Slow Drivers cause majority of accidents--BS

Worth saying again:

Not only does the public feel entitled to speed, but do so without paying attention (when they should be more alert)

Then they get upset and rant in threads like this one trying to rationalize it by blaming people that don't speed.

 

All accidents are not equivalent.

Speed differentials are also strongly linked to fatalities. Where I drive, the strongest links to fatalities are, in order:
(1) speed differential against head-on traffic;
(2) speed differential against stationary objects.

Compared to these, the speed differential against co-moving traffic is very small.

 

If they also kill you or a family member, well, so be it. That's a great attitude to take. Ever seen a car accident?

 

interesting points which implies breaking the law.

for one, the speed limit is not 85% of what people decide to drive. the posted speed is the maximum speed ALLOWED BY LAW. if you exceed it you are breaking the law. dont feel bad if you do. about 70% of drivers do so on a regular basis (i thought it to be much higher than that)

another thing; its not legally possible or safe to have the same $ of cars moving at different speeds in different lanes. the faster the speed, the greater the following distance that must be maintained. another frequently ignored law. WA State is actually cracking down big time on this law especially concerning following distances of Semi's.

breaking traffic laws are no different than burning oil. its something we have become accustomed to and in our collectively warped logic it has morphed into some sort of inalienable right to drive based our own self-imposed evaluation of our abilities to drive without regard to anyone else or the law.

that was and is the accepted status quo. so we either change the law, continue to break it, or wake up and realize that we are 11 years into the 21st Century and the old ways of thinking are only making us old before our time...if we make it that far

 

Plenty of them. My dad used to work at an auto body shop. I found a severed finger in a car once.

Sorry if I sound callous when it comes to people acting stupid and dying but that is evolution at work. There are way too many assholes in this world and if they choose to live their lives recklessly then I don't care if they die doing it. I just hope innocent people are not hurt in the process.

I'd appreciate it if you refrain from attacking my family with your retort.

 

You can juggle perceptions and differences any way you like, the facts of the matter are that:
(1) when I am on an interstate at a PSL of 40, 45, 50, or 55, cars come up from behind me, pass me, and continue on away from me - hence they are exceeding the PSL
(2) most don't creep by, they whiz by in whichever lane they are in, so the speed differentials are not small
I've been driving for many years: I have an excellent grip on relative speeds.

I think that some of the problems are:
- many the hazards of a particular stretch of roadway may not be apparent to the driver
- unfortunately, drivers tend to think they can evaluate hazards better than the engineers - or they see others speeding and think they can do so too (what I call "the lemming effect")
- on a given segment of roadway, the PSL is set at the speed which is reasonable for the MOST DANGEROUS part of that segment - this is done to avoid jerking the limits up and down at various parts of the roadway - an area which may seem perfectly safe at a higher speed may have a lower PSL because there is a more dangerous area nearby
This is only part of the story.

 

Here's what I know:
Most speed limits are antiquated. They are often times posted because of guidelines rather than road condition. Anyone who has ever driven 80 mph on an interstate in the Western US where the limit is actually 80 understands this. When you're on a multi-lane straight highway, there's no reason a speed limit should be 55. I have driven across 43 states in this country and in my experience, accidents happen because of stupid drivers, not because of high speed limits. Speed limits need to more accurately reflect the condition of the road. If it's a high congestion area, lower it. If it's wide open cruising, raise it.

And the other thing: We can debate about how it's "the law" all we want but if traffic is doing 75 and you're doing 55, you are going to be the cause of an accident. Theory and practice are two different things, and we all drive in reality. Everyone on the road is somewhat depending on everyone else to know how to handle the conditions of the road they are on. It's the people who go 20 mph slower (or 20 mph faster) than the traffic flow that are the problem.

Finally, I have to say that in my driving experience across the country just this year I noticed that when speed limits were high, a lot less people broke them and to a lesser degree. When the speed limit was 65, people did 75-80. When the speed limit was 75, people did 75-80. This tells me that the comfortable driving speed on the interstate is 75-80. Those roads are built for it.

Finally again, back to the op, i will say it's really unfortunate that they still equate the prius with slowness. That's a false assumption as we all know. I had zero problems on my trip in any traffic situation.

 

ok, so according to what you know;

our choice; lower the speed limit or get rid of stupid drivers and I AM WITH YOU!!

lets get rid of the stupid drivers. ok, so how do we plan to do this? you start!

 

In my region, any such freeway 'guidelines' vanished in 1974, when Congress took over and set the limits. Since the 1990s, the state legislatures set the limits.

All crashes -- lets get rid of this 'accidents' euphemism -- are not equal. Speed is a huge factor in crash fatality rate.

This BS is just more 'Its All About Me!' rationalization.

Some of you cannot distinquish between reality and FantasyLand.

The Interstates were built so that teenage boys in uniform could drive 1950's era 2.5 ton military trucks cross-country at 90 mph.

However, our safety standards and tolerance for highway bloodshed has changed a bit since then.

