# Slow down and stay in your damn lane! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 7, 2007, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913 "2007-03-07T04:28:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/21 "2007-03-09T17:15:14Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] The kittens shouldn’t have been driving in the first place! [/QUOTE] But they were so cute behind the wheel like that! ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/22 "2007-03-09T18:19:28Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] “ **Absolute** , you have been found guilty of four counts of manslaughter, including a young mother, two small children, a nun, and a boxfull of kittens. Before I rule on your sentence, would you like to explain your egregious behavior?” “Yeah, doing 70 is boring.” “Um… Bah? Gah?” [/QUOTE] That situation would never occur. I’m not stupid - I know that most people on the roads don’t know how to drive. I don’t get myself into situations where someone else’s boneheaded maneuver could get me into an accident. When I speed, the only person at risk is me. And my passenger, if they trust me enough. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/23 "2007-03-09T18:24:46Z")
I never said you were stupid, and I’m assuming you are an excellent driver. But they’re called accidents for a reason. With increased speed comes increased risk and increased potential damage. There’s no such thing as a fender bender at that speed. There are very few good reasons to travel at that speed. Boredom is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/24 "2007-03-09T18:33:05Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] With increased speed comes increased risk and increased potential damage. [/QUOTE] “With great speed comes great responsibility…” “Yeah, well Slow The Hell Down anyway, Uncle Ben. This is still Manhattan.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/25 "2007-03-09T18:45:54Z")
[QUOTE=Count Blucher] “With great speed comes great responsibility…” “Yeah, well Slow The Hell Down anyway, Uncle Ben. This is still Manhattan.” 😃 [/QUOTE] _snerk_ I’m assuming that **Absolute** doesn’t do 80 down Mass Ave. At least I hope not. ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/26 "2007-03-09T19:16:30Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Uh, dude, there’s a **big** difference between the Jeep Grand Cherokee (which you say the OP has) and the Jeep Cherokee (which the OP has). [/QUOTE] Huh. So there is. Consider my ignorance beaten down with a stick (at least temporarily.) Thanks! For the record, I don’t drive a Geo, either. I thought I’d pick a ludicrously smallish car for comedic effect, and I couldn’t remember what I drove in college. Wife informs me it was a Ford Escort, not a Geo Metro. :smack: [QUOTE=Absolute] When I speed, the only person at risk is me. [/QUOTE] :rolleyes: When I grow up, I want to make undefensible, blanket assertions about the inherent safety of my grossly selfish actions in public, like **Absolute**. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/27 "2007-03-09T20:47:24Z")
[QUOTE=Subway Prophet] When I grow up, I want to make undefensible, blanket assertions about the inherent safety of my grossly selfish actions in public, like **Absolute**. [/QUOTE] Look - in Germany, the accident rate on unrestricted sections of highway is no higher than in sections where there is a speed limit. Now, their licensing requirements are much stricter over there, and so drivers are generally better-trained - but it seems to me that the relative risk of driving at 85 vs. 70 is not as high as some of you seem to believe. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/28 "2007-03-09T22:04:41Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Dude, you just have **no** idea of how bad the interstates are laid out here. We have one here that I refer to as the I-24, 40, 65, Briley, 440 clusterfuck. Those 5 highways (as well as several major state and city roads) all join up and split within a few miles of one another, and it doesn’t matter where you’re going, at some point, you _have_ to cut across 4 or more lanes in a very short span (less than a football field in some spots) to get where you’re going, even if you’re _staying_ on the _same_ highway. [/QUOTE] There’s a couple places in the Detroit area I pass thru pretty much every week that are like that. US-14, I-275, I-96 & I-696 all merge thru and around each other in just a couple interchanges. What makes it worse, is right where the ramps come in on the right side, the left lanes end. So, you end up with people merging left to make room for entering cars, and cars merging right because their lane goes away. And then, of course, it’s fucking Detroit - worst goddamn Interstate surfaces in the county; like driving on the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/29 "2007-03-10T03:11:58Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > it seems to me that the relative risk of driving at 85 vs. 70 is not as high as some of you seem to believe. Huh, I thought they taught you guys physics over there at MIT. In fact, since [the severity of injury in crashes increases non-linearly with vehicle speed](http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/speed/lit.html), there **is** a substantial increase in risk for comparatively small speed increments at high speeds: > [@](#): > > It is well-established that once a crash has occurred, the severity of the injuries sustained by the individuals involved is an increasing function of vehicle speed. The relationship is non-linear, with a specified increase in vehicle speed producing a proportionately greater increase in injury severity. For example, Joksch (1975) showed that compared to the risk of an occupant fatality following involvement in a crash at 40 mph, the risk of a fatality was 2.5 times greater at 60 mph, 6 times greater at 70 mph, and approximately 20 times greater at 80 mph. […] ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2007, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913/30 "2007-03-10T08:49:43Z")
[QUOTE=UncleBeer] There’s a couple places in the Detroit area I pass thru pretty much every week that are like that. US-14, I-275, I-96 & I-696 all merge thru and around each other in just a couple interchanges. What makes it worse, is right where the ramps come in on the right side, the left lanes end. So, you end up with people merging left to make room for entering cars, and cars merging right because their lane goes away. And then, of course, it’s fucking Detroit - worst goddamn Interstate surfaces in the county; like driving on the moon. [/QUOTE] Well, we don’t have the bad road surfaces you do, but we do have year round highway construction with orange barrels all over the goddamn place, no highway workers in sight and estimated completion times measured in freakin’ decades! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-down-and-stay-in-your-damn-lane/394913.md?page=1)