Free Republic

The Intercounty Connector, the new toll road that connects Gaithersburg to Laurel, was envisioned and created to alleviate the traffic headaches that have plagued local roads and the Capital Beltway for decades. While some trips for commuters have been cut in half, though, some officials and commuters have been left to wonder why the $3 billion highway looks so empty. Maryland Transit Administration officials say that the average ridership on the ICC - which is hovering around 21,000 cars per day - is exactly where they want to be. That's a stark distinction, though, from preliminary traffic and revenue studies,...

The other day our sister newspaper, the Gloucester County Times, reported on a raid at a fraternity house at Rowan University where — get ready for a shock — some college kids were drinking. About 100 of the kids were underage and will face charges. Believe it or not, that incident has its roots in the same problem that led to the controversy over the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. That problem lies in the way the federal government distributes highway funding: poorly. It’s obvious in the case of the bridge that would have connected the city of Ketchikan,...

THURSDAY, July 16 (HealthDay News) -- Deaths and injuries on America's interstates have increased since the repeal of the federal 55-mile-per-hour speed limit in 1995, a new study finds, and some believe it's time to slow down again. Researchers tracking fatalities attributed 12,545 deaths and 36,582 injuries in fatal crashes to higher speed limits implemented during the 1995-2005 study period. "Our study clearly shows that policy can directly result in more deaths as well as reducing deaths on our country's roads," said lead researcher Lee S. Friedman of the division of environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of...

Liberals say Iraq is another Vietnam; conservatives say Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter redux. ABBA's a mega-hit and Elton John's going to be performing at Madison Square Garden. Had enough of these '70s flashbacks? Brace yourself for another: the return of the national speed limit, courtesy of one of the country's most venerable politicians. Senator John Warner (R-VA) — elected in 1978 — recently expressed interest in the idea of a national speed limit to conserve gasoline. Warner, who is not running for re-election this year, wrote to U.S. Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman, asking "at what speed is the...

Cutting the speed limit from 30 mph to 20 mph on the wrong roads can pump up CO2 emissions by more than 10 per cent1, AA research has discovered. The UK's leading motoring organisation is now warning local authorities that some well-intentioned safety schemes may backfire in environmental terms. On average, petrol car fuel consumption on longer and relatively free-flowing 20mph urban streets can worsen by 5.8 miles per gallon (1.3 miles/litre). Over a year this will significantly increase CO2 emissions. In the first piece of research for its new Fuel for Thought campaign, updating widely-used test results from 1999,...

If there's one thing that's worse than paying $4 per gallon for gasoline, it's the resurgent talk of lowering speed limits to conserve fuel. Because, of course, these lowered limits won't be enforced as a "conservation" measure. Any curtailment of speed limits will be treated as a saaaaafety issue -- just as happened during the Dark Decades of the 55 mph National Maximum Speed Limit. "Speeding" tickets will be issued and "points" assigned. At the stroke of a lawmaker's pen (and the cop's, too) driving "x" MPH will suddenly become "unsafe," rather than merely wasteful. This is the most intolerable...

- In a surprise move yesterday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called for "most of the country" to return to a speed limit of 55 mph in an effort to slash fuel consumption... "The 55-mile speed limit really does lower gas usage. And wherever it can be required, and the people will accept it, we ought to do it," Clinton said at the National Press Club.