Seattle Press on Line - Editor's Note: A Father's Plea

Editor's Note: A Father's Plea

By Mike F Leonen

Aug 29, 2002 -- SOMEWHERE IN the Letters To The Editor section is a father’s plea. He wants safer crosswalks for other children, installing devices to slow cars down, and that’s understandable. His daughter, Tia, died at the intersection of 15th NE and 170th Avenue—in a crosswalk, killed by a car.

I consider myself a speed-limit driver, ‘slow’ my neighbor tells me. Although my SUV makes it possible to drive beyond the limit, I don’t. Some drivers, who think I should, stay patiently behind and follow my lead. Others, and there are more than a few, step on the gas and zoom pass me.

To them, 10 or 15 miles per hour over the speed limit is acceptable, even customary—and that I don’t understand. They speed beyond the limit but, each time, I catch up with them at the next stop light. They arrive first. When red turns green, we nonetheless leave at the same time.

Freeways are similar.

Recently, my wife and I drove cross-country from Michigan to Seattle. We drove in the morning, rested by the afternoon and visited as many tourist sites as possible in-between and after. We remained within the speed limit. We figured going 5 or 10 miles per hour beyond the speed limit won’t buy us more time. It only meant arriving at rest stops 5 or 10 minutes earlier—and that’s not much. It’s not worth the aggravation that goes with speeding up.

Speed limits, and traffic devices to enforce them, exist for a reason. They reduce the possibility of collision, with another car or—in the case of 15th NE, as reported by David Townsend in his letter—with pedestrians. Surprises can happen while driving. If they do come up, speed limits and traffic devices ensure a quick and safe reaction.

Perhaps Townsend’s letter is timely, given the current debate on various transportation initiatives. While others are thinking of ways to speed up traffic, one father’s plea is for more devices to slow us down.

We need to listen to him.

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