People are fucking stupid, it's a universal truth.
If you don't want speed limits, move to germany :v:
[QUOTE=JohnStamosFan;24257433]Yeah, but that's because it isn't your average US road or Highway.
American's just get the fucking license.
You turn 16, and you maybe learned to drive.
But if you can keep your car in a straight line, realize that a red light means quit fucking driving (and assuming you haven't fucked those parts up), and parallel park, you can get a US drivers license.
In Germany you have to pay.
And you pay a lot more.
Drivers education is taught, people are actually required to pull their head from the depths of their ass and learn to drive.
Also, that all negates the huge safety features the autobahn has.
For fucks sake most of it has medevac helicopter coverage, so if there is an accident, the victims can be airlifted in under 20 minutes or so.
The Autobahn isn't just a strip of road in Germany that's like US highways.
It's a well built, well maintained, and well patrolled road that has drivers who actually had to go through some effort to get the license that lets them drive on it.
US drivers aren't ready for that kind of responsibility.[/QUOTE]
You do know that some states here require drivers education, right? Class time and hands on.
So are you implying that none of us have the ability to drive a car?
It's a good theory but I have an MX50 which has a max of 56 mph before the belt starts to slip and knocks me out of gear. I can't speed in it but if I could I know I would want to.
The thing is that if speed limits were removed everyone would just go crazy on the first few days with speeding causing many accidents. Currently more people die on the roads than wars so any more deaths would not be good.
Also children do not know when to cross the road therefore putting a significant risk to them if speed limits were removed.
I think if you do a no speed limit, you have to let the cops decide on reckless driving a little more strictly. The problem with no speed limit, isn't the idiots going 90 through suburbs; it's the idiot going 90 through the suburb and hitting the idiot going 30 through the suburb. The difference in people's driving skill and speed at which they are comfortable.
So I think that there should be no speed limit, but you have to let traffic flow dictate the speed you go. So if you are going down the street fast, and come up to someone going slower. You have to slow down to a reasonable speed compared to theirs, pass them, and then resume going fast again.
Then if you fail to do that, and just blow past them, a cop could get you for reckless driving because you could've caused an accident. They might not have seen you coming and changed lanes or something and hit you.
On the interstate you merge off it by changing lanes to the right. At least on the interstate I travel on. Fast drivers would have to slow down a good deal especially if they are going a high speed and try to merge into the group of slower drivers. That could be dangerous because fast driving requires a lot of concentration and not everyone on the road is actually paying the utmost attention. Higher speeding drivers on the road could be somewhat inattentive and not notice a faster driver trying to slow down. It could cause wrecks.
And in Germany, you actually have to pay a lot of money to get your license and take more classes.
Most of the speed limits are fine although once in a while they could be a little higher. There's a straight road here that rarely has any pedestrians on it , and its speed limit is only 25mph. The cops like to sit off to the side and ticket people.
The main problem is terrible drivers. The left lane should be only used for passing. Period. Anyone in the left lane should be going at least 5 over. I fucking hate when some person sits in the left lane going the speed limit or even below it. I usually just stay in the middle or right lane to be safe, but there are a lot of idiots in the right lane who go below the speed limit and don't use their turn signals.
[editline]12:51PM[/editline]
Also, anyone passing should only pass from left to right.
I think the main issue is when you're going faster and crash, it hurts more.
When motorways were first introduced to the UK, there were no speed limits. Then, some pillock went down a motorway in a LeMans racing car, clocking over 210 MPH. Speed limits were introduced within the next few weeks. This is pretty typical of most governments - they pay more attention to the minorities - in this case, the idiots who drive down motorways at 210 MPH - and everybody else gets the stick for it.
[editline]06:29PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=nivek;24265857]I think the main issue is when you're going faster and crash, it hurts more.[/QUOTE]
Up to a certain point. After that, it hurts [i]less.[/i]
[editline]06:30PM[/editline]
You know. Because of near-instantaneous death and what not.
