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NMA Foundation 402 W. 2nd St. NON-PROFIT Waunakee, WI 53597 ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE PAID ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED MADISON, WI PERMIT #2860 of Defending Drivers’ Rights Drivers’ Defending of Looking Back at 30 Years Years 30 at Back Looking Winter 2012 Winter Vol. 23 • Issue 1 Issue • 23 Vol. A Special Edition Special A Freedoms Driving Winter 2012 Driving Freedoms 2 Driving Thirty Years Down, Freedoms Many More to Go Volume 23 • Issue 1 by James J. Baxter Foreword we needed help the most. continuation of the NMSL at the The NMA was founded as the feet of auto enthusiasts who had Yes, the National Motorists Citizens Coalition For Rational failed (up until then) to challenge Association is celebrating its 30th Traffic Laws, or CCRTL. (Just try the law in an organized manner. year of protecting and enhancing the to say that ten times fast in a radio He further pointed out that several rights and interests of motorists. interview!) The organization was repeal bills were languishing in I’m devoting this issue of created for the express purpose Congress for lack of motorist Driving Freedoms to a look of repealing the 55 mph National support. back at the changes and trends, big Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL). Another early “outlier” was and small, that have shaped the At the time, the NMSL had provided by an economics professor NMA and, to varying degrees, our been officially in existence for from the University of California, driving environment. Some of these eight years, and it was an unmiti- Charles Lave. Dr. Lave prepared changes and trends have benefited gated disaster, but very few in the scholarly research reports and our cherished freedom to travel how, media or the government would articles for popular periodicals that when, and where we please, while admit that fact. argued against the accepted mantra others have threatened it. that higher speed limits caused This is both a celebration of The Outliers increased numbers of accidents and our past and a window into future that driving slowly was a public challenges. In 1978 John Tomerlin, writing good. Along the way, I will be for Road & Track, the automotive One of his more notable claims highlighting some, but not all, of the magazine, penned a thoughtful was that the 55 mph NMSL was events and personalities that have rebuke of the 55 mph speed limit wasting a billion man-years of time become an important part of the that verified the intuitions of annually, the rough equivalent of NMA’s history. My focus will be on driving enthusiasts. It was ignored losing 1500 lives a year. the unsung or little known people by elected officials. Still, John’s who quietly advanced our cause, article provided a starting point to The Issue provided support, and helped when question the validity of the claims of made in support of the National Organizational Support Copyright © 2012 by NMA Foundation. Speed Limit. All rights reserved. When public opinion began to Organizational support for Driving Freedoms (permit # 0716556-KWP) is the official publication of the NMA Foundation, Inc. Driving change and the pro-55 advocates repealing the NMSL was thin, at Freedoms is published quarterly by the NMA Foundation, Inc., 402 W. 2nd St., Waunakee, WI 53597. (608/849-6000) became more strident in their best. Email: [email protected] Web site: www.motorists.org. defense of the law, John followed An early supporter, one Nonprofit bulk permit paid Madison, WI. Annual membership in the National Motorists Association includes a subscription to up with another Road & Track that endorsed our fledgling Driving Freedoms. article that further challenged the organization, was the American Editorial Staff validity and claims of the Luddites Motorcyclist Association. A full- Managing Editor ...........................Gary Biller who epitomized the “slow is safe” page article in the AMA magazine Writer .....................................James J. Baxter mentality. was our first real exposure to a Editor ..........................................Aaron Quinn Tony Swan, then working for national audience. Editor.........................................John Bowman Editor-at-Large................................Bill Jordan Motor Trend, wrote an article in 1982 that laid the blame for the (Continued next page) Winter 2012 Driving Freedoms 3 Thirty Years Down, Many More to Go (continued) While all the auto manufac- turers avoided any mention of our AMA Provides National Recognition repeal campaign, the “Big Three” for CCRTL – April 1982 (and, in particular, General Motors) remained proponents of The American Motorcyclist Association issued this national release shortly after the 55 mph speed limit until the the founding of the CCRTL: law was dead and buried. Jim Baxter of Dane, Wisconsin, a A few auto enthusiast clubs, long-time AMA member, dirt-and-road and the editors of their periodicals, rider and lobbyist for the Wisconsin