Dresser needs to get a clue

Michael Dresser once again proves that he is clueless when it comes to driving in Maryland:

Traffic on I-70 may frequently run at 80 mph but never in my experience safely.

What? He can't possibly be serious, because highways are extremely safe in America. We have well built cars and a long expanse of road that makes it very easy to drive at 80 MPH on most American highways. Remember, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built to be used at a safe speed of 100 MPH; how could driving 80 on I-70 be unsafe?

What's "just plain crazy" is what we've lived with far too long: 40,000-plus highway deaths in the U.S. each year and 600-plus in Maryland. The only way to bring those numbers down is to banish "zoom-zoom-zoom" to Joe Camel's desert.

Which of course, is pure cockamamie. The majority of accidents in Maryland are due to reckless driving, not driving at an unsafe speed. Reckless driving is a lot more than just driving at an unsafe speed; it's swerving, it's tailgating, and it's other activities. Not doing 75 on the Beltway. And those accidents that are not caused by reckless driving are caused by drunk or impaired driving, which no speed law in the world is going to deter those idiots from.

Then, Dresser quotes an email from a similarly uninformed reader:

The solution to the problem is greater enforcement of the law. I rarely see police cruise the highway or park on the side of the road. Speed traps are few and far between. When I lived in The Netherlands, I was impressed by the frequent and routine use of speed cameras to limit speeding and to stop drivers from going through red lights. It worked! The arguments that speed cameras are a step in the direction of Big Brother or simply a revenue generator are nonsense; they are a proven way to slow drivers down, prevent crashes, and keep people from being hurt or killed.

Which of course, is also complete bull. There is a great deal of literature and study out there about the use of speed cameras as revenue generators, and how traffic cameras do nothing to reduce the likelihood of a crash, as noted in several instances. In my anecdotal study with speed cameras in D.C., they actually cause more accidents as drivers slam on the brakes in an effort not to get a ticket. In some cases the cameras just don't work. And Britain, which is littered with these things, is trying desperately to get rid of them.

Dresser needs to get a clue and stop ranting about how horrible Maryland's driversare. As I have said before, what Maryland really needs is to increase our speed limits so that police can go back to doing more important police work than setting speed traps that cause horrific traffic jams at inopportune times...