Tag: 85TH PERCENTILE

NMA E-Newsletter #734: National Roadway Safety Strategy: Is it a better mouse trap?

By Stewart W. Price, President of the National Motorists Association In January of 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation, led by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, published the “National Roadway Safety Strategy,” (NRSS) which serves as the playbook for revamping our current roadway system. It spells out the following goals and corresponding implementation strategies for: Safer People […]

Taking the Politics Out of Speed Limit Setting—a Member Responds: NMA Newsletter #729

By Don Bain, NMA Oregon Member  Editor’s Note: Don submitted these comments to the NMA National Office in response to Newsletter #724 Taking the Politics Out of Speed Limit Setting. While sound from an engineering perspective, there’s an inherent challenge with speed surveys and the 85% percentile speed point: establishing and documenting what “free-flowing conditions” are, […]

Taking the Politics Out of Speed Limit Setting: NMA E-Newsletter #724

All traffic is local, and nothing gets people riled up more than speed limits. The 85th percentile has been the standard for measuring speed limits for years. Due to pressure from groups such as Vision Zero and Complete Streets, this standard of measuring speed is losing ground in states such as California, Oregon, and Massachusetts, […]

Should Bikelash be Over? (and no, this is not an April Fool’s Joke)

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in December 2021 as an NMA Weekly Newsletter #675. If you would like to receive the one-topic newsletter from the National Motorists Association, subscribe today. Even before the pandemic, bike lanes were springing up all over the country in cities large and small. Most motorists weren’t happy, mainly because […]

The Changing Landscape of Speed Limits

By Shelia Dunn, NMA Communications Director Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared as the cover story in the Winter 2022 Edition of the National Motorists Association’s quarterly magazine Driving Freedoms. If you would like to receive our magazine, please become a member of the NMA today!   Advocating for speed limits based on sound traffic-engineering […]

Traffic Safety is the Responsibility of All – Not Just Motorists

By Shelia Dunn, NMA Communications Director Editor’s Note:  This post originally appeared in December 2021 as NMA E-Newsletter #674. Subscribe today if you would like to receive NMA’s one-topic E-Newsletter every Sunday! In October, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB122, a bill that would have enabled bicyclists to utilize the Idaho Stop (using stop signs as […]

Should Bikelash be Over?: NMA E-Newsletter #675

Even before the pandemic, bike lanes were springing up all over the country in cities large and small. Most motorists weren’t happy, mainly because fewer travel lanes typically translated into longer trips through congested traffic. During the pandemic, the rate of cities building bike lanes and banning cars on streets rose dramatically. The anti-car crowd […]

Over Engineering Speed Limits

By an Anonymous NMA Member from Arizona The government recently lowered the speed limit on my main street from 45 to 40. I calculated that if I lived to the same age as my mother, the reduced speed limit would cost me five days of productive life. Not enough to worry about, but it’s the […]

Equity and Sustainability

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared in March 2021 as NMA E-Newsletter #637. If you would like to receive the NMA’s weekly one-topic newsletter, subscribe HERE. Those are the buzzwords used frequently by city transportation officials as they seek to achieve “complete streets” nirvana. Before we attempt to define the overused terms, it is essential […]