Re: On Topic? Cars, anyway: 55 MPH speed limit...

On 2008-07-24, CharlesTheCurmudgeon <CharlesTheCurmudgeon@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> As I've often said, there are two kinds of drivers on Chicago
expressways: 
> The Quick and The Dead.  You ain't quick.  You're actually a traffic 
> obstacle.  Especially on some of the tollways, where the average speed
is 75 
> at times.

I've experienced I294 where 90mph would make one of the 'slow'. Autobahn
speeds with the chaos and rudeness of american drivers. The speed isn't
the problem of course, 90mph is perfectly safe if it wasn't for the LLBs
etc. 

> I thought 55 was a stupid idea.  Even when I was driving my 1501 (One of

> those $3748 1979 Toyota Corolla specials, no carpet, no 5th gear, a
little 
> 1.2 engine.)  I still was going faster than that, although getting her
over 
> 65 was tough.

55mph was really never obeyed in any meaningful way. Part of the reason
the NMSL was eventually repealed is it got more and more difficult for
the states to cook the books. The feds kept allowing greater and greater
mathmatical gymnastics but the states still couldn't show the public was
obeying it.