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Comment by sugarpile | Hacker News Reader

It has fallen out of favor but I am a massive proponent for graduated drivers licenses. Free toll roads would be silly but higher/removed speed limits seem 100% ok to me as long as it's coupled with an actual assessment of driving ability, semi-frequent required reassessment, and stiffer penalties for things such as DUI when driving in the graduated speed limit range.

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Interesting idea, not sure how enforcement would work. That being said, this pretty much already happens in practice. Many people go their whole lives driving (safely) over the speed limit without ever getting a ticket, because they aren't being reckless about it.

Generally police officers will ignore you if you're just going with the flow or slightly faster. It's when you start going a lot faster or weaving or being otherwise reckless that they start to care.

That's true as long as the officers don't have other reasons to pull you over (like race) and the city is being overly strict, and like a bunch of other conditions.

On a related note, I consider paying for toll roads to be a form of health insurance. I know the newest teen drivers out cruising with their friends aren't paying $6 to race each other down the toll road and likely crash with me.

I've seen some crazy stuff on the freeways and much safer driving on toll roads.

Now imagine how much even more safe you’d all be if you were riding on a train, and those youths were harmlessly racing each other on bikes on a nearby separated bike path.

Now imagine how much safer you’d all be if you stayed home and never went anywhere. This is a ridiculously regressive argument.

I'm all for both of these actually.

However, until utopia happens and we don't have to use cars or commute I'm thankful for the little improvements.

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