For those of you with a deposit down on a 2,000 model S-Class, it's time to order color and options. The ordering guide has arrived.
Individual options are (optional on S430 and S500 both unless noted):
220-Parktronic-$975
223-Electronic Rear Seatback-$1,750
224-Four Place Seating Package-$5,540
(Electronic Rear Seatbacks (code 223) are included)
402-Rear Climate Comfort Seats-$1,500
(requires 223 or 224. Heated Rear Seats (code 872) are included)
540-Rear Window Sunshade-$495
582-Climate Control, Rear Compartment-$1,800
872-Heated Rear Seats-$595
Value-Added Option Packages:
171-S1 (Audio), Portable Phone, CD Changer-$1,620
172-S2 (S430 ONLY-STANDARD IN S500) (Lighting) Headlamp Washers, Xenon Headlamps-$1,105 (Available in late Spring 1999 for S430)
173-S3 (Comfort) Climate Comfort Seat (Front) Left & Right Multi-contour Seats w/Active Lumbar Support-$1,940 (Available only on S500 at launch. S430 availability expected for late Spring 1999)
174-S4 (Convenience) Distronic (See below) Parktronic, Rear Window Sunshade-$3,775 (Available late summer for MY2,000).
Standard Colors (All colors available with any of the 4 interiors, Ash, Oyster, Charcoal, and Java:
Black (040)
Glacier White (143)
Almandine Black (182) New Color
Obsidian Black (197)
Dark Turquoise (257)
Horizon Blue (347) New Color (looks gunmetal grey to me).
Smoke Silver (702)
Brilliant Silver (744)
S430s get Calyptus wood. S500s get Burl Walnut.
Distronic:
Distronic is an autonomous intelligent cruise control system that maintains a constant cruising distance from the vehicle directly ahead. The distance from the vehicle in front can be set by the driver and is shown in the central display of the cockpit. This state-of-the-art system uses a sophisticated radar sensor and a high-speed microprocessor to measure the distance and relative speed of the vehicle in front and adjusts the engine throttle and applies up to 20 percent of the brakes, to maintain a driver-selected cruising distance.
Hidden in the specs and unnoticed by me till now, "Automatic
Headlamp Activation (Twilight Sensor).
I just received the Classic Motorbooks 1998 holiday catalog. On Page 18 was the following blurb on Drive to Survive:
"What do you do if you're being followed or harassed in your car? Do you know how to use your car as a weapon? This dynamic guide teaches you evasive driving techniques such as the legendary bootlegger hairpin, J-turns, and how to run your assailant off the road. Filled with combat survival and race car driving techniques that are crucial for keeping your options open in life-threatening situations. Sftbd., 6"x 9", 128 pgs., 50 b&w ill."
127153.......$14.95
Their Phone # is 1-800-826-6600. You fan fax your order to 1-715-294-4444. You can order off the web at www.motorbooks.com. Put Curt Rich or Drive to Survive into their search engine. They take Master Card, Visa, American Express, and Discover.
Their blurb is not quite complete. The book starts with a system of situational awareness derived from combat survival techniques which will minimize your chances of getting into an accident or getting mugged or carjacked or robbed. This is the most important part of the book. Use this system, and you probably won't need the rest. From there it goes on to several techniques to avoid accidents and basic high performance driving concepts. It recommends driving schools for the techniques you can't learn from a book. Then it gets into the evasive driving techniques and both how to avoid being carjacked, etc., and what to do if you're kidnapped despite all your efforts.
Jeff Cooper read the draft and said this about it:
"Note that... Curt Rich has just released a new and
very important work called "Drive to Survive." Curt, in addition
to being a fully experienced combat infantry officer, is also a firearms
enthusiast, but above that, he has driving credentials as long as your arm.
He knows whereof he speaks. I have read the draft from beginning to end,
and I counsel all the faithful to purchase not one, but two copies of this
book - one to read and one to loan. Here is a 'how-to' book which may really
make a difference, if we can get enough people to read it."
After you have bought Drive to Survive for everyone you know, go next to the Mercedes-Benz Collection Fall and Winter 1998 catalog. If you want something from the catalog, do be aware the parts department won't have everything in stock, so plan on ordering well ahead of the rush.
