On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 01:45:49 GMT, Arif Khokar >
wrote:

>Big Bill wrote:
>> On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 18:35:12 GMT, Dave Head > wrote:
>
>>>And, as was shown by the Montana experience, where they eliminated their speed
>>>limit, people tend to fasten their seat belt when they know that theyre going
>>>to cruise at 90+, or someone close to them is. Their deathrates didn't
>>>skyrocket as the hand-wringers predicted, either.
>
>> The carnage that was predicted when the national 55 limit was lifted
>> didn;t happen. Yet, the carnage continues unabated.
>
>If that were the case, then the fatality rate would not continue to decline.

Hyperbole isn't recognized well.
>
>For instance, let's say that there is a certain degree of probability of
>a bad outcome when engaging in a certain activity (such as driving). It
>stands to reason that the longer you engage in the activity
>(cumulitively), the more likely you'll experience a bad outcome. Also,
>the more people who engage in this activity at the same time, the more
>likely a bad outcome will occur.
>
>Now, if the fatality rate and crash rates stayed the same for the last
>15 years, then we obviously would have a given percentage increase in
>the total number of those bad outcomes that would correspond to the
>percentage increase in the total VMT. The fact that this is not the
>case shows that the carnage is abating to some extent.
>
>> Well, let's hear you actually address the facts that there are a *LOT*
>> of **** poor drivers out there.
>> You want to just let them drive faster?
>
>Who says that they aren't driving faster already? A speed limit that
>has less than 1% compliance has no bearing whatsoever on actual traffic
>speeds. Changes in the limit do not have a linear relationship with
>changes in traffic speed. If the limit increases by 5 mph, the 85th
>percentile speed increases by 1.5 mph. If the limit is raised 10 mph,
>the 85th percentile speed increases by 4 mph (according to statistics
>obtained from the WVDOT).

Now, that's hyperbole. I recognize it. :-)

--
Bill Funk
Change "g" to "a"