John Warner Fan of Repeating History, Knee-Jerk Reactions
by Alvin MacIntoshJuly 7th, 2008, 9:07 pm
As America took a break from the hard work that makes it the largest, most successful economy in human history in order to celebrate the 232nd anniversary of the declaration of its independence, the senior senator from Virginia, John Warner, asked the Department of Energy to see what the Federal government might do to alleviate some of the pressure on the price of gasoline.
His suggestion: Lower the speed limit.
As I wrote in this forum Wednesday, July 3rd, this is a bad idea. It seems to me that Sen. Warner is riding the same VW Microbus as folks on the other side of the aisle, including Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan.
While I can’t say for certain how Warner would have voted on the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act (he wasn’t yet in the Senate), it’s reasonable to assume that he would have voted in favor of the EHECA, because it passed both the House and the Senate unanimously.
As we know, in 1995, Congress passed the National Highway Designation Act, which repealed the National Maximum Speed Law, a provision of the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act.
How did Warner vote in 1995 on the national speed limit law repeal? Not only did he vote Yes, he was, in fact, the sponsor of the bill. 13 years ago, Sen. Warner sponsors a bill that is the exact opposite of what he proposed last week. Talk about flip-flopping.
Highways aren’t even the bulk of American driving. Two-thirds of all driving Americans do in a year is commuting, or what the EPA likes to estimate as ‘City’ driving for fuel economy ratings. Unless you drive a gas-electric hybrid, City mileage is the smaller number. The average American drives about 12,000 total miles per year. 78% of Americans have a commute of less than 35 minutes each way. The average time is 25 minutes. The average distance is 16 miles. This means the average speed of the American commuter is 39.4 mph. This also means that the average miles spent driving to and from work is more or less 8,000 miles a year = two-thirds of all driving.
Lowering the speed limits on the highway does not address the bulk of the problem. The real answer here is not to slow America down on the highways, but to relieve the stupefying congestion that leads to the twice-daily parking lots that have replaced our roads.
Posted in Congress, Gas Prices, Highways, Politics, Speed Limit |
