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Car speed mandator

For all of us.
  (+3, -10)(+3, -10)
(+3, -10)
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We all know about the traffic cameras and speed traps in some places. They play their role and encourage people to slow down, while giving them tickets for going 3 mph over the limit (gasp.) But what about when cars are going to slow? Going 30 when you're allowed to go 40 pisses people off more than speeding. They hold everybody up, especially around coastal areas with double-solid for miles.

The Car Speed Mandator is like one of those speed traps but it works for slow drivers too. It's a 2 part thing. One vehicle with all the equipment parks along the road and monitors traffic, telling you how fast you are going, and if you are going to fast, it tells you "you have 50 yards to slow down to ##mph" or "you have 50 yards to speed up to ##mph, or pull over for 2 minutes old man."

The second vehicle receives information from the first vehicle about which cars are going what speed. It takes a second reading, 50 yards past, and then gives a ticket for offenders.

People who drive slower than the speed limit pay just as much as people going above an acceptable speed limit, depending of course on how fast or slow they are going.

I just don't like slow drivers.

twitch, Oct 24 2007

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       The law, I am not baking. ay, in probably all states there is an law concerning impeding traffic, but is there a practical implementation for enforcing it? Or for speeding for that matter? It's an enforcement/ticketing system embodied into vehicles and used to enforce both ends of the speed limit. Where I live, the double solid goes for many miles without breaks, and people can really make you late to places.
twitch, Oct 24 2007
  

       This would seem to punish people who drive slowly when there isn't any traffic behind them. Where's the harm in that?
Srimech, Oct 24 2007
  

       well if you put it that way, you can tell the computer in the device not to penalize slow cars that have nobody following them. But it would still them that they are hella slow.
twitch, Oct 25 2007
  

       You get a fishbone from me for seeming to assume that going too fast and going too slow are offences of equivalent significance.   

       People get held up and annoyed by people driving too slowly. People get injured and killed by people driving too fast.   

       It makes sense that law enforcement agencies should focus more of their attention on preventing the latter.
imaginality, Oct 25 2007
  

       You misunderstand the purpose of speed limits. A speed limit is not a recommended speed, but an upper limit. Like the name says. You are *supposed* to drive slightly below the speed limit, not AT the limit. And you are supposed to use your judgement to adjust speed according to road conditions and not slavishly follow what sign says. Forcing everyone to go at exaclty one speed would increase accidents because people would watch the speedometer instead of the road.   

       PS. Motorways DO have a lower speed limit already. Because driving 20 mph on a motorway is actually dangeraous.
kinemojo, Oct 25 2007
  

       It is dangerous to drive slow, when there's also fast people on the road. It's better for everybody. It's about consistant speeds, meaning less braking, get to work faster, spend less time on the road polluting kinda thing.   

       I suppose that many of you drive where the roads are straight? yes?
twitch, Oct 26 2007
  

       // spend less time on the road polluting //   

       With all due respect, this is a complete load of cobblers.
Srimech, Oct 26 2007
  

       I gotta go against the majority here and bun this. Even if nobody is behind you, you must be acclimated out of driving like a slow poke. Slow drivers would not be so bad if they weren't stepping on the brake every 250 feet but I have yet to get behind a slow driver that maintains consistant speed. There are too many people who think of driving as a "personal" sort of thing when you have to be courteous of everyone around you. I hate when people "double up" beside me while going down the highway.. either speed up, slow down or get away from me.
Jscotty, Oct 26 2007
  

       That makes no sense to me. If people are driving alongside you, it's because they're doing the same speed as you. How is mandating one speed going to help?
Srimech, Oct 26 2007
  

       Well, for me, it's a it's only a 2 lane highway. You can't pass slow vehicles without entering the other lane of oncoming traffic. And for most of the highway that I travel on it's illegal to pass.   

       And Yes, I believe that you would be polluting less because you are not braking every minute. Your car runs more consistantly, without losing energy to braking and you are being more efficient.   

