55 May Be the Law, but It’s Not the Norm : Transit: Despite national move, O.C. isn’t likely to see oft-ignored speed limits rise.

According to the unwritten law of the open freeway, Fred Abernathy’s driving constitutes an act of civil disobedience: He putters along, even on unclogged urban freeways, at 55 miles per hour.

Despite the finger-wagging, horn-blowing and accelerator-stomping commuters, cabbies and big-rig drivers who tear by him on local highways, the 34-year-old driving instructor will not be swayed or intimidated. The law is the law.

“Of course, I feel uncomfortable with the tailgaters and the truck drivers,” admits Abernathy, a gregarious instructor with the California Driving School who usually restricts himself and his wide-eyed students to the slower right-hand lane of the freeway. “But [on and off the job], I really try to keep it at 55. I practice what I preach.”

Any hopes that law-abiding freeway drivers such as Abernathy may soon be speeding up will probably be short-lived. Although Congress last week voted to repeal the 55-m.p.h. national speed limit, it appears speed limits on Orange County freeways would be left intact.

First, President Clinton, whose Administration has hinted at a veto, must give a green light to congressional repeal of the limits. Second, Gov. Pete Wilson also has to sign a bill, already on his desk, that would raise California speed limits to as high as 70 m.p.h. in rural areas. Under the bill, sponsored by state Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), Caltrans and California Highway Patrol officials would determine which roadways would be best suited for the higher speed limits.

“It’s unclear whether any routes in Orange County would be raised to 65 m.p.h.,” said Steve Kohler, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Sacramento. “But considering it’s in a major urban area and has heavy traffic flow, it might not make a good candidate for pumping up speed limits.”

In 1987, the federal government allowed states to raise speed limits to 65 m.p.h. in rural areas, but all Orange County highways remained at a maximum 55 m.p.h. Nearly 1,400 miles of the 4,064-mile California freeway system were posted at 65 m.p.h.

The national speed limit was imposed in 1973 to conserve gas during the Arab oil embargo. Although the fuel savings proved minimal, federal officials have balked at lifting the restriction because they believe it could cause thousands of additional highway deaths each year.

Exact numbers are impossible to gauge, but transportation and safety experts agree that when freeways are clear, laughably few follow the 22-year-old national speed limit.

During a three-month period this year, California urban motorists who broke the speed limit law outnumbered those who didn’t 5 to 1, according to reports compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

So, Abernathy and the tiny few like him are symbolic of a state and national irony. By observing the law of the land, they are violating the rules of the road.

“It can get lonesome driving 55,” Abernathy said.

A night last week on local freeways with Abernathy and a somewhat reluctantly law-abiding student illustrated the poor compliance rate among Orange County drivers. Under Abernathy’s supervision, 15-year-old Pamela Tahim of Buena Park plodded along in a 1991 Pontiac Sunbird on the Riverside Freeway at the legal speed, while car after car whizzed by.

“I feel like a turtle,” Tahim said. “It’s like we are standing still.”

“Let’s keep it at 55,” Abernathy calmly said.

Moments later, frustrated about failing to keep pace with the other drivers, Tahim tapped the accelerator.

“55, not 60,” reminded Abernathy, a Lakewood resident, whose wife also complains that he drives too slow on freeways.

But the driving instructor, just past his first year of teaching after being a self-employed salesman, is not ignorant of the realities of the freeways. Knowing that some freeway accidents are caused by driving too slowly, Abernathy often instructs pupils to shoot for 57 m.p.h. That way, explains Abernathy, the speed of a novice driver won’t dip below 55 m.p.h.

“It can be dangerous to hold up the flow of traffic,” Abernathy tells his students. “People will change lanes unsafely and try to race around you.”

It’s precisely on the issue of safety that Abernathy justifies his own freeway driving and his instruction to students. The 55 m.p.h. speed limit continues, along with safety belts, air bags and child car seats, to save hundreds of lives each year, he said.

Experts such as Chuck Hurley with the Institute of Highway Safety concur. Hurley is outraged that the national speed limit may soon be lifted for the sake of convenience.

“If someone advocated increasing the speed of airplanes coast to coast at the cost of a couple of jumbo jets going down each year, do you think anyone would support it?” Hurley said. “Repealing speed limit laws is tantamount to repealing the drinking and driving laws or the child car seat laws--more people are going to die.”

But Charles Lave, a UC Irvine economics professor, said speed limits should be determined by the states, not the federal government. Lave, who served on a 1984 national panel with 20 experts examining the national speed limit, dismissed as “incompetent” traffic studies that contend the current national speed limit is safer.

The lower fatality rate on freeways after the national speed limit could be attributable to any number of factors, including fewer driving vacations and nationwide recessions, both of which mean fewer cars on the freeways. The panel, which delivered a report to Congress, could not “disentangle” all the effects and made no firm recommendations regarding the national speed limit, Lave said.

For his own part, Abernathy believes local freeway limits should be raised to 60 miles per hour, but not a mile per hour higher.

“60 miles per hour is really your optimum freeway speed. Anything else isn’t safe with the inconsiderate drivers in Los Angeles and Orange counties,” Abernathy said. “I’d like to go a little faster anyway.”

But whether or not the speed limit law is ever officially changed may not ultimately matter.

Said driving student Tahim: “I feel the speed limits don’t exist. It’s just a sign.”