Shawn O’Neil
English
11/17/13
Writing About
Over
the past few months, Ohio licensed drivers have seen an increase in the posted
speed limits on major highways and freeways. I have seen the change too, and I
like the change. It makes sense that on rural roads, we as drivers can get from
point A to point B more quickly without worrying about getting pulled over. The
speed limits before the change were 65 miles per hour on the freeways and
highways. Now, the speed limit is 70 miles per hour. Since the speed limit
changed, there has been an increase in the amount of law enforcement officers
patrolling the roads. I know that they want to keep the roads safe and most
importantly enforce the new speed limits, but there is also the point of us,
the drivers, to have common sense while driving and not going so fast that
cause harm to oneself or to other drivers as well. With the new speed limit
changes, there will be a decrease in tickets, an increase in safe drivers, and an
increase of posted signs on the highways and freeways.
With the
increase of speed limits on Ohio’s major highways and freeways, people thought
that there will be an increase of speed tickets, but that is not the issue.
“The patrol wrote about 19,000 speeding tickets in July, August and September
on the 12 sections of rural interstate where the speed limit increased on July
1. That’s fewer than troopers wrote during the same period during the past two
years.” (Rouan) I believe that with the higher speed limit, the
drivers would be more cautious and be more aware of their
surroundings, and there is also a reason for that as well.
“People tend to think there’s a cushion – that 5 to 10(mph) cushion – so we’re
always wary of increasing speed limits because we’re worried people will
increase their expected cushion.” (Rouan) I agree with that statement because,
when the speed limit does change, the drivers expect there to be a cushion, so
that the drivers think that the person behind them is not going too fast where
their car is almost touching the rear bumper of your car. But, you can also
argue that if the drivers want that cushion, will law enforcement pull you over
because you are going over the speed limit and the driver in front of you is
going only 70 miles per hour, where you want to go at least 75 miles per hour.
The next
part about how the increased speed limits have helped us drivers, is the
increase of safe drivers in Ohio. With the increased speed limits all around
the rural highways and freeways of Ohio, the drivers have been more aware of
their surroundings and to be more of a defensive driver. Because with the
increased speed limits, the drivers need to be aware of what is happening
around them. In my opinion, if you are more of a defensive driver, you won’t
get into a lot of car crashes and you are more vigilant of what is going on
around you. But, if you are a defenseless driver and you are just being a
reckless driver going at high speeds and not being aware of your surroundings,
you will be in more car crashes and you hurt or kill yourself or the other
driver in the process. An example is the
decline of fatal car crashes. “Scarnati said many other states, including
neighboring Ohio and West Virginia, have increased maximum speed limits to 70
mph or more, while the number of fatal crashes nationwide has declined from a
peak of 39,252 in 2005 to 29,757 in 2011.” (Finarelli) I like this example
because it proves my statement that if you are a defensive driver and you are
aware of your surroundings, you can save your life and the other drivers in the
process.
The last
part in my paper is the increase amount of posting signs or changing the old
signs that say 65 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour. With all of these
changes to how fast someone can drive on the freeway or the highway, the Ohio
Department of Transportation had to renovate the old signs and make the signs
say that the speed limit on this road is 70 miles per hour. The
legislative changes require ODOT to produce 1,100 new highway signs at a cost
of $114,845. “Most of the signs – 580 in all – will be completely new and
placed along the roadway, while the rest – 520 – are simply overlays that will
cover a portion of an existing speed limit sign. The costs include materials
and labor for producing the new signs. Most of the signs are already fully
installed and visible to motorists.” (Finarelli) That statement, in my opinion,
is a very true statement. The Ohio Department of Transportation had to spend a
lot of money to make new speed limit signs or to renovate the old speed limit
signs. Also, they had to make the signs visible and clear enough, so that the
drivers can see the posting speed limit from a distance, so when the drivers
are in that area, they can go that speed limit until the speed limit has
changed down the road. If the signs were not visible to the drivers that could
lead to car accidents and the reason for that is the two drivers would be
driving two different speed limits. One would argue that the speed limit was 65
mile per hour and the other driver would argue that the speed limit was 70 mile
per hour. That is why the Ohio government told the Ohio Department of
Transportation that these new signs or speed limit changes on old signs, have
to be clear and visible for all of the drivers on the road, so that everyone
can be on the same page on what the speed limit is on the freeway or the
highway.
With the new speed limit changes,
there will be a decrease in tickets, an increase in safe drivers, and an
increase of posting signs on the highways and freeways. The reason that I argue
this is that Ohio has seen a lot of changes on the speed limit on freeways and
highways, and it shows that this new change has its good parts. The drivers are
being more vigilant of their surroundings, being defensive drivers, the law
enforcements of the highway patrol and local police have given out fewer
tickets because of the speed limit increase, and the signs on the roads show
the drivers that you can go faster on this stretch of road. At least with this
new speed limit changes, drivers are getting from point A to point B faster,
and without being pulled over by the police or getting into car accidents.
Work Cited
Finarelli,
Linda “Legislators proposes increasing Pennsylvania’s maximum speed limit”
Montgomery Media. Published: 16, November 2013
Rouan, Rick “Moving to 70-mph limit
hasn’t produced a flurry of tickets” The Columbus Dispatch. Published: 28,
October 2013
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