Smoking

[Kyuuketsuki]

(6th July 2009 20:07)Meatball Wrote:  Kyu, you never answered my question, which I feel is important to my argument.

If there were no speed limits, would you drive faster than you're comfortable with?

What difference does it make? The law says I should drive at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 MPH mostly with good reason IMO ... in each of those situations I would probably drive naturally faster but with the exception of Motorway (and sometimes Dual Carriageways in non -built up areas) I don't, I control my speed down to the speed limit.

Whether I am comfortable with the speed I naturally drive is meaningless for the same reason that it is meaningless to ask the same of the boy-racer idiots who go shooting up our 30MPH road at 50 or higher.

Kyu

[fr0d0]

My wife being an ex traffic engineer I can back up what Kyu has said. Speed limits are in place entirely to save lives (except in the very few cases where politicians are allowed to circumvent the law and impose resrictions to win votes).

Accident blackspots are the reason for speed camera restrictions. Statistics prove deaths at these points are reduced by roughly 75% IIRC.

The vast majority of deaths occur on A roads and not motorways. Cynically, the average death in the uk cost's £1.2million.

People drive without thought for the consequences because it's easy to do. Sensibly there should be far stiffer punishments and greater + more frequent driver education. Supposedly this would be political suicide.

[Meatball]

http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2009/07...inues.html

Discuss.