Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsstat.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsstat!laura From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: 55 saves lives revisited Message-ID: <727@utcsstat.UUCP> Date: Tue, 28-Jun-83 10:57:12 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsstat.727 Posted: Tue Jun 28 10:57:12 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jun-83 13:16:36 EDT Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada Lines: 24 Finding people who's lives have been saved by travelling at 55mph does not necessarily mean that 55mph is a good thing. After all, you can find people who have been killed who are presumed to have fallen asleep at the wheel and discover that had they been travelling at 75mph they would have been safely home in bed. This just says that 55 saves some lives but kills (in the same sense that 55 saves) others. Advocating 55mph so that there will be more gas is very different from arguing that 55 saves lives. I object to the con more than to the actual speed restricitons. Lying to people is a lousy thing for a government to do. If you said "55 saves gas" or "55 saves highways from wear" then at least people would know what is actually going on. The mere expression "55 saves lives" leads people to believe that if they travel at 55mph they are less likely (or unable) to be killed. Sadly, people get killed at 55mph, and unless there are an awful lot of people who are getting killed because the speed limit is too low you see that most people who are killed on the highway would have been dead at 55 or 75mph. Let us say tomorrow we get hydrogen powered cars. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. If we run out we are in real trouble but it wont be until the sun is expected to die so we will have a lot of other things to worry about before we worry about running out of hydrogen. Now what. Do we keep the 55mph speed limit because 55 saves gas? Do we keep the 55mph speed limit because people think that 55 saves lives and havent bothered to check the figures and believe the lying government? Laura Creighton utcsstat!laura