>That's a nine fold increase in speed.  That is also hard to deal with.
 >Assuming an interstellar society based on 1 ly per day starships
 >introducing 3 ly per day starships equals a massive change in the
 >society.  But to go from 1 per day to 9 per day throws everything
 >perfectly ga-ga.
Well,
A) It's not a passenger liner
B) It's a small starship
C) It isn't the big battlewagons
So,
You have slow battleships and fast frigates.
You also have schooners and oil tankers.
Think of the Intrepids as the fleet footed lightly armed rapid response 
patrol boats.
You won't get the same performance from your standard people ferry. Jetliners 
don't travel at Mach 3.5+, but the SR-71 does.
The SR-71 doesn't travel at Mach 5, but the X-15 does.
Besides:
       We went from oceanliner
       To dirigeable (well, the rich people anyways)
       To piston engined transatlantic props
       To jetliners
With most people skipping the two inbetween.
       3 weeks versus 8 hours.
I think that's a dramatic increase.
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