5 ms·

Make sure to never be in a hurry to get anywhere because you might then get stuck behind a fleet of them going exactly the speed limit, grid locking you in.

flipbrad 7mo ago
Isn't the correct answer to this, lobbying for higher speed limits? Rather than chastizing obedience to current rules.
- TimTheTinker 7mo ago
  Yes, agreed. Though speed limits higher than 75 are not something I will ever support.* * Unless we're talking about removing a speed limit altogether and regulating unsafe driving using other criteria.
  - jjav 7mo ago
    What happens at 76mph?
    - TimTheTinker 7mo ago
      Same thing that happens at 77mph :) I think 75 is memorable and roughly in the region where the tradeoff between increased kinetic energy and decreased time to arrival per additional unit of velocity becomes untenable.
      - The_President 7mo ago
        > the tradeoff between increased kinetic energy and decreased time to arrival per additional unit of velocity becomes untenable Sounds like a warning page out of the back of a 94 Geo Metro owner's manual.
  - benlivengood 7mo ago
    Autonomous vehicles following proper signalling before lane changes can be safe at arbitrary speeds (see Autobahns working at all). Humans, we should limit passing speed to roughly ~5 mph delta between adjacent lanes and leave it at that. Humans with adequate following distance in the entire lane can probably manage 10 mph delta. I routinely travel dozens of miles very safely at ~80 with the flow of traffic (including the cops), and been stressed out at 55 in the carpool lane through stop and go traffic in the right-hand lanes due to on ramps/offramps.
- epolanski 7mo ago
  In Italy several cities lowered the maximum speed from 50 to 30 km/h. There was a huge fight over it, car drivers in those cities were mad. Plenty of politicians opposed it. One year later stats were super clear: streets got way safer and the number of fatal accidents dropped to near 0. Time to traverse cities didn't change much, as it was already limited mostly by traffic and lights.
  - sagarm 7mo ago
    I believe you, but do you have a citation?
    - Zigurd 7mo ago
      Search for the phrase "Vision Zero"
  - HDThoreaun 7mo ago
    I think this ignores the argument the high speed limit people make which basically boils down to "sure some people will die or get injured but its worth it because driving faster is fun"
    - kulahan 7mo ago
      I’m absolutely sure people are just interested in shorter commute times rather than higher max speeds. That makes this an easy sell to citizens
UltraSane 7mo ago
Being forced to drive the speed limit isn't that big of a deal
Toutouxc 7mo ago
Is this something that I’m too European to understand? How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit?
- JumpCrisscross 7mo ago
  > How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit? "Only 46.5 percent of U.S. drivers consider going more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the freeway to be "extremely" or "very" dangerous — with 40.6 percent openly admitting to doing it at least "a few times" in the last 30 days" [1]. [1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/11/30/why-so-many-u-s-drivers-think-speeding-is-perfectly-safe https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/11/30/why-so-many-u-s-drive...
  - rootusrootus 7mo ago
    We have a lot of freeway speed limits that are holdovers from the last oil crisis decades ago. Cars have gotten quieter, smoother, more capable, to the point where 55 mph is kind of hilariously slow. When the legal speed limit does not reflect what most drivers think is reasonable, then we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely reflect conventional wisdom.
    - JumpCrisscross 7mo ago
      > we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely reflect conventional wisdom Most Americans ignore speed limits. This stems from it being socially and legally problematic to permanently revoke our driver’s licenses. We should raise a lot of limits. But many others are fine and still sped through.
    - Toutouxc 7mo ago
      Where do you guys have 55 mph where it's not appropriate? A LLM is telling me that 55 mph is your random urban interstate. The equivalent where I live is 80 km/h on motorways inside city/town limits, which is 50 mph, and it feels very appropriate, cars make a ton of noise and you don't want the full motorway speed in the city. And that's basically the fastest you'll ever go in a city, when it's an actual motorway (often elevated, ramps, sound barriers). Other roads (even big and important) are ~43 mph and the general urban speed limit is ~31 mph.
rossjudson 7mo ago
You drive an ambulance? Or a fire truck?

flipbrad 7mo ago

Isn't the correct answer to this, lobbying for higher speed limits? Rather than chastizing obedience to current rules.

