[wagonman76]

I say no because more good would be done by actually enforcing the laws we have. Here they have been raising speed limits. This summer they raised the minimum speed on the freeway from 45 to 55, and the trucker speed from 55 to 60. Ive seen no new speed restrictions, but several on odd strecthes of road that have increased. Theyre proposing for a few more to go up, I read in the paper today. Their claim is that speed limits are not set by safety (in the good old days it used to set by safety based on the immediate area) but lately they say its based on the way 85% of the people drive. Well 85% of people around here drive like a bat out of hell so I guess thats whats going to become legal here.

From what Ive seen and heard about Ohio, Id rather drive there anyday. When I was there a couple years ago it seemed like a cop for every 50 cars, and everybody drove sensibly. I could drive the speed limit and be left alone. My friend calls it Slow-hio. I also noticed gas was lower there. I wonder if it could be because of the decreased consumption from going slower.

Its all so screwed up here. Everything is based on trying to encourage the almighty tourist dollar. They rule the roads and everything else and they know the cops wont touch them no matter what. It gets worse and worse every year. Ive lost track of all the people Ive seen get run off the road by these jerks as they charge down the road and into oncoming traffic like wild animals. Im also seeing a lot more people with Illinois plates, which are some of the worst I see. If the cops actually were to protect and to serve, tourist dollars would go down. But if they let the tourists be as rude, careless, brutal, and wasteful as possible, they spend more and tourist dollars go up.

Awhile back a guy from Illinois crossed 2 lanes of traffic and hit a motorcyclist head on and put him in intensive care, no citation issued. Another guy from Illinois tried to pass my aunt on the right while she was turning left and totaled her van, cop said "lets just say nothing happened". 2 downstaters, one in a Corvette, another in an Audi, going well over 100mph in a road race, blew past me on the freeway, past a state cop a mile up the road who was sitting in the median watching cars with a radar gun, they didnt slow down and he did absolutely nothing. A guy from Detroit, driving without insurance, slammed into my 6000 wagon earlier this year, no citation issued according to the police report. Couple downstaters with a snowmobile trailer pulled out in front of me and I clipped the trailer, police said it was my fault. Out of stater with a huge boat pulled right in front of me, I laid on the horn with 4 wheel disk locked hoping theyd at least stop, I missed him but the cop who was watching the intersection came after ME with blue lights and said "next time use your head". An out of stater with a boat pulled right in front of my coworkers motorcycle last summer and put him in the hospital, no citation issued.

Anyway thats my soapbox. Lowering speed limits wont do any good. Enforcing the laws we have would do more good than anything, both for reduced oil consumption and safety. And heck, maybe it would force Michigan to build a real economic base instead of relying on tourist dollars.