Now the dumb Jackass...

[Dave Saxton]

... Obama wants to bring back the 55mph speed limit. Unbelievable! I can't wait for his term to end. What does he do wake up every morning and take stupid pills? Every aspect of his presidency is a complete disaster. I give him a F grade on everything so far. If he and his envoromentalist dumb ass buddys succeed in bringing back the 55mph speed limit I will not be in compliance.

[RF]

Lets see..... its now getting to the end of January 2011. And next year, 2012, is presidential election year.

The primaries and caucuses start around February 2012.... so the voters will start to get a say in about a years' time. So not that long to go.

[Gary]

I wasnt even aware the 55 limit had been scrapped! (I'm British).
My Dad said that when Obama got elected he would only be a "one term" president - I think my old man is gonna be right!

[19kilo]

Its starting to look like Egypt could be his Iran.

[Dave Saxton]

Indeed its like Jimmy Carter all over again only much more radically leftwing. Maybe he's not a one termer in the sense that it's like Jimmy Carter's second term 30 years removed -with a vengence.

[RF]

I don't think that Barack Obama's presidency is too much like that of Jimmy Carter. For one thing Carter would not have reinforced the US military effort in Afghanistan as Obama has, Carter would have pulled out all together.

[Dave Saxton]

On the domestic front many of his economic and energy policies are very much like Carter only more radically idealogically entrenched with much the same results. Concerning Afghanistan, his retoroic during the campaign kind of forced him to put on a show there, but that's all it really is: a dog and poney show and not a sincere effort to win a positive solution of any kind.

[Lutscha]

Would you trade your cheap cars and gas for our Autobahn with no speed limit (or at least 120 km/h, meaning every German drives around 140)?

Driving 200 km/h can be quite funny at times but if you pay 1,50€ a litre it hurts as fast as you drive.

Since Germany is afaik the only country left with (mostly) no speed limits on motor ways/express highways it must really be something special for foreigners to drive on an Autobahn and seeing the blue sign with a 130 on it. :)

[Gary]

Speed limits whilst frustrating at times do exist for a reason.
I learned a hard lesson as a daft 18 year old who was coming home late from college in my parents car.
I had another lad in with me and trying to be a clever s**t I hit the ridiculous speed of 125MPH on the dual carriageway.
I was in the outside lane and someone ahead pulled out infront of me - it would have been clear when they checked their mirror but due to the horrnedous speed I was doing I would have caught up way faster than they would have ever expected.
I had to hit the brakes and the other car managed to pull out of the way just in the nick of time.
My parents car required 2 new front tyres due to the amount of tread that was left on the road (the skid mark was visible for some time afterwards).
I'm not proud of nearly causing a fatal accident through sheer stupidity and needless to say I've never driven like that since.
Speed can kill.
Lesson learned.

[Dave Saxton]

Obviously one must use good judgement. I guess its just that bit of liberterian in me coming out when I push back against excessive laws, and excessive regulations, and excessive Gov interference of any kind. Actually, prior to Nixon establishing the (temporary, yeah right) 55mph limit there were several rural highways in the west which had no speed limit. After the states finally threw off the Fed yoke, with the help of Reagan, they established their own speed limits. Montana had no speed limits on several roads in the day time, but they left in a clause where the cop could determine if it was safe or not. The limit was therefore whatever the cop said it was. To curtail abuses of interputation by the cops, they then set the limit to 75 mph.

On the 75 mph roads everybody actually drives about 80 and usually the cops look the otherway. One of the interesting things about raising the speed limit was that the number of highway fatalities per miles driven went down as the limits went up. In fact highway fatalities per mile driven has declined every year since the Federal 55 mph limit was scrapped. Two lane highways are typically 65 mph now, and everybody naturally drives about 72 mph on these -according to studies. Some states such as Texas, Utah, and Nevada now have 80 mph speed limit sections.

In urban areas it's a known fact that the faster the traffic flows the less there are traffic jams. In most urban areas the speed limit is loosly enforced to keep the traffic flowing. If you can go-you go -within reason. I was pulling my horse trailer with a pickup truck through Dallas once going about 80. I saw this trooper and slowed down to 65, which was the posted limit. He then pulled up beside me and yelled: "Kick that thing in the a$$, your holding up traffic!"

Another interesting fact is that excessively low speed limits doesn't always save gas. My old Mustang gets its best gas mileage at about 80 mph. It gets about 27 mpg at that speed. Actually it uses the same amount of gas per hour at typical cruising engine speeds with an overdrive 5th gear ratio of 0.63. If I slow down to 55 or 65 the mpg drops to about 20. If go faster than 80mph it also drops down to about 20mpg. If I have to go so slow that I need to shift the transmission down to 4th gear (1.00 ratio) it will get worse gas mileage. The Mercedes all the sons bought for my dad gets 36 mpg at around 80mph but less than 30 mpg at lower average cruising speeds. I guess if I ran at it 90mph plus like my brother does it would only get about 25mpg as it does when he drives it.

[José M. Rico]

Here in Spain our government has just approved a "temporary" reduction of the speed limit from 120 Km/h to 110 km/h (that would be 68 mph), they say in order to reduce oil consumption because of the crisis in Libya. This measure may reduce the number of accidents overall but whether it helps to save much oil is another matter.

[RF]

Jose, if drivers get frustrated and ''bunch'' as a result of keeping to lower speed limits, the number of accidents can increase....

[frontkampfer]

Nothing causes more "road rage" than some slow poke in the fast and/or middle lanes on the highway with drivers manuvering to get around them. If a driver can't take the higher speeds either stay in the slow lanes or stay of the highway! As far as lowering the speed limits goes, drivers will still exceed them regardless. Just observe any rush hour and see how much over the speed limits they go as proof.

[RF]

I see that Obama has today announced his intention to stand for re-election as US President in 2012.....

[frontkampfer]

Its called compounding a mistake!