They now have accessories to match each class of car. The CLK tie is quite different from the SLK tie, M-Class tie, etc. Ties, sunglasses, scarves, model cars, pens, watches, golf clubs, umbrellas, shirts, jackets, sweaters, mugs, luggage, mugs, pocket knives, Bose acoustic wave radios, caps, robes, toys, bicycles, car covers, cleaning products, and more fill the catalog.
If he doesn't have a Valentine One radar/laser detector, get one. 1-800-331-3030.
If he's into detailing the car, the Zymöl Starter kit, at $120, contains a full-size container of each of the basic products that make up the Zymöl Automotive Enhancement System, 8.5 oz. HD-Cleanse, 8.5 oz., Clear, 8 oz. Wax, wax applicator, pre-wax applicator, towel, and 5 oz. Of Vinyl or Leather conditioner. www.zymol.com.
If he is building the ultimate garage, leave a Griot's Garage catalog out with a magic marker and "Santa says circle what you want, little boy." Some of their stuff is very specialized, so you need to know what he wants. Gift certificates work, of course, and they do them. I have so much Griot's stuff in my garage I could put up one of their "Certified Car Care Detailer" plaques among my many other signs if I didn't use mostly Zymöl stuff. 1-800--345-5789
Their Garage Parking Light, which helps you find your "spot" in the garage, is a neat 1998 addition at $79.95.
If you must get him a tie, get their Speed Racer Tie at $26.95 it's a statement. I'm not sure what it's saying, but it's a statement.
And as usual, buy a Mercedes-Benz or Volvo from me for a Christmas present, and Santa will deliver it on Christmas Eve complete with red suit and beard.
For some time I've been trying to get parents to use child booster seats on children who are in the 40-100 lb. range. Now that a TV program, Dateline NBC, has brought to public light the number of children maimed by failure to use such booster seats, I'm on a crusade to at least get the readers of this rag to use them.
Children who have outgrown the 20-40 lb. baby seat will often sit in the back seat using the standard seatbelt. The problem is the shoulder belt will catch them in the face, so they either put it behind them or put it under their armpit. The former results in crushed intestines or broken spines. The latter results in crushed spleens.
The booster seat, using the Mercedes-Benz one as a model, solves this problem. The Mercedes-Benz seat is adjustable in several ways. A small child will use the base and the back, with the seatbelt being hooked through the hook on either side so that he/she can use the full three-point harness. When the child grows, the seat is adjusted until the back is no longer necessary, and, using the base, the child can use the three-point belt properly. When the child reaches 100 lb./5 ft., the booster is no longer necessary, and the child can then sit in the right front seat.
On a 1998 or later Mercedes-Benz equipped with BabySmartTM you can put a child using this seat in the right front because it disconnects the right front airbag. Using the whole seat or just the booster cushion disconnects the airbag, as do the 5-20 lb. seat and the 20-40 lb. seat.
The seats aren't expensive. The 5-20 lb. infant restraint is $158. The 20-40 lb. toddler restraint is $140. The Child booster seat is $163. People buying cars from me and needing one of the three have recently discovered I've been giving them away in order to get children in them. In one case I lost a sale because of it, suggesting an 85 lb. girl needed the booster in order to use the seatbelt properly. Her mother became incensed and left. The child was 13. That doesn't matter in a crash. That improperly worn seatbelt would injure her just as if she was 11. Physics is physics.
Our parts department tries to keep them in stock despite
my best efforts, but if you want one, call them, (713) 868-6828, and reserve
one. If they're out they'll have another in a day or two.
An online reader had problems understanding a line in last month's newsletter. Mercedes-Benz does not use talcum powder in air bags. They used to, as did everyone when they were newly invented. If you're going to fold something tightly for 15 years and expect it to expand to full capacity in 1/30th second, it's best that it doesn't stick together. Ergo talcum powder. Then they discovered people were allergic to talcum powder.
Here's the scenario. You've just been in a horrendous crash and would have hit the steering wheel without the airbag. But the crash was at high enough speed that you have two broken ribs, and the wind has been knocked out of you big time. You're struggling for breath and inhale great gulps of air. It has talcum powder in it so much bystanders think the interior of the car is on fire. You inhale it and trigger an allergic coughing fit. The coughing causes a broken rib to puncture a lung. Now your life is in danger.
