70 mph limit too dangerous here
My name is Jae Pyun and I’m a senior at Conant High School. I am responding to Steve Doner’s letter entitled, “70 mph speed limit should apply to metro Chicago.”
He states that the speed limit of 70 mph should apply to metro Chicago for traffic and safety purposes. “When limits are underposted, one group of drivers travels at careful and prudent speeds and another group tries to adhere more closely to the law,” he writes.
But this isn’t technically true. For example, the suburban areas in Illinois have a speed limit of 45 miles per hour like Schaumburg Road. Even on roads that have a lower speed limit, it’s possible to see that there are the drivers that speed past 45, and those who stay with or go under the speed limit.
If Schaumburg Road isn’t a good example, there is Wise Road in Elk Grove Village. This road has a speed limit of 35 miles per hour, and there are definitely drivers who drive at 45 miles per hour. So, it’s easy to see that even if the speed limit were to be raised, there are always those drivers that drive much faster than the actual speed limit.
Not only that, but the safety of the road when there’s snow and ice is questionable. The average reaction time for a human is about 200 milliseconds or 0.2 seconds.
Changing the speed limit to 70 miles per hour makes the road more dangerous. How? The raised speed limit will force people to drive faster. Not only will they have to drive faster, they will have to react to situations quicker. But, a human can only react so fast. So reacting faster is not possible and makes the road much more dangerous.
Jae Pyun
Schaumburg