I Can't Drive 55
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 02:20PM I started watching my speed recently in relation to the posted speed limits and I've grown ever more confident that speed limits as they stand now are ridiculous. I would bet a nice steak dinner that not a person reading this actually drives the posted speed limits 100% of the time. In fact I would like to share a couple observations...
Let's start by pointing out people do not drive the posted speed limits. For instance, today I was riding down DW Highway in Merrimack in an area posted at 30 MPH during a high traffic time so the road was fairly bumper to bumper. The car I was in was keeping pace with the car in front of me who in turn was keeping pace with the car in front of them and so on. I even noticed a police cruiser traveling at the same pace as he too was within the pocket of traffic. At that point I looked down to the speedometer and it read 45 MPH, 15 miles per hour over the speed limit yet every car on the road was going that rate.
On another occasion I was riding in a car backed up in a line of traffic because the leading car was going so slow on the one lane road. The car I was in was already 4 cars back and there were more cars lining up behind me. Again I looked to see how fast we were all traveling to led to such a "slowdown", the speedometer read 35 MPH... the posted speed limit was 30 MPH.
I also question why I-93 drops to 55 in Salem just before it switches from a two lane highway to a 3 lane highway which I would think could even more safely accommodate higher speed traffic, not to mention this is roughly 4 miles before it crosses over into MA which has their limit set back up to 65 MPH. What is the logic other then creating an unnecessary speed trap to help generate revenue for the state?
In a video found HERE a group of students actually choose to enact a case of civil obedience and on a five lane highway got five cars to actually drive the posted speed limit. The reaction was people illegally passing in the breakdown lane (in one case actually hitting a broken down car to get around them). Obeying the law created dangerous situation!
One driver, Larry Lemay is no longer willing to put up with this foolishness has filed a lawsuit against the state of NH. His lawsuit is asking the state to actually do its job and research what a safe speed would be on all its highways and set it's limits appropriately instead of keeping them artificially low for the sake of having a cash cow which they can use to extract money unjustly from people.
My hat is off to Larry and I wish him the very best in his efforts! In the meantime I am publicly requesting that people act out in civil obedience and FOLLOW THE LAW. Maybe after enough of our state politicians find themselves stuck behind people actually following the law they will understand the need to increase the speed limit.
This is nothing more then Government making criminals out of good honest people!
Reader Comments (23)
Another screwy lawsuit.
Go ahead and waste tax funds to get your name in the paper.
You guys have it sooo bad.
Are you offering a"stake dinner" as in a piece of wood driven into the ground, typically with a plastic orange flag on top of it, or a "steak dinner" as in meat derived from a cow?
All kidding aside. I agree that in some places 55 is too slow during the summer months. In the winter, most times 55 is too fast.
How about steak on a stake, yummie!
Chaz your right, why sue the almighty, all powerful State for fleecing taxpayers when you can sue an evil corporation for selling legal products that EVERYONE knows are bad, and blame them for bad things that happen as a result of an individual's poor choices.
Basically, the thought is that when you are driving on a road that is posted below the average safe speed, you are actually less safe.
The reason is because you are using a substantial amount of your concentration to make sure you don't go too fast, so you don't get bugged by the pesky authoritarians.
Thusly taking that concentration you would be exercising actually watching the road, rather than your speedometer, off driving safely.
Hmmm, 15 seems to be the magic number. Maybe a study to determine how the police state aims to make drivers less safe by imposing bogus speed limits is in order...
Conspiracy to defraud the public, conspiracy to perpetuate unsafe driving conditions etc.
No I don't drive the speed limit all the time. My motorcycle tops out at 155.
I wish we could all enjoy Autbahn speeds here in NH.
There are plenty of things I wish for and can't have.
It's not even about being able to drive as fast as you want. It's about setting the legal limit at a reasonable amount so people can and actually would follow the law.
Did you watch the video I linked to? In the case where the group of people did actually follow the law it created unsafe driving conditions and actually caused an accident. Following the law led to unsafe conditions. That's not what laws are supposed to be about. Laws should protect us and be reasonable enough that everyone can and will willingly follow them. After all the government is to serve the will of the people, not the other way around.
Walking across a desert endangers no one, and when it is done in search of a better life for one's family it can even be considered a morally admirable act.
I know illegal immigrations is "illegal", and so is speeding. So your criminality defense regarding deporting illegals falls apart like a bad suit...nudge nudge larry.
If teaching legal immigrants the way Americans live involves teaching them how we drive on our highway system that is in effect teaching them criminal behavior. Hence all immigration must be stopped immediately.
A law is a law Richard. You of all people should know that.
Coming into this country legally however is not something that cannot be avoided so there is a world of difference between an unreasonable speeding law which you cannot follow without creating a dangerous situation (as shown in the video) and a law which you CAN follow. Coming here illegal amounts to nothing less then breaking and entering. We the people own this country. It's nothing different then if I were to break into your home and make myself at home in your living room.
I believe God owns this country and the whole world and in a few short years when our lease is up we may be able to question him face to face. We are have the right and duty to organize ourselves however we see fit to ensure the public good, but we should never confuse that for ownership.
Seriously though, do you believe that borders should be open and people should be free to pick their country at will? That's what I'm getting from your last post. I can't see how anyone can support the war on terror as some of your writing has shown you do but then feel just anyone can and should be free to walk into this country unchecked and settle in. One of the two of us may need to write something up to dive into that debate as it is a bit off topic for this one.
The biggest threat with regard to immigration is not the border. The biggest threat are these cadres of illegal immigrants who are living outside the system, forming the basis of a shadow society that could easily be co-opted by people that truly hate us.
We can't deport them. Anyone who says we can is just out of their minds. We can't jail them all. We can't continue on as we have. We can't allow the situation to get any worse, and in the absence of a broad agreement on immigration our borders will not be better defended but will get worse. And then instead of going into only certain stores and hearing all Spanish we end up with a bi-lingual society each with very different sympathies.
In fifteen years Richard the number of hispanics in this country doubled. It will double again if we do nothing to protect the border and if it does and we havent provided enough incentive for hispanics to learn english we will have almost half the country speaking spanish and with more sympathy towards Mexico because "The Gringos never wanted us any way" will be the common attitude.
We need to pull these people into the American way of life now or the American way of life will disappear. And we have to tighten up the border so this never happens again.
This is a situation where if we are too choosey and base our arguments too much on principle we could miss out on an opportunity to change direction for the better. That is what John McCain is thinking and I agree with him 100%.
Maybe. I second guess God all the time. But at least I know who owns the real estate.
I do know we live in the real world and we do need organization and structure in our society. I believe we should secure our borders. I don't believe it is right to allow this migration to continue unabated. And I believe our country should have one national language. Other than that, I don't mind if illegal immigrants, in the process of us defending our nation, our culture, and our language, are given an easier ticket to citizenship. In fact, I consider it inevitable, so I would be very happy to welcome them all. Future mass migrations are not inevitable and should be controlled.
No Dave, there are just laws and unjust laws, smart laws and dumb laws, etc.
Do you think God cares whether or not we violate stupid laws, as long as we don't harm or endanger others? Further, do you think God approves when people such as Rosa Parks violate unjust laws?
A law is _not_ a law. I will be happy to debate specifics on any occasion (well, maybe after I dig out of this hole I created by leaving town for the weekend).
Matt