       It's just not right that some people think it's OK to drive slow for miles and miles, making probably at least 50 people late for work (and yes, i've seen this often; no traffic for a few minutes, followed by a slow-poke and a train of cars behind him/her).
twitch, Oct 27 2007
  

       Determining entropic tendancies relative, in terms (of), under speeders.
4whom, Oct 27 2007
  

       In Tourist-Land (Hawaii), almost all tourists drive scenic-route speed. It's distressing and I wish I had an intercom to tell them that the destination they are trying to reach is just 10 more minutes away, and there's no need to drive slow. Well, there's no need to drive slow anyway, except to catch the view. It's not that we don't appreciate the view, we get it every day.. but we've got to go to work, while they are here on vacation.   

       It's really bad during the summers.   

       Also, houses are changing hands left and right here ever since property values have double over the last few years. Why? I'm no expert. But it's happening, and we get some really rude drivers, bad drivers, and slow drivers. It's not an out-of-the-way small town community... It's east-oahu, a part of many many people's daily commute to work and everywhere else.   

       If the population was consistant, not really a lot of new comers i mean, it wouldn't be such a problem. and as well with the tourist thing too.
twitch, Oct 27 2007
  

       Bun for the thought of holding the inconsiderate responsible for holding up drivers behind them, but the whole idea of laws regarding speed (minimum/limits) needs to be reformed.   

       Where I live in the rural northeast US, many of the roads have a de facto speed limit - the speed at which most of the locals expect to travel - that is usually higher than the posted limit (occasionally it's slower), because the majority of drivers on these roads make the same judgment call about a safe driving speed for the road and the area.   

       I can only speculate as to the reason the speed limits on these roads were set as they were. Perhaps they were determined in the 60's when vehicles handled much differently than today? Maybe the road was improved but the speed limit was never reassessed? Or, in the cases where the de facto speed limit is below the posted limit, maybe the area wasn't residential at the time the speed limit was determined. Whatever the reason, the majority of drivers possess the ability to make sound judgment calls regarding a safe travel speed for their abilities, their vehicle, the road conditions, and the area (people stopping to turn into driveways or onto side roads, or nothing around for miles?). As boysparks pointed out, people have different levels of driving ability. Vehicle handling varies widely as well.   

       Those speed limit signs and the laws regarding them need to be revisited to account for these differences and the judgment abilities of drivers. If anyone has received a speeding ticket for travelling over the posted speed limit - but at a perfectly safe speed - they are well aware of the injustice they've suffered. The same injustice would be felt be someone with pets in the vehicle or with a slower reaction time who receives a ticket for travelling below a certain speed, but has every intention of letting people by when they are holding up traffic.   

       I'm not saying traffic safety or courtesy shouldn't be enforced - there are those drivers whose judgment is, by most accounts, flawed - but it is *safety* and *courtesy* that should be enforced, not a hard and fast *speed* set in stone.
Capt Skinny, Oct 29 2007
  

       Apart from me, absolutely everyone on the road is either a maniac [drives faster than me] or an idiot [drives slower than me].   

       Bun!
teedyay, Oct 29 2007
  

       [twitch], I agree with you that you will be polluting less by braking less. I was disputing your 'spend less time on the road polluting' point. We would need some facts and figures on efficiency to determine the best speed for maximum fuel effienciency, but I feel fairly safe in my assumption that it will be pretty low given the speed-squared law of air resistance.   

       As for braking, I can't see the cause as being purely the slow driver. The other cause is your desire to drive fast. If you were to remove either of them, your mileage would improve.   

       I will admit that, living in a large city, driving even at the speed limit is a luxury for me due to traffic, so I don't experience the same issues as you.
Srimech, Nov 01 2007
  

       The social problem is that drivers do not control their vehicle speed appropriately, endangering others. This could be solved with improved education and frequent recertification.   

       The political problem is that law enforcement (in my part of the world) uses fixed speed limits as a revenue source, not to protect the welfare of drivers/pedestrians. This could be solved by removing ineffective legislation, instituting new legislation, and financing reform.   

       Broadcasting or posting a _suggested speed_ (not a limit) based upon current weather conditions, light/visibility, and traffic density makes much more sense. The difference between actual speed and suggested speed would become a metric for determining whether a driver is safely operating their vehicle.
ed, Nov 01 2007
  


 

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