are speed limits really necessary?

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by midnighter

They should also implement minimum speed limits, I see more BS on our country single lane highways. When grandma is driving 35 in a 55 in her Camry, then everyone else has to drive that slow behind her causing many to lose their patience, pass, and often get in an accident.

Most places have laws against impeding traffic. Here is the Tennessee law, "No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or compliance with law," Tennessee Code section 55-8-154.
I guess it gripes me that most people can't follow the simplest of rules of the road or even know the meanings of many traffic control signs, either that or they just don't care if the sign says Stop, No left turn, No U turn, Etc..... so how can we expect people to drive at a safe speed no matter what the conditions are.
The truth is 90% (My percentage guess from many years of observations) of drivers think they are better drivers than anyone else on the road so they are exempt from following the law.

[ChrisBlair]

Originally Posted by fielderLS3

That's right, we are adults. Which means that the speed we choose based on the present driving situation we find ourselves in is likely to be a better one than a one-size fits all arbitrary number that was in many cases set in the 1950s.

I'm not saying we should be driving 150 through city centers during rush hour, and I guarantee no one actually would anyway. What we are saying is that doing stupid **it like driving in the wrong lane, swerving, making sudden, unexpected moves for no reason, tailgating, or doing any number of things that aren't driving while driving are what really cause problems and accidents on the roads. Germany can have the autobahn because they have strict, but common sense rules about lane discipline, passing, etc...

Speed is not the problem. It is irresponsible and/or poor driving that is the problem. We would be much safer going 90-100 and paying attention than going 65 while taking on cell phones or eating.

Ho ho...did I say speed was the problem? Are you thinking maybe I mean "speed kills"? If speed killed, the landscape would be littered with dead F-18 pilots. Judgement is the problem.

Your standpoint is that since we are adults, we are all responsible when driving, or even we are good drivers, or even that there are drivers that care that you or I are responsible. It's just not so. And how can you exclude the dumbass things we all see when driving from the equation? Germany is not the USA, and even the autobahns are all not unlimited speed zones. So now you want to modify the premise, and we suddenly have the same rules and regulations as Germany, to fit your standpoint? Uh-uh, no I can't accept that twist. I don't get to change reality to back myself up, do I? We have the laws, situations and standpoints we have. No 'what-ifs'. If we get 'what-ifs' then I get to start telling you how drivers have become less skilled overall due to the lax regs we have now and it will just get worse.

I'm glad you brought up the arbitrary nature of the speed limits. Those limits are for all vehicles and all drivers. So that rent-a-truck driver with an overloaded vehicle sets out on his "I'm good for my chosen situation" way has no speed limit either. Just like the kid with a new budget, bland four cylinder car that goes faster than his skill and experience. Just like for a drunk, and just like for an 80 year old that drives poorly and doesn't know it.

My opinion here is that anyone that doesn't agree with the idea of 'no speed limits' is now seen as defending dumb speed limits. I'm not going to stand proxy for that.

Where I live, we have strange road elevation changes, bizarre reverse grade turns, and sudden lane drops on highways. Plus they are in poor repair and constantly under construction. It's just like laws in other countries. The argument that says "well in X country, they don't have many armed robberies compared to the USA, why can't we just do what they do?" is myopic. We can't do what they do because we are not them. There's no magic wand that takes their equation and fits it to the USA.

Just the fact that we are addicted to texting makes me think that unlimited speed limits here are idiotic, let alone the poor road design, the unanticipated traffic the roads cannot accept at any speed, the lack of skill on the average driver, and the state of the roads overall. It's a pipedream that needs a lot of dominoes to fall into place first and they ain't falling too quick.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by firedrop

http://www.0-60mag.com/blog/2011/11/...d-limits-rant/

interesting read.. many studies have shown that there are fewer car crashes on the autobahn where motorists frequently go 150+mph.

speed limits create unnecessary traffic and congestion.

Correlation does not mean causation. Germany doesn't have fewer crashes because they have unlimited stretches of autobahn, they have fewer crashes & unlimited stretches of autobahn because they take driver training very seriously. Better drivers don't crash as often, and can be trusted to determine for themselves what a safe speed is.

Also, please explain how speed limits cause traffic & congestion. Congestion occurs because there are too many vehicles for the road to handle. And when you think about it, safe following distance increases much faster than vehicle speed does. So the faster cars are going, the less capacity a road has. As for traffic, are you saying that people drive more because they can't drive as fast as they'd like to? Because thats the only scenario I can envision where the existence of speed limits create traffic.

[PYROLYSIS]

There are less accidents on the Autobahn because there are no intersections. Intersections are where the majority of accidents occur. I'm all for raising interstate speed limits but really that is where it should stop. I can't imagine how many wannabe Danica Patricks would kill themselves the week that speed limits were abolished. In just my volunteer fire departments area alone we have responded to 2 different fatal wrecks in a week and 5 in the past month, all with speed limits in place and a major police presence. The last one I saw a Lexus was cut completely in half.

