The American Spectator

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NOT SO FAST br> Re: Eric Peters' Slowdown Artists : /p>

Eric Peters cautions us against considering numbers in isolation, while himself failing to consider that there may be factors which slant death figures in favor of his argument. What about safety improvements in cars themselves? Have there in fact been more crashes because of increased speed, but without a proportionate increase in fatalities?

Before you eagerly answer "Yes, that's why we should all be allowed to drive real fast!," let's consider issues other than crashes and death. There are the intangibles, the unquantifiables that might fit under the rubric "quality of drive." For example, is "road rage" a mere concoction of the highway sociologists? If not, does its apparent increase in recent years have anything to do with the general increase in speed (coupled with increasing highway congestion)?

Allow me an analogy -- that of the computer. Now that the processors in our home and office computers are so ridiculously fast compared to what they could do even five years ago, do we get at all aggravated when something occurs to slow a process down to, say, 1993 speed? Do we even get more irate at a slowdown than we would have ten years ago, when we were less spoiled by speed? Or are we so happy with the overall increase in CPU speed that we don't mind the occasional slowdown?

You know the answer. The faster we can go, whether in a car or at the keyboard, the more demanding we are that our speed not be limited. I've seen it in myself, and I've seen it in my fellow highway jackasses.

In the early 70s I drove a fully packed old station wagon from New York City to Indianapolis. Posted speed limit -- 55 mph. Actual speed driven, due to overloading and age of car -- 50 mph. I think it took me about sixteen hours, with a brief pit-stop here and there, and an Indiana blizzard. Arrived refreshed like I've never been before or since.

p>I'm not saying "back to 55 mph." I am saying that a "what -- me worry?" attitude about the plague of 80-mph driving, simply because one has death statistics on one's side, is a limited, possibly dangerous view. If you're a blithe spirit who relaxes and thrives at high speeds, well lucky for you. Just stay away from the other 90% of us. br> -- Jeffrey S. Erickson br> Davidson, North Carolina /p>

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