Comment by arnoooooo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by arnoooooo | Hacker News Reader

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All drivers are criminals because they underestimate the risks. Studies show that risks are systematically underestimated in situations where people feel in control. The car (large, heavy metal box) and safety equipments certainly add to this feeling of safety.

Speed limits exist for a reason. A moving ton of metal is dangerous, and the faster it moves, the more dangerous it gets. Kinetic energy is (mv^2)/2, so a little difference in speed makes a huge difference in a collision. Drive 40 instead of 30 and you've nearly doubled the energy of impact in case of a collision (x1.77).

I think most people actually acknowledge this, as very few people argue for raising or removing the limits. Yet, most feel OK speeding, probably because they each individually think they drive better than the others.

I'm not sure repression is the solution, but there's clearly a problem with speed. And for that matter, I'm pretty sure that other traffic laws also belong to the list of the most commonly broken, partly for the reasons above, and more generally because people don't always understand why they exist.

While people do suck at evaluating risk, so do the people who set up the speed limits. In my town, it's 50 km/h everywhere. Everywhere.

Crazy tight winding path in residential area? 50.

Three or four lane-wide roads stretching for a few kilometers with nothing but forest on both sides? 50.

I assume we can agree driving on the crazy winding path is more dangerous. Guess where all the police traps are.

Look at it from an officer's perspective: They're going to watch the one where people are more likely to go over the speed limit (i.e. the straightaway). The winding road is self-policing; the majority of drivers will stay under the limit out of self-preservation.

I'm not sure about your neck of the woods, but the police generally don't set the speed limits, they merely enforce them. You're conflating the two ideas.

Well, if the winding road is self-policing because of self-preservation, why isn't the straightway? Sure, people will go 80km/h, even 90km/h, but why not, it's basically highway conditions.

In some sense, I don't really care who sets the speeds limits and who enforces them. The legislatve and bureaucratic tangle is so Gods damn dense from my point of view, I wouldn't even know who to blame. I'm not stupid enough to think the officer ticketing me in responsible for anything but what do I know, maybe the chief of police can say something to the mayor, like "hey, people going 80 on that highway-looking street isn't actually dangerous".

As always, it's easy to pass the "not my responsibility" or "it ain't desperately broke, no need to fix it" for government decision-makers.

Also, speeding tickets are the good old new tax.

The straightway is not self-policing because the dangers are not as obvious. Maybe there are animals crossing, or some other thing that is not immediately obvious to a driver.

While it is physically possible to go very fast in a straight line, which you mostly can't do on a winding road, it does not mean that you should. If you are within city limits, there are usally more pedestrians than elsewhere, and a small difference in speed can mean a huge difference in safety.

>The straightway is not self-policing because the dangers are not as obvious. Maybe there are animals crossing, or some other thing that is not immediately obvious to a driver.

I assure you that while I understand your point, people do go 80km/h in that area even though it is heavily ticketed and even though they do, there have not been any such accidents.

I'm not directing this at you but I have to say I'm getting irritated by the 'stop questioning, you wouldn't understand' argumentation. The reasons decisions are made and the way conclusions are reached continue to be a non-transparent process when there is no reason this should be. In the past, you could bring about an argument about communicating this information but with the possibility to post information on the website, there is no excuse.

I already highly question the competence and honesty of my municipality's decision-makers, this kind of shit is not helping.

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