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      08-15-2013, 04:23 PM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NemesisX View Post
I'd caution against reading too much into a study by CATO, as they have a vested interest in promoting a "hands-off" policy for philosophical reasons (CATO is a libertarian think tank). I know I might get some flack for trying to hold a study like this to the standards of scientific rigor, but shedding bias and encouraging peer review are feasible standards to strive for even at this level. And moreover, the second link Titanium3er posted actually contained a variety of miniature case studies with different results. A small case study in Michigan showed that increasing speed limits doesn't increase fatalities. A case study elsewhere showed that increasing speed limits does increase fatalities, albeit slightly.

In principle though I'm all for legally increasing speed limits. I have no problem with speeding in and of itself. What usually worried me was speed differential, though not in the absolute naive sense of the phrase (i.e. car 1 travels at 75 in a 70, car 2 travels at 90 in a 70, and I'm worried about 90-75 = 15 MPH). When I say "speed differential," I mean the following -

Car 1 travels at 75 in a 70
Car 2 (coming up from behind) is traveling at 95 in a 70
Car 1 expects car 2 (and all other cars, in fact) to drive within +/- 10 MPH of the posted speed limit.

It's the differential between the speed at which the average driver expects fellow drivers to be driving at and the actual speed they are driving at that worries me. And, I think the importance of paying attention to this difference is magnified on highly interconnected road networks with slower speed limits. People approach a T intersection and are trying to take a right turn and merge onto a 45 MPH street (for example). There's an expectation that fellow drivers around that blind curve aren't flying down at 70 or 80.
Thread title says for interstate speed limits. You don't really have to worry about merging with 45mph cars at a T intersection on interstates. Of course the portions of interstates such as the 275s of I75 will have limits. Heck for half the day you can't go faster than 65 anyway.

Seems simple enough to me to have electronic speed limit signs that monitor the amount of traffic on the road and adjust the speed limit from there. If the monitors sense less than 30% of the roads capacity speed limits are bumped up to say 90mph. If they sense only 5% of the road's capacity, speed limit might be 120mph.

Of course the speed limit signs would have to talk to each other and you would have to have a sign/monitor every mile in more congested areas and maybe every 3 miles in more rural areas. As long as the capacity is under a certain amount for 3 consecutive monitors the limit is bumped up. As traffic builds the speed limits drop down to what they are today.
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