/incompetent drivers and the roadway infrastructure is an absolute piece of sh!t. New York City's accident fatality rates are low because the city is so damned congested. It's damn near impossible to die in a car accident when neither vehicle is traveling faster than 6 miles per hour.
Of course, just to take the contrarian viewpoint, the reductions in injuries and deaths could be due to more larger vehicles (SUVs), ABS brakes, mandatory side-impact protection, and mandatory airbags (with many cars now coming with side impact and side curtain airbags). Has the accident rate gone down, or just the rate of injuries and deaths? I'm pretty sure that general public's drving skills haven't improved in the slightest way.
To be accurate, this study should only count accidents, miles driven, fatalities, etc. on expressways where the speed limit has increased.
One of the biggest causes of accidents is driver fatigue. Driver fatigue is proportional to hours driven not miles covered. A 500 mile trip at an average of 55 takes a little over 9 hours, but the same trip at an average of 75 (most of the traffic on interstate) only takes 6 hours and 40 min. Increasing the average to 85 (a fair amount faster than the average) only knocks off an additional 47 minutes
Most of them probably don't have to worry - in New York City, it is next to impossible to even get up to 55 mph on their substandard freeways...
I hope the GOP candidate pounces on it, after all Upstate freeways easily should be around 70 mph...(they are usually 65 now)
They know the great majority of conservatives won't go anywhere- since they keep the Dems on life support by 'playing nice' with them. It's more important to keep the GOP unified than to do what's good for America, and that includes maintaining liberalism as a threat to keep us in line.
Crashes down 33%
Fatalities down only 16%
While I'm glad the fatality rate's down, I think I'll hold off on the celebration for a while.
I'd also like to see a breakdown of fatality rates in crashes according to speed.
My theory is that they're not conservatives at all - but like GWB, moderates at best.
"And wherever it can be required, and the people will accept it, we ought to do it"
Almost sounds like "we will take things away from you for the common good".
Hillary gone to the middle? She has always been, and always will be, a Marxist bitch.
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