But the most dangerous behaviors generally involve rapid lane changes and other forms of reckless driving. While speed can be a contributor to accidents, it would be more accurate to refer to “speed differentials” -- the driver traveling far slower than the surrounding traffic can be nearly as dangerous as the one traveling far faster, by leading others to vent their frustration through unsafe passing.

Yet where are the greatest number of highway citations issued? Those would be speeding tickets, of course, a huge state revenue generator issued mostly on wide open straightaways.

Here in the West, particularly, the contrast between where the accidents are, and where the most tickets are written, is striking. Most accidents occur where the most traffic is -- in congestion that seldom allows high speeds. But there is no handy “radar gun” to help an officer spot bad driving in the middle of a traffic jam from a mile away.

So the tickets get written out on the remote straightaways. And many of those accidents that do occur on the open road are single-vehicle events caused by drivers falling asleep: an argument could be made that higher speeds actually allow drivers to close those long rural distances while they’re still alert.

Comes now the Governors Highway Safety Association, complaining in a report released Monday that America’s highway patrolmen tend to give motorists a cushion of up to 10 miles per hour above the speed limit before pulling them over.

This practice creates an unsafe comfort level with “high speeds,” according to the report, which found that 42 states allow drivers to regularly exceed the speed limit before they’re pulled over. (Since the report’s authors complained that 19 states lack statewide speed-citation databases, they might as well have said “all the states.”)

“This cushion truly exists across this country and in some cases is more than 10 mph above posted limits,” said Jim Champagne, the association’s chairman.

Oh, the horror!

In fact, most experienced drivers maintain a sensible speed for conditions without giving it much thought, which is why most highway traffic moves pretty much together. Strict enforcement of speed limits might make sense if all federal “ceilings” were removed and limits were then set at true maximum safe speeds for good-weather conditions, according to the engineering standards of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices -- limits which in many cases would be 10 or 15 mph faster than those now posted.

(The original design specifications for the “defense” interstate highway system called for two-and-a-half-ton army trucks -- along with other vehicles -- to travel “at speeds of 75 to 80 miles per hour (121 to 129 km/h) except in limited stretches (such as steep mountain passes),” according to www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Interstate-highway#Speed_limits and other sources. When California started following the MUTCD mandates and actually raising speed limits, accident rates actually fell on those specific stretches of road, according to the Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association.)

“Law enforcement needs to be given the political will to enforce speed limits and the public must get the message that speeding will not be tolerated,” thunders Mr. Champagne, who also is executive director of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

Oh, hogwash. I don’t know what conditions are like down on the bayou, but on stretches of Western road where virtually all sane, sober, adult drivers now exceed posted limits by 10 mph or more, that would make little more sense than simply mailing out speeding tickets at random, like some perverted reverse lottery.

Police should concentrate their limited resources on motorists venting their anger through aggressive and reckless behavior. Ten states, including Nevada and Utah, have specific laws to that effect. Mr. Champagne and his fellow bureaucrats would be better advised to urge their own state Legislatures to follow that example ... and to let the vast majority of safe American drivers alone.