Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Quotation for the day: Kevin Atkinson

It has been proven time and time again that motorists will drive at a speed that they feel comfortable at--with or without a speed limit. The idea that motorists, in the absence of speed limits, will drive in a manner that ignores their own welfare, and that of fellow highway users and without speed limits they would drive at reckless irresponsible speeds, is pure nonsense. The fact is that speed limits are for the most part irrelevant. An intense federal study proves just that. The study found that neither traffic speed or accident rates were significantly affected when the speed limits were raised or lowered. Without a speed limit most motorists will probably drive between 70 and 80 mph with a few of the adventurous ones driving between 85 and 100. Or in other words about the same speed they drove before the silly national 55 mph speed limit was established.
Kevin Atkinson, "Montana: The Great Experiment" (1995), Reasonable Drivers United.

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