 

Boy it's hard to know where to start with this. Here are a few random thoughts:

Did the laws of physics change recently? According to the "antiquated" versions, kinetic energy goes as the square of the velocity. So at 80mph you have twice the kinetic energy to dissipate in a crash you have at 55mph. I've driven all over the US, including on those 80mph interstates in the west. I've also spent a lot of time trackside at racetrack and seen a lot of crashes. What makes racetracks special is that they have flat runoff areas clear of anything to hit. This is NOT true for many multi-lane interstates. Think about overpass abutments and ramps for example. And about single-vehicle crashes.

And you know this how? Only "stupid" drivers crash, so by definition anyone who crashes must be "stupid"??

No, it's the people that aren't paying attention to the road (a.k.a., "driving the car") that are the cause. Jabbering on the cell (often handheld) while roaring along on cruise control.

I expect the "my time is too valuable" rationalization anytime now.

 

I didn't mean to attack family members, but you are putting them, and other drivers' family members at risk by consciously aggravating other drivers. They have passengers, as well as yourself. So if the total retard passing on the shoulder happens to have three future Nobel prize winning children in the back seat, and he rolls it and kills everyone, the whole gene pool thing goes out the window.

Anyway, be careful what you wish on others, since it is often misunderstood as a prayer for your own self.

 

No, you are assuming I extreme hypermile and travel much slower than other traffic. I travel the speed limit or just above it if cars cannot pass safely. If someone is nutty enough to pass ME on a shoulder then there is nothing I can do about that. I'm not going to speed up to 90mph just to keep them from acting stupidly. I use basic common courtesy when driving and that is usually enough to keep things going smoothly unless you run across a nut case.

As for prayers, I don't pray. I'm an atheist.

 

Not sure where you get that. The goal is getting better mpg, the goal is to NOT aggravate other drivers and become a target. Stay in the right lane, help entering traffic merge, don't flip people off if they do something stupid, no smug bumper stickers, etc, etc. If I get into an on-road dispute with someone, it would mess up my driving, so I don't do it. People just go on their merry way and leave me alone.

I certainly DO see "fights" develop when someone hangs out in the left lane and others behind him/her want to go faster.

Trust me, if I actually WANTED to aggravate other drivers there's a lot of things I could do that I don't.

 

the tone of threads like this is the same as out on the roads. showing that only law enforcement will ever rectify the situation. as of now, they seem unwilling or unable to do so.

 

An old friend of mine used to say (toungue in cheek) "if you drive faster than me you're an a$$&*le. If you drive slower than me, you're a c#@&*^%$er."

 

Because people driving your speed or slower will never pass you. That is in fact what 'pass you' means. You can not take an accurate sample of speeds of traffic while traveling in that traffic.

 

I think you mean "representative sample".
I never said I was making any accurate measurement of traffic speeds, simply that MOST of the traffic speeds in these zones, and not by a little.

One day while traveling through the several mile long 40mph construction zone east of New Haven, I counted the number of cars that whooshed past me. There were >80 as I recall. Are you seriously suggesting that there were another 80 cars traveling my speed (40mph) or slower that I never saw??

 

Absolutely.

I know Insight-I Owner can drive as he says he does in a friendly and non-obstructing manner because I do it myself.

If Insight-I Owner is doing 55 in a 60 on I95 on the rightmost of 3-4 lanes and it's not rush hour - why rant? Because many drivers are weaving in any lane not looking more than two car lengths ahead and they are angry a car is not enabling their bad driving.

Driving a car like the Prius is only half the equation of being green. Giving yourself enough time to arrive without speeding is the other half.

 

wow, lots of retort going on. makes me think of jeremy clarkson from top gear and his reference to the phrase "war on speed."

not gonna go back and try to quote everything, but it's not a "all about me!" rationalization if 90% of the traffic is moving at 75mph. That's actually the opposite. The guy who decides to do 55 out of some sort of righteous philosophy is the one who is being smug and thumbing his nose at the world.

and i know why interstates were built. you are thinking in the box of the network and pathway of the interstate. i'm talking about the construction of roads including materials. the interstates out there today are not the same as the ones in the 1950's. not to mention that fact that our cars are so much more advanced in suspension, braking, engine performance, rubber composite on the tires.....all of this means it is safer today to travel 80 than it would have been in the 1950s using the conditions of that time.

and finally, there will always be stupid drivers, which i describe as the ones being distracted from driving. the solution is not the make everyone crawl on the highway. the solution is to start TEACHING people how to drive again instead of slapping gps and speed limiters in cars. Monitoring your child's driving is not the same as teaching them how to do it. let's increase the testing factors for getting a driver's license and make people accountable. in my state, they won't see me for 6 years because that's how long our DL are good for. put some more teeth into getting a license and keeping it.

 

^ so in a 60, going 75 is a lot more legal/green than going 55?

That's really interesting reasoning there, along with the smug accusation.

When you read of road accidents, are they usually speeding or crawling?