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Comment by ars | Hacker News Reader

The slight speed increase that ordinary people do does not kill people.

We aren't talking about people going freeway speed in a residential area.

Increasing speed increases the chance that someone will die in a crash if it happens, and also increases the chance that a crash will happen. Check out these graphs:

https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/fhwasa1304/Res...

The "normal" speeding in residential areas absolutely does increase the chance of death and injury in a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist.

  K = m v²

That energy increases with the square of the speed, and has to go somewhere (person's body) in a collision.

It reduces the amount of time you are in the residential area meaning there is less opportunity to even contact a pedestrian or cyclist. At the extreme in some areas if you could go the speed of light you could essentially pick a time when no pedestrian could even possibly enter the road while you are on it.

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