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

On 2008-07-25, CharlesTheCurmudgeon <CharlesTheCurmudgeon@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>
> "Brent P" <tetraethylleadREMOVETHIS@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
> news:JsednVVKGdZT6xXVnZ2dnUVZ_r_inZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> 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 the NMSL was eventually repealed is it got more and more difficult for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.
>>
>>
>
> The public WASN"T obeying it. 

That's why they massaged all the numbers. Eventually the only thing
possible was to outright lie to the feds to keep the highway funds
coming.

> Supposedly the maximum speed in Crook County 
> is 55 on all the expressways.  I've seen I-294 hitting 90.

I've seen it where 90mph or slower meant being tailgated.  

> Just like Prohibition, observed mostly in the breach.  And our banning
of 
> marijuana, done only to keep the Mexicans out.  (Lot of good that did.)

they used ethinic and racial fears to get a segment of the population
behind banning pot, that's true. However I think the real reasons were
economic. That is to keep the plant out because it was competition for
for various business interests. As I learn more and more I find that most
of the laws and regulation beyond the simple things like 'don't kill your
neighbor' and ones that increase government's power and bottom line in
the USA are for the benefit of one business over another, to prevent
entry into markets, to use the government to put competition out
of business, etc and so on.