5 ms·

Go back another 100 years, and think about the vehicles and their suspension (probably leather bands?), and then realize that there were no asphalt roads, only

Go back another 100 years, and think about the vehicles and their suspension (probably leather bands?), and then realize that there were no asphalt roads, only dirt roads with holes and rocks. Then go back several hundred years, when carriages had no suspension at all. How did people handle that? Speed was probably the big difference. Plus what else was there? The only alternative was walking or maybe travel by horse or mule. So that 1968 Mini was probably very OK for that time, with careful driving, and a tougher ass.

lucaspiller 9y ago
Speed was the big difference. It's interesting that speed limits in the U.K. haven't increased since the first motorway was opened in 1958, yet cars have got a lot safer. I wonder if autonomous vehicles will change that...
- simias 9y ago
  Human reaction times haven't increased, that's probably the main issue with speed. It's also not generally very eco-friendly to drive faster, so I doubt limits are going to increase regardless of safety.
- Lio 9y ago
  When the first UK motorway, the M1, opened it had no speed limit. When the speed limit was introduced, in 1965, it was originally a temporary measure to reduce excessive fuel consumption. The non-motorway speed limit was again reduced in 1974 for the same reason [1]. (Sorry I can't find a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits off hand). http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15/newsid_2559000/2559807.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15...
  - KineticLensman 9y ago
    > a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits in the UK, 25 November 1965 [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_United_Kingdom#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_Unite...
  - wyager 9y ago
    Fascinating. I wonder if it's possible to control for improved car safety when looking at the decreasing risk of driving over time; did speed limits make highways/motorways safer or more dangerous? I recall reading that (counter-intuitively), removing stop signs from a residential area made it safer, and I wonder if the same is true for speed limits. Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower).
    - gsnedders 9y ago
      > Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower). I have the impression that this is very different in most of Europe compared with most of the places in the US I've driven: in the US, most roads have a speed limit ultimately set to the lower of what's politically acceptable and what an engineering is willing to sign off on as safe, AFAIK; in most parts of Europe, there are two or three standard speed limits (urban, rural, highway) that apply everywhere and speed limits are only altered downwards if there's a stretch that's a particular crash hotspot. For example, I've been down plenty of narrow roads around the UK where the speed limit was the standard 60mph, but good luck going more than 20mph even if you know the road well. As such, you're already expected to use personal judgement. By comparison, all of the rural roads in the US I've driven down that were at all tight had speed limits like 20 or 30mph, and if anything they were set lower than I would've driven down them had they been higher.
pilsetnieks 9y ago
There was the leaf spring suspension: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-did-carriages-have-leaf-springs https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Angostura 9y ago
  Still used in my old MGB
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    And basically every truck and van.

lucaspiller 9y ago

Speed was the big difference. It's interesting that speed limits in the U.K. haven't increased since the first motorway was opened in 1958, yet cars have got a lot safer. I wonder if autonomous vehicles will change that...

simias 9y ago
Human reaction times haven't increased, that's probably the main issue with speed. It's also not generally very eco-friendly to drive faster, so I doubt limits are going to increase regardless of safety.
Lio 9y ago
When the first UK motorway, the M1, opened it had no speed limit. When the speed limit was introduced, in 1965, it was originally a temporary measure to reduce excessive fuel consumption. The non-motorway speed limit was again reduced in 1974 for the same reason [1]. (Sorry I can't find a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits off hand). http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15/newsid_2559000/2559807.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15...
- KineticLensman 9y ago
  > a citation for the introduction of the first motorway speed limits in the UK, 25 November 1965 [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_United_Kingdom#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_Unite...
- wyager 9y ago
  Fascinating. I wonder if it's possible to control for improved car safety when looking at the decreasing risk of driving over time; did speed limits make highways/motorways safer or more dangerous? I recall reading that (counter-intuitively), removing stop signs from a residential area made it safer, and I wonder if the same is true for speed limits. Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower).
  - gsnedders 9y ago
    > Maybe if people weren't given a suggestion of how fast to drive, they would be more likely to drive within their personal safety limit (whether that be faster or slower). I have the impression that this is very different in most of Europe compared with most of the places in the US I've driven: in the US, most roads have a speed limit ultimately set to the lower of what's politically acceptable and what an engineering is willing to sign off on as safe, AFAIK; in most parts of Europe, there are two or three standard speed limits (urban, rural, highway) that apply everywhere and speed limits are only altered downwards if there's a stretch that's a particular crash hotspot. For example, I've been down plenty of narrow roads around the UK where the speed limit was the standard 60mph, but good luck going more than 20mph even if you know the road well. As such, you're already expected to use personal judgement. By comparison, all of the rural roads in the US I've driven down that were at all tight had speed limits like 20 or 30mph, and if anything they were set lower than I would've driven down them had they been higher.

pilsetnieks 9y ago

There was the leaf spring suspension: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-did-carriages-have-leaf-springs https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/36259/from-when-...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Angostura 9y ago
Still used in my old MGB
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  And basically every truck and van.