its annoying and dangerous.. but boy do i love pulling up at a stop light next to the person who blew past me 5 minutes earlier
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Why has society decided that speeding is still socially acceptable?
- Thread starter FriskyCanuck
- Start date
How am I supposed to remember the buster if I don't speed ?
I match the speed of traffic on the freeway up to 75 then I just move over to the slower lanes. On residential streets I never speed, too many people and cars pulling out of driveways to even think about speeding.
No lies though I've gone up to 150 with friends and other car enthusiasts at like 3:00 am on the freeway back in the day when I young and dumb. Now a days I still modify cars but it's more of a hobby then anything else. No more speeding for me after the buster died in a speeding car crash.
I match the speed of traffic on the freeway up to 75 then I just move over to the slower lanes. On residential streets I never speed, too many people and cars pulling out of driveways to even think about speeding.
No lies though I've gone up to 150 with friends and other car enthusiasts at like 3:00 am on the freeway back in the day when I young and dumb. Now a days I still modify cars but it's more of a hobby then anything else. No more speeding for me after the buster died in a speeding car crash.
This. So many times people here in Manchester will dangerously overtake one just for exactly what you said to happen.. except instead of minutes earlier it's seconds.
Highway and freeway speed limits are generally too low. But folks who speed through residential neighborhoods can fuck right off. That's disgusting behavior.
Like with anything in life, there's degrees of excess. There's irresponsible speeding, and responsible speeding. Were speeding in and of itself that dangerous, everyone in Germany would already be dead, given how on the Autobahn there is no speed limit.
If you're bombing it down a motorway doing 120mph, weaving in and out of lanes like a mad man, of course accidents could happen. But if you're doing 90mph (speed limit is 70mph) down the motorway at night when barely a soul is actually on it, or there's plenty of space ahead and behind you and you're keen on your surroundings, and sticking only to the fast lane etc, of course you're going to be fine.
Add to that, in the UK the national speed limit was introduced in 1965. Think about that. Yes there's more cars on the road, but these days cars are also a million times safer, more stable, better built and better able to handle higher speeds. But here we are with the same archaic speed limits as we had tens of decades ago. It's ridiculous.
And therein lies the issue. Most speed limits are comically low and make journeys unnecessarily slow, treating all people as bumbling idiots, or coming off as money making schemes by governments.
If you're bombing it down a motorway doing 120mph, weaving in and out of lanes like a mad man, of course accidents could happen. But if you're doing 90mph (speed limit is 70mph) down the motorway at night when barely a soul is actually on it, or there's plenty of space ahead and behind you and you're keen on your surroundings, and sticking only to the fast lane etc, of course you're going to be fine.
Add to that, in the UK the national speed limit was introduced in 1965. Think about that. Yes there's more cars on the road, but these days cars are also a million times safer, more stable, better built and better able to handle higher speeds. But here we are with the same archaic speed limits as we had tens of decades ago. It's ridiculous.
And therein lies the issue. Most speed limits are comically low and make journeys unnecessarily slow, treating all people as bumbling idiots, or coming off as money making schemes by governments.
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My high school was on a street that had large swaths of open grass and area with no houses. The street to get there was like 45mph the entire way. It was obviously made that way just to speed trap people but it was also super irritating driving on there because it was fucking slow.
I work as a driving instructor in the school bus industry. It's amazing how many people willingly tailgate school buses so close that you cannot even see their headlights in the rear view mirror. This is followed by them passing school bus, going 70 down the road in a 50 zone, then getting stopped at red light or by car that was front of school bus.
Speed is one thing, but tailgating has become much more of an epidemic that cops do jackshit about. Following too closely causes SO FUCKING MANY preventable accidents it's insane.
5 mins was just a estimate but its probably closer to what your saying
yup grandpa taught leave some room to stop and then some
Yep. The potential downsides simply don't exceed the benefits, especially when traffic is so terrible in many places.
I'd argue psychologically the increasing sophistication of cars and safety features has also tied into this.
In my parents' old car any time you got up to highway speed, you felt it. The same doesn't go for my current car. Combined with the ubiquity of airbags and crumple zones, more and more people survive otherwise lethal accidents, so it increases risk taking. The same problem with helmets in football.
The rule that is taught to bus drivers is 4 seconds. You should always be 4 seconds behind the driver in front of you. More if the weather conditions are poor or the speed jumps up substantially.