[QUOTE=nivek;24265857]I think the main issue is when you're going faster and crash, it hurts more.[/QUOTE]
yeah exactly
on the autobahn the crashes fuck you up but there are less crashes
Germany's autobahns have no speed limits, and they have had some the lowest crash fatality rates from any major motorways for a while now.
and in fact if you look at a lot of crash data, people driving too slowly on the motorway is often the cause.
it is perfectly safe to be going 90 or even 100 mph on a motorway especially on a dry day because most motorways are wide and it's pretty damned easy to see what's ahead of you in normal conditions.
the problem isn't the people driving at 100, it's the people driving a 50 who suddenly feel the need to change into the "fast lane" with no apparent need nor warning. if everybody obeyed common sense and didn;t start swerving around at 50 then problems would be dramatically decreased.
i think if everybody knew that roads had no speed limits they would be more aware of people driving fast, and would stay out of the lanes it's likely to happen in. the current "fast lane" should have a dramatically increased speed limit, or no speed limit at all. especially on motorways where there are 4 lanes, there are other lanes for slow drivers to be going in, and really that's the place for them.
another pet hate is lorries overtaking other lorries when speeds are limited to exactly the same top speed. it's unnecessary for a start, plus it forces other slower drivers to want to overtake, thus moving them into the way of cars that would otherwise be doing a reasonably safe 90/100mph. i cruise perfectly safely at 90mph or more on the motorway and have never had a crash, never caused an accident. i know that when it's wet, or foggy or snowy or other bad weather conditions to slow down. i take into account my car and it's capabilities and i know stopping distances and other stuff.
obviously im not saying the limit should be scrapped completely on a 3 lane motorway because we'd have veyrons doing 250mph and nobody else would be able to get out of the way fast enough. but raising the limit, at least in the "fast lane" to 100mph would probably be beneficial.
also, i agree that speed cameras do tend to be distracting when there are too many. looking at speedometers constantly is distracting. where i live they have completely scrapped speed cameras. in the city it's still a 30mph zone, but theyve replaced cameras with things like roundabouts, traffic lights and speed bumps where necessary.
There's something called Autobahn in Germany, basically a highway running through the country, where you can drive as fast as you want.
It's awesome hitting 200 KM/H.
[QUOTE=Bledrix;24256382]Dam talking about speed limits, a car behind my house was speeding, lost control, flipped over and 2 people went flying out of the vehicle. Apparently the two people are in really bad shape.[/QUOTE]
a lot of people get fucked up though. it has nothing to do with the speed limit, more their driving.
for example. i live in a really rural area of the uk. most of our roads have no set speed limit. this means they are set at the national limit which is 60mph. most of these roads are single lane. if you do 60mph and someone else comes around the corner, you're fucked.
despite the limit most people don't do 60 there, or 50, or a lot of the 40 mph. because we use common sense. i like to drive fast. and i speed. i've lived in that area my whole life. i know those roads like the back of my hand and could probably drive them blindfolded. but i still dont bother doing the limit there because it's fucking stupid.
the limits really mean nothing when u think about it because recklessness and stupidity causes accidents no matter the speed limit
If they removed all speed limits the first thin I would do is take my Trans Am and go 150 down the frreeway to the vegas strip..
Speed doesn't kill, differences in speed does.
Set a limit to 70mph on a road and 95% of the traffic will be going at 65 or above, Maybe 5-10% of road users will be breaking that limit by 10mph.
Set no speed limit and more wary drivers will be driving slower than 65, confident drivers will be driving much faster than 80 probably.
This is where problems occur.
For me, speed limits are more suggestions than rules of the road. Especially when you live in a rural area like myself.
Though when you get on major highways, I rarely see anyone do the speed limit anyways. The only place I think they absolutely [I]need[/I] to be enforced would be inside the inner parts of cities and highly populated residential areas, for the sake of pedestrians.
[IMG]http://imgkk.com/i/pvs1.png[/IMG]
Didn't you ever go to driving school as a teen? I'll just leave this here...
[QUOTE=Maccabee;24269188][IMG]http://imgkk.com/i/pvs1.png[/IMG]
Didn't you ever go to driving school as a teen? I'll just leave this here...[/QUOTE]
I've been able to safely react to an obstruction in the road at 60mph well before 60ft has passed...
I'm probably really late, but still. You mentioned in the OP that it had the same number of crashes, right? But how many of those crashes were fatal? If people are going higher speeds, it doesn't matter how many crashes there are if people are dying from them. Like somebody else said, shit happens. I would rather not end up as paste just because someone wants to get to work faster.
One time I was going 60mph and the car in front of me stopped out of no where. There were no traffic lights. I don't know why the people stopped. I assume it had to do with the cars in front of him.
I went from 55-60mph to 0 in like one second :ohdear:
I'd say the more important thing here is keeping a uniform speed. I mean the majority of problems would come from situations where one person 'felt safe' doing 50, while another, perhaps more agile, driver felt safe doing 150. By the time the later saw the former he'd be into the back of them. Having an ambiguous speed limit (based on what you felt safe doing) would be dangerous. Raising the standard as a limit (and a limited minimum speed) would be a much safer practice if we were to do anything at all.
[QUOTE=JDK721;24269431]One time I was going 60mph and the car in front of me stopped out of no where. There were no traffic lights. I don't know why the people stopped. I assume it had to do with the cars in front of him.
I went from 55-60mph to 0 in like one second :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
Did you survive? Your internal organs must have blasted out of your chest like an alien...
[QUOTE=joshdasmif;24263944]
Also children do not know when to cross the road therefore putting a significant risk to them if speed limits were removed.[/QUOTE]
Didn't know children had to cross interstates and highways.
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;24257755]Good thing it doesn't have intersections. There's an interstate I occasionally take to work, and they put two fucking stop lights on it because they put a gay ass casino right by the highway. Interstates never have stop lights, but some retard put them there. I get so pissed off when I have to stop at either of those lights. Fuck those smug bastards going to the casino to blow what's left of their savings to boot.[/QUOTE]
Probably not even an Interstate then. What city/highway is it?
most accidents involve other drivers
so what i propose is, in order to get a license, a mandatory but government funded (that doesn't mean it
s free) race training and testing course. this way you have much less accidents because of fewer drivers as well as all drivers actually being able to drive.
A LOT of people that I see on the roads wouldn't give a fuck. They'd be all "hurr durf i can go fast" and then end up slamming into an oil truck at 29389283457495 km/h.
And I don't mean everyone. I am well aware that most drivers are very safe and cautious, but the idiots that like to go fast and break shit are going to ruin it for EVERYBODY.
[QUOTE=rieda1589;24268859]Speed doesn't kill, differences in speed does.
Set a limit to 70mph on a road and 95% of the traffic will be going at 65 or above, Maybe 5-10% of road users will be breaking that limit by 10mph.
Set no speed limit and more wary drivers will be driving slower than 65, confident drivers will be driving much faster than 80 probably.
This is where problems occur.[/QUOTE]
This is what separate lanes are for. If you want to go slow, stay to the right, if you want to go fast, stay to the left. If you want to change lanes, check your rear view, side mirrors, over your shoulder, and if it's clear, change lanes. It's not that great of a speed difference that when you look in your mirrors there's no car in the horizon and when you start changing lanes all of a sudden you get rear ended.
Honestly, this isn't rocket science, these are the same rules we drive with today.
[QUOTE=Ridge;24269361]I've been able to safely react to an obstruction in the road at 60mph well before 60ft has passed...[/QUOTE]
It takes 0.68 seconds to travel 60 feet when going 60mph. That's about how long it takes you to think you should hit the brake.
