"Those that choose to obey the limit increase the risk of accidents."
February 3, 2010 9:49 PM   Subscribe

A traffic engineer explains why speed limits are often much lower than they should be.
posted by jbr (4 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: this very much appears to be a link to your own blog. -- jessamyn -- jessamyn



 
Wow. That is really fascinating.
posted by ORthey at 9:56 PM on February 3, 2010


He actually explains why artificially lowered speed limits increase the danger of accidents, which is even more interesting. But unsurprising. Nothing encourