3-2-1 We have lift off!
I am now convinced that the world would be so much better off without politicians. These are the people whom we elected because somebody had to be chosen to do the job, but once we let them loose they seem to be only capable of making our lives worse than before.
A perfect case in point is that here in Spain a proposal is now on the table to raise the speed limit of the autovia and the autopista from 120kph. At the highest point in Spain's recorded death toll history on the highways, more than seven thousand people lost their lives in one single year. From the time the points system was introduced the yearly death toll has been steadily dropping to below 1,500, which is still far too many. Complicit in just about all highway crashes is an element of too much speed, so it was a very good idea when the government lowered the limit to 110 kph. They said it was to lessen to need for fuel, but less fuel bought meant less tax revenue.
The thinking was that the government would claw back lost revenue in fines for speeding, but motorists frustrated that plan by driving slower, buying less fuel, and avoiding fines by driving within the limit. The government quickly changed its mind and the 120 kph was reinstated.
So now, they are talking about increasing the limit, presumably to 130 kph, just at the time when fuel prices have risen to the highest point at the pump that they have ever been. Perhaps its just me. I am searching for the logic in all this where there is no sensible logic at all. An increase in the speed limit, where a lot of people drive over the limit anyway, means an even faster movement of vehicles, and that will surely lead to an uptick in the number of crashes, and the death toll will most likely rise.
What the hell is wrong with these people? Is there a problem with a declining death rate? Are the people of Spain, for whom there is a declining inventory of jobs, to be culled to make our joblessness statistics look better? Don't laugh, stranger thinking than that has come out of the Cortes.
Personally, I choose to ignore that lot and make my own rules. I drive at 100 kph whether the limit is 110, 120, or 130. I get to where I'm going in one hour, or part thereof, and as long as some nutcase doesn't slam into me, I promise not to slam into them, because I will have everything under control.
Amen!
Copyright (c) 2012 Eugene Carmichael
