Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

55 mph speed limit's slayer turns eye to Briley Parkway
Nashville Tennessean ^ | 12/4/4 | YVETTE CRAIG

Posted on 12/04/2004 2:53:56 PM PST by SmithL

A great story about the woman that defeated the idiotic 55mph national speed limit.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: icantdrive55
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last
To: qam1

They're crazy then. The stretch from Syracuse to Albany is almost like traveling down a Nevada highway in the summer. Go 70 and people still fly by you.


21 posted on 12/04/2004 4:03:36 PM PST by Reaganwuzthebest
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Damn! You must be an ON (Original Nashvillian). I remember the ferry in West Nashville (Clees's Ferry). Those times are gone and not for the better.


22 posted on 12/04/2004 4:10:17 PM PST by dljordan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dljordan

Bump.


23 posted on 12/04/2004 4:22:16 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
"You can change the speed law, but you can't change the law of physics. When you are traveling those speeds, your chances of survival are nil."

Nil?

Then why does the German autobahn, where there is no speed limit and people routinely drive 200 MPH+, have a much lower fatality rate than US highways?

HHHMMMMmmmmm?

24 posted on 12/04/2004 5:37:22 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Drug prohibition laws help fund terrorism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Old Professer

Aids?


25 posted on 12/04/2004 7:15:49 PM PST by GGpaX4DumpedTea
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Seruzawa
If people don't like the way we drive out here in the west, they should stay off the freeway! I'm with you a 100% on that. I normally make it from Lehi, to Mesquite, in a little over four hours if the road is good. I'd do it at 90 + if I didn't think I'd get a ticket.

If people don't maintain their cars in such a manner as be able to cruise, there is always the slow lane. Road was bad last Sunday, and because people don't know how to drive on slick roads, it took nine and a half hours! should have been more like a six and half, to seven and a half hours...Going to quit preaching, and open a driving school...
26 posted on 12/04/2004 8:38:15 PM PST by Issaquahking ( Bush won, needs to start acting like it! He needs to defend America's southern border - NOW!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Seruzawa

"The biggest killer on our highways is incomptence."

Deserves repeating. I'd also add that the second biggest killer on our highways is not paying any attention to the road and the cars around you, but maybe that falls under incompetence?


27 posted on 12/04/2004 8:42:33 PM PST by brianl703 (Border crossing is a misdemeanor. So is drunk driving. Which do we have more checkpoints for?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Issaquahking

"If people don't maintain their cars in such a manner as be able to cruise, there is always the slow lane."

If they don't like that, there are always the US highways. Loaded with traffic lights, they give the slowpokes plenty of opportunities to stop so they don't get too overwhelmed with moving too far too fast.


28 posted on 12/04/2004 8:44:42 PM PST by brianl703 (Border crossing is a misdemeanor. So is drunk driving. Which do we have more checkpoints for?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum
Then why does the German autobahn, where there is no speed limit and people routinely drive 200 MPH+, have a much lower fatality rate than US highways?

Because driving is the one thing the Europeans are by far more superior than us Americans. 98% (A low estimate) of American drivers just flat out suck and have no business being on the road.

And almost every state/region has it's unique incompetence. Here in New Jersey NOT ONE moron can grasp the simple concept that when going up a hill in order to maintain the same speed you have to press the gas pedal down a little harder, So on the slightest grade (NJ ain't exactly the Rockies) on 55 & 65 mph highways the idiots here will slow down into the 30s & 40s.

In Connecticut (BY far the worst drivers in the country) slightest curve in the road results in an immediate slam on the brakes and Lanes? What are they? (And no I don't mean Ct. drivers just change lanes without signaling they have a tendency wander out of their lane without realizing it)

In the Catskills it's "The speed limit is not 55 anymore?" and Pennsylvania it's "Slower traffic keep right - What's that?".

And I can go on & on.

29 posted on 12/04/2004 9:32:47 PM PST by qam1 (Anyone who was born in New Jersey should not be allowed to drive at night or on hills.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: qam1
And I can go on & on.

To me, the main reason the Autobahn is safer than American highways is because YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO USE THE PASSING LANE IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY PASSING!!!!

Why do so many American drivers think that THEY are supposed to sit in the passing lane and everyone else is supposed to drive on the right?

30 posted on 12/05/2004 5:23:56 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Drug prohibition laws help fund terrorism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

"Why do so many American drivers think that THEY are supposed to sit in the passing lane and everyone else is supposed to drive on the right?"

It's because they don't think it's the passing lane. They think it's the "avoid idiots who merge onto the highway like I do" lane.

