http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=6&u=/ap/20030605/ap_on_re_us/speed_limit_study
I wish they'd give death rates in terms of numbers per person-mile driven, rather than in raw numbers. Also, I liked this statement: "The conventional view is often that speed kills. But some people ... would argue that the variance of speed kills," Dee said Wednesday. I strongly wish that the cops ticketed for driving too slowly (more than x number of miles below the limit) as well as for too quickly. I've never ONCE seen someone pulled aside for driving too slowly. I read about it happening, ONCE, in the case of a man distraught about a family situation. I recently was on the road with an older man driving, on the highways of LA, and he was going somewhat too slowly. It seemed that every car on the road passed us. I think he could have driven somewhat faster, but part of it was a choice not to. In any case, I did not think the situation was as safe as I would have liked. While I do think that a person has the right to go slower, according to their own capabilities and the vehicle's capabilities, and while I do respect an experienced driver perhaps perceiving that things are going too quickly, I think at some point they are going too slowly, and should be ticketed, as they are nearly as dangerous to everyone as someone driving reckelssly fast (with the exception of the fact that they are not putting as much kinetic energy into the accidents they will cause by their vehicle speed and conduct disparity as someone who is driving faster than the flow). U.S. National - AP Study: Higher Speed Limit Raises Risks Thu Jun 5,10:19 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer PHILADELPHIA - Raising the speed limit to 70 mph or more increases the risk of driving-related deaths for women and the elderly, but not for younger men, a study has found. Twenty-nine states have raised their speed limits to at least 70 mph since Congress abolished the national 55-mph limit in 1995, and several more states are debating whether to increase their speed limits. While states that raised their speed limits experienced no increase in the overall number of traffic-related deaths, fatalities per 100,000 people rose 10 percent for women and 13 percent for the elderly, researchers found. There was no increase for men under the age of 65, says the study, which appears in the June issue of the journal Economics Letters. The study doesn't explain the reasons for the difference, but co-author Thomas Dee, an assistant economics professor at Swarthmore College, theorizes that a higher speed limit increases the disparity of driving speeds and thus the risk of accidents. "The conventional view is often that speed kills. But some people ... would argue that the variance of speed kills," Dee said Wednesday. Eric Skrum, communications director for the National Motorists Association, a Wisconsin-based drivers organization that supports higher speed limits called the study's findings "junk." "When you set (the speed limit) at an appropriate level, you have a higher compliance with the speed limit, less weaving in and out of traffic ... a safer driving environment," Skrum said. While highway deaths may be increasing for women and the elderly, men are still killed on the roads in far greater numbers. Nearly 28,000 men died in automobile crashes in 2001, compared with more than 13,000 women, according to government statistics. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