TimTheTinker 7mo ago
Yes, agreed. Though speed limits higher than 75 are not something I will ever support.* * Unless we're talking about removing a speed limit altogether and regulating unsafe driving using other criteria.
- jjav 7mo ago
  What happens at 76mph?
  - TimTheTinker 7mo ago
    Same thing that happens at 77mph :) I think 75 is memorable and roughly in the region where the tradeoff between increased kinetic energy and decreased time to arrival per additional unit of velocity becomes untenable.
    - The_President 7mo ago
      > the tradeoff between increased kinetic energy and decreased time to arrival per additional unit of velocity becomes untenable Sounds like a warning page out of the back of a 94 Geo Metro owner's manual.
- benlivengood 7mo ago
  Autonomous vehicles following proper signalling before lane changes can be safe at arbitrary speeds (see Autobahns working at all). Humans, we should limit passing speed to roughly ~5 mph delta between adjacent lanes and leave it at that. Humans with adequate following distance in the entire lane can probably manage 10 mph delta. I routinely travel dozens of miles very safely at ~80 with the flow of traffic (including the cops), and been stressed out at 55 in the carpool lane through stop and go traffic in the right-hand lanes due to on ramps/offramps.
epolanski 7mo ago
In Italy several cities lowered the maximum speed from 50 to 30 km/h. There was a huge fight over it, car drivers in those cities were mad. Plenty of politicians opposed it. One year later stats were super clear: streets got way safer and the number of fatal accidents dropped to near 0. Time to traverse cities didn't change much, as it was already limited mostly by traffic and lights.
- sagarm 7mo ago
  I believe you, but do you have a citation?
  - Zigurd 7mo ago
    Search for the phrase "Vision Zero"
- HDThoreaun 7mo ago
  I think this ignores the argument the high speed limit people make which basically boils down to "sure some people will die or get injured but its worth it because driving faster is fun"
  - kulahan 7mo ago
    I’m absolutely sure people are just interested in shorter commute times rather than higher max speeds. That makes this an easy sell to citizens

UltraSane 7mo ago

Being forced to drive the speed limit isn't that big of a deal

Toutouxc 7mo ago

Is this something that I’m too European to understand? How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit?

JumpCrisscross 7mo ago
> How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit? "Only 46.5 percent of U.S. drivers consider going more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the freeway to be "extremely" or "very" dangerous — with 40.6 percent openly admitting to doing it at least "a few times" in the last 30 days" [1]. [1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/11/30/why-so-many-u-s-drivers-think-speeding-is-perfectly-safe https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/11/30/why-so-many-u-s-drive...
- rootusrootus 7mo ago
  We have a lot of freeway speed limits that are holdovers from the last oil crisis decades ago. Cars have gotten quieter, smoother, more capable, to the point where 55 mph is kind of hilariously slow. When the legal speed limit does not reflect what most drivers think is reasonable, then we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely reflect conventional wisdom.
  - JumpCrisscross 7mo ago
    > we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely reflect conventional wisdom Most Americans ignore speed limits. This stems from it being socially and legally problematic to permanently revoke our driver’s licenses. We should raise a lot of limits. But many others are fine and still sped through.
  - Toutouxc 7mo ago
    Where do you guys have 55 mph where it's not appropriate? A LLM is telling me that 55 mph is your random urban interstate. The equivalent where I live is 80 km/h on motorways inside city/town limits, which is 50 mph, and it feels very appropriate, cars make a ton of noise and you don't want the full motorway speed in the city. And that's basically the fastest you'll ever go in a city, when it's an actual motorway (often elevated, ramps, sound barriers). Other roads (even big and important) are ~43 mph and the general urban speed limit is ~31 mph.

rossjudson 7mo ago

You drive an ambulance? Or a fire truck?