mzal@pegasus.UUCP (Mike Zaleski) (07/05/84)
I have decided to send the following letter to a few of the popular
automotive magazines. It is basically a copy of my original posting
on "What to do about the 55 MPH limit?" with a bit of explaination and
expansion on my points. Will this really lead to the formation of
a motorists movement to get rid of the 55 MPH limit? Time will tell.
If you'd like to send a copy of this to any other automotive magazines,
or spread this message anywhere else, please feel free to do so.
Also, thanks to those people who wrote back to me or net.auto about
this subject. (Unfortunately, some mail messages arrived empty.)
-- Mike^Z
----begin letter:
4 July 1984
To the editors of Car Collector and Car Classics,
Car&Driver,
Hot Rod,
Motor Trend,
Road and Track
and the readers of net.auto
Having been a reader of your magazine for some time, and noting
an anti-55 MPH Speed Limit sentiment in your magazine, I thought I
would write to you with my suggestion for some real methods to deal
with the limit.
The contents of the following pages were posted on the nationwide
auto enthusiats computer network bulletin board. These remarks
were made in the context of a discussion relating to the 55 MPH
limit and in particular of some discussion about gas milage and safety
at that speed.
----Begin enclosure----
Judging by the recent number of articles in this group complaining about
the 55 MPH limit, it seems the readers of net.auto are quite unhappy
about it. It also seems that this energy could be channeled more
effectively.
First, we must be really honest with ourselves. Dubious arguments
like increased gas mileage above 55 MPH or claims that the 55 MPH limit
cause more accidents aside, the real reasons we are unhappy with the
limit is that it restrains our emotional desire to drive fast (i.e.
have fun driving) and makes long trips drag out. So, how can we
drivers go about scoring a political victory with few facts to
support our cause? I have two proposals: A driving boycott and
a nationwide publicity blitz against the limit.
- A Boycott? -
Suppose we (drivers and our friendly automotive press) declared
some weekend a "no travel" weekend. A slogan something like "Too
slow, why go?" might do the trick. The idea here is that we don't
go anywhere that weekend. No ski trips, beach trips, shopping
trips, or anything of that sort. If such a boycott is in any way
successful, toll roads, gasoline companies, retail businesses,
recreational facilities, and even the police should see a reduced
income for that weekend. The hope is the fear of continued loss
of revenue from additional boycotts (or the hope that increasing
the limit might increase revenues) will cause business people to
sit up, take notice, and start putting some real pressure on the
political wheeler dealers to raise with the limit.
- A Publicity Blitz? -
Typically, issues of this sort are fought with more emotion than
fact on both sides. Mothers will cry over the loss of their
children under the wheels of speeding motorists on suburban
streets as if this was in some way related to interstate highways.
How can we fight this? Equally emotional advertisements in the
non-automotive press which:
- tell a sad tale of a family breaking up because the breadwinner
lost his or her license for too many speeding tickets, couldn't
get to work, lost a job, lost a home, etc, etc.
- appeal to people's fear of crime, leave the impression that police
watching the highways are not doing useful police work. (Actually,
a large number of police are killed every year in traffic accidents.
Perhaps a police organization or two could be encouraged to come
out against the limit?)
- appeal to people's distrust of technology. (Ever get a wrong bill
from a computer? How can you trust a radar unit that gets banged
around, has coffee spilled on it, etc, etc?)
- appeal to nationalistic desires, implying that because we have a
lower speed limit than many other countries, we are really a second
class nation.
- imply that driving slowly induces stress and other sorts of
unhealthy things.
- imply that the 55 MPH limit has given the police another tool to
use to spy on and harass innocent citizens.
- imply that the 55 MPH limit is a plot by lawyers and politicians
to make more money without adding anything productive to the
economy.
- Are There Any Facts? -
In point of fact, the following could probably be offered as evidence
against the 55 MPH limit:
- Any gas savings are more than offset by time wasted, if one values
their time as being worth at least the minimum hourly wage.
- The actual number of fatalities on the high speed, limited access
highways is only about 10 percent of the total number of fatalities.
Also, it appears that the actual number of highway miles driven
has fallen since the 55 MPH limit was imposed, so the number of
fatalities per highway mile has in fact remained fairly constant
(hence refuting the safety argument).
