htny

Oh I think you'll find that if you drove 150 mph one time and were caught in most states, it would cost you at least 10K between your criminal defense & fines, and untold lost revenue since you can't conduct business in the pokey. Assuming they don't try you for attempted vehicular manslaughter! Then your insurance premium increase will nicely annuitize the balance of your woes.

And I think there are enough folks who probably would pay 10K for a real 150 mph pipe dream system just to skip the airport. That is basically a a little under the cost of two first class ual p.s. round trip NY to LA tickets. People who fly a lot of short haul, NY to Boston/DC or even longer NY to Atlanta or NY to Chicago, I mean this would be a viable alternative. While I like taking the train on shorter runs like this, then you show up and you stll have to rent a terrible, terrible car, which in a car city like the aforementioned, is a necessity.

I agree also that it might not be autobahn safe at 150 as is, which is why everyone who wants access would need to submit to lots of testing and training and inspection. Most US highways are so terribly maintained that going 100 feels like you could catch air on some of the broken pavement, bumps, holes and gaps, but money is supposed to be pouring into the highway system right now anyway from WPA 2.0, so a little direction might be nice! You could handle merging by enforcing left lane for passing only rules by camera at exit points, and just like HOV lanes you would have fewer opportunities to exit.

But you need to start with a high number like 150, since your greenies will lobby it down anyway. Solution: bribe them with nice fat funding for windmills from the revenue from the system.

The other solutions, which have been panned very badly in the media despite some success during heavy traffic, are the express toll roads (there's the 91 in SoCal which is the one that gets the most press). The pricepoint is too low and so is the minimum speed limit, but more than anything the public objects to distinct infrastructure being built for "the rich", and in SoCal, where driving is more a right than a privilege in the public mind, the general public detest having to pay a toll for anything.

This whole diatribe is actually a bit farcical, long story short I was stuck in an airport lounge with a then-obscure legislator who will now have to go unnamed, and had a candid discussion about, among other things, how ridiculous the whole speed limit system is. I hatched this plan on a cocktail napkin, and we both agreed it would probably pencil out, but because of the deteriorating infrastructure and no moneys flowing toward things like roads and bridges, and would never work unless a Macquarie or some other private decided to finance some sort of privatization, which to that date had only occurred on finite assets like A tunnel or A single highway or A bridge, never a whole system.

Now that the likelihood of road privatization is less than zero - ever, and the likelihood of infinity dollars flowing into boondoggle projects is rather high presently, I figured I'd try out the old saw!

sjfehr

Does PCA do any political lobbying? Speed limit reform (by which I mean legalizing the speeds most people drive at already and eliminating bull**** laws like VA does) seems like something the PCA members would all stand behind and support.

uberskier

My take on this is "know when and where".

In my case I like to go up a 2 mile hill (on an interstate) with 3 lanes near my house on an early Sunday morning. Let's just say that the road is quite empty.