Mercedes-Benz doesn't use talcum powder. I don't know of any other manufacturer that doesn't use talcum powder. Some might not. I don't attend training for all brands obviously. They won't let me in.
Instead of getting windshield washer fluid at K-Mart at $0.99 a gallon and then wondering what those smears on the windshield are and why your paint has all those dull spots (from the alcohol removing the wax), use Mercedes-Benz new Formula VR9422 windshield washer concentrate. Mix one bottle with 4-5 liters of water in the summer. In other words, one bottle will handle one container of washer fluid. In the winter you should use a washer fluid which will lower the freezing point if you are in subfreezing weather, of course, not a problem usually in Houston.
I didn't know that for lo these many years I had been married to a vicious criminal, but on November 17th the redhead's criminal tendencies came out. At 0648 that morning she entered the HOV (that's High Occupancy Vehicle) lane of the Katy Freeway with only two people in her two passenger car. From 0645 to 0800 only 3+ passenger vehicles may enter the HOV lane. At the far end a duly appointed law enforcement officer apprehended her and duly arrested her and brought her to justice. The fine for this heinous crime is $125, and it is a moving violation. Get 3 and lose your license. This, I believe, is greater than the fine for endangering the lives of the citizenry by running a red light. It is currently in the hands of my ace attorney. I'll keep you informed.
A conversation with a Metro Captain revealed the officer involved is a full-time fireman and part time Metro policeman and has a reputation for being overzealous. It's nice that our firemen have such short working hours that they can be Metro policemen in their spare time. In my spare time I sleep.
This sort of thing has to be a PR nightmare for Metro. They're spending millions of our money to beg people to use the HOV lane. Then some idiot makes the stupid rule that 3 people have to be aboard during prime time, and a duly appointed officer of the law has to be "overzealous" in enforcing it. All of their efforts to paint the Metro folks as friendly, safe people go down the drain to be replaced by one which makes you think of East German Border Guards. But the city would take the money if the redhead was stupid enough to just pay the fine.
After this we discovered that Metro has a secret program whereby people can pay $2.00 via EZ tag and travel the HOV lane with only 2 aboard between 0645 and 0800. Since the car in question has an EZ tag, the likelihood is it was charged $2.00 anyway.
The redhead learned of a serious underground movement to defeat the system. Want to go downtown quickly? Just go into the park and ride at highway 6, go to the bus stop and find a group of people waiting. "Want to go downtown?" will get you as many riders as you need to qualify. The city loses the bus fare, and now you're a legitimate HOV lane user.
Does your early ML320's gas gauge show you to be out of fuel when you're not? Are you only able to get in 13 gallons when the fuel light comes on? Mercedes has a cure. See one of our service advisors and make an appointment. We can fix that.
The Texas Hill Country is one of the great recreational areas of the world, with activities to fit the plans of virtually anyone. Not the least of those activities is recreational driving on interesting back roads. For this we headquartered in Fredericksburg, which gives you a lot of things to do if the weather turns to hell, from the shopping vacation with its semi-quaint collections of things women find adorable,1 to the history vacation, with the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War and several museums and restored buildings celebrating the not inconsequential local history. The Germans who settled there signed the only treaty with Indians in the U.S. not broken by the white eyes. (This didn't keep one local but not native person to say that the settlers "stole" the land from the Indians. Anyone living through life in 1840s Texas probably deserved the land they got.)
First, buy The Roads of Texas. Our copy is marked $14.95 from "The Birdhaus Nature Store," which I presume was in Fredericksburg sometime. It's published by Texas A & M University, Cartographics Laboratory. Amazon.com has it for $11.96. The 1995 version is the current one.
