Video: Civil Obedience at 55 mph-- recipe for disaster?
Most people would agree that driving the double-nickel on the freeway is a recipe for road rage. In an age where commuters gravitate towards a higher calling (that is, around 75 mph), a group of Atlanta drivers under the moniker of 'The Five Year Plan' took this reality to heart, engaging in 'An Extraordinary Act of Civil Disobedience.'
The crew all hopped on the freeway, pulled alongside each other, and in effect created a 55 mph rolling roadblock. With a spate of video cameras rolling from multiple vantage points, things get heated in a hurry.
Start the commotion by clicking here (*Warning*- video contains explicit language)
(Thanks for the tip, Vick!)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
poulsbo 1:39PM (2/28/2006)
i think they proved their point perfectly - 55 is ridiculous.
but, if the state is going to keep it at 55, they need to start ticketing people going 75, and not just let them pass and only ticket 80mph drivers.
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Corey 1:39PM (2/28/2006)
Great video (cute gals, btw), but it contains a flaw in logic. Assuming everyone did 75 on the freeway, the same would have happened.
That is not to say that I'm for double nickels. I'm with them on increasing the limit. It's not that speeding inherently causes crashes, it's the change in speeds that causes them.
Many like to misinform the public in mentioning that "speed is a factor in crashes." It obviously is, as parked cars cannot cause accidents.
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Philip Dunlop 2:09PM (2/28/2006)
If it's the change in speed that causes accidents, then surely if the speed limit is raised (and thus, a bigger change in speed), there will be more accidents, and they'll be more serious? Don't get me wrong, I think 55 is a ridiculous speed limit, but I'm not sure their logic is the only one that's flawed.
As an aside... they make their point, but it was a terribly made video. i couldn't make out what they were saying half the time with the music mixed too loud and the voice track too soft. They were trying to be funky but without the wherewithal to succeed. I don't think they did this to outline the "danger" of too low a speed limit, but more to try and get famous on the internet.
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Chris 2:15PM (2/28/2006)
That's great! Not that I wouldn't have been pissed off if I was behind them, but because I wasn't, it was great. I do think however, if they wanted to really change things there are other, much safer methods (i.e. lobbying).
Corey's correct. Ask any race car driver that travels at 200mph and they'll tell you the most dangerous thing on the track is another driver doing 190.
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bernie 2:23PM (2/28/2006)
Bad laws make a mockery of all laws.
If you drive I-285 or I-75 or I-85 long enough you'll realize the de facto speed limit is 80, and you'll be passed by someone going over 100. If the limit were raised to smething that wasn't a joke (say, 70?) then you wouldn't have the dangerous disparity of speeds you see out there now.
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Mike Homeniuk 2:24PM (2/28/2006)
I'd like to see them do it again, but this time, leave the left lane open for passing (after all, that's what it's supposed to be for, all you left lane bandits!)
there would probably be the potential for even more chaos as everyone behind then fights to get into the left lane to pass them. Anyway, i do agree that 55 is way too slow (as is 62.5 (100 kph) here in Canada. everyone drives 120kph (75) here too.
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george 2:25PM (2/28/2006)
Speed laws in the US is too ancient. We need to revised it to conform to the current situations. I watched a show on the History channel comparing the autobahn (no speed limit) in Germany to the laws in the US. It seems like they have less accidents than here. Interesting! Also, when they raised the speed limit in California from 55mph to 65mph, accidents actually went down inspite of increase in cars on the road.
I think the video proved the point that the 55mph limit is way too slow, and if everyone was going at that speed, there will actually be more traffic congestion. Send this video to all your friend and see if it'll reach people in the government. OUR SPEED LAWS NEED TO BE CHANGED!
From my years of experience in driving. 75mph is actually the normal driving speed.
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ben temcharoen 2:25PM (2/28/2006)
if i ever saw them pulling that stunt, i'd run them off the road.
those idiots blocked every lane, and wouldn't let anyone pass - so of course they'd block traffic at 75.
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James Sonne 2:29PM (2/28/2006)
They actually disobeyed the law. The law requires you to stay in the right hand lane except to pass.
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bernie 2:35PM (2/28/2006)
James brings up the most unenforced law in the country... keep right except to pass.
