Insight into speed limits - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

rickg · #1 04-13-2004, 02:24 PM

This was posted over at the Audi forum. Kinda interesting.
http://www.speedtrap.org/speedlimits/speedQA.html

An excerpt:
Q: But, if you lower the speed limit, people drive slower. Right?
A: The answer is no, just as people don't automatically drive faster when the speed limit is raised. These are common misconceptions, along with the mistaken belief that speed limit signs will decrease the accident rate and increase safety, and highways with posted speed limits are safer than unposted highways.

rickg · #2 04-13-2004, 02:34 PM

While your there, click on the "speedtrap listings".

TX76513 · #3 04-13-2004, 04:45 PM

As a country we put to much emphasis on speed - We should have looked over the pond at "space management" or the distance between vehicles traveling together. In traffic accidents per million miles traveled Europe is decades ahead of us.

blackmercedes · #4 04-13-2004, 05:33 PM

Death rates have not be steadily declining for 30 years thanks to lower speed limits. Safer cars, period.

Think about the last time you drove down a busy freeway. I bet the real problems were the people that were going much slower or much faster than the flow of traffic, regardless of the posted limit. Police need to get out from behind their radar guns and start enforcing laws against the truly dangerous drivers. The people that cause the most collisions are drunks, tailgaters, people that drive much slower than the flow, and those that drive way faster.

Yesterday my wife got a speeding ticket. She was driving 80km/h in a 60 zone, but you should see the road. It's a multi-lane road that is divided by concrete. It's next to a freeway and has little street level access. It's quiet, with little traffic. Huh? 60km/h? Where did that limit come from? Heck, most of our freeways here are set to 70km/h. That's 45mph for a FREEWAY!

Why? 300,000 speeding tickets in a city of 1 million. That's why. Money. Most cities our size in Canada write 40-50,000 tickets. Not Edmonton. We set those speed limits loooow, and then roll out a fleet of photo-radar vans and armies of cops to "make us safer" on the roads. BS. It's about money, and nothing but.

Have collision rates changed since this draconian enforcement began? Nope. Within a window of confidence, not a bit.

TX76513 · #5 04-13-2004, 05:49 PM

Thank goodness I have something in my SDL that will keep me from ever getting a speeding ticket!

A speedometer!

Botnst · #6 04-13-2004, 07:08 PM

No matter what I tell it,my speedometer doesn't listen. I figure that means that something else must be even more important than a speedometer.

DslBnz · #7 04-13-2004, 08:03 PM

That's why God made cruise control.

I think the speed limits should be around 100 mph, since that's when my cars are at their quietest.

super SEC · #8 04-13-2004, 08:23 PM

"Death rates have not be steadily declining for 30 years thanks to lower speed limits. Safer cars, period."

So, true! Speed doesn't kill.........variance kills!

jpb5151 · #9 04-14-2004, 05:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rickg
An excerpt:
Q: But, if you lower the speed limit, people drive slower. Right?
A: The answer is no, just as people don't automatically drive faster when the speed limit is raised.

Over here in central Ohio, I've seen both happen. We had a stretch that went from 35 to 25 mph, and people slowed from 40 to 32 (that's how fast I drive to stay with the flow there). Then I remember when the limits were raised way back from 55 to 65 on the freeways. We all went 65, despite many newspaper blurbs about the police stating they'll nab drivers going 66.

Also, I like driving in Michigan much more than in Ohio. That extra 5 mph seems to do very well, and traffic is almost always smooth and safe up there.

Hatterasguy · #10 04-14-2004, 09:26 AM

Milford isn't so bad, most of the roads here have a 25mph limit, even wide 4 lane ones! But most people just ignore them and drive 30-45 depending on the road and conditions. There is a point that the speed limit becomes so low it is just ignored. There is a 45mph sign on a section of I-95 I know of, in Stratford. I tried going 45 there once just for fun and almost got hit!!

The average speed over their is 60-80.

rickg · #11 04-14-2004, 10:52 AM

Most of the freeways around the greater seattle area are at 60mph. But get up north a ways, and it goes up to 70. I get so frustrated in the 70 zone. No one wants to actually go 70!

They'll bunch up, like a bunch of dumb sheep, doing 60-65, like they're scared to do 70

wbain5280 · #12 04-15-2004, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TX76513
Thank goodness I have something in my SDL that will keep me from ever getting a speeding ticket!

A speedometer!

No, a diesel engine.

#13 04-16-2004, 02:11 AM

Speed limits are interesting to think about. There are deinitely some spots where speed is reduced for no other reason than to trap the unweary and keep the lights on in smaller towns.

On the other hand, how fast do you want to drive? Unless the road is relatively free of traffic, anything over 70 feels too fast for me, and I'm talking about the highway. When I drive fast, it is never to get somewhere faster. Its allways for fun, but I don't make a living by driving, like a truck or livery driver.

On most highways by me, the traffic is heavy and the drivers are crazy, no one pays attention to the limits and they do triple lane changes and all that. There are many accidents and many cycle cops lying in wait to catch the unwary. That is one instance I am thankful for ticketing. (Esp. 435 around KC if anyone knows it).

HWY 70 between St. Louis and Kansas City is probably the worst HWY I've ever driven. Two lanes, bad surface, 70 mph limit, congested with a lot of truck traffic. Its a bad formula. Everyone drives like 80+.

The Warden · #14 04-16-2004, 05:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by TheVirginiaDude
Speed limits are set in order for localities to maximise extortion the extract from drivers. Cough........fines........

Sounds about right to me...I live in a major urban area, and the speed limit is between 35 and 40 mph on roads (not counting residential streets)...in all of the surrounding cities. Here in Palo Alto, there are exactly two streets where the speed limit's not 25 mph. Both of those roads are 35mph, and one of them should be 40mph and the other should be 45mph.

And, you guessed it, the city streets are infested with black & whites with radar guns and itchy trigger fingers.

I've only gotten one ticket in my life, and it actually wasn't for speeding (even though I typically disagree with the limits, I anally follow them 'cause I can't afford a ticket)...it was for running a stop sign. Problem is I know for a fact that I did stop, but I have no way of proving it, and I'm pretty sure that the cop had both of those facts in mind when he pulled me over.

I used to respect LEO's, but that respect has been eroded over the past few years and replaced with stark fear...the fear's bad enough that, if I lived in a small town, I'd think about turning my license in...

(sorry for the mini-rant

)