GRIDLOCK GURU : Speed limit won’t right fuel crunch
Posted on Friday, October 3, 2008
Congress is considering a lower national speed limit, taking away 70 mph and replacing it with 65 mph.
Kansas and other states are talking the same type of speed reduction.
Arkansas dares to be different, though, completing a study last month about increasing the speed limit on some two- and four-lane state highways.
The state’s verdict ? No way.
“Since gas prices have gone up, there hasn’t been as much interest in raising speeds,” said Randy Ort, a Highway Department spokesman.
A study, requested by Rep. Scott Sullivan, D-De Queen, and required by Act 242 of 2007, found no change in speed should occur with the possibility of a lower national speed limit pending.
U. S. Rep. Jackie Speier, DCalif., proposed the federal bill that calls for 65 mph on rural interstates. The American Trucking Association is on board with her idea, favoring 65 mph for all cars and trucks. In Arkansas, truckers already are limited to 65 while others drivers can go 70, so the truckers wouldn’t be giving up anything.
The Guru built a scientific survey and sent it to a few of his readers. It was simple: “What y’all think about driving 65 instead of 70 ?”
“I can’t say what the other drivers will do, but I won’t be likely to change my speed,” writes Carolyn Fincher of Springdale. “I customarily drive 80 to 85 on Interstate 540, for instance. That isn’t going to change if they lower the speed limit. I will just get more tickets. I view tickets I get as a cost of driving.”
Judy Harper of Bella Vista said Arkansans would oppose a lower speed even if getting from Fayetteville to Bentonville at the busiest times of day wouldn’t take much longer.
“I bet it’s mere minutes, but it’s the perception of speed most people won’t give up,” Harper writes. “We all drive as fast as the traffic will allow now, and I don’t see that behavior changing.”
Richard Conboy of Springdale said the public would accept a lower speed.
“In a state that doesn’t require motorcycle helmets, the federal government wants to reduce speeds ?” Conboy writes. “But the people will go along with it because most Americans are like lemmings — that’s why they will reelect 98 percent of the people who have caused high gas prices and the current economic collapse.”
Ves Childs, however, has slowed down. He makes three trips a week from Tontitown to Bentonville and Rogers to play duplicate bridge.
“I have dropped my speed from 70-75 in the left lane to 55-60 in the right lane,” Childs writes. “I get the impression that a number of others are doing likewise.”
Sullivan, the legislator who requested the Highway Department study, remains interested in seeing a higher speed on certain highways, and he’s willing to wait.
“The timing isn’t right with the fuel crunch and Washington talking about lowering the speed limit,” Sullivan said. “I still say there are some roads that need to be raised to 65. They can be traveled safely at that speed, but if the feds reduced the speed limit to 55, we’d have to turn right around and lower them.” Robert J. Smith, aka The Guru, writes on traffic issues in Northwest Arkansas each Friday. He can be reached at gridlockguru @arkansasonline. com or www. nwanews. com / gridlockguru.
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