Truckers Back a National 65-mph Speed Limit

Traffic system going back to stone age?

Why would we want to put a national speed limit on our highways. That's not moving forward that's going backwards. Do people honestly believe that in the year 2008 we should be setting speed limits that are the same as those in the 1950's and 60's? Interstates are the arteries of our country. Slow them down and you slow the economy down. And no it will not effect fuel prices anyway. First because of the traffic created (it's weaving in dense traffic that causes many accidents by the way), second because oil prices are rising mostly due to dollar inflation and our government overprinting money (oil prices are relatively stable compared to gold prices, notice they have both gone up in unison, if our dollar was as stable as gold oil would be $30 a barrel right now), and third because most people won't follow it just like the 55mph speed limit! Some people say "well if we could just get people to slow down it might work". Well it's not reality and never will be so stop trying to make laws that depend on something that will never happen.

We should be making laws that optimize traffic flow and restore respect for the left lanes which would thin out traffic, reduce accidents, and help the economy by speeding up our internal transportation system. Our speed limits are already under posted (never mind being 85th percentile, they aren't even average speed) combined with cruising in left lanes and not using them as passing only lanes leads to the "cars weaving in and out to get by trucks" the ATA speaks of. Our traffic flow is so inefficient it only takes a few cars to back things up because some people think they can drive in whatever lane they want at whatever speed and are bolstered in their belief by under posted limits. Think about it, there are ALWAYS these packs of traffic moving down the highway of cars scrunched together. There is plenty of room ahead but one guy is blocking the left lane and 5, 10, or even 15 cars are lined up behind him. If something goes wrong all these cars are packed like sardines which makes the accident that much worse. This also causes lots of road rage and people "weaving".

The ATA's plans to implement old outdated policies, that have been an absolute failure in the past, will cause more harm than good, just like prohibition. The 55mph speed limit did an immense amount of damage to the American auto industry resulting in cars that were poor performers both in terms of performance safety and gas usage. After all, they only had to be safe and have decent performance at 55mph. The answer to having safer more efficient cars isn't to lower the bar so that the car of the day with it's poor performance safety and gas guzzling is acceptable, it's creating the demand for a better car by raising the bar. We set our auto industry back 20 years and made our cars the laughing stock of the world and now we are paying the price and scrambling to catch up, and no 65mph speed limit is going save us now.

Sounds like the ATA wants exactly what would be best for its own profit. 65mph is good for them so therefore it should be good for everyone else. If they like it so much let them limit their own vehicles and leave everyone else out of it...but they know independent competition will gain ground.

Why would someone driving a car have to be limited to the same speed as an 18-wheeler? That doesn't even make sense. And they use safety as an excuse to try and make people feel guilty if they don't support it. Why then am I 66% more likely to die on the American interstate for a given mileage driven than the Autobahn, with trucks and all, over half of which has no speed limit (stats from IRTAD). The answer is our traffic flow system is a mess!!

Somebody please get rid of these dinosaurs and bring in some people who will try to work with reality and make our roads fast and safe and optimize traffic flow, moving us forward. Sorry to break it to everyone but gas prices will never be $1.00 a gallon again so people can drive 10mpg gas guzzler super duties without consequence, no matter what ridiculous speed limits are set. Also, don't forget the wonderful field day of speeding tickets (shored up by new technologies such as speed cameras) and jacked up insurance rates that will take money out of the hands of the consumer and put it in bureaucracies and large corporations which will reduce spending and also only hurt the economy.

John G. of FL @ Mar 27, 2008 14:49:36 PM