Speeding By Fred Rau

The following may be of some interest to the Beemer members:

From: Motorcycle Consumer News

The Contact Patch
by Fred Rau


Speeding

 MORE than a few of my friends chide me on a regular basis about my riding and driving habits, particularly as related to speed. I know what you're thinking, "The guy's been a professional moto-journalist for over 30 years and probably rides like a bat out of hell." Well, you would be totally wrong. The fact is, on public roadways I am about the most law-abiding citizen you will ever meet. Rarely do I exceed the posted speed limit by more than 5 mph, pass where there isn't a passing lane, or even engage in the perfectly-legal South­ern California tradition of lane-splitting. Yes, at times I really like to go fast, but I manage to reserve quenching that desire to times when I can get on a racetrack, or at the very least, onto a semi-deserted road out in the Mojave Desert. In fact, I did both just this past week. I was working on an article about the Triumph Rocket III, so I took it out in the desert (which is only 30 minutes from my home) and opened it up on a stretch across a dry lake bed. Then a few days later I was up at Willow Springs Raceway (because my wife works for the Streetmasters Motorcycle Workshop), and was able to con the school's owners into letting me use the track for about 30 min­utes while they were holding classroom sessions. So as you can see, I get the chance to "open it up" now and then, in fairly safe and controlled conditions. I suppose most people don't often get such opportunities, which might help explain why they speed.

But then again, we need to define "speeding," because our governments have bastardized the term so badly. If you stick to a literal interpretation that "speed­ing" means going faster than the posted limit, then I think it would be safe to say that about 95% of Americans "speed" on a regular basis. In the past two years I have ridden more than 100,000 miles through the 48 contiguous states, and I don't recall any area that I didn't encounter traffic con­stantly traveling at around 15-20 mph over the posted limit. In fact, I have found myself literally forced to ride at 80-plus in a 65 mph zone out of self-preservation. Anything slower and I was in danger of being run down from behind.

Of course the government agencies involved will all constantly swear that speed limits are set as a matter of public safety. Personally I wonder if there is any­one at all left in the entire country who actually believes that. I have nearly a dozen friends who are ex-cops, and even they will admit that speed limits are set arbitrarily low for the sole purpose of rev­enue generation. Police officers, I have found, are generally good people, espe­cially motor officers. And they don't like being turned into tax collectors, which is exactly what is happening. Did you know that in many states, the revenue from traf­fic violations is greater than the state rev­enue from income taxes? And since most states are severely strapped for money right now, and their citizens won't stand for new taxes, where do you think they are looking to make up the shortfall?

And then you have the insurance com­panies and their lobbyists. If you ever wondered who your state legislators really work for, just have a look at their campaign contributors. In most cases, the largest single contributions will come from insurance companies. And what has this to do with speeding tickets, you might ask? Well, if the speed limits are set low and enforcement made a priority (all in the name of "public safety," right?), then more and more speeding tickets will be written. By law in virtually every state, your insurance company can't raise your rates on your automobile or motorcycle insurance—unless you get a moving vio­lation. Bingo! Every time a police offi­cer writes another speeding ticket, the insurance companies get to raise some other poor bastard's premiums. Estimates from two different independent citizen's advocate groups estimate that rate increases from drivers getting a speeding ticket amount to approximately $5 billion annually in increased revenue to insur­ance companies, not to mention the $7 billion that goes into state treasuries from the fines themselves. And you want to hear the great part? The increases in pre­miums are predicated on the assumption that since you got a speeding ticket, you are obviously a greater risk for having an accident, and therefore the insurance company is within its rights to charge you more. But the truth is that in every single study ever done on the subject, it was found that people who got a speeding ticket were actually less likely to be involved in an accident over the course of the next 24 months. So, in truth, you will be charged more for being less of a risk, and the insurance companies' profit margins will go up even higher.

As hard as it might be to believe, this gets even better. Among the tools that law enforcement needs to write speeding tick­ets are radar and lidar (laser speed rang­ing) guns, which are quite expensive to buy and maintain. So, in the name of pub­lic safety, the major insurance companies lease, lend or donate these speed ranging devices to hundreds of law enforcement agencies. Is there anyone among you naive enough to believe that the insurance companies are doing this to make our roads safer?

As I believe I made abundantly clear at the beginning, I don't condone speeding. But I also believe it becomes important to define what actually constitutes "speed­ing." There is a road right near my house that I travel almost every day. It is straight as an arrow, running for several miles through strawberry fields, with fences on both sides. There are no trees, signs or anything else to impede your vision for miles, no pedestrians, no buildings, and not even anywhere an errant animal could come bounding out, other than perhaps a bunny rabbit small enough to squeeze through the fence. And yet, the speed limit is set at 30 mph. Almost every day I see one or two cars pulled over at the far end, being given a $250 ticket for recklessly going about 50 mph down this road. So far as I have been able to determine, there has never been an accident on this stretch of road, and I doubt very much it has any­thing to do with the vigorous enforcement of the ridiculously low speed limit. And yet there is a dangerous intersection less than two miles from here that has seen no less than four fatal accidents in the past year, and I have never, ever seen a patrol car stationed there. Instead, they are all over at the strawberry fields, making life safer for the local bunny rabbit population.


Visit us at WWW.MCNEWS.COM • DECEMBER 2011
47