<VV> RE:opinions no vair

[goofyroo@excite.com]

Gentlemen, I don't think this issue of passing-on-the-right will ever be resolved without collective law-enforcement action to refocus drivers' attitudes.

Specifically, the federal gov't required the states to enforce an unpopular speed limit beginning in 1973.  The state troopers didn't like it, the governors didn't like making them do it, but it had to be done.

So enforce it they did, concentrating resources and developing special tools (instant-on radar, VASCAR, etc.) to comply with holy writ.  And they created a mythology -- "speed kills" -- to help steer attitudes that way.  That idea appeals to the simple-minded, who commonly believe they are helping the police by not yielding the fast lane.

Along the way, an essential component of highway safety, "slower traffic keep right," was forgotten.  More difficult to enforce and not required by federal mandated, the law fell fallow and is widely ignored to this day.

Until the powers-that-be finally acknowledge that speed *differentials*, not high speeds, are what cause the bulk of highway accidents -- and then act on that knowledge to enforce passing-on-the-right laws -- the cultural poison of "speed kills" will continue.

As will the needless conflicts and collisions.

Michael Smith
Dallas

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