It's a rule for school bus drivers, but I tell everyone I know who tailgates to follow that rule, even if they are driving a small car. I just tell them to imagine looking away for even a second, and then the car in front of you suddenly stops and you smash into them since you had zero time to react or even notice them
Unfortunately, people are dumb and a vast majority do not think about safety when driving. It's infuriating.
heard that i made most of my driving mistakes when i was young. then i took defensive driving #mindblown
On the interstate, the limit should probably be higher, but you still get the morons going 100+ weaving through every lane when others are going with the flow of traffic.
But I still see people completely ignoring school, hospital, and residential speed zones constantly. I try not to let it get to me, but when you see a couple of children crossing the street to get to school with some idiot almost running them over because they can't be bothered to let anything slow them down, it makes me want to drive them into a ditch. Fuck those people.
But I still see people completely ignoring school, hospital, and residential speed zones constantly. I try not to let it get to me, but when you see a couple of children crossing the street to get to school with some idiot almost running them over because they can't be bothered to let anything slow them down, it makes me want to drive them into a ditch. Fuck those people.
This. In a modern day Audi or BMW, the number of safety systems is pretty incredible. The number of airbags, the safety systems that are embedded in the software, the number of different calculations the car can make using different traction control systems, the car knows when it's going to crash and takes procedures to lessen the impact, etc etc.
Speeding is nowhere near as dangerous as those who tailgate or don't use motorways correctly. Always get back into the left lane (in U.K.) and right lane (Europe/US) and only use other lanes for overtaking, for example. And something that really annoys me is when people don't indicate or use roundabouts correctly causing unecessary confusion and crashes.
On a motorway, the speed limit should vary based on conditions. In dry, normal weather it should be 150km/h, not 100/120km/h like it is. It's simply unecessary and mundane.
There are roads near me that are designated 20mph for no good reason, and nobody, not even the police - adhere to it. Industrial roads with no pedestrian traffic, no hard turns, good traffic systems. It's just baffling.
There was a minister here in the UK that publicly opined that the motorway speed limit should be 80mph instead of 70mph, and in my experience, a lot of drivers do that already or higher. There was a plan to raise the speed limit to that on the M4 and other motorways but I think it's been kicked in to the long grass.
For me, motorway speeding within 10mph of the actual limit is maybe less serious than people who are going 100mph+ and getting up the backside of other drivers in an attempt to bully them out of the way. I find that's quite rare. One thing that is a bit annoying is people ignoring the smart motorway signage. If it's on and telling people to lower to 50mph, its because there has been an accident or there is heavy traffic - it's to reduce the likelihood of a queue up ahead. I've carried on at a slightly higher speed myself to an extent, I don't expect people to religiously obey, but a lot of people just disregard them altogether and bomb along like nothings wrong. You end up getting exactly what it's there to prevent.
What's really really dangerous is people speeding in suburban neighbourhoods. I was taught - you see street lights and don't know the limit - assume 30 or lower. Anyone could walk out from behind a parked car. Kids. A dog. A cat. There's really no excuse for speeding down small residential streets. Too risky.
There was a minister here in the UK that publicly opined that the motorway speed limit should be 80mph instead of 70mph, and in my experience, a lot of drivers do that already or higher. There was a plan to raise the speed limit to that on the M4 and other motorways but I think it's been kicked in to the long grass.
For me, motorway speeding within 10mph of the actual limit is maybe less serious than people who are going 100mph+ and getting up the backside of other drivers in an attempt to bully them out of the way. I find that's quite rare. One thing that is a bit annoying is people ignoring the smart motorway signage. If it's on and telling people to lower to 50mph, its because there has been an accident or there is heavy traffic - it's to reduce the likelihood of a queue up ahead. I've carried on at a slightly higher speed myself to an extent, I don't expect people to religiously obey, but a lot of people just disregard them altogether and bomb along like nothings wrong. You end up getting exactly what it's there to prevent.
What's really really dangerous is people speeding in suburban neighbourhoods. I was taught - you see street lights and don't know the limit - assume 30 or lower. Anyone could walk out from behind a parked car. Kids. A dog. A cat. There's really no excuse for speeding down small residential streets. Too risky.
As briefly as possible: because the implications of the square law relating velocity to kinetic energy are not instinctively obvious to our brains. It's something we have be taught, and easily forget.
I work for state police. Make no mistake, speed limits are almost entirely about revenue generation.
Remove them from interstate highways. Slow drivers are far more dangerous.
Remove them from interstate highways. Slow drivers are far more dangerous.