- The effective throughput of the highways might be increased if
traffic could move along faster.
- A Compromise? -
Finally, we should realize that we are not going to see limits
go up to 75 MPH, or have unlimited speeds on our highways.
Personally, what I think would be reasonable:
1. Raise the speed limit to 65 MPH.
2. Speeding offenses of up to 10 MPH over the limit would be treated
as simple fines, with no points or insurance consequences.
In return for this, I would be willing to accept either a national
seatbelt law, or a law requiring airbags, or both.
I'd be interested in hearing other people's comments on these thoughts
of mine.
-- Mike^Z Zaleski@Rutgers allegra!pegasus!mzal
----End enclosure----
In short, what my message was appealing for is a motorists lobby
to push for changes in laws which are of interest to drivers, such
as the 55 MPH limit.
The reason I am writing to the editor of this magazine is to
suggest that the automotive press could provide the crucial
impetus to start such a movement. The automotive press has a
number of advantages:
- You can reach a large number of enthusiasts.
- You are respected publishers and your help in starting a
motorists lobby would be taken seriously and not regarded as
a moneymaking scam of some sort.
- You may have access to more people at higher levels in the
governemt, industry, and advertising world.
A specific course of action I would suggest:
1. Publishers of automotive magazines get together and agree
a. To put up a reasonable amount of "seed money" to fund an
initial thrust.
b. To try to raise some money from various automotive businesses.
(Car manufacturers, the oil industry, anyone who might benefit
from an increased speed limit. Extremely large donations -
which are unlikely, in any case - should be discouraged to
prevent this from looking like a big business "plot".)
c. To provide some free advertising space to encourage readers
to contribute to the cause of fighting the 55 MPH limit.
(I.e. to raise money for more anti-55 advertisements.)
2. Spend as much of the aforementioned "seed money" as possible on
a publicity blitz in the non-automotive press along the lines I
discussed above.
3. Have the automotive press declare some weekend a "Too slow, why go?"
driving boycott weekend. Do it with great fanfare and hope for a
good showing. If it isn't successful, no real harm is done and
we can just look for another technique to apply economic pressure.
I admit that many important details are left out of the plan I
have discussed above. However, I think the basics of a good idea
are there. It may seem odd that I don't mention writing to one's
congressperson. However, in my experience this has generated either
no response or in one case, an unsupportive response. People can
write if they want, of course. But i believe that asking people to
NOT do something (i.e. drive anywhere on some weekend) will be
more likely to generate a response.
Any comments?
-- Mike^Z Arpanet: Zaleski@Rutgers uucp: allegra!pegasus!mzal
US Mail: Michael Zaleski
AT&T Info Systems
Room 1C-307
307 Middletown-Lincroft Road
Lincroft, New Jersey 07738
(201)-576-6260
[The use of my business address should not be taken as an indication
of any official AT&T policy or involvement. All opinions contained
herein are my own. I am only using this address because I may be
moving soon.]gt@hplvle.UUCP (07/08/84)
It's your letter so I don't really want to send it in, however there
are a number of good magazines with anti 55 sentiment that you might
want to include.
Cycle World
Motorcyclist
Cycle
Black Biker
Cycle News
Motorcyclist are becoming more aware of their numbers and their
need to make themselves heard before some well meaning bozos take
away even more rights, hence, a likely place to get results.
George Tatge
HP Loveland Instrument Div.
ihnp4!hpfcla!hplvla!gtdwhitney@uok.UUCP (07/09/84)
#R:pegasus:-146900:uok:500044:000:1577
uok!dwhitney Jul 9 10:33:00 1984
Please add my name to the list of those who wholeheartedly support your
movement!! It's time we all faced reality and do with the 55 mph limit
what should have been done when it was suggested; shoot it all to (you
know where.)
I may suggest two things:
1. Be wary of environmental groups. These people panic at the sight of
anything remotely automotive, and no doubt they'll somehow contend
that an increased speed limit contributes to the demise of some rare
tropical gopher-fish.
2. You could take a lead from California. I was out there in late May,
and a movement just starting to make the news was one which wanted
the 55 MPH limit reduced, in spite of governmental blackmail not to.
