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As someone who's driven over distances that had notably higher speed limits (EG 75 MPH in extremely rural areas), I have found that /in those areas/ the speed I

As someone who's driven over distances that had notably higher speed limits (EG 75 MPH in extremely rural areas), I have found that /in those areas/ the speed I went //without// looking at the dashboard was more or less very close to the actual speed limit. I was actually driving at the real speed that is safe for a typical small car on such a road in 'ideal' conditions.

mindslight 8y ago
Were you able to reproduce this effect on analogous 55mph/65mph roads? Are you sure you aren't just used to driving 75mph on highways in general (ie you're not from Seattle), and found speed limit signs that actually matched? Driving through rural areas you must have experienced the sudden ~30mph sign, signifying a town coming up. Did this "drive what you feel" approach line up there too? When the town was at the bottom of a hill? For context, I've done around 25k miles cross-country non-interstate. I've concluded that what the individual states choose to sign as the general maximums has more to do with local culture and politics than with general terrain.
- mjevans 8y ago
  You've thrown out quite a number of different topics, and some of the questions you're asking might also lead anyone who can contribute to a discussion about speed limits being set at safe speeds to admit to having committed what is currently a crime because of an incorrectly calibrated "limit". With respect to the engineering safety of the sudden 30mph sign (which I assume is in a rural area on an otherwise small highway); yes that sounds like you're describing what is typically called a "speed trap". A real traffic safety engineering standard SHOULD call for a clearly posted and graduated reduction in speed as approaching the town at a /bare/ minimum. However, a true engineering solution would isolate the town and the highway entirely. The point of the highway is to be a high speed transit corridor and it is inefficient and unsafe to route such a thing through a dense residential or commercial area. Instead there should be an exit system that leads off to a side path for such a town. I would prefer an actual barrier that encloses the typical route and possibly caps or bridges over it (maybe with a park) for existing situations that have developed in days with less good planning. In any such cases a designated detour route should also be constructed such that it is possible for "oversized loads", emergency response teams, and post disaster travel to route around failure in the now enclosed sections.
  - mindslight 8y ago
    My examples are pointing out possible edges of feeling safe equals safe envelope. And I don't think cops hang out on HN looking for anecdotes of speeding to investigate, nor are you going to get a black mark on your permanent LexisGoogle record from admitting that you have sped. There are plenty of towns large enough for highway bypasses and traffic lights. The ones I'm talking about have one good road, maybe two if they're lucky enough to be the intersection. I indeed appreciate when there are graduated signs so I don't have to use the brakes, but this obviously costs money they don't all have, and isn't needed by people who already know the road. Talking about traffic engineering is laughable for such places - if your goal is to pass through as quick as possible, you could just take the interstate.
    - mjevans 8y ago
      The only reason they do it with a single sign instead of many is because the town is a speed trap funded city. If there was not revenue generation, if the fines were required to go only in to the state or federal general budget, I believe the situation would shift towards one of the safe engineering solutions I outlined above instead of the revenue generating status quo you see today.

mindslight 8y ago

Were you able to reproduce this effect on analogous 55mph/65mph roads? Are you sure you aren't just used to driving 75mph on highways in general (ie you're not from Seattle), and found speed limit signs that actually matched? Driving through rural areas you must have experienced the sudden ~30mph sign, signifying a town coming up. Did this "drive what you feel" approach line up there too? When the town was at the bottom of a hill? For context, I've done around 25k miles cross-country non-interstate. I've concluded that what the individual states choose to sign as the general maximums has more to do with local culture and politics than with general terrain.

mjevans 8y ago
You've thrown out quite a number of different topics, and some of the questions you're asking might also lead anyone who can contribute to a discussion about speed limits being set at safe speeds to admit to having committed what is currently a crime because of an incorrectly calibrated "limit". With respect to the engineering safety of the sudden 30mph sign (which I assume is in a rural area on an otherwise small highway); yes that sounds like you're describing what is typically called a "speed trap". A real traffic safety engineering standard SHOULD call for a clearly posted and graduated reduction in speed as approaching the town at a /bare/ minimum. However, a true engineering solution would isolate the town and the highway entirely. The point of the highway is to be a high speed transit corridor and it is inefficient and unsafe to route such a thing through a dense residential or commercial area. Instead there should be an exit system that leads off to a side path for such a town. I would prefer an actual barrier that encloses the typical route and possibly caps or bridges over it (maybe with a park) for existing situations that have developed in days with less good planning. In any such cases a designated detour route should also be constructed such that it is possible for "oversized loads", emergency response teams, and post disaster travel to route around failure in the now enclosed sections.
- mindslight 8y ago
  My examples are pointing out possible edges of feeling safe equals safe envelope. And I don't think cops hang out on HN looking for anecdotes of speeding to investigate, nor are you going to get a black mark on your permanent LexisGoogle record from admitting that you have sped. There are plenty of towns large enough for highway bypasses and traffic lights. The ones I'm talking about have one good road, maybe two if they're lucky enough to be the intersection. I indeed appreciate when there are graduated signs so I don't have to use the brakes, but this obviously costs money they don't all have, and isn't needed by people who already know the road. Talking about traffic engineering is laughable for such places - if your goal is to pass through as quick as possible, you could just take the interstate.
  - mjevans 8y ago
    The only reason they do it with a single sign instead of many is because the town is a speed trap funded city. If there was not revenue generation, if the fines were required to go only in to the state or federal general budget, I believe the situation would shift towards one of the safe engineering solutions I outlined above instead of the revenue generating status quo you see today.