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Re: Why it's set at 55 m.p.h...




In reply to me, geraghty@clark.net (P.J. Geraghty) writes:

   : Being a resident of a neighborhood, I am slightly offended at the
   : implication that I need to be "appeased", as if the existance of my
   : street were primarily for someone else's benefit, and that anything done
   : toward that end [e.g. setting a speed limit] is catagorically "absurd".

   You do not mention where you live (perhaps for good reason).  I mentioned 
   in my originial post several areas with absurdly low speed limits.  Do you 
   live in one of them?

Streets you mentioned?  No.  Street with an "absurdly low speed limit"?
Depends on who you ask, I suppose.

My property, though not actually abutting Piney Branch Road [MD320], may
as well be from my perspective.  The posted limit in my area is 30 MPH.
A good portion of the people traveling it, however, seem to feel it can
"safely" support 40 or 45.  This of course doesn't take into account the
occational idiot who has to pass traffic in the turn-only [center] lane
because even 45 is too,,, damn,,, slow,,, but they are rare and probably
afflict all areas equally.

I suppose that if people didn't have to pull on to it from somewhat
obscured side streets or driveways, and you didn't care about the noise
problem, schools, pedestrians, and other things like that, it could
support a higher speed, but ignoring all those things is a lot like
saying "screw the world, I'm trying to get somewhere" to me.  And even
if it "could", the question of whether it "should" ought to be left,
IMHO, to those who will ultimately have to live with it (for longer than
the 5 minutes per day it takes them to pass through, that is).

[Oops.  Sorry.  I forgot my place in life for a moment there.  Unlike
those hurried, important souls zipping along from where they came from
to where they are going, I only live there. ]

   : I make an effort to show some courtesy and respect [words which in car
   : speak seem to mean "succumbing to intimidation" more than anything else]
   : to the people in whose neighborhoods I drive through precisely because I
   : expect them to do the same.  Given that quite a few don't, though, I can
   : only assume that the majority of people who complain about neighborhood
   : curbs on traffic never notice the traffic in their own neighborhood
   : because they are always in somebody else's.

   Actually, right now I live near Rt. 29 (fast) and Rt. 650 (very fast).  
   The traffic noise is such that often I cannot keep my windows open during 
   the day.  (Luckily, I work most days so this isn't a problem, but once in 
   a while, I'm home trying to sleep).   I accept this becaue I moved in 
   here knowing these roads were heavily- and quickly-traveled.

I knew what Piney Branch was like, too.  That doesn't mean I have to
roll over, expose my belly, and put up with it.  Granted, it's never
going to be a quiet country lane, but the noise is a lot less offensive
at 30 (which _is_ the posted limit, after all) than it is at 40, not to
mention that it makes the street more pleasant and safe to walk along.
In fact, one could say that "quality of life" is higher for not living
next to a highway.

Seeing as how the only people making it a "highway" are vigilante
drivers, I hardly see why I should accept that as a fact of life.  If
they really want to raise the limit, then they can try to do so using
political channels (and expect some opposition in the process :). 

   BTW..."Aggravating" is the proper spelling.

Yes, I know.  I caught that just as the article was being submitted.  I
just figured that rather than go through the bother of cancelling and
resubmitting, I'd rely on the driver's ability to translate unresonable
or incorrect printed information into what it properly should be, much
as they do with speed limit signs. :-)

   People who don't 
   like the traffic patterns in their neighborhoods are free to move; that's 
   exactly what I'm doing next weekend (albeit for different reasons).

They are equally free to influence, control and even change those patterns.
Has something to do with community, politics and all that...

Steve

-- 
............usenet is neither true nor false...it's television.............
  Steven Rezsutek                       Steven.M.Rezsutek.1@gsfc.nasa.gov
  Nyma / GSFC Code 735.2                             Vox: +1 301 286 0897
  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center                    Greenbelt MD  20771


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