British friends are always alarmed at how much "undertaking" (in our case that's passing on the right) we do in the states. I explain to them that we wouldn't have to if we didn't have so many morons camped out in the left lane for no reason.
THAT is the real hazard.
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phil 2:38PM (2/28/2006)
No one follows that left lane pass only law. This was hilarious. The law is 55 so they were just doin 55. So funny.
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Steve B. 2:42PM (2/28/2006)
James Sonne:
The specific law they violated was Georgia Official Code 40-6-40 D:
"(d) No two vehicles shall impede the normal flow of traffic by
traveling side by side at the same time while in adjacent lanes,
provided that this Code section shall not be construed to prevent
vehicles traveling side by side in adjacent lanes because of
congested traffic conditions"
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tt 2:48PM (2/28/2006)
No. 7 and No. 8: Come here to DC metro/Northern VA and see for yourself. And what these people did is no different from the tactics the cops use - pace the traffic in the left lane at ridiculous speed limit. People here will hog the left lane and think they are entitled to stay there, at speed limit. They even have campaign to crack down "aggressive drivers", people like you and I, who just try to pass...
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David 2:53PM (2/28/2006)
Best audio quality. Ever.
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UltraP 3:01PM (2/28/2006)
In response to #2, NO there is NO FLAW in logic. If they all did 75mph, it wouldn't cause nearly as much chaos. The slower the speed, the more time you waste on the road, hence the more chaos. Think about it...if you average 100mph on a 10 mile trip, you'll spend 6 minutes on the road. Do the same trip at 50mph and you're spending 12 minutes on the highway, causing unnecessary congestion.
In conclusion, raising the speed limits would inevitably reduce road congestion. 55mph is absurd on a divided, limited access highway.
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Ross 3:05PM (2/28/2006)
I agree, it's the speed difference that causes problems. But it's also the speed difference that allows you to change lanes. If everyone around you is going exactly the same speed, try changing lanes to catch your exit. No one will let you move. You need a small difference in speed to allow movement. But the variance should be no more than 5 mph per lane. So increase the minimum to five less than the speed limit and give grace on five over. And all the limits should be revisited.
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Jason 3:19PM (2/28/2006)
Parked cars don't cause accidents? Park one illegally on a highway at night and see what happens.
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td500 3:27PM (2/28/2006)
Increasing the speed limit assumes every driver can handle that speed. Do you really want Bev in the Land Cruiser going 75-80, while she's on the cell phone and drifting from her lane? Or Bubba going 80 in the pick-up, smoking and yelling at his ex-wife on the phone, while debris is flying out of the bed? How about the guy with sheetrock tied to the roof of his Honda? How about the couple in the Buick with the blinker on? Or the teenager in the Jetta with the big exhaust and the seat back down to the floor? Better to enforce a reasonable limit --65-- than to allow the free-for-all that exists now.
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Carzzi 3:27PM (2/28/2006)
Yes, #13 UltraP, in queue theory, queue length is proportial to the arrival rate and the service time. In this case, lower speeds mean a longer service time, and hence a longer queue, i.e., more congestion.
Plus, #6, Mike Homeniuk:
"Officer, I *was* trying to pass him on the left, but I couldn't exceed the speed limit now, could I?!"
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klaatu 3:31PM (2/28/2006)
Think 55 is bad, during World War II, the United States had a maximum speed limit of 35 miles per hour and "A" ration coupon holders were allowed 3 gallons of gasoline per week, I think I read once (I'm too young to have been there). "A" ration coupons were for anyone who wasn't important enough to have "B" ration coupons, like Doctors or Nurses or um, politicians.
So, if and when the arabs decide they want to make full scale economic war against us (since Western civilization are so STUPID and couldn't take the hint from them in 1973 and 1979 and now import 60% of our oil needs from those-who-would-kill-us-all), we'll probably go back to 35 mph speed limits and "A" ration coupons.
After all, most of the US sourced oil will be needed to run the farm tractors to make crops and diesel semis to deliver food so we don't all starve.
Except of course we'd go to immediate full scale war and use up our "strategic reserves" in that fruitless endeavor.
Any nation which owes it's existance to the "kindness" of another people are just the slaves of those other people.
It's not like we didn't have plenty of us saying for 30 years "we need to stop this stupid importation of oil, and do something else - it's absurd for one person to drive a 5000 pound SUV to work solo."
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