There are several ways to get to Fredericksburg via car. For real drivers who want to drive back roads quickly, I suggest, from Houston, I-10 to Seguin (with 90A as a semi-backroad alternative), then exit 46 to New Braunfels. Stay on 46 through New Braunfels to 311. Follow 311 to 281, and take 281 north to Blanco. There take 1623 to 1888. 1888 is a good back road suitable for a banzai run. You can accelerate, brake, downshift, upshift, and corner a lot. You'll crest a lot of hills. It Ts into 1376. Go right there. You'll go through Luckenbach. There is virtually nothing in Luckenbach, Texas, not even Waylan and Willie and the boys. 1376 will intersect U S 290. Left there. This will take you into Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg has something like 200 bed and breakfasts ranging from awful to super. They also have several hotels ranging from awful to mediocre. We've had best luck with the Best Western Sunday House, staying in the new section, which has less of the local bugs than the old section. The Comfort Inn isn't comfortable. The Fredericksburg Inn has incompetent reservations staff manning (peopling) the phones. There are others.
The Sunday House, this trip, had a sign at registration, "Hunters: We have rags for cleaning your guns available at registration." Translation: "Don't use the towels to clean guns." The lady at the desk said they had to put up a similar sign when the hotrod club comes to town.
Fredericksburg is an anorexic's paradise. You can gain as much weight there in a weekend as you want to. Main Street is covered in restaurants, and some of the best restaurants aren't on main street. Near the Nimitz Museum on Main is Der Lindenbaum, a traditional German Restaurant with great sauerbraten and superb desserts. The apple strudel cheesecake is worth eating twice, which I did, going there for dessert one night when the restaurant we'd chosen had turned out to have changed a lot since we were there before, and then returning the next night for dinner and dessert. For lunch, with reservations only is the Peach Tree Gift Gallery/Tea Room on South Adams (16). Their desserts are spectacular, too. The Plateau Café, on West Main, has the best wienerschnitzel in town (veal, not pork) and good cobblers. The Oak House, on 87, is new and probably the best restaurant in town. The Strawberry Peach cobbler is the best cobbler I've ever had. The meal was superb, but after the cobbler, I don't even remember the meal.
After dinner and they roll you to your hotel, noting you look a lot like Bibendum the Michelin man, you'll notice the night life in Fredericksburg. If you are reading this on our website, you can get a view of Fredericksburg nightlife by turning your screen off. For this reason either stay at a hotel with good cable TV, or bring reading material. If you aren't married you might have sex to pass the time. Married people, of course, don't have sex.
The next morning if you get there early enough to beat the crowd, have breakfast at the Old German Bakery, formerly George's Old German Bakery, but George has a diner now on East Main. The short stack of German style pancakes fills the plate. And they have pastries sufficient to turn Kate Moss into Mrs. Bibendum the Michelin Supermodel.
If it's Saturday, plan on driving the Willow City Loop and then visiting the Bell Mountain Winery, open for tours only on Saturday from 10 till 5. The Willow City Loop is a spectacular drive with lots of wildlife, including native whitetail deer and beautiful scenery. Drive north on Hwy. 16 for 13 miles and turn right onto Old Willow City Road. Take it to a T intersection at FM1323. Left on that, then straight onto the Willow City Loop. You will note signs telling you not to stop for the next 13 miles. The reason for this is during bluebonnet season the locals can't get out of their property for the flatland furreigners creeping along at 9 mph in their Suburbans. If you can ever get a no traffic shot at the road it's one of the great driver's roads around. When you get to the north end, left on Hwy. 16 and look for the Bell Mountain Winery sign on the left. Their wines are excellent, and the tour is worth taking.
For my 51st birthday we rode bicycles from the Sunday House to and through the loop and back. I haven't figured out how it was uphill and against the wind both ways. It was over 52 miles. The redhead refuses to repeat the ride in anything with less than 4 wheels and 185 hp.
This trip was done in fog and drizzling rain and reminded me of the two types of truck drivers found there. Type A is in an old, beat up two-wheel drive truck, and he is going slowly but moves over when he can to let you pass. Type B is in a new 4 wheel drive one ton with a 'roo bar on the front big enough to stop a moose who latches onto your tail 1 car length behind no matter how fast you go in the slippery stuff, refusing to pass but trying to intimidate you. The SLK will stop from 60 mph in 100 feet, more or less. A one-ton pickup truck will take another 75 feet, so if he's closer than 75 feet behind you, you know that in a panic stop, that 'roo bar will be in contact with your vehicle. Where's that oil slick button now that I need it?
