4 ms·

Speeding is a chicken-and-egg problem due to the culture of driving 10-15 over whatever the speed limit is. It's generally safe (weather permitting) because the

by mcbits 10y ago

Speeding is a chicken-and-egg problem due to the culture of driving 10-15 over whatever the speed limit is. It's generally safe (weather permitting) because the speed limits are low enough to offset it, but it creates an atmosphere where police can pick and choose who to pull over. If the speed limits were raised to a level where speeders were genuinely unsafe without a major attitude adjustment among drivers, the roads would be considerably more dangerous.

gambiting 10y ago
To offer one example - in Poland, the motorway limit is very high, 140km/h(90mph), highest in Europe I believe if we ignore the unrestricted sections of the Autobahn. That leads to two things: 1) most people actually drive slightly below the limit, since vast majority of cars are not comfortable cruisers at 90mph, sure you can get to 90mph in your 1.4 Polo but it will be very loud inside and uncomfortable. 2) Even less people drive significantly above the speed limit, so the police does not see patrolling motorways as worth their time - even if you were doing an otherwise crazy 120mph(200kmh) the largest ticket they could give you would be like ~$100 and a few points on your licence(you need 21 to lose it). So it's not worth their time. As a result, when I drive there I don't have to worry about constantly being 5-10mph over the limit, since 90mph is fast enough. Setting the speed limit on a 4-5 lane highway to 50mph like in some places in the States is just asking for trouble,and I'm sure it's an excellent source of revenue for the local law enforcement.
- DanBC 10y ago
  Before we rush to the Polish model: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/20/road-safety-in-poland http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/20/road-saf... > Poland has one of the highest death rates for traffic accidents in the European Union, with 93 deaths per million persons per year, compared with the EU average of 55. EDIT: hang on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r... Road fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year Poland: 10.3 US: 10.6
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    Fatalities/km corrects for differrences in per person driving habits.
  - saint_fiasco 10y ago
    Maybe people in Poland use mass transportation a lot. That would reduce the death rate for traffic accidents regardless of the speed limits.
    - superuser2 10y ago
      The right way to reason about traffic safety is to put "miles driven" in the denominator, not population.
  - willvarfar 10y ago
    Are the numbers of on-motorway deaths particularly high? The non-motorway roads may be death traps.

by mcbits 10y ago

gambiting 10y ago

To offer one example - in Poland, the motorway limit is very high, 140km/h(90mph), highest in Europe I believe if we ignore the unrestricted sections of the Autobahn. That leads to two things: 1) most people actually drive slightly below the limit, since vast majority of cars are not comfortable cruisers at 90mph, sure you can get to 90mph in your 1.4 Polo but it will be very loud inside and uncomfortable. 2) Even less people drive significantly above the speed limit, so the police does not see patrolling motorways as worth their time - even if you were doing an otherwise crazy 120mph(200kmh) the largest ticket they could give you would be like ~$100 and a few points on your licence(you need 21 to lose it). So it's not worth their time. As a result, when I drive there I don't have to worry about constantly being 5-10mph over the limit, since 90mph is fast enough. Setting the speed limit on a 4-5 lane highway to 50mph like in some places in the States is just asking for trouble,and I'm sure it's an excellent source of revenue for the local law enforcement.

DanBC 10y ago
Before we rush to the Polish model: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/20/road-safety-in-poland http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/06/20/road-saf... > Poland has one of the highest death rates for traffic accidents in the European Union, with 93 deaths per million persons per year, compared with the EU average of 55. EDIT: hang on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r... Road fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year Poland: 10.3 US: 10.6
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  Fatalities/km corrects for differrences in per person driving habits.
- saint_fiasco 10y ago
  Maybe people in Poland use mass transportation a lot. That would reduce the death rate for traffic accidents regardless of the speed limits.
  - superuser2 10y ago
    The right way to reason about traffic safety is to put "miles driven" in the denominator, not population.
- willvarfar 10y ago
  Are the numbers of on-motorway deaths particularly high? The non-motorway roads may be death traps.