Forrest,
I see your point and it is well taken, but I cannot totally agree with you. Of the 16,000 deaths you claim, speeding solely did not cause all or even most of them. Many other factors to consider here. I personally feel that your cause would be better served if you were talking drunk drivers of which cause most of the deaths or have a larger stake in the deaths, accidents, etc that you refer to.
In regards to running a red light and speeding, is like comparing apples to beans. Not even in the same ballpark. As an avid speeder, I can tell you that the psychological profile you share could not be further from the truth and is a generalization of all speeders. For me, speeding gets me where I need to go. If the road permits, my car is more than up to the task as am I. In 20 years of speeding, I have yet to get into one even close call. Lucky? Perhaps or perhaps luck had nothing to do with it either. I leave that to each person to decide for themselves. Unlike previous cars I have owned that shook past 65, cars today can easily achieve 80+. Slower traffic keep to the right. It's the vigilantes out there that see a car coming and they feel it's their job to slow the other drivers down. That is more dangerous than the actual speeder. I've seen this hundreds of times. If we followed your logic the speed limits would be 45 mph on the interstates, and you would never have seen an increase to 65+mph around the country. Please keep in mind too that there is speeding and there is reckless speeding/driving, two totally different converstaions.
If you think you are any less likely to die in a wreck on the interstate at 65 compared to 80, you may have a slight point, but, you can just as easily die at 35 on side roads as you can on an expressway going 45, 55 or 65. I too have seen the statistics and they say that most injuries, deaths, etc come when you are within 2 miles of home. Most of these are on local or rural roads, not the interstates. Granted when they do happen on the interstates, it's a lot bigger than your typical fender bender. Look at the I-43 disaster last fall, but those are very rare compared to their side street counterparts.
On the insurance front, I can only say that my rates are very reasonable with a major carrier. I pay less than $600 a year for very robust coverage. If I had many tickets or suspensions from my speeding, or accidents I would not be able to enjoy these rates.
Again, pulling a trailer, beyond 60-65, is reckless in my opinion, but I have no problem being able to give those people a wide birth on the road and find it is not a problem for me. It's not my job to complain about them, change their minds or habits. I can only control what I am doing and share my thoughts on the subject.
I say raise the speed limits to 75 (cars) and 65 trailers and trucks. 55 was a joke, 65 is better. Not sure you've been to Illinois, but around here we live by the +20 rule. It just a way of life around here. Part of the reason (not the main or only reason) for speed limits was for fuel economy anyway.
In the end, 10 years from now, we won't have control over our rigs anyway (they will drive themselves) and the problems mentioned here will be memories that we tell our grandkids as they look at us in awe that we actually controlled these cars.
Regards,
Eric