To the editor:

By raising the speed limit to 60 mph on the highway bordering Baldwin Elementary School, the Kansas Department of Transportation is threatening the lives of every parent, relative and friend who transports kids by private vehicle. Higher velocity crossing traffic increases the probability and severity of collisions involving vehicles turning into and out of the school’s driveway.

Indeed, raising U.S. Highway 56’s speed limit to 60 mph through Johnson, Douglas and Osage counties is yet another example of how today’s highway officials are less concerned with public safety and reducing transportation costs.

It is well understood that once a vehicle exceeds 55 mph, most of the work done by its engine involves overcoming air resistance. The faster you drive the higher the resistance and the more fuel the vehicle must burn to maintain the higher velocity. With gas at $3 per gallon, speed doesn’t just kill, it burns up people’s money.

The difference between 60 and 55 mph is eight feet per second, just 480 feet per minute. At 55 mph, lower engine rpm lets a vehicle live longer. Years longer.

When President Bush took office in 2001, regular unleaded in Lawrence was $1.67 at my favorite station. Long before it reached $3 and then went higher, why did not Mr. Bush shield America’s economy by ordering the national emergency speed limit lowered to 55 mph for energy conservation purposes – like President Nixon did following the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo? It’s a sensible national security option.

Joe Hyde,

Lawrence