On speeding.

A moderately interesting article about speeding enforcement. The reason I bring it up here is that it has a rather telling omission. While it discusses a lot of the trade-offs in speeding enforcement, mainly in terms of the effect on accident rates versus the cost of enforcement, it completely fails to mention the opportunity cost. Let me make up some numbers: say reducing the average speed by 10mph resulted in a 5% decrease in accidents. Good thing right? Except that an untold number of people are now driving 10mph slower, and losing an as-of-yet unspecified number of minutes of their life. Without taking into account this side of the equation, the cost/benefit calculation doesn’t quite hold. Opportunity cost is a basic Econ 101 concept that everyone ought to learn, yet it is all too often missed in mainstream news articles.


One comment

Nick, I love your inner-economist!

by Ms. Stern
6-18-8:27 AM