There are a lot of twisty little back roads in the area. A perusal of The Roads of Texas, page 120 and 121, will verify that. Spend the rest of the day doing them unless you're now into winery tours. Grape Creek and Becker Vineyards, both off 290 east, and Sister Creek, 10 miles off 290, will give you your fill if you're so inclined. Don't pass up the little Fredericksburg Winery on West Main. While expensive, their consumer-oriented wines are appealing and don't require gourmet tastebuds.
Plan on a full day for the next drive, assuming after a day and a half of eating Fredericksburg food you can still fit in your car. Fill the car's fuel tank before starting. Finding 93 octane stuff is difficult on some parts of the route.
Take 16 south through Kerrville. Once you get outside of Kerrville the road will turn into a twistfest going down to river level and climbing over a significant hill. The road is challenging and twisty all the way to Medina. (You can continue on 16 to Bandera if you desire to see the place, a small cowboy-oriented town with more fame than it deserves. Dude ranches abound around Bandera, and they have a bankrupt horse racing track. If it's lunch time, the selection of restaurants is better than you'll find on the route for a while.) Go south on 337, a twisty little road which will get you to Leakey. Leakey has no claim to fame other than an open Exxon station which has 93 octane petrol for octane-hungry supercharged Mercedes.
From Leakey take 83 south toward Uvalde. If 83 is too boring, and it is, take 127 then 2690.
If you're below half a tank when you get to Uvalde, note the petrol station on left. If it has an hour's worth of trucks filling up as it did when we were there, either plan on waiting or go further south into Uvalde. If you're looking for lunch, you'll need to go into Uvalde for it. We munched carry-along foodstuffs, so we didn't sample any of the restaurants there.
Turn right onto 55 toward Camp Wood. When we came through the redhead asked, "Why are those people flashing their lights at you?"
"There's a cop on the road ahead." Since we have an early stick-shift SLK, we don't have cruise control, but I coasted to 70 and tried to keep it exactly there.
At the bottom of a hill, after a long, straight downhill session where someone just the little bit careless would have had his speed creep up, the black and white revenue collector was parked behind a bridge hidden neatly. He hit us with K-band radar, very strong, very loud signal at point blank range. Reflexes took over, and I stabbed the brakes even though I wasn't speeding. The revenue collector waved. We waved. As we climbed the hill he hit us again from the rear. Anyone who thought, "I'm past him, time to floor it," would have been had. When we got the Magma Red car we knew every revenue collector would fire his microwave at us. We'll just carry marshmallows and let them toast them. But small cars should be visible in the land of Suburbans.
At Camp Wood, our planned refueling spot, the Texaco station was out of business, and the Diamond Shamrock had 87 and 89 octane. The gauge was high enough that we forged on toward Leakey. As soon as we were out of sight of the town, the gauge fell into the red and the low fuel light came on. I went into full economy run mode and used maybe another teaspoon of fuel before coasting into Leakey. There I was only able to put in 11.2 gallons, over a gallon less than I should have according to the fuel light. The tank on the SLK only holds 14.0 gallons (despite what they say in the December Road & Track). The light's supposed to come on when you have 1.8 gallons left, not 2.8. But I guess it's better than being too optimistic.
We went north on 83 for a bit and then took 336. 336 is a world class twisty, hilly road from hills to river level. Views were great, and best of all, there wasn't another car on it. Except for the redhead's occasional screams, there was nothing to slow me down. It was neat. Eventually 336 T'd into 41. We went right there past the legendary Thunder Ranch and the even more legendary YO Ranch. (Show the locals you really know the area and call it the Yo Ranch, like something Sylvester Stallone would say. They'll love you for it.) The YO Ranch dates from before the Civil War and once sent 300,000 head of cattle on a cattle drive. Now it's a hunter's paradise of exotic game and has cattle roundups and drives for flatland furreigners to spend money on.
From 41 we turned right toward Hunt. The road hasn't a number on the map, and I don't remember what it was. It passes the Kerr Wildlife Refuge on the left, and a full-scale replica of Stonehenge on the right (put there by space aliens according to the redhead) and goes through about a dozen low water bridges, so don't go there if it's flooding. It was written up in Classic Automobile Review as one of the best driver's roads in the world, better than any in Italy or Germany. Apparently that writer encountered less traffic than we did. It's a good sight-seeing road, but 337 and 336 are the best driver's roads on the trip.
