As a new guy to green, driving the green freeway of love, well… my speeding habits may be catching up to me.
Yesterday I was just talking to a friend about Sammy Hagar and his smash hit from the 80’s, “Can’t drive 55″. The rock star was also the first person to update the first roadway speed sign of millions across California that went up 10 miles per hour from 55 to 65 in the mid 80’s.
“Hey Sammy, can you come back out to drop those signs back to 55? Looks like his song could soon live up to what is a more safe and green approach to saving lives. The news is the U.K. wants to lower their speed limits by 10 miles per hour on the freeways and another 10 mile an hour reduction on two lane roads.
Life usually has three major elements, among many others, that we humans care about. Time, Money and Love. I sure notice how a perception of time compression gets me to push on that pedal a bunch more and has me pumping my brakes a whole lot less. What do we do to stop the habits of speeding? Sometimes I wonder if I’m addicted to the race, the thrill that we often see kill.
Do we really have to get there 2 seconds sooner to only get stopped by a red light that put you on the same schedule as everyone else that abides by the law?
How many times do you chuckle at some meatball who thinks they are really getting there faster? Well, that meatball we consider flipping the finger to or even better, shaking our head in their direction, will be forced to slow down. New laws in America?… at least not yet, instead new laws are about to begin across the pond. We ought to look at these stats below and think about contacting our government and advising we lower our speed limits. Funny thing is the public is not happy with the U.K wanting to reduce speed.
Cuts would save lives, though.
The majority of UK motorists are opposed to the Government’s plan to cut the national speed limit from 60mph to 50mph on a two-way roads, according to a new survey.
The survey, carried out by MSN, revealed that 83% of the 40,554 people polled rejected the Government’s plans to cut speed limits from 30mph to 20mph in urban areas and from 60mph to 50mph in rural locations.
The National Audit Office recently released a report that showed 20mph zones helped cut pedestrian accidents by 29% and collisions involving cyclists by 63%.
I’ve noticed a pattern of which initiatives seems to be getting more attention. Over in Europe, it’s green cars, solar power and lenient smoking laws. Sure, Britain banned smoking in bars and public restaurants last year, yet many U.K countries have not joined their Britain friends in kickin’ the butt to the curb.
In the U.S., it’s the reverse. America is tough on smoking but pathetic at manufacturing green cars. Our solar power is not as robust and mainstream as it could be, however, as I blogged about last week, the spectacular developments of laser technology to generate energy is about to change history and it’s one amazing story to follow.
Looks like both countries, U.S. and Britain have some green culture affinities, yet so very different. It’s almost bizarre because there is no answer as to why the differentials between the U.K and the U.S are so polarized.
I still don’t understand why it took so long to get text messaging on our cell phones in the U.S.
Europe was texting a decade ago. That was nuts and I never did understand why America, who once was leading the world has one incredible opportunity to remain bright shinging examples of innovation and deep respect for our planet.
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Laurence Hansen
on 10 Jun 2009 at 10:42 am
Reality check: In nearly all cases — I can’t think of an exception — when you’re driving faster because of an obsession to get there sooner, you’re actaully pumping the breaks more often, not less. And, you’re pumping them harder, thus wearing them out faster, another waste of resources. Tiny, but it all adds up.
How to Make Thousands of Dollars Posting Links on Google
on 10 Jun 2009 at 1:36 pm
Thanks for posting, I’ll definitely be subscribing to your blog.