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Old 02-22-2006, 05:17 AM   #56
Mee-n-Mac
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Default Proper limits

Quote:
Originally Posted by Evenstar

A poll of drivers who exceed the highway speed limit by 5mph isn’t the same as a poll to see if people are in favor of a boating speed limit.

Do a poll and see how many think that we should do away with a highway speed limit.

My maximum speed is 5 or 6 mph (which is actually fast for a kayak) – the proposed speed limit is 8 or 9 times that. Isn’t that enough of a difference? After all, the maximum speed on the Interstate is less than twice what the minimum speed is. So, if you’re going to compare boating speed limits with highway speed limits, we should be trying to pass a maximum speed of 10 mph on lakes.

45 mph is a compromise! Personally I’d rather see it less than that, but I can accept 45 mph. There’s just no way that everyone’s going to be happy with any number – some will always want lower – others will always want it higher.
You've missed my point. It wasn't about polling nor about boat vs auto speeds but rather about how to set a proper speed limit given safety is why you're doing it. HB-162 sets limits (let's stick to the 45 mph for the moment) that were determined by a Rep who thought that 45 "was thrilling enough". Does that mean 50 or 55 is automatically unsafe ? Following your reasoning above ... if somebody used the speed of a typical cyclist to set the speed for cars on the highway would you think that's right ? Would it make any sense to you ? Would you agree that anything above that speed would be unsafe ? Simply declaring a speed to be the limit and calling anyone who goes above that unsafe, or stating that any accident above that speed is due to speed, doesn't make it so. We set limits on our roadways (highways around these parts excepted) via engineering analysis not on best guesses or intuition. Why not do the same for the water ?
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