So you may have heard that a Lakewood man has started an online petition to raise the speed limit on the Garden State Parkway from 65 mph to 75 mph and he’s receiving support from Monmouth County Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon.

As of this morning more than 2,600 people had signed the petition on Change.org which was started by Mendel Rosenfeld who plans to present it to Governor Murphy.  His reasoning is that by increasing the speed limit people will agree to travel further for a job which will lower unemployment rates.

Frankly I don’t understand that and I don’t know that I would support the speed limit increase even though I admit that I regularly drive faster than 65 and so do most of you. We can probably agree that if you don’t exceed the speed limit as it currently stands you are likely having cars fly by you and some will give you ugly stares as they do so especially if you’re not in the right lane.

However with the Parkway often resembling the Daytona Motor Speedway if the limit is increased to 75 mph doesn’t that just mean that motorists who regularly drive at that speed anyway will simply “push the pedal to the medal” and now travel at 85 or more?

I know Rosenfeld, O’Scanlon and others will likely point out that more than 40 states in the country have speed limits of 70 mph or more but New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation and driving here is not like Montana.

Even on a highway like the GSP there are multiple lane shifts, twists and turns and increasing the speed just seems like it will lead to more accidents.  Of course the speed limit would not be increased on the entire length of the roadway as currently the range is from 45 to 65.  Likely if there was a change it would be where the limit is now 65 mph.

I just don’t see the benefit of this and while I don’t travel the Parkway daily like many commuters from our area it seems we are sacrificing safety for convenience and frankly that’s not good enough for me.

 

 

 

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