Higher freeway speed safe, fair

The Utah Traffic Code needs to be revised. Some sections penalize safe drivers, and other sections are not enforceable. A very important bill, Senate Bill 17, will be presented at the 2007 Utah state legislative session to help solve these problems.

Because the bill would increase freeway speed limits by 5 mph, it has generated considerable interest. The Deseret Morning News published an article headlined "Speed-limit hike opposed" (Jan. 9). The article reported that a survey showed "66 percent of Utahns are opposed" to the bill. This result is misleading because the survey was flawed. It did not test respondents for the myth that speed limits affect the speed of traffic.

Most people believe that if speed limits are increased, motorists will drive faster. They are mistaken. A landmark traffic study completed in 1992 conclusively proved that changing speed limits has no effect on the speed of traffic. A link to this report is included on the Speed Limits Myths page of the Fair Traffic Laws (www.fairtrafficlaws.com). All Utah motorists who are concerned about the safety and fairness of our traffic regulations should open and study this Web site.

The critical flaw in the survey is that it did not exclude people who believe that increasing speed limits would also increase the speed of traffic from the survey. Instead of considering the issue of speed limits as intended in the survey, it is likely that these people would have switched to speed and responded as if the question had been, "Would you favor or oppose an increase in freeway speed of 5 miles per hour?"

Freeway speeds are determined by individual drivers without regard to speed limits and are probably high enough. It would, therefore, be logical to object to increasing freeway speeds but not to higher speed limits. Therefore, because no attempt was made to exclude from the survey people who mistakenly believe that increasing speed limits would automatically increase freeway speed, answers from these people would likely have been opposite to the logical answer to the survey question. This would explain the surprising results of the survey and nullify the conclusion presented.

Although the normal speed of freeway traffic in Utah is significantly faster than posted speed limits, travel on Utah freeways is very safe. In spite of rampant "speeding violations," Utah enjoys the lowest fatality rate of all the Western states that touch its borders: 1.2 fatalities per 100 million miles traveled — powerful evidence that freeway speeds are very safe and speed limits are set unreasonably low.