My personal guideline is to do 20% over the speed limit. It works in a 25mph zone or a 65mph zone, it’s easy to figure out, and I haven’t received a speeding ticket in roughly 15 years.
Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates.
Not 100’s of millions. How about 10’s of billions. Almost 300million people in US, so say about 50million cars taking on average 2 trips per day every single day, that’s 100million * 365days=10’s of billions.
42,000 / 10billion = .0004% - that’s a pretty small number of crashes
I’m not a police person or an insurance guy, but it seems to me that given the limited amount of police resources, it would make sense to enforce traffic limits in the areas or situations most likely to cause the most amount of damage. I would guess this would be for stuff like travelling more than 20 mph over the speed limit or school zones or areas with lots of pedestrias (but like I said, I’m not familiar with the methodology on how these things are calculated).
So I don’t view the fact that most people can drive 10 mph or even 20 mph over the speed limit on the freeways as being proof that speed limits are set too low. I’d need to see some data as to damage/crash statistics to be convinced.
Well, but there’s an upside as well as a downside to having the limit enforced by human beings instead of mindless robots: they can use their discretion and common sense about whom to pull over, and whether to give them a ticket or just a warning, based on whether they’re driving in a way that’s particularly unsafe, speeding in conditions where that’s particularly dangerous, etc.
I’m still undecided, but the current system may be the best compromise between a strictly enforced speed limit and a policy of just letting every driver use their own judgment about how fast they can safely drive. Although it does bother me some that the current system encourages behavior that is, technically, lawbreaking.
[math geek]Personally, I figure that as long as I’m eventually within epsilon of the speed limit, I’m okay.[/math geek]
I would imagine the nerves would be due to the fact that people have been shot on our local highways for presumably less irritation. Combine that with the attitude of the guy in the truck and the dangerous driving of the van driver, and I certainly don’t blame them for being nervous.
I would hope that the kids who made this sent it to our state and city lawmakers, rather than relying upon the internet to discover it.
I haven’t watched the video since I am at work, but nobody so far has mentioned the real reason cops allow people to speed and only pick them up occasionally–it’s a sure way to be able to hand out a lot of tickets and bring in revenue without having a trumped-up reason for doing so. It’s easy pickings, more so even than trying to enforce drug laws at a Phish concert.
And before you think I’m being paranoid, check out the rate at which tickets are handed out to speeders. I did this research myself in a small PA town. They occur in a clump near the end of the month, when the police have to scurry and make up their monthly ticketing quota. Someone who would get slammed with a ticket on the 31st would be given a free pass on the first of the next month. That’s an interesting pattern, isn’t it? If cops were ticketing speeders randomly and consistently the tickets would be spread out all month (since there’s no reason people would speed more at the end of the month), yet they’re not. I know I had a small sample size, but I’d be interested in seeing if other towns and cities had such a distribution.
But even despite the fact that cops shamelessly use speeders as a revenue source, I don’t think it’s totally wrong. Speeding IS against the law, and if you decide to do it I think you deserve to be hit with a charge. When I drove I never speeded. Of course, I did get harassed by other drivers a lot. Maybe that’s part of the reason I never got my license.
I’m not sure if it was a law they were breaking, per se, but there was a missed precept of driving – and it is, in fact, the reason that the people going 80 get ticketed.
I remember the crusty ol’ bastard who taught us driver’s ed. I don’t know what crypt they unearthed him from, but he brought all his shirts from the 1950s thru the 70s with him. One day in class he asked:
“So if you’re on the road and the speed limit’s 70, but everyone’s going 80, what speed should you drive?”
We all answered “Seventy”, mostly.
“WRONG!” It was the loudest word any of us had ever heard him say. “You drive 80. Because more important than the speed limit is avoiding impedance. What I mean by that – this is the only time in your lives peer pressure should affect you. If you’re the sole person driving 70 in a field of cars going ten miles over that, you are a risk to the other drivers around you.” He paused. “I know you all think that the law is stupid, but it’s not, and this is part of it. It’s there to keep you safe.”
YMMV (:D)
Remember Dino, dammit!!
I love that car! Don’t remember what museum we’ve seen it in, but it’s the most beautiful driving machine ever made. (IMO, of course!)
Carry on,
'Cuda
Don’t try that in Lincoln Country, MS. I got a fat ticket for doing 81 in a 70. I also once got one for doing 50 in a 40 mph zone along Airline Highway in Metariei, LA (suburban New Orleans).
My dad once got a speeding ticket for doing 71 in a 70 along Interstate 10 in St. Charles Parish, LA.
Enforcement down here seems to be much stricter than it is in some of the northeastern and western states (the lax enforcement seems to go for metropolises like D.C., Atlanta, and Houston). The safe zone in much of Mississippi is considered to be 5 mph over the limit on interstates.
If he had’t thrown in the part about “you all think that the law is stupid, but it’s not”, I’d understand better. Was he talking about the Speed Limit law, or his off-the-cuff Law of No Impendence?
Couldn’t watch the video due to my dial-up conn., but from the gist of the subject, it seems that the 55-mph speed limit violates the Federal Highway Administration’s own rules and probably those of the State of Georgia.
Thefederal *Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices *, which is required to be followed by all states that receive federal highway funds (and who doesn’t?) states the following guidelines for setting speed limits (my bolding):
"Section 2B.13 Speed Limit Sign (R2-1)
Standard: After an engineering study has been made in accordance with established traffic engineering practices, the Speed Limit (R2-1) sign (see Figure 2B-1) shall display the limit established by law, ordinance, regulation, or as adopted by the authorized agency. The speed limits shown shall be in multiples of 10 km/h or 5 mph.
Guidance: At least once every 5 years, States and local agencies should reevaluate non-statutory speed limits on segments of their roadways that have undergone a significant change in roadway characteristics or surrounding land use since the last review.
No more than three speed limits should be displayed on any one Speed Limit sign or assembly.
When a speed limit is to be posted, it should be within 10 km/h or 5 mph of the 85th-percentile speed of free-flowing traffic.
Option: Other factors that may be considered when establishing speed limits are the following:
A. Road characteristics, shoulder condition, grade, alignment, and sight
distance;
B. The pace speed;
C. Roadside development and environment;
D. Parking practices and pedestrian activity; and
E. Reported crash experience for at least a 12-month period."
Unless there are a significant number of crashes, it would seem that all of the listed criteria would not be “violated” on an interstate freeway and that they should be doing an engineering study to determine the 85th percentile speed and then set the speed limit at it.
The 85th percentile speed, BTW, is the speed at or below which 85% of the vehicles are traveling. It is most often found to be higher than the posted speed, because of the belief/knowledge that “everyone knows you can drive 10 miles above the limit without being punished”.
As for not enforcing the 55-mph law, that would seem to be a violation of their sworn duty to uphold the law.
link: http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov