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