Modest Proposals for Safer Road Journeys

Aug. 3 -- People often bray that if some expenditure or other will save just one life, it's worth it. What this sometimes boils down to is an undertaking that may visibly save a few lives but will, less visibly, cost an exorbitant amount of money and, indirectly, a larger number of other lives.

So it's nice in this summer season of increased driving to suggest a couple of relatively inexpensive measures that, I think, could save many lives. Automobile fatalities number approximately 40,000 annually (more than 13 times the number killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center), and more than half of these accidents involve alcohol, so there are a lot of lives to save.

The first rather simpleminded proposal is an idea I've suggested to officials ranging from turnpike authorities to the U.S. transportation secretary (in a previous administration), and I've always wondered why no one has ever shown any interest in it.

Turnpike Speeding, a Solution

Here it is: When someone enters a toll road, the ticket he or she receives is stamped with the time of entrance. The distance between the various toll booths is known (or can easily be determined) so that when the exit time is recorded later by a computer, it can easily calculate the person's average velocity while on the toll road. The tollbooth operator may then direct speeders with incriminating toll tickets to a waiting patrol car.

The method wouldn't do away with all speeding, of course, since someone could still speed until just before the exit, stop for a cup of coffee or a full meal if they'd really been racing, and exit with a legal average velocity. Still, the primary inducement for speeding would be gone.

What's wrong with this plan? Division of one number by another, the distance traveled by the time elapsed, is surely not a risky or novel technology. And a $5 calculator can do the job. Speeding tickets now are issued on the basis of radar and other technologies, which are considerably less reliable.