Nothing like seeing some idiot merge onto a highway, slow down the entire right lane because they moved over while going 45MPH in a 65MPH, and THEN speed up and move over to the left lane.

Poetry in motion, I tell you.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving in the right lane, with cruise control set to about 70MPH. This Jeep Grand Cherokee..not an underpowered vehicle, they put V8s in 'em...comes up the acceleration lane and the driver can't seem to figure out if he should speed up to get in front of me or slow down to get behind me, because he's driving right next to me.

Keep in mind that I'm still using cruise control at this point, my speed is still 70MPH, and there are no cars in front of me or behind me for a good couple hundred feet, and the acceleration lane is pretty long.

Finally, just before he runs out of acceleration lane I slow down figuring that this guy might just decide to merge right into my car, and he got in front of me.

Could you imagine this guy trying to merge into heavy traffic? I shudder at thought..


31 posted on 12/05/2004 9:45:32 AM PST by brianl703 (Border crossing is a misdemeanor. So is drunk driving. Which do we have more checkpoints for?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

and Cleece's Ferry too.....one day they will open that back up ...with a bridge from Bellevue I'd reckon.


32 posted on 12/05/2004 9:47:19 AM PST by wardaddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SmithL; TomServo; Morgan's Raider; Old_Professor; babble-on; Blood of Tyrants; KentuckyWoman; ...

I bet she is talking about the Briley Parkway extension that loops from White Bridge/40 to connect in North Nashville and back to Opryland.

And I did not know that was 55. I thought it was 65.

??


33 posted on 12/05/2004 9:53:38 AM PST by wardaddy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: brianl703
Keep in mind that I'm still using cruise control at this point

Cruise control is a killer. It totally kills your reaction time, many times resulting the death of those that use it.

34 posted on 12/05/2004 9:58:33 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum
To me, the main reason the Autobahn is safer than American highways is because YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO USE THE PASSING LANE IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY PASSING!!!!

On the Autobahn, if one is proceeding in the #1 lane at say 75 mph, the first thing they would see is a Mercedes or Porsche whatever, coming up behind them and about 120mph plus, with many driving lights and fog lights flashing, while standing on their horns. (Yes more then one horn and more than two headlights.) They do no tolerate those that attempt to meter the flow of traffic on the autobahn and they will literally tail gate you while flashing their lights and standing on their horns at 80mph.

I know, Germanys autobahns is where I learned how to drive and developed my first driving skills.

They don't have a lot of fatalities but when they do, they resemble aircraft crashes/accidents. That being said, most Europeans were very good drivers, that pay attention.

35 posted on 12/05/2004 10:11:10 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: brianl703

If this had been in Knoxville, he would have driven to the end of the acceleration lane, stopped, then turned his head to see if anyone would "let" him in.


36 posted on 12/05/2004 10:13:49 AM PST by SmithL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Joe Hadenuf

I think that depends on the driver and how they use it.

Whether I'm using cruise control or not, if my right foot isn't on the gas pedal then it's covering the brake pedal, ready to press it.

If you're trying to say that the amount a vehicle slows between taking your foot off the gas when not using cruise control and putting it on the brake pedal is enough to prevent an accident, I have to say that the only cases where that would be true are:

1)The driver wasn't paying any attention.

2)Their reaction time sucked anyway, cruise control simply made it result in an accident more sooner than later.


37 posted on 12/05/2004 10:21:39 AM PST by brianl703 (Border crossing is a misdemeanor. So is drunk driving. Which do we have more checkpoints for?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: brianl703
I think that depends on the driver and how they use it.

Incorrect.

If you use cruise control, your reaction time is slower to brake or respond to a time critical event. Period.

There is no debate here.

38 posted on 12/05/2004 10:34:18 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Joe Hadenuf

I guess that's why the manual says not to use cruise control in heavy traffic..which I don't. Therefore, as far as I'm concerned, there is no problem with my usage of cruise control.

And I do have over 150,000 miles of accident-free driving which seems to indicate to me that I'm doing something right.


39 posted on 12/05/2004 10:38:19 AM PST by brianl703 (Border crossing is a misdemeanor. So is drunk driving. Which do we have more checkpoints for?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Joe Hadenuf

By the way, what sort of time-critical events would one need to deal with on a limited-access highway, other than (1) cars slowing up ahead and (2) cars merging in from on-ramps? How would cruise control slow down one's reaction time to either, given that they use a safe following distance and pay attention to signs indicating that on-ramps are coming up?


40 posted on 12/05/2004 10:43:26 AM PST by brianl703 (Border crossing is a misdemeanor. So is drunk driving. Which do we have more checkpoints for?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson