Posted on 06/11/2008 11:04:40 AM PDT by OnRightOnLeftCoast
I’m with you. The writer of this article is correct. Especially when it comes to speed limits changing all the time.
It has very little to do with safety and a lot to do with generating revenue by having traffic police waiting to nail you for going over the limit. Why else would you have so many stretches of road where the limit arbitrarily goes from 50 to 35, or from 65 to 55, etc. Not to mention that just trying to adjust to the decreased limit is a pile up waiting to happen.
Are you from the south side of the UP? ggg
Yes, Iron River. Less than 10 miles north of Wisconsin.
The building of I35E in St. Paul was fought over for 30 years. In fact the road was graded and left unpaved for 15. A compromise was finally reached. The State built the road but the speed limit would be set to 45. It’s insane and no one obeys it but they couldn’t get it built any other way.
No, thats not what he is saying. Did you read the artical closely?
He is saying as a behaviorist that we are trained to look at signs not the road. We have no choice of course because the speed changes are rapid, illogical, confusing. If you are paying attention to the road you may very well not see a speed change. A safe and effective driver drives at the speed the conditions warrant, not the speed of signs. But the USA has two very troubling habits.
1. An excessive concern about what other people are doing.
2. an obsession to shape the behavior of others.
As a result of inclination number one we need to make sure that everyone who is employed is “busy”. Thus Police with no emergency calls have to be seen doing something... Anything... So we have them checking speeds with Radars. As a result of inclination number 2 we regulate everything.
He is a smart guy and he is right. But nothing will raise the hackles of Joe Bag O Donuts more than to suggest that we could get by with less regulation and still be safe. Why that almost sounds disrespectful and un-American to even suggest that. In fact I have been accused of being a liberal just for daring to suggest that we dismantle the traffic code and start over. Most people due to there great mistrust of their neighbors expect to see carnage in the streets if traffic laws are dismantled and we just use simple guiding principals to regulate traffic.
We go through Brule all the time on the way to Hayward. So like is Dixie your name? Or is it just so much warmer down that way?
Bet you are looking forward to having your town the location of the weekend White House.
I lived in Germany for close to seven years. The typical town doesn’t even come close to having the same number of stop signs we have here, yet it is much more rare to see an accident at an intersection over there. Their premise is simple: if you are on a primary road then drive through the intersection, if you are not then wait, and if neither road is a ‘primary’ road than the car approaching from the right always has the right of way regardless of who gets to the intersection first. Very easy.
Try driving in Europe. In the UK, cars in the round-about have right of way.
on the European continent, right of way is given to those entering the round-about.
Not only are they driving on two different sides of the road, they have opposite rules.
Bet that the state makes a hell of a lot of money off of speeding tickets there though, and that it’s a great place for a traffic cop to set up camp to reach his quota.
But, he kind of lost me at this point towards the end:
“Detailed statistics show that as of 2003, fatalities per mile traveled were 36 percent greater in the U.S. than they were in the U.K. Traffic deaths per million people show an even greater disparity through 2006, the most recent year for which full statistics are available. If the U.S. death rate were the same as the U.K.’s, roughly 6,000 fewer Americans would die each year—that’s half again as many Americans as have died in Iraq in the past five years.”
Although he does give the statistics in deaths/million, he directly contradicts the “Smeed’s Law” that he explained earlier wherein the rate of fatalities is directly linked to the number people and the number of cars. America has a much higher population than the U.K., and likewise has a larger number of cars on the road. So, his conclusion should be that America has more road fatalities than England because there are more Americans and more cars on the road in America, not that America has more road signs. Plus, if Smeed’s Law is a law of exponential order, America's fatalities would far exceed those of the U.K. simply based on the larger population of the U.S.
Just my 2 cents. I still think his propositions are worth considering here.
Once we are all driving electrics, it might not matter if we can't get over 15 mph.
You might find it interesting to read the City of South Lake Tahoe v Superior Court (Markham) decision. (Plaintiff lawyers hate that case!)
Unless they can make the Tesla Roadster for $15 grand! I’d buy one now!
I spent some time in England in the early 90s and round-abouts are great, once you get the hang of them. Doesn’t take too long. But people can mess them up if they are distracted or not paying attention (just like regular driving and stopping).
They save a lot of time waiting for nothing.
All govenrmental agencies are required under the Code of Federal Regualtions to follow the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Good design practice takes into consideration the area that the road will service, commercial, industrial, residential, etc,come up with a design vehicle, and then factor in the surrounding terrain. Then throw in a safety factor and add all of this up and you have a safe roadway. After that, the powers that be can adopt any speed limit they want and the PD wil actively or passively enforce all the posted regulations, based upon their own attitudes...
I still get back there every few years. I own 40 acres in Ottawa National Forest along US 2. I plan to build on it someday.
You better wait until they get the transmission problem corrected. I hear something in it snaps from too much torque.
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