I believe they planned a civil lawsuit that the Government cannot
withhold states funds paid to the gov't which belong to the state
in the first place, which in effect makes the govt a trustee of the
funds. Trustees, of course, cannot withhold the funds from those
who placed them in their care!! If someone in the know can clear
up any incorrect details of this please do so!
By the way, if I remember correctly, here in Oklahoma the highway limit
was always about 80. You can drive on I-35 south into Texas and see
the limit signs where they all used to be 75 and 80, but have been covered
with new numbers. If someone added up all the money wasted to put this
asinine speed limit into effect, the total would probably make us all
puke...
Heres to the end of 55;; "Take a Dive, 55!!"
David Whitney
ctvax!uokvax!uok!dwhitneykiessig@idi.UUCP (Rick Kiessig) (07/14/84)
There was a guy out here in California who was planning
an interesting approach to the "55 problem". He was collecting
pledges from people for the following:
1. If you got a ticket for speeding, you would challenge
it in the courts.
2. At the time you got your ticket, you would send in
$5 to "the campaign".
3. If you won your battle in court, you would receive $25.
The idea was to overload the judicial system to the point
where the "powers that be" would be forced to take some sort of
action. He had the financial numbers all worked out, and was
waiting for some large number of pledges before actually putting
the thing into motion. He was located in Hawaii for a while, and
they stifled things by saying that he was illegally selling securities.
I heard about this a couple of years ago. I have no idea
if he ever tried to make it work.
--
Rick Kiessig
{decvax, ucbvax}!sun!idi!kiessig
{akgua, allegra, amd70, burl, cbosgd, dual, ihnp4}!idi!kiessig
Phone: 408-996-2399mzal@pegasus.UUCP (Mike Zaleski) (07/14/84)
Excerpt from: Rick Kiessig ({decvax, ucbvax}!sun!idi!kiessig)
There was a guy out here in California who was planning
an interesting approach to the "55 problem". He was collecting
pledges from people for the following:
1. If you got a ticket for speeding, you would challenge
it in the courts....
The idea was to overload the judicial system to the point
where the "powers that be" would be forced to take some sort of
action.
The action they would most likely take is to raise the cost of the
ticket. Nevertheless, this is also another anti-55 step which can
be taken where possible. (It always isn't, like when I got a ticket
on the empty Northway, some five hours from where I live.) Having
police officers sit around in court means that they aren't sitting
by the roadside writing more tickets. Use the system against itself!
Inicdentally, a friend of mine who is about to complete work on his
law degree tells me that lawyers are actually fairley effective in
getting "not guilty" verdicts on various motor vehicle charges.
Even if you decide not to go the lawyer route, you may still be
successful challanging radar evidence (or any ticket) in court.
Some tactics:
1. Verify that the officer who issued the citation had legal jurisdiction
where the citation was issued.
2. Request evidence that the officer/issuing agency had an operator's license
and training for the radar unit in question.
3. Request evidence that the radar unit and/or car speedometer had
been recently calibrated.
4. Verify that the speed reported by radar was indeed yours. My
understanding (sorry I don't remember where I read this) is that
the officially recognized correct method is to clock the speed
of a car on radar until it passes the radar unit. Then, if the
radar unit indicates a different speed, the previous reading
was for the car in question (and not for some other vehicle).
If this procedure was not followed, you may be able to beat the
ticket.
5. If possible, arrange for a postponement of your hearing. The
longer between the incident and the trial, the worse the officer's
memory of the matter will be, and hopefully his testimony will seem
less convincing.
Remember, tickets raise your insurance too. A ticket can easily
cost you several hundred dollars. Isn't the potential of saving
that much worth an evening dealing with the court?
-- Mike^Z allegra!pegasus!mzal Zaleski@Rutgersdavew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams) (07/17/84)
--------------------------------------------
Oregon's 55 mile speed limit law is written as a fuel
conservation measure. Several months ago a judge in a
town near here starting throwing out cases of people
getting tickets for going 55-70 because he claimed there
was no longer a gas shortage and therefore the law, as
written, was invalid. There was a lot of pressure put
on him by the powers that be, but he was not dissuaded.
As far as I know he still is doing this. Has anyone else
heard of this happening in other parts of the country?
Dave Williams
Tektronix, Inc.
ECS