Should Speed Limit Signs Be Changed?
Speed Limit Signs Need to Be Changed
If there were to be a change in speed limit signs, I would hope they would somehow make the limit stricter. The way I look at it is the signs should be change to be about 5 MPH higher, but also said that if you are caught any higher then the posted speed you will get a ticket. People at first might not believe that law enforcement officials were serious about the strict limit, but as soon as people started getting tickets we would see a giant decrease in the amount of speeders. These days you go over the speed limit because you know that you probably won't get a ticket. With this change if you were to go over the limit you could be sure that if you were caught you were going to get a ticket.
This change would make so many things different. First of all I am sure that we would see a lot less car accidents, and therefore highway related deaths. One of the main causes in accidents is fluctuation in driving speeds. When cars are constantly passing other cars there is always that risk of a crash. If everyone were going basically the same speed, because there was a strict limit, we would see a lot less accidents, because there would be a lot less passing.
While this may seem like a great idea, I doubt we will ever see anything like this instituted for one reason which is money. Everyone knows that money is made off of tickets. There is a quota set for law enforcement officials to reach a certain number of tickets. This quota is in place to make sure that they are making money. If the speed limits were changed the amount of tickets handed out would surely decrease, along with the intake of money. A way to counter this however would be increased fines. The speed limit is right in front of you, and if you speed, you know you are going to get a ticket. Therefore you would be stupid to speed, and should receive a higher fine.
Speed limit signs are in need of a change. Like I said they really aren't limit signs. They are signs that make you stay in a range of speed. The only problem is that it is this range of speed that accounts for many accidents. If speed limit signs were changed to make the limit extremely strict we would see a sudden decrease in highway related accidents and deaths. On the other hand we would start to see a lot less traffic tickets being handed out, so that intake of money would be gone, and therefore we would see an increase in fines. This increase would be alright however because you would know when you are speeding and when you are not.
Published by Scary Good
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4 Comments
Post a CommentThis is a prime example of a speed limit that is set WAY too low. Even the police are not obeying it. Obviously the narrator of the video has no idea about the engineering I gave a summary of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YzriBB2qlI&feature=related
Ultimately, the safest speed limits are those at the 85th percentile (and higher for open areas), but it's going to take a lot to convince people of this because the concept is unintuitive and they are too socially conditioned to believe in what amounts basically to wives tales as opposed to real science.
In cases where the majority are violating, there is no 'speeding problem', there is a problem with the speed limit.
virtually zero compliance and another problem known as speed variance.
This means that a few well meaning citizens try to follow the law, and hold up everyone else that is just going with the flow or trying to drive normally. Particularly in areas renowned for aggressive driving (such as many East coast and urban areas), this can lead to lots of aggressive driving behavior as the faster drivers tailgate, speed excessively to overtake, and exhibit symptoms of road rage.
Speed limits should be set at the 85th percentile speed of free flowing traffic (at the very least, higher percentiles would be fine for more open roads and highways), which maximizes safety and traffic flow and has been recommended by traffic engineering manuals for ages but is routinely ignored. Most places set limits based on political concerns these days, which is why 'speeding' is a big problem. Most drivers are just driving what is comfortable, so the limits are too low. Many of the limits we have now are even lower than those in the 50s and 60s.
The other reason is because people believe that people will just go '10 mph over' automatically, but that's been proven false as well. People will not go '10 over' unless the speed limit is 10 mph too low. If 85% of vehicles are going 44 mph and under, setting the limit at 45 will ensure about 90% compliance. Setting it at 35 ensures lots of violations, and setting it at 30 or god forbid 25 ensures virtua
I don't like that idea. Actual speed procedures are OK. The most horrible is lazy left-line driving on US freeway ignorants :)