American Drivers Think Speeding Is Okay Because Everyone Else Is Doing It
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You are right about American freeways. City roads tend to have a lower speed limit that is probably appropriate and it would be unsafe to go faster.
Rural America will have little roads with deer and intersections at blind curves and say 55 mph seems about right.
Rural America will have little roads with deer and intersections at blind curves and say 55 mph seems about right.
And the residents will do 65 on them and complain about the tourists who do 45. I know, I've been both.
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That's not a bad strategy. Driving slowly on slow roads or in adverse conditions and fast on highways seems rational to me. What is the point of making a road that is specifically designed for high speed and then putting a limit on it? The speed limit is an incredibly blunt instrument for deterring bad driving, as if driving below the limit is always going to be the safest option. It also motivates law enforcement abuse. The vehicle-environment-driver complex is much more nuanced than a single variable threshold.
That's always been my thoughts on the matter. Don't enforce speed. Enforce proper lane usage and following distance.
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Is the law what's important or safety?
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What's most safe, everyone driving 100 km/h or everyone driving 120 km/h? 100 km/h, so it's not the slow drivers that are unsafe, it's the idiots driving faster than the limit.
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Are you seriously asking people to risk a fine, their drivers license and depending on their job, their livelyhood, just because you're more important than the law? In this economy?
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i have gotten tailgated by a semi truck in a highway construction zone, one of the scariest things i have experienced while driving. i couldnt even see his lights in my back window he was so close
I got tailgated on a rural highway by a semitruck once. I was going 70 mph. When I slowed down to stop at a red light, they changed lanes and blew through it.
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That's not a bad strategy. Driving slowly on slow roads or in adverse conditions and fast on highways seems rational to me. What is the point of making a road that is specifically designed for high speed and then putting a limit on it? The speed limit is an incredibly blunt instrument for deterring bad driving, as if driving below the limit is always going to be the safest option. It also motivates law enforcement abuse. The vehicle-environment-driver complex is much more nuanced than a single variable threshold.
What is the point of making a road that is specifically designed for high speed and then putting a limit on it?
Because once you get within an hour and a half of a major city, you've got hundreds of suburbs feeding into it with everyday commuters trying to drive along side people out there driving like it's GTA.
The only places where it's actually 85 are places where the air lift won't make it to the hospital in time.
I've got my problems with Texas' infrastructure but removing speed limits wouldn't help.
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What's most safe, everyone driving 100 km/h or everyone driving 120 km/h? 100 km/h, so it's not the slow drivers that are unsafe, it's the idiots driving faster than the limit.
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Are you seriously asking people to risk a fine, their drivers license and depending on their job, their livelyhood, just because you're more important than the law? In this economy?
I never said I think that society as a whole should drive faster, I said that the safest speed is the average speed. You don't lower the speed by putting up signs or blindly driving slower than traffic.
You lower it by narrowing lanes, crowding the clear zone, and implementing other physical calming measures (sharper corners, speed bumps, trees overhnging, etc).I dont make decisions based on some ideological stance on how things "should" be, I make decisions based on the reality I live in. In reality, what we both live in, the safest speed to drive is objectively, the average speed of traffic. You're certainly free to drive 20 km/h below the average speed, but you're getting down voted because it is an ideological stance not based in reality.
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That's always been my thoughts on the matter. Don't enforce speed. Enforce proper lane usage and following distance.
That and modify the road, don't expect all the drivers to change their subconscious behaviors
It can be as simple as paint - people will go the speed they feel is appropriate, threat of punishment won't effectively change their behavior. If the road looks smaller than it is or seems to narrow around intersections, people just drive slower
Cheap, easy, science based.
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I don't think I'm autistic. But it tickles my brain that the speed limit is one USian law that is designed to NOT be followed literally.
If it were, it would be trivial to use automatic toll reader cameras to give everyone who speeds a ticket. They have a time stamp when you enter the toll road. They have a time stamp when you exit. They can calculate mathematically that if your average speed is higher than the limit, you broke the speed limit.
But they don't do this, because society does NOT believe in following this specific law (speed limits)... because why exactly?
There is an unwritten rule in society that the speed limit law is not meant to be followed literally?
I hate it.
There's lots and lots of laws like that
Like perjury. It's almost never pursued, the judge will just order your testimony ignored
Or paying your taxes. You're basically expected to do your best to cheat, especially if you're a corporation
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I never said I think that society as a whole should drive faster, I said that the safest speed is the average speed. You don't lower the speed by putting up signs or blindly driving slower than traffic.
You lower it by narrowing lanes, crowding the clear zone, and implementing other physical calming measures (sharper corners, speed bumps, trees overhnging, etc).I dont make decisions based on some ideological stance on how things "should" be, I make decisions based on the reality I live in. In reality, what we both live in, the safest speed to drive is objectively, the average speed of traffic. You're certainly free to drive 20 km/h below the average speed, but you're getting down voted because it is an ideological stance not based in reality.
