And now for something completely different.

Shortly after we moved to Orlando, I remember there being a report on the news about speed limits on Interstate 4, the main highway that runs through the city. The police had gone on a blitz writing up speeding tickets because they were concerned about the number of people regularly traveling at 70mph or more on the interstate. When one of the local news teams did an investigation, however, it was discovered that few people actually knew the speed limit of the highway, largely due to poor signage. Adjustable speed limit signs had been installed, but there was one stretch of I-4, something like eight miles long, where none of them were operational.

To their credit, the authorities remedied the problem immediately. However, they proceeded to make a particularly unintelligent decision by going forward with their adjustable speed limit idea. If you have ever driven on I-4, you know how busy it always is and how bad of a drive it can be. And it is precisely these conditions – frequent congestion – that make adjustable speed limits absolutely absurd.

When the signs were originally installed, a guy named Steve Homan, of the Department of Transportation, said, "We want them to drive slower so they can move faster... The idea is to have traffic moving slowly but steadily through a congested area. This will help drivers get through the area quicker."

Apparently, Homan never took a physics class. If he did, he would know that this is what will actually happen: traffic will be heavy, but moving along at a steady 50mph (the actual limit of I-4 through Orlando). But suddenly the speed limit sign up ahead changes to 40mph, and there will be that one guy in the centre lane who will see it and hit the brakes to match the new speed limit. Needless to say, this requires all the cars behind him to brake, and the sudden flurry of brakelights will cause the drivers in the outside lanes to react by braking suddenly as well. This will not simply slow the flow of traffic down to 40mph, but instead will ensure that a half-mile behind the guy who braked first, traffic will come to a grinding halt. It's just like throwing a big rock in the middle of a river. It disrupts the flow and creates a dam-like effect.

By using the adjustable speed limits, it is clear the authorities wanted to do two things: first, they wanted to make traffic flow better by having everyone drive the same speed. As I have already demonstrated (and as anyone who regularly drives I-4 will tell you), they failed miserably. To be fair, though, it's not entirely their fault. There is a lot of traffic on I-4, and the flow problems are not going to be solved by adjusting the speed limits.

Second, and related, they put their faith in a bunch of signs to fix everything. I read an article some time ago arguing that Americans spend so much time watching the ridiculous amount of signage along their roads that they don't focus on what's going on in front of them. This problem only grows when you install signs that do not read the same thing every time you drive by them. I drive a lot of the same roads every day, and I don't need to look at the speed limit signs because I know them all by heart. But when the speed limit is constantly in flux, you can't help but drive along checking every sign to ensure you're not driving at double the speed limit.

But what's more, this is just another way of taking responsibility away from the driver under the guise of improving safety. I am not suggesting that there should be no speed limits, of course, but only that drivers need to be responsible for what they do in varying conditions, such as occasions when traffic is heavy. Changing the speed limit when the interstate gets congested takes their focus off what they need to be focused on and actually makes conditions less safe. We, as a culture – both individuals and government – need to stop thinking that the way to get people to act more responsibily is to impose more external regulations.

What is the solution, then? Well, the only way I-4 is ever going to flow properly is if there are more lanes available and if a number of the major on- and off-ramps are reconstructed (such as the nightmare that is the I-4/408 interchange). Of course, this really cannot be done because shutting I-4 down for any length of time would cause chaos beyond what we can even imagine.

So, the solution I propose is that the adjustable speed limit signs be removed, and static signs be installed. Additionally, the new speed limits need to be higher. You see, the majority of people already travel between 65-70mph, and efforts to slow them down have not worked. To be sure, you have drivers doing the posted speed limit, but that raises the problem I mentioned above of obstructing the flow. I-4 does not need to be 50mph – that is absurdly slow for a major interstate – but would work much better if the limit was higher, say 60mph. Since most people already travel within the acceptable bounds of this limit, you would just be bringing the slower drivers up to speed so that they no longer disrupt the flow. If the police wanted to, they could increase their efforts to enforce a raised limit, but I don't think they would have to since very few travel over 70mph anyway. And when the interstate becomes congested, people will react to what is going on in front of them instead of watching the speed limit signs.

The Department of Transportation needs to stop making decisions based on uninformed hypotheses and take the time to engage with those who drive stretches of road like I-4 everyday. I am sure they feel the need to regulate things like this because they are concerned that are too many people who drive irresponsibly – and there's certainly an element of truth to that – but the way to teach people to be more responsible is not to take the responsibility away from them. They need to learn to react to the road, to the conditions, and to other drivers around them, and this is not done by focusing on speed limit signs. Adjustable speed limits are simply absurd, and they need to go.