MADD’s Second Failure
Lately there has been a lot of talk about the successes of Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD. Why is MADD not a potent political factor any more?
Besides, their successes at eliminating drunk driving making their organization obsolete, their failures at preserving the National Maximum Speed Limit have been under reported.
Well, a lot their failure as an organization was their disastrous campaign to preserve the National 55 MPH speed limit. Their Save the National 55 Speed Limit campaign became their focus of the organization and it was a focus that may have felt noble to its members but it was one that was not popular with the public.
Motorists like driving fast on the expressways. MADD for years pushed for tougher penalties against speeders, they were outright rebuffed in conservative states and in liberal states, the tougher penalties still were widely ignored. Motorists ignored the law and judges for the most part rarely gave tickets beyond the mandatory minimum. Radar detectors and CB radios allowed people to rat out the bears.
So no, MADD wasn’t a success at their second campaign that went up strongly against motorists desires for faster driving, even if they’re first campaign was quite sucessful.