LSAT 124 – Section 2 – Question 26

LSAT 124 - Section 2 - Question 26

December 2007

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT124 S2 Q26
+LR
+Exp
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Net Effect +NetEff
A
12%
158
B
61%
166
C
9%
158
D
8%
155
E
10%
160
152
159
167
 +Harder 145.571 +SubsectionMedium

Editorialist: Some people argue that highway speed limits should be increased to reflect the actual average speeds of highway drivers, which are currently 10 to 20 percent higher than posted speed limits. Any such increase would greatly decrease highway safety, however; as past experience teaches, higher average highway speeds would result, since even though most drivers who currently violate posted speed limits would obey higher ones, almost all drivers who obey current speed limits would likely increase their speed.

Summarize Argument
The editorialist concludes that raising highway speed limits would greatly decrease highway safety. This is because people who currently speed would obey the new limit, while people who currently obey the limit would increase their speed to the new limit.

Notable Assumptions
The editorialist assumes that highway safety decreases when people drive faster, despite the fact the new limit would increase the speed of traffic to a more uniform rate. This means the editorialist believes that speed outweighs uniformity when it comes to highway safety.

A
Some drivers who obey current speed limits would not change their speeds after the introduction of the new speed limits.
If this were the case, then some portion of traffic would be moving slower than the rest. But the editorialist never says uniformity is important.
B
Uniformity of speeds among vehicles is more important for highway safety than is a low average highway speed.
The editorialist is entirely concerned with speed, but what really matters is speed uniformity. If the limits were raised, everyone would be driving the same speed. Thus, highway safety would actually improve.
C
Most drivers who drive 10 to 20 percent faster than current speed limits have never been involved in a highway accident.
We don’t care who’s actually been in an accident. Speeders may cause accidents without actually being involved in them (i.e. by causing people to change lanes).
D
Some drivers who violate current speed limits would also violate higher speed limits.
If anything, this would help the editorialist’s argument. High speeds make highways less safe, and this tells us some people will be exceeding even the raised speed limits.
E
Most drivers who violate current speed limits determine their speeds by what they believe to be safe in the situation.
If highway speed limits were raised, then the editorialist doesn’t believe many people would be violating the speed limit anymore. We’re not interested in why people currently choose to violate the speed limit.

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LSAT PrepTest 124 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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