[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Clay1g's post is sheer nonsense. On the way up to the Glen, riding with my wife, we both commented that NY Route 17 was (as are many California freeways, from my experience as a frequent visitor) an excellent example of the way good highways--in this case a light- to moderately-trafficked four- and six-lane with long straightaways, outstanding sight lines and sweeping, gentle bends--are "self speed-limiting." The posted limits were 55 and in some areas 65. Every bit of traffic other than the occasional oldster was doing 80, which happened to be the safe, comfortable cruising speed for that road. Nobody was "doing 120." The drivers had all picked it for its reasonableness--not too fast, not too slow--and it proved once again that Montana, a few years ago, had the right idea, at least for rural areas: pick your own prudent speed limit, don't get crazy, and everybody goes home happy.

As a volunteer ambulance driver, I see accident after accident cause by mothers reaching into the back seat to cuff a kid, people jerking the wheel because they ran onto the rumble strip and consequently rolled their SUVs, blowouts in overloaded SUVs from 15-psi tires and an elderly couple trying to do a U-turn on the New York State Thruway across traffic through a gap in the center divider, to name four recent ones. But none from sheer speed.

Stephan