[fielderLS3]

Again, I'm not trying to say that every road and every situation should be a free-for-all speedway. I'm simply saying that having the exact or very nearly the exact same speed limit for a congested road as an empty road, or the same limit in the rain at night as a clear day, or the same limit on a curvy hilly road as a straight flat one, or the same limit for a 40 ton truck as a Corvette, makes very little sense, at least to my brain, which sees shades of gray, not only black and white.

Different road and traffic situations do indeed call for different speeds, but as of right now, all of them have similar limits. I'm not saying I would eliminate speed limits everywhere, or even in most places, but there are some places across this country where it would be feasible, at least at certain times of the day, and at the very least, a lot of the speed limits could be safely raised. I've driven in almost every state. For anyone who hasn't done it, you'd be surprised how much nothing there still is in this country. There are places where you can go 10 miles without meeting another car on nice, wide, flat roads with no hazards. Why in that situation should you not be able to go any faster than you could, say on a road with blind hills, heavy traffic, and in the rain?

I think was are all kinda agreeing on one point...most of the problems on the roads are the result of idiocy behind the wheel. The current system is basically one in which you can do a lot of dumb*** things behind the wheel as long as you keep it below an arbitrary magical number determined 50+ years ago when automotive technology was completely different from today. My position is that there has to be a better way, and having it the other way around could be an improvement. If we raised speed limits AND raised driving skill/discipline/etiquette standards at the same time, I think the roads would be safer, and less time would be unnecessarily wasted on travel.

Lowest common denominator engineering nets lowest common denominator results. An inability or unwillingness to allow for discretion produces systems that try to cover everything, and end up doing nothing well.

[fielderLS3]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Correlation does not mean causation. Germany doesn't have fewer crashes because they have unlimited stretches of autobahn, they have fewer crashes & unlimited stretches of autobahn because they take driver training very seriously. Better drivers don't crash as often, and can be trusted to determine for themselves what a safe speed is.

Yes...Thank you.

Setting low speed limits treats the symptom, allowing us to ignore the disease. Curing the disease (i.e. making it so a driver's license wasn't easier to get than a pack of cigarettes), would eliminate the symptoms without having to suffer the side effects.

[Aequitas & Veritas]

Sure higher speed limits would be nice but wont happen anytime soon if at all here. More money for slower limits and the whole US licensing process is a joke.

I've been to Germany and their drivers test is super hard. The written/bubble in US test is like 30 minutes compared to the German test that is almost 2 hours. You have to know more and if you fail there is a longer period before you can retake it, compared to the US where you can fail and then take it again over and over. And in Germany your license doesn't get renewed by itself, you have to take the test again and prove you can still drive and know how to.

If we focused on driver training here first I could see higher limits on highways but technology has been the downfall to us. And it's not just kids texting and driving, I've seen old grandma's do it too. Also saw one lady cutting her hair while driving. People here don't see driving as anything important or life and death and will never treat it as such unless our training gets better.

But back to the higher limits, yeah those would be nice

[Arbgast]

Need better driver training. At the extreme look at the indy drivers bumper to bumper 200+ mph.

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by Arbgast

Need better driver training. At the extreme look at the indy drivers bumper to bumper 200+ mph.

Indy cars don't have bumpers... They are all going the same direction and they still manage to wreck.

[13lstuner]

Originally Posted by Angrybird 12

Indy cars don't have bumpers... They are all going the same direction and they still manage to wreck.

Hahahaha burn!!!!

On a serious note I agree. But nevertheless they are still the worlds elite drivers!

[firedrop]

no amount of training will help someone that naturally sucks at driving.. it'd help the newbies that are unfamiliar to driving. i regularly drive 100+mph on the highway when it is safe to do so. (no other cars in-front of me, good road conditions) in fact, i feel safer driving at 70-85 when everyone else is going 55-70. not sure why, i just do. i make sure to not impede on anyone else while i'm driving. im courteous of others on the road while speeding(again, when it's safe to do so) been driving this way for many years now and never caused a collision.

[firedrop]

bad drivers, and poor judgement kill. and i guess very rarely mechanical failures. speed does not.

[Rock36]

Originally Posted by firedrop

http://www.0-60mag.com/blog/2011/11/...d-limits-rant/

interesting read.. many studies have shown that there are fewer car crashes on the autobahn where motorists frequently go 150+mph.

speed limits create unnecessary traffic and congestion.

Define "frequently go 150+ mph". I'd say a good 90%+ people stay under 90 mph on the autobahn. I would know, I drive on them every single day.

Also German drivers, by and large, are better at lane disciple on the Autobahn than I suspect most Americans would be.. i.e. no passing on the right, fast lane is only for passing, people move over deliberately for faster traffic.

The autobahns are also meticulously maintained. I'd dread driving without speed limits on HWY 99 in my home state of California.

Oh and most autobahns in urban and suburban areas do have speed limits.

[Truck Norris]

Originally Posted by Truck Norris

Good watch

Did you members really watch my video before replying?

This is more about a city/township making revenue then keeping citizens safe. THAT'S ALL IT IS..WAKE UP

SERIOUSLY JUST WATCH IT