From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Mon Jan 18 1999 - 16:44:54 MST
sasha1@netcom.com ("Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko") writes:
>Let's assume that the death rate rises linearly with speed limit
>(looks like the case now). So 10% increase in speed limit would
>raise death rates by 0.16 per 100 million miles traveled.
>So on average, a person would lose half of their life's worth of
>waking time per each incident = 35 years * 365 days * 16 hours * 0.16
>= roughly, 33,000 hours per 100 million miles traveled.
>
>But then, the same speed increase would save people time for productive
>and pleasant activities, with the savings:
You assume that the time spent driving has zero productivity and
pleasure. The government seems to assume normal productivity and/or
pleasure. If the speed limit affected time spent in congested traffic,
I'd find your assumptions clearly better than the government's, but
I think it mainly affects time spent on uncongested highways, where
I can sometimes derive pleasure from things like listening to a CD,
talking to a friend, thinking about work, etc.
So I think the truth is somewhere in between your assumptions and the
government's.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter McCluskey | Critmail (http://crit.org/critmail.html): http://www.rahul.net/pcm | Accept nothing less to archive your mailing list
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