Observing the Basic Speed Law

On Monday, I drove down California from Livermore to Los Angeles without once exceeding the speed limit. It was a novel experience. Like most Californians, I typically follow the basic speed law: Drive as fast as road conditions allow, and don’t get caught.

To obey the posted speed limit, I learned, is to arouse the suspicions of other motorists. As they zipped past, they would peer in for a closer look at the maniac going 55: Is he sick? Is he drunk? My God, is he about to pull over and start shooting? At times, driving the limit seemed downright dangerous. I began to imagine how the possums and squirrels must feel in that moment before they become one more piece of road kill.

And yet, I needed to keep my speed down, to maintain scientific purity. Let me explain: Earlier this year, President Clinton caved in to the lead-foot lobby and revoked the federal standard of 55 m.p.h. that had been law since the oil scare of 1974. In January, state officials intend to establish new maximum speeds for thousands of miles of freeways and highways. Before new limits are set, I thought it would be instructive to observe firsthand the behavior of California motorists under current standards.

And so I rented a bright-red Olds with cruise control and set a meandering 500-mile course--from Livermore down I-5 to Kettleman City, across on California 41 to Paso Robles and finally down the coast on the El Camino Real freeway into L.A. Throughout, I stuck to the posted limit and kept exact count of how many vehicles passed me by. There were many.

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I was passed by Explorers and Pathfinders, Jaguars and Mustangs, Saturns and Novas and even, most insultingly, by an old Dodge Aries K. I was passed by Volkswagen Beetles and Peterbilt diesels and many motorcycles. I was passed by a sewage tank truck. I was passed by a man towing a Christmas tree upright in a trailer. I was passed by retirees and college students and hustling sales reps. I was passed on two-lane highways and eight-lane freeways. I was passed, routinely--and most instructively--on that long, lonesome stretch of I-5 down the Central Valley where the posted limit already is 65 m.p.h.

All told, by the time I reached the Mulholland exit off the 101, I had been overtaken by 826 vehicles. In turn, I had overtaken 14 trucks and four camper rigs--but only two cars. One was a wobbly Mitsubishi driven by a young woman preoccupied with a huge breakfast burrito. The other was an old sedan piloted by an even older gentleman. He appeared to be about 100. OK, OK, maybe he was 90.

In any case, it would seem that nobody but geriatrics and fast-food fiends pay attention to current speed laws. This, in fact, is one argument pressed for increasing the limit: Since everyone fudges, change the law. If only that logic could be applied to income taxes. Another argument involves the old Hamilton-Jefferson debate: The framers never intended to empower the federal government to set speed limits. Why, they didn’t mention automobiles even once in the entire Constitution.

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And, of course, there is the inevitable economic case. Somehow, this thinking goes, vaguely, if sales reps can travel 10 m.p.h. faster on their rounds--trucks will remain, as always, limited to 55 m.p.h.--it will mean more jobs, higher profits and finer gifts under the tree for everybody. Or at least for insurance companies, which no doubt will find cause to raise premiums.

Anyway, these swell arguments avoid the central issue: Body counts. Nationwide, it’s been estimated that 6,000 more motorists will die each year as speed limits are raised. Some lobbyists argue that the hazards of higher speeds will be offset by safer cars. Myself, I go with the fellow who testified it’s “whistling in the dark to think there won’t be more deaths.”

It’s denial too to assert that, once speed limits are raised, scofflaws will toe the line. On I-5, where I stuck to the posted 65 m.p.h., I was passed almost as routinely as on 55-m.p.h. stretches. It’s human nature, the unwritten rule of the road: Set a limit at 55, most motorists will drive 65 or so. Punch it up to 65, and speeds increase into the 70s.

Which is why California should celebrate its newly regained right to raise speed limits, and then promptly forget it. Do nothing. If the societal goal is for traffic to flow at 65 m.p.h., limits must remain at 55. This might sound crazy, but it’s how things work out there on the high, lonesome highway. Trust me. I’ve been out, road-testing. I’ve got the saddle sores to prove it.