It was bright and sunny for us, the only time on the 4 day vacation it didn't rain. We put the SLK's top down at Leakey and drove back to Fredericksburg that way to the envy of all. We drove like Germans, windows up and wind deflector in place.
On 41 a Department of Pubic Safety revenue collector hit us with wide band Ka radar, validating my decision to use the Valentine One on the trip.
Custom Car Stereo had installed a K40 UN 3000 undetectable, built-in radar detector with laser detection and jamming via a Defuser Plus, the day before the trip.
Then I had received a letter from an angry client to K40. He had gotten a couple of expensive tickets without getting a beep out of the K40. (K40 paid for his tickets, even though one was handled by deferred adjudication and the other by defensive driving.) I called Custom Car Stereo and asked if they were installing wide-band Ka units. They weren't. They had, but when you mounted front and rear wide band Ka detectors they talked to each other and were basically falsing any time the power was on. So they went back to photoradar Ka (narrow band). Fortunately I had them hardwire the Valentine One just for highway usage. I had planned on leaving it hidden for in-town driving since the redhead would be leaving the car at a Park-n-Ride 5 days a week. But, thanks to that letter, I knew not to trust the K40 on the highways plagued by the Department of Pubic Safety revenue collectors. So it was left turned off and the Valentine used.
Now if you're hit with wide band Ka radar point blank on a lonely road like 41, you'll be clocked at somewhere around the speed you were going (depending on whether or not his unit is mounted level. If it is not, there can be cosine error against you). There's no defense. (No jammer works in Ka). The detector protects you when the revenue collector shoots at the car ahead and you get a blip. Then you get legal before he shoots you.2
If you have a K40 front and rear unit you might talk to Custom Car Stereo (713-981-8455) about upgrading to wide-band Ka. Since they had just put it in for me, I didn't have to pay, but I would expect them to charge for upgrading an older unit.
Later on 41 a constable hit us with K band. It was the first weekend of hunting season, and the local revenue collectors love hunters' money, or my money, or your money. (All of the radar hits were on roads where exceeding the speed limit was harmless, of course. Radar usually doesn't work where speeding is dangerous except for school zones.) But they're out in force whenever there is anything drawing a crowd, of course, like vultures circling a massacre.
The next day we returned to Houston, in the rain, the 3rd day out of 4. Since it was raining we took the freeway route.
1There are only a couple of stores with Guy stuff. One is Hill Country Outfitters, with bird hunting and fishing stuff and Orvis clothing. The other is Texas Jack's, which has cowboy clothing and firearms, some of which are suitable for Cowboy Action Shooting. However, when we were there, the guy behind the counter wouldn't shut up telling stories long enough for me to buy anything. The rest of the stores are hopelessly feminine. Anything which sold items of interest to guys has gone out of business. For most guys, shopping at them is equivalent to root canal. They have a lot of stores selling candles of all kinds at outrageous prices. Seems to me as the electric light has been perfected, and candles are only good for setting the cat on fire. These were uniformly too expensive and pretty to ever think about burning. Other stores sell rustic furniture at outrageous prices, bird houses at outrageous prices, frumpy, out of fashion women's clothes at outrageous prices, Texas wines, dulcimers (boy, I bet there's a big call for that) at prices I didn't check because I'm not planning on buying a dulcimer, knickknacks (whatever that is) at outrageous prices, and many more tourist items at outrageous prices. The gallery selling Charles Fracé prints at reasonable prices went out of business (lowering my cost of visiting Fredericksburg by several hundred dollars a trip). The place with antique sign replicas went out of business. With all of their emphasis on hunting,3 aside from the Orvis store, no one had anything for hunters except maybe Wal-Mart.
2Two radar stories, via Jeff Cooper: In England the revenue collectors were using a brand new radar unit, and it suddenly read 300 mph and burned out. A RAF jet flew overhead. The revenue collectors complained to the RAF who told them they were lucky. The jet had received a radar threat signal and had automatically locked in on the threat and fired a missile. Fortunately that day the jet had only simulated missiles installed. Had they their regular anti-radar missiles, the revenue collectors would have been a large smoking hole in the ground.