Fatgue is a bigger issue then speeding and the speed limits should be updated to reflect that. Long stretches of road need higher speed limits not city based limits which don't work in country areas. There is also a toxic intolerance to speeding by police which any little bit over is antiquate to murdering someone which affects the communities driving abilities to be more focused on speed then than the road rules which causes more issues then speeding ever has done.
I understand what you are saying and I was also going to say it is not necessarily speeding that is dangerous as much as the person that is doing the speeding, but there are plenty of people who do not actually understand the safe speed of road conditions.
Speeding is technically safe assuming the driver knows what they are doing. The issue is the speeders who decide to go 80-90 mph and zigzag through traffic to go 10 mph faster. Those are the assholes that get people killed. I also seen people driving through heavy, barely visible rain at 60 mph. I don't care how safe a person think they are, driving at that speed in those conditions, will likely lead to hydroplaning (I see this constantly on I-40).
Reading this thread, I would say this is a good reason why automation of driving can't come soon enough.
So how exactly do these safety features protect pedestrians and cyclists when cars breaking the speed limit hit them?
The way people drive in general is super frustrating. I drive a 50cc scooter and even when I'm going the speed limit people will ride my ass and pass me on double yellows. Had it happen to me once going uphill around blind corners and the guy almost hit another truck. This one lady let me turn out of a parking lot in her lane once and then proceeded to try and pass me while I was going the speed limit, not realizing there was a car in the lane next to her. I almost die at least once a week due to careless driving.
It's all about careful speeding. I'll do 75 in a 55, but all that changes is my speed. I don't start driving recklessly just because my speed increased. It's silly to me when a police officer has to act like I was committing a serious crime when I get pulled over doing 31 in a 25. Give me the ticket or warning or whatever, but don't act like you've just performed some crack police work and made the world safer. I know that even you don't believe that.
It comes down to a lack of contemplation and/or mathematical understanding. The time saved by speeding is almost always inconsequential. People think they are making up more time than they are and choose to ignore or not think about the consequences it has in regard to safety, fuel usage, and the potential for getting caught.
Many accidents happen when you have speeders and slow pokes on the road together. It's the differential that is the cause of collision.
Speed limit is often too low on highways.
Speed limit is always too high on streets with pedestrians.
Speed limit is always too high on streets with pedestrians.
100% this. 35 in a lot of nowheresville long roads here in FL. Pisses me off.
When they add lanes to a road that was 50, then make it 45 after construction is complete, you know some bullshit is going on.
Driving slowly in areas where children are constantly active is understandable. For debris on roads, that is a failure by the municipality. I also find it hard to base speed limits off of potential dangers, where the dangers are entirely random and unforeseen. I understand why you would lower speed limits in areas where black ice reliably forms during certain seasons, or where animals frequently dawdle. Highways, though? Quick transit is what they're meant for. Highways are generally linear, so unless someone is magnificently bad at driving, control shouldn't be an issue.
Yeah, speeders and turtles.
I find that plenty of people are magnificently bad at driving. I know that getting a license is much harder in Europe than it is here, though, but nonetheless, bad drivers showing up and basically being obstacles is a thing, too, and I really wouldn't consider them a failure of the municipality (maybe a failure of the state to grant them a license, at best).
In regards to speed limits, though, I personally think they would be far more effective as maximum and minimum limits—where the ideal would be that everyone just drives at the speed, period—as opposed to being maximums only. I think people going far under the limit are just as dangerous as people who speed.
Because like 99% of the time speeding is a crime with no victims, it is not a crime because of the activity but because of what it can potentially cause, and you may also crash and die by going at hte speed limit.
What you mean with this? Nobody cares if you don't use a seatbelt, but people do judge drunk driving more heavily than speeding but idk why, i guess for me is because i have never seen somebody speeding and think "oh god he is gonna crash me" but plenty of time i have seen drunk idiots going from lane to lane like idiots.
And help me if my memory is not correct, but dont you get send to traffic school in america if you speed too often and then make you see gruesome pics of accidents?
What you mean with this? Nobody cares if you don't use a seatbelt, but people do judge drunk driving more heavily than speeding but idk why, i guess for me is because i have never seen somebody speeding and think "oh god he is gonna crash me" but plenty of time i have seen drunk idiots going from lane to lane like idiots.
And help me if my memory is not correct, but dont you get send to traffic school in america if you speed too often and then make you see gruesome pics of accidents?
I just drive the flow of traffic. If everyone else is doing 80 I'm not going to be the coward who slows things down and ruins the road for everyone else.