¥ Mathew C Sielski, ITE
President, 1950Õs speech to engineers about their responsibilities in establishing proper and realistic speed
limits.
§Our profession also
recognizes that an emotionally aroused public will reject these fundamentals and will rely on more comfortable and widely held
misconceptions, such as:
¥ 1. Speed limit signs will slow the
speed of traffic.
¥ 2. Speed limit signs will decrease
accidents and increase safety.
¥ 3. Raising a posted speed limit
will cause an increase in the speed of traffic.
¥ 4. Any posted speed limit must be
safer than an unposted speed limit, regardless of the prevailing traffic and roadway conditions.
§Before and after studies
have proven conclusively that these are definitely misconceptions. Unfortunately, in too many instances influential
pressures succeed in the application of such unrealistic
regulations.