My cars are junk, like our speed limits

Oct 13, 2007

From the "shoemaker's children go barefoot" file, the cars I actually own are junk.

Except for the Hornet, of course.

But even if I had money, why would someone with a gig like mine buy a new car? I get to drive new cars all the time.

The downside of driving junk is that sometimes they drive like junk, as when my 1997 Golf lost fifth gear, and subsequently first, second and reverse, too.

My local mechanic hates VWs, despite the fact that ours alone have put at least two of his kids through college.

So the trick was to get the car from Milton to the best VW tech in the world in Woodbridge, using only third and fourth gears.

Obviously you try to "schnickle'' the lights, as my dad used to say: arrive at the intersection just as the light goes green, because starts from rest in third gear result in way too much essence de clutch.

Once on the 401 in fourth, I figured 3500 r.p.m was all this untouched-by-human-hands 300,000 km engine needed to run at for 45 minutes.

Which means I was driving at the speed limit.

Normally like most traffic, I hit the speed limit twice a day – once on the way up, and once on the way down.

But there I was, in the Jim-only right lane, doing an even 100 km/h.

Aside from Lady Leadfoot escorting me, a) to drive me home, and b) in case the Golf lost any more vital parts, I was all alone at this pace.

This comes as no surprise to anyone who drives this highway.

But seriously, government-of-ours, isn't it about time we revisited the whole speed limit thing?

The 100 km/h limit is just so wrong, on so many levels.

First, we have to accept that especially on our freeways, speed isn't a problem, speed is the objective.

If we weren't in a hurry, we'd all take Hwy. 2 to Montreal.

Thus we should be able to go as fast as possible, within acceptable levels of cost and risk.

Who gets to decide what levels are acceptable?

I suggest we, the people, do.

Or should.

We have a system called representative government. Our legislature is supposed to be responsive to the wishes of the people.

We only get to vote for our provincial parliament every four to five years.

But we vote with our right feet for higher speed limits every single day.

Governments can and do get elected with as little as 35 per cent of the vote.

The tally for higher speed limits is virtually unanimous.

As has been shown over and over, no amount of enforcement we can possibly begin to afford could ever get us to drive 100 km/h on roads designed for 120 or 130.

And there is zero evidence to suggest that even if we did, we'd be any safer.

Maybe we would use less fuel. But we pay for the fuel.

We also choose which types of vehicle we're going to drive. Should SUVs be limited to 100 km/h while subcompacts can go 130?

No, these are choices we get to make in a democracy.

The de facto speed limit is somewhere between 120 and 130, depending on which stretch of 401 you're on.

You'd be very unlucky to be written up for much under that, because while the officer was doing that, he knows he'd miss someone going a buck-fifty.

But say you are going 130, and the officer has time on her hands. You're really only 10 over the true limit, but you're dinged for 30 over.

That's points. That's big money.

That's unfair.

What do most other countries do?

Even in the U.S.A., there are many areas where the limit is now 75 m.p.h. – 120 km/h.

Most Continental European countries are either 120 or 130. Germany is 130, except where there are no speed limits at all.

Britain is technically 70 m.p.h. (112 km/h), but the real number is much higher.

Europeans generally drive much more fuel-efficient cars. Their safety record is as good or better than ours.

Speed, efficiency, safety and fairness? Now there's a four-way parlay that would get pretty good odds in Vegas. They win every day over there.

Of course, Europe also has more intelligently-designed highways than we do – their driving lanes almost never disappear like ours do all the time. Nothing that a few hundred litres of lane-marking paint and a simple directive from the Minister of Transportation couldn't fix in a weekend.

They also have vastly better drivers than we do, again something lacking only the political will to replicate here.

Toronto Star