3 ms·

> An ordinary drive with a bit of speeding here and there everyday goes from perhaps a ticket or two every decade, to 6 tickets every trip. Can it be that the

> An ordinary drive with a bit of speeding here and there everyday goes from perhaps a ticket or two every decade, to 6 tickets every trip. Can it be that the best way of avoiding that is avoiding speeding? It's interesting that you are lumping together objectively dangerous, even if prevalent in the US, public behaviour (deliberate speeding) with honest mistakes (making a wrong turn).

toss1 8y ago
Yes, an obvious almost tautological suggestion, which often does not apply, and can actually increase the danger of situations even while technically reducing your chances of a ticket. I regularly drive on highways with relatively dense traffic all going 10-20mph above the speed limit; in these conditions, it is objectively MORE dangerous to attempt to go the speed limit. I've seen the whole pack drive right by a state cop at 80+, and he'll do nothing because just to turn on his lightshow will likely cause a major wreck. Outside of residential/school/congested areas with non-vehicular traffic & obstacles, it is NOT any numerical speed that causes issues, but the differential in speeds. Going too much faster -or too much slower- than surrounding traffic is what will cause accident situations (obviously, up to the limits of conditions, car preparation, driver skill & attention, etc.) The Autobahns are regulated as an excellent example of this. In rural areas very high speeds are permitted, and lane discipline is rigorously enforced. You'll get busted way harder for driving slow in the left lane than for driving 300kph. And, in the more congested zones, the speed limits come down. And the safety records exceed those of the 65MPH US highways. Speed does not kill, but rather driver ignorance does. A safe fast driver is better than an unsafe slow driver any day. And most US drivers are never taught even the basics of how to actually drive. I know otherwise very intelligent people who balked at taking their teens to driver safety & skills classes taught by SCCA and others (which objectively reduce accident rates) because they thought that teaching these skills (car control, balance, braking & turning at the limits, etc.) would give them wrong ideas...
- lambdadmitry 8y ago
  > with relatively dense traffic all going 10-20mph above the speed limit; in these conditions, it is objectively MORE dangerous to attempt to go the speed limit The fix is simple: just make everyone observe speed limit with a bunch of speed cameras. In the meantime, fill the state coffers with fines. If people think the speed limit is too low, put pressure on politicians, make them run studies proving that it's safe to go 10-20mph more on that stretch and rise the speed limit if it is. > it is NOT any numerical speed that causes issues It absolutely is and you're just rationalizing. Kinetic energy rises quadratically with speed, and so does the risk of death and stopping distance. > A safe fast driver is better than an unsafe slow driver any day. That's a strowman. The point isn't that just you must go slower, it's that everyone must go slower and observe the actual speed limit. Speed limits aren't imposed just because, they are supposed to take into account tons of data that an average motorist can't possibly have in their mind. If people disregard and ignore them as "too low" instead of observing and fixing when needed, it just slowly corrodes civil society.

toss1 8y ago

Yes, an obvious almost tautological suggestion, which often does not apply, and can actually increase the danger of situations even while technically reducing your chances of a ticket. I regularly drive on highways with relatively dense traffic all going 10-20mph above the speed limit; in these conditions, it is objectively MORE dangerous to attempt to go the speed limit. I've seen the whole pack drive right by a state cop at 80+, and he'll do nothing because just to turn on his lightshow will likely cause a major wreck. Outside of residential/school/congested areas with non-vehicular traffic & obstacles, it is NOT any numerical speed that causes issues, but the differential in speeds. Going too much faster -or too much slower- than surrounding traffic is what will cause accident situations (obviously, up to the limits of conditions, car preparation, driver skill & attention, etc.) The Autobahns are regulated as an excellent example of this. In rural areas very high speeds are permitted, and lane discipline is rigorously enforced. You'll get busted way harder for driving slow in the left lane than for driving 300kph. And, in the more congested zones, the speed limits come down. And the safety records exceed those of the 65MPH US highways. Speed does not kill, but rather driver ignorance does. A safe fast driver is better than an unsafe slow driver any day. And most US drivers are never taught even the basics of how to actually drive. I know otherwise very intelligent people who balked at taking their teens to driver safety & skills classes taught by SCCA and others (which objectively reduce accident rates) because they thought that teaching these skills (car control, balance, braking & turning at the limits, etc.) would give them wrong ideas...

lambdadmitry 8y ago
> with relatively dense traffic all going 10-20mph above the speed limit; in these conditions, it is objectively MORE dangerous to attempt to go the speed limit The fix is simple: just make everyone observe speed limit with a bunch of speed cameras. In the meantime, fill the state coffers with fines. If people think the speed limit is too low, put pressure on politicians, make them run studies proving that it's safe to go 10-20mph more on that stretch and rise the speed limit if it is. > it is NOT any numerical speed that causes issues It absolutely is and you're just rationalizing. Kinetic energy rises quadratically with speed, and so does the risk of death and stopping distance. > A safe fast driver is better than an unsafe slow driver any day. That's a strowman. The point isn't that just you must go slower, it's that everyone must go slower and observe the actual speed limit. Speed limits aren't imposed just because, they are supposed to take into account tons of data that an average motorist can't possibly have in their mind. If people disregard and ignore them as "too low" instead of observing and fixing when needed, it just slowly corrodes civil society.