Dealers aligned with us and publicized Association, has taken on a new and formi- our efforts. Yale Rachlan (BMW dable task: repeal of the federally-mandated Roundel), Frank Barret (Editor of 55-mph speed limit. the “Star” for Mercedes Benz), Baxter formed an organization just Rob Rassa (legislative liaison for for this purpose, the Citizens’ Coalition for The Porsche Club of America), and Rational Traffic Laws, or CCRTL. Since Tim Winker (Publisher of the Saab January of this year, CCRTL has stirred Club’s “NINES” magazine) were the proverbial hornets’ nest! In less than a Jim with his 1931 Plymouth Coupe. some of our earliest supporters. month after its inception, CCRTL had been (Note: Photo not with original release) Most federal and state mentioned by more than 70 newspapers and transportation agencies celebrated several television and radio stations. and promoted the 55 mph speed But Baxter is not an off-the-wall fanatic who becomes involved in causes simply for limit as if it was the greatest the attention or ego gratification. He is a skilled lobbyist and practitioner of the possible, public policy achievement since with no interest in spending time, effort and money on lost causes. the establishment of the Interstate The Citizens’ Coalition for Rational Traffic Laws is taking neither a strident nor Highway System. But there were circumvential position. In other words, the group is not advocating the deportation of subversives within their ranks who Department of Transportation personnel, nor is it stooping to the backdoor approach of recognized a fraud when they saw reduced speeding fines or adopting “energy wasting” fines such as those being imposed in one, including Ray Barnhart, then some western states. What CCRTL is advocating is this: the head of the Federal Highway ► Complete repeal of the nation’s maximum 55-mph speed limit Administration. ► Returning regulation of speed limits to the states The one name that will always ► Setting new speed limits based on highway design, traffic volume, and remain prominent in my mind is the quality of road maintenance Davey Warren, a mid-level federal If successful, these accomplishments would result in higher limits on most of our civil-servant engineer involved in divided and limited-access highways and a range of new limits – some higher, some speed limit research. lower – on the remainder of our rural highway system. Simply, speed limits would not Davey was 100 percent in our be arbitrary, but rather would be based on the characteristics of each individual roadway. camp, but given the source of his Now who could argue with that? paycheck, he had to maintain a To realize this objective, CCRTL must become a strong, viable organization – and that very low profile when it came to means building membership rolls and financial resources. Jim Baxter is pinning many of his befriending our organization. Even hopes on the motorcycling community (over 80 percent of polled AMA members said they though we were often belittled and supported repeal of “mandatory 55”), and he’s depending on the riders and the organizations marginalized for our positions, we that represent these riders to get behind CCRTL and actively support its efforts. knew the science was on our side, For 15 years, Baxter has worked to establish off-road riding areas, fought helmet laws, and Davey always made sure we supporting rider education and safety programs, and concentrated on issues important to had the most recent science on the motorcyclists. The mandatory 55-mph speed limit is certainly such an issue, and CCRTL subject of speed limits. and Jim Baxter would like your support. (Continued next page) 4 Driving Freedoms Winter 2012 Our Earliest Members criminal enterprises that propagate lopes, reply envelopes, letters, reply ticket cameras?” the answer, and cards, and mailing labels. Mary Our earliest active members single reason it took 22 years to and her mother would assemble were an eclectic collection of rid the country of the National the mailing packages, and sort and hardy souls with thick skins and Maximum Speed Limit, was and is bundle them for bulk mail postage, fire in their bellies. Many are still the apathy of American motorists. ready to be picked up the following active members. They ranged from day by our rural postman. teenagers to retirees and everything Never Mind That This was not a sustainable in between. Apathy Thing operation, but it got us going in the Among them were Will Fox, right direction. an 18-year-old student who became We did get some traction, Eventually, with borrowed our first Pennsylvania State starting in 1983, when we discov- money (with great thanks to Chapter Coordinator; Gif Nickol, ered the power of direct mail. Anatoly Arutunoff), we started Jerry Nowlin, and Chuck Terlizzi Starting out with one to two doing larger mailings, our largest (all Maryland activists); and Andy hundred letters at a time, we being 210,000 pieces. (Had to hock Gregory from Albany, New York.

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