Speed limits are there for stopping distance and impact safety. A Collision at 60 KPH can be fatal, whereas a collision at 120 KPH is almost guaranteed to be fatal.
If someone has to slam the brakes at 85+ KPH on a public road, what are the chance you (and everyone behind you) is going to stop without hitting someone? Very little.
If someone slams the brakes going at 50 KPH however, it's not that hard to stop in time.
The speed limits are in place for a very good reason: They do lots of research on these things and it's unlikely anyone on Facepunch will disprove speed limits with the same amount of evidence that they have.
Oh, and people like to ignore inertia. Douchebag drivers are a plenty and people who are agressive tend to go fast, which means they'll pull shit like swerve in front of you, etc. No speed limits will only cause accidents and make accidents worse than they would of been.
The biggest issue for any highway system is Tailgating. Not speeding, not drunk driving, not even driving too slow. It's the asshole that consistently moves too far up on your ass, trying to push you faster no matter your current speed. And I believe that's why the Autobahn has such a low fatality rate. They don't care how fast you drive as long as you're not tailgating. And the fines for it there are pretty stiff. Loss of your license for 1-3 months. Maybe if more American freeways had laws or enforced similar laws already on teh books, then we could see about raising or removing the speed limits.
[QUOTE=Kade;24270190]I'd say the more important thing here is keeping a uniform speed. I mean the majority of problems would come from situations where one person 'felt safe' doing 50, while another, perhaps more agile, driver felt safe doing 150. By the time the later saw the former he'd be into the back of them. Having an ambiguous speed limit (based on what you felt safe doing) would be dangerous. Raising the standard as a limit (and a limited minimum speed) would be a much safer practice if we were to do anything at all.[/QUOTE]
It's like nobody bothers reading the thread at all. All my responses have been me repeating myself. I could probably continue this thread with just quotes of my previous posts.
If you want to go 50, stay in the right lane, if you want to go 150, stay in the left. By the time the latter saw the former it wouldn't matter at all because you're 2 lanes apart. Which is a shitty example anyways because what kind of highway/freeway do you drive on where the visibility is 100 ft? Most of the time I'm on it I can see at a quarter of a mile in front of me.
[editline]06:06PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=analogfantasies;24278296]The biggest issue for any highway system is Tailgating. Not speeding, not drunk driving, not even driving too slow. It's the asshole that consistently moves too far up on your ass, trying to push you faster no matter your current speed. And I believe that's why the Autobahn has such a low fatality rate. They don't care how fast you drive as long as you're not tailgating. And the fines for it there are pretty stiff. Loss of your license for 1-3 months. Maybe if more American freeways had laws or enforced similar laws already on teh books, then we could see about raising or removing the speed limits.[/QUOTE]
Tailgating would cease to exist with no speed limits, because if you're on someone's ass just move over to the lane left of you. If you're in the very left most lane and someone's on your ass then let them pass you. Best case scenario would be on a 4-5 lane freeway where the 2 left most lanes would be considered the fast lanes, where you wouldn't have to worry about being tailgated by someone in a Bugatti.
[QUOTE=FunnyBunny;24278316]It's like nobody bothers reading the thread at all. All my responses have been me repeating myself. I could probably continue this thread with just quotes of my previous posts.
If you want to go 50, stay in the right lane, if you want to go 150, stay in the left. By the time the latter saw the former it wouldn't matter at all because you're 2 lanes apart. Which is a shitty example anyways because what kind of highway/freeway do you drive on where the visibility is 100 ft? Most of the time I'm on it I can see at a quarter of a mile in front of me.[/QUOTE]
The point is, if someone speeding slams the brakes and spins out because of their speed and hits the 50 driver who was driving safely, that would majorly suck.
Speed limits are there for very good reason. So you can brake in time, so people maintain a uniform speed (The safest way to drive is go with the flow of traffic)
The people who argue against speed limits just want to go fast, because a hell of a lot of research has gone into making speed limits, and they are there for a reason.
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