Fjones, just a quick thought:
If your concern is purely based on the manner with which speed laws are applied, then i think you would find that many of us actually may agree with you.
Perhaps the thread got off on the wrong foot with its subject line, which has nothing to do with law enforcement. It ONLY questions whether there is a correlation between speed and danger.
(you know i have actually asked you for this clarification at least three times prior to this)
I will summarize my points here.
I believe that speeding on a highway is not nearly as dangerous as some people make it out to be. There are several why I feel this way.
1) Some highways have 55 MPH speed limits and other have 75 MPH. Though there are some differences, they aren't that great. People sometimes say, "yeah, well, those 75 MPH zones are out in Montana or something."
Maybe so, but there are long stretches of turnpike in NJ, PA, and Ohio that could just as easily be 75 MPH, but they are not. There is no apparent reason.
2) The Autobahn. I dno't think I really need to go into detail here.
3) Automotive technology has improved substantially in the last few decades. I find it difficult to believe that these advancements haven't enables us to safely go faster.
4) Having to come to a complete stop on a highway just doesn't happen often. When it does, there is usually more than enough time to come to a gradual stop. In the event that an emergency stop is required, full application of the brakes should be sufficient. After all, whatever obstacle is in the road was moving at a high speed also, so that obstacle is not going to come to an instantaneous stop. Cars do have highly advanced braking and steering systems that allow us to avoid hitting obstacles.
5) Perhaps most obvious of all, and one I have for some reason not mentioned yet, is that 18-wheel tractor trailers are permitted to drive the speed limit. Do you really think it is safer for a truck to go 65 than it is for me to go 85? People keep saying, “What if you have to stop? What if you have to avoid something? What if blah blah blah”
Well, a car at 85 MPH can certainly do any of those things better at 85 MPH than a truck can at 65 MPH. Also, people have said, “What if you hit something? The impact at 85 MPH is much worse than 65 MPH.
Ok, well, again, I bring up the truck example. What if a TRUCK hits something? Whatever it hits is going to be obliterated. If a truck weighs four times as much as a car, then the impact of that truck at 25 MPH is the equivalent of the impact of a car at 100 MPH.
Additionally, how often do cars hit things on the highway going FULL SPEED? Usually there is time to apply the brakes, and though not avoid the accident entirely, slow to enough of a speed that minimizes damage and injury. So, yes, hitting something at 80 or 85 MPH is likely to be disastrous, just like hitting things going 65 MPH is likely to be disastrous.
My second main point was that the Enforcement of the speed laws is arbitrary, unfair, and mostly about money and not safety. This is displayed in several ways –
1) Speeding is pretty much tolerated. Fines are relatively small, people usually get warnings and slaps on the wrist for first offenses and sometime second offense. People can get many tickets before having their license suspended. Harsh, draconian punishments would effectively end speeding, but would result in tremendous loss in income generated by the tickets.
2) Cops often hide in the bushes or otherwise out of sight. If they were in plain sight, people would not speed, and the roads would be “safe.” Instead, they hide, so that people do speed, and then get caught and get fined. A traffic stop takes 15 minutes. A cop could give 3 tickets per hour, 15 per 5 hour shift. That’s a lot of money.
3) Cops will sometimes follow a speeder before pulling him over, just to see if he does anything more dangerous so they can write him a bigger ticket. If speeding is dangerous, why is the cop ALLOWING the speeder to continue speeding? Pull him over already and get him off the road!
4) Speed limits often drop rather arbitrarily from 65 top 55, then back to 65, back to 55, etc. This is confusing, and places drivers at risk of violating the speeding rules without even meaning to. It also would, in theory, cause hundreds of cars to adjust increase and decrease speeds unnecessarily, and I do not see how that is safe. As it happens, many drivers ignore those random decreases in the speed limit. But those cars, who were driving safely a moment ago, are now suddenly a road hazard? I don’t understand that.
Yes, sometimes there are good reasons for the decreases, SOMETIMES. But not always.
5) Statistics show that deaths as a result of speeding on dry interstate highways are VERY low. The following are most likely or certainly more dangerous than speeding –
Tailgating
Cutting people off
Remaining in someone’s blind spot for an extended period of time
Merging onto the highway at 35 MPH
Slowing down abruptly for no good reason
Not paying attention to the road
And yet, police rarely write tickets for those things. Why? Probably because they are much harder to prove in court. Speed violations are an open and shut case in court. They get people in and out VERY fast, collect thousands of dollars in fines, and send people on their way. In traffic court (just like with parking tickets), you are guilty until proved innocent, and if the cop says you did it, that’s the end of the case. You are guilty, unless you can show that his radar detector was not calibrated properly.
But with the other violations, there is much more of a grey area. Or, in some cases, there is no way to prove it (such as not paying attention to the road).
When a cop is sitting there in a visible speed trap and someone slows down by 25 MPH rather abruptly, that is a serious hazard, and it is unnecessary. The person doing it is usually going 10 MPH over (which will never result in a ticket), and slows to 15 under. This is so much more dangerous than speeding. I am sure we all have witnessed what happens when cars do this. Dozens of people have to follow suit and slow down, people start changing lanes, etc.
Note that in all of this, I am talking about only highway speeding. In highly residential areas, I do not object to a 30 MPH speed limit, though I should point out that a tractor trailer going 30 MPH is still probably more of a threat than a car going 45 MPH.
In area that are sort of residential and sort of highway, such as state routes where houses are scattered on the sides and you have the occasional traffic light, I think a 45 MPH limit is okay, as people usually go 55 and that seems safe. Again though, I believe a car going 65 MPH in one of these zones is less dangerous than a truck going 45 MPH.
I do not think people should speed in the rain or snow, even on the highway.
Yet, many of these “safety” advocates who don’t speed (or don’t speed by very much) in dry weather, drive the same speed in the rain or snow. Do they really think the weather has no effect on what a safe speed is? I, conversely, since I am usually going 80 to 85 in the dry weather, do reduce my speed in the rain to around 65 or 70, and even slower in the snow. I am acknowledging that rain and snow are adverse driving conditions that require reducing your normal speed.
To bring up a similar point to one I mentioned earlier, the speed limits are designed for poor driving conditions. The signs do not say, “65 MPH but 50 MPH in the rain.” Yes, there is an offense for driving “too fast for conditions,” but what does that really mean? That is just a shady way for officers to pull people over for no reason. I have NEVER been cited for this traffic violation “too fast for conditions,” and I have been pulled over dozens and dozens of times. I have also been to traffic court dozens and dozens of times, and no one has EVER been in court for that.
SO, I ask this – If it is safe to drive 65 MPH in the rain, how is it not also safe to drive 75 MPH in dry weather? Or even 80 MPH? I’ll take my chances going 80 MPH on dry pavement than 65 MPH in the rain any day. Yet 65 MPH in the rain is acceptable and 80 MPH on dry pavement is not?
I do not understand this.
That is my piece. I am willing to discuss. However, I wish people would leave me out of it. Let’s have an objective discussion of the ideas and facts mentioned here. Whether I have 26 tickets or zero tickets is not relevant to the validity (or lack thereof) of my ideas and suggestions.
