Is Every Speed Limit Too Low?

Re:Is Every Speed Limit Too Low? by softgrow on Monday August 04, 2014 @05:53PM (#8134267)

Dear readers, the Montana Speed Limit paradox is made up by an advocacy group with a barrow to push. Remember folks, trust but always verify. To quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Speed_limit#Montana commenting on http://www.hwysafety.com/hwy_montana_2001.htm

  The source looks somewhat unreliable and biased. I looked up FARS data for 
  1998,1999,2000 for number of fatal-crashes in Montana (state), for (nhtsa)Roadway 
  Functional Classification=Principal Arterial - Interstate and get the following 
  figures for crashes by month:
  1998-4,0,2,4,5,1,5,4,0,0,3,2,30
  1999-2,2,4,2,1,0,2,9,4,2,1,5,34
  2000-2,1,4,5,1,5,3,3,3,1,4,4,36
  However the "study" has
  1998-4,0,2,4,5,1,5,4,0,1,3,2,31
  1999-2,2,4,2,1,0,2,7,4,1,1,4,30
  2000-4,2,8,5,2,7,7,3,4,1,6,7,56
  I've removed the section, it's obviously made up numbers for 2000 for interstates
  to suit an argument, nowhere near fact. There is a reason for the use of reliable 
  sources in Wikipedia and this is a case in point. Alex Sims (talk) 10:13, 25 
  January 2011 (UTC)

See what someone with an authoritative sounding domain name can do!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is Every Speed Limit Too Low? by cheald on Monday August 04, 2014 @06:26PM (#8134413)

I was looking for government numbers for those years, but didn't have much luck. Thanks for the FARS keyword - that looks like it should have the datasets I need! I'm going grab and parse them and see if there's an actual difference in the data.

I somewhat doubt the data was made up, but it's possible that the roadway classifications were chosen in such a way that the datasets supported the point.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is Every Speed Limit Too Low? by softgrow on Monday August 04, 2014 @08:17PM (#8134835)

No I think the so called paradox was made up, To verify:

  http://www.nhtsa.gov/FARS
  Select tab "Run a Query Using the FARS Web-Based Encyclopaedia"
  "Query Fars DATA" which takes you to 
  http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov//QueryTool/QuerySection/SelectYear.aspx
  For each year 1998,1999,2000
    Select Query Year, e.g. 2000, then Submit
    In the top section Tick 
     “Roadway Function Class” 
     and “Month”, then Submit
    Select State: Montanta, and RFC Roadway Function 
    Class “Rural-Principal Arterial-Interstate”
    Select Univariate Tabulation
    Select Variable - Crash Month and “Show Zeros” Yes

Output

  1998-4,0,2,4,5,1,5,4,0,0,3,2,30
  1999-1,1,3,2,1,0,2,9,4,2,1,4,30
  2000-2,1,3,5,1,5,3,3,3,1,4,4,35

Then lose your doubts.

[ Parent | on HN ]