A crash course on speeding

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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The Hyundai Sonata that blasted past us the other morning on Interstate 35W was doing 80 at least, maybe 90. We know because we reflexively checked our speedometer and did a familiar calculation: We're going just over 60 mph, and the Sonata seems to be moving away from us at a relative speed of at least 20 mph, more likely 30.

And we thought for the zillionth time: If only we were an undercover trooper, on patrol in an unmarked car. We'd give that driver a ticket that would really get his attention — probably change his driving habits for good.

But would it? It's not clear that the risk of a ticket has much of a deterrent effect on speeders. We'd like to think that public education campaigns offer a more enlightened approach — surely, if people understood the risks that speeding poses to all our lives, they'd ease off on the accelerator, right? But that comforting thought dissipates pretty quickly when we contemplate drivers like the one who barreled down Third Avenue early one afternoon in a pickup. It was doing at least 50 as it roared past the entrance to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Our admittedly anecdotal research, supplemented by gut feeling, is that a certain kind of speeder may be immune to any sort of behavior modification. Such drivers think they will live forever, and do not seriously consider the possibility that they won't live out the afternoon. Mortality is an abstraction, and it's even more abstract in the case of the pedestrians or other drivers they are putting in danger.

But there is nothing abstract about the numbers, or the laws of physics that they represent. Among pedestrians who are struck by cars, the fatality rate doubles with every 10-mph increase in the car's speed. A 2021 Minnesota Department of Public Safety report identified speeding as the behavior most commonly to blame in crashes. According to that same report, most deadly crashes occur in good weather, on dry roads — that is, in conditions that might encourage drivers to think it's safe to speed.

The internet offers a wealth of advice on how to restrain one's impulse to speed. For example, it encourages the use of cruise control, and suggests that drivers who are agitated should pull to the side of the road and count to 10. That may be sound advice for people who speed unintentionally, but it has limited application for purposeful scofflaws. What's needed is insight on how to get through to the drivers who make a habit of putting themselves and others in danger.

That's the goal of a research project, called the Speed Action Survey, now underway by the Office of Traffic Safety and other agencies. Working with the research firm M. Davis and Company, the project comprises a survey followed by focus groups designed to measure drivers' habits and attitudes about speeding.

Allison Hawley, the state employee who is heading the effort, told the Star Tribune that the survey will attempt to devise "countermeasures" to reduce speeding in Minnesota. Drivers should welcome the project, but keep their expectations in low gear.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration paints an uninspiring picture of the available countermeasures. For example, it rates speed limits as effective — with the caveat that their effectiveness depends on enforcement. It gives similarly high marks to "automated enforcement," which presumably refers to the type of camera that police are forbidden to use in Minnesota.

We wish the Speed Action Survey well as it attempts to come up with a workable alternative. Of the appalling 446 traffic deaths in Minnesota in 2022, speed was a factor in 129 — or 28%. We hope that the Sonata got home safely the other day, but even so: It's past time to hit the brakes.