Back in the old Soviet Union, a Moscow cop got a shiny new radar unit, a portable unit with a pistol grip. He saw a string of cars coming and pointed it at the first one. The string of cars was the Prime Minister's motorcade, and their bodyguards saw a weapon pointed at them and shot the revenue collector right between the eyes.
3Hunting brings in a serious amount
of money into the hill country. I believe Clint Smith told me Kerr County
gets $7 million annually from hunting. He said most of the hunting ranches
around Thunder Ranch were hunted out, and he had allowed no hunting at Thunder
Ranch for 5 years so that he could offer prime hunting at prime prices.
But I talked to a bed and breakfast owner who said they had to landscape
with plants that deer don't eat because the area was pretty much overrun
with deer. Every time I've been there I've managed to get into pistol range
of at least one trophy buck without any effort. I don't hunt deer. I shot
only with a Nikon. You'd think with all of that hunting the deer would learn
to stay away from people.
By Eric Peters, Wall Street Journal 11/24/98
Remember when Congress abolished the federally mandated 55-miles-an-hour speed limit back in 1995 and various "safety experts" clucked that this would entail a dramatic rise in accident and fatality rates? Well, the facts are in. But you probably haven't heard very much about them, since they tend to refute everything the experts said would happen.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration predicted that an additional 6,400 motorists would die annually as a result of rising speed limits. In fact, fatality and accident rates have declined since the repeal of the national speed limit; 1997, the year for which the most recent data are available, had the lowest traffic-death rate in the nation's history. NHTSA has been less than vigorous about acknowledging its erroneous prediction, perhaps because the 55 mph speed limit gave the federal government considerable power over the states and provided a raison d'etre for the continued existence of NHTSA's bloated bureaucracy.
As the roads have gotten safer, speed limits have increased. This year New Jersey and Connecticut raised their limits from 55 to 65 mph, leaving only Hawaii with a limit of 55. Twenty-one states have a maximum limit of 65 mph; 17 states have a limit of 70 mph; 10 states have a limit of 75 mph. Montana has no posted daytime speed limit, requiring only that drivers maintain a "reasonable and prudent" speed.
These higher speeds are safer because they reflect the normal flow of traffic-what highway engineers call the "85th percentile" speed. This is the speed most drivers will maintain on a given stretch of road under a given set of conditions. When speed limits are set arbitrarily low-as under the old system-tailgating, weaving and "speed variance" (the problem of some cars traveling significantly faster than others) makes roads less safe.
When the interstate highway system was constructed, the flow of traffic was monitored and speed limits set according to the 85th percentile rule. Until the early 1970s, most interstate highways were posted 70 to 75 mph. Bear in mind these speeds were considered perfectly safe by highway engineers assuming 1950s-era brake, suspension and tire technology.
But after the energy crisis of the 1970s, when the 55 mph limit was enacted as a fuel-conservation measure, the cry that "speed kills" kept limits down. Even though modern cars are vastly more capable of traveling safely at high speed, we're supposed to believe that it's reckless to operate them at speeds considered moderate 30 years ago.
Does speed kill? The higher your velocity, of course, the greater the force of any impact; therefore the greater the extent of injury in the event of an impact. But this does not imply any greater risk of accident-just more damage will occur if there is one. Speed, by itself, does not kill. Hitting something does. Most highway fatalities occur at speeds of 45 mph or less.
Translated into public policy, this means that driving 65 (or 75) will not automatically increase the odds on your having an accident. There never has been a single credible study that says it does. People who insist that raising speed limits from one arbitrary number to another will somehow make highways less safe and cause more accidents are simply mistaken.
Notwithstanding the facts, the new speed limits are under attack by the very same safety lobby that cried wolf before. Let us hope that it will soon become clear to most people that driving faster than a federal bureaucracy thinks is appropriate isn't hurting anyone-except, of course, the federal bureaucracy.
Mr. Peters writes on automotive issues for the Washington times and is a nationally syndicated columnist.
As we reach the holiday season I look back on a happy and prosperous year and wish you all had the same and will have the same in the year and years to come. We live in a wonderful country. May you all find something under the tree with a three-pointed star on the hood, and may 1999 be better than 1998.