I'm not arguing that it isn't safer to drive the average speed, I'm arguing that the deminishing safety isn't the slower drivers' fault. It's the fault of the people forcing safer drivers to be a hazard for their own bullshit ego and lack of ability to proper plan their departure time. I'm arguing that you shouldn't blame the slow drivers, blame the people who, by ignoring a law for their own selfishness, is creating a dangerous situation, when the safest possible option is to follow the agreed speed limit.
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What's a little extra 5 or 10 mph on the clock?
Not surprising. After living for ten years in the US, I would say that Americans are among the worst drivers in any developed country. Really awful behaviour all around.
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I don't think I'm autistic. But it tickles my brain that the speed limit is one USian law that is designed to NOT be followed literally.
If it were, it would be trivial to use automatic toll reader cameras to give everyone who speeds a ticket. They have a time stamp when you enter the toll road. They have a time stamp when you exit. They can calculate mathematically that if your average speed is higher than the limit, you broke the speed limit.
But they don't do this, because society does NOT believe in following this specific law (speed limits)... because why exactly?
There is an unwritten rule in society that the speed limit law is not meant to be followed literally?
I hate it.
They don't do it because the U.S. has good standards for what is a crime.
For example cops can't tailgate you then give you a ticket for speeding.
Additionally, doing this only on freeways would probably make the roads less safe as drivers would go faster on surface streets. Thr 65mph speed limit was set in the 1950s by 1950s white men for 1950s cars. Freeways are safer than surface streets by multiple factors of 10.
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The other aspect is that we typically are against automated enforcement regardless of the law.
We typically want people to be in the loop. If there were more visible traffic cops, people tend to slow down to the limit.
Automated enforcement just invites cities to do extremely vile things like kill people by lowering yellow light durations.
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I’ve had people blow past me at like 20-30 over. Swerving all over through traffic. Only for me to pull up beside them at the stop light at the top of the exit ramp. Worth it. Not saying it’s always the case. But it’s funny af when it does.
That's not relevant to this article.
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If that happened people would avoid toll roads which means there won't be enough toll income.
Or they could make the speed limit law an appropriate limit, rather than something everyone exceeds
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I'm not arguing that it isn't safer to drive the average speed, I'm arguing that the deminishing safety isn't the slower drivers' fault. It's the fault of the people forcing safer drivers to be a hazard for their own bullshit ego and lack of ability to proper plan their departure time. I'm arguing that you shouldn't blame the slow drivers, blame the people who, by ignoring a law for their own selfishness, is creating a dangerous situation, when the safest possible option is to follow the agreed speed limit.
Sure, but just because they are morons, doesn't mean I have to drive faster than what I deem is safe.
This is what people responded to.
The answer to that remains the same. What you deem as safe is irrelevant, what is safe is the speed of traffic. I don't care about blame, I don't care about fault, I don't care about legality, or ideological purity of you're perceived self righteousness. Safety should be the measure all other things hinge off of, full stop.
Under the metric of safety the people who drive much faster or much slower than the speed of traffic are the most dangerous people on the road. They are the cause of and at fault in the most accidents because in both cases, their ego is more important than their or others lives.
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There are plenty of stories in our folklore of times people sped 100+ just to get to the emergency room on time.
Should be a valid excuse for breaking the law!
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The other aspect is that we typically are against automated enforcement regardless of the law.
We typically want people to be in the loop. If there were more visible traffic cops, people tend to slow down to the limit.
Well if the limit was actually meant as a limit, they could at least send an automatic warning.
This seems to send the message that the speed limit isn't a limit at all, it is just informational, and also an excuse for police to pull anyone over for any subjective reason.
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There's lots and lots of laws like that
Like perjury. It's almost never pursued, the judge will just order your testimony ignored
Or paying your taxes. You're basically expected to do your best to cheat, especially if you're a corporation
Yeah I'm trying to accept that there are laws like this
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Another factor that hasn't been mentioned yet is it gives cops pretty unilateral right to pull you over if they feel like it. IANAL, but in many places it's illegal for a cop to pull you over just for "being suspicious", but because of speeding and various other traffic laws on the books that are almost universally ignored, they can pull you over for speeding, then decide you seem suspicious and search your car, breathalyze you, etc.
"You were going fifty-five in a fifty-fo' "
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Another factor that hasn't been mentioned yet is it gives cops pretty unilateral right to pull you over if they feel like it. IANAL, but in many places it's illegal for a cop to pull you over just for "being suspicious", but because of speeding and various other traffic laws on the books that are almost universally ignored, they can pull you over for speeding, then decide you seem suspicious and search your car, breathalyze you, etc.
Keep in mind police in the United States don't have to prove someone was speeding. There is no photographic evidence or logged speed reading. If a cop says you were speeding, according to their "justice" system, you were speeding. End of story.
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