The city of Seattle is considering lowering the speed limits. Is this a good idea? I say yes.
I want to be very clear. I love going fast and crashing cars as much as anyone does. I have great memories of smashing car grilles into telephone poles. Of course, I don’t do it at all anymore, on account of that little 1987 agreement I made with the state. But I’ve never lost the craving.
On the other hand, what does that have to do with the posted speed limit? When did I ever read those signs? So my desire to speed and crash cars was never affected by speed limits.
Laws don’t take away your freedom. Only you can take away your freedom.
So why am I in favor of lowering speed limits in Seattle? It’s because I know that most people aren’t as committed to ignoring laws and common sense as I am.
Here’s what you may not know. The reason traffic gridlock happens is because people try to get places faster than the roads will permit for the number of cars on the road. It’s like squeezing too hard on a tube of toothpaste. Instead of letting the toothpaste flow out slow and easy, you clamp down hard and viciously, and the tube bursts open. How often has that happened to you? See?
Seriously. When you hurry, you participate in what experts call “bunching up.” This “bunching up” consists of a higher than average advanced bunching or “density” of cars up the road, which eventually gets stopped by stupid traffic lights or some idiot blocking an intersection or a flock of rare tropical ruby-throated long-tailed mongeese (Eds. note: Isn’t it “mongooses”?) crossing the road, and then you have a traffic jam, and it was your fault. You hurried.
Alternately, if everyone except for a handful of lunatics slows down to a speed suitable for the number of cars on the road, this “bunching up” wouldn’t tend to happen, outright stoppages wouldn’t occur and the amazing fact is that overall travel times would get shorter rather than longer. Or at least seem to get shorter, because you get to move the whole time instead of getting stuck somewhere for half an hour and experiencing brain lock.
The basic reason traffic jams happen is because there are too many cars for the skinny little roads, and you can only squeeze so much metal through the whole system without it clogging up here and there. That’s why if you want to drive fast, what you need to do is figure out how to get fewer cars per road space.
Here are some ways that there could be less car density.
Build more parking spaces. You wouldn’t believe how much traffic in Seattle just consists of people trying to find a place to park.
Encourage floaters to park. Some people have decided that parking costs too much, so they don’t ever park. They shop and bank at drive-throughs. Work to get them off the road by providing free parking.
Double the number of buses in the city and the county. That’s right, I said double! There can never be enough! Do you want to race down Seattle’s streets at rush hour at 80 miles an hour, or don’t you?
If you want that kind of speed — and I want you to know, I’m right there with you, Johnny Hot Rod — you need to get serious about getting rid of all the competition for the road space. You need to clear the obstacles out of the way.
You do that by doubling the number of buses and by bringing back the Ride Free Area. Better: Extend it to the whole county.
It would cost more in taxes, but freedom isn’t free. It’s the price you need to pay if you want to drive like an insane bat outta hell the way all right-thinking healthy minded Americans do.
If after all that existing roads can still only bear 5 mile per hour traffic and commutes to work stretch out so long that people have to drive only once to and from work a week and camp in their work places during work weeks, then the only thing left to do is pave everything.
Let’s not pave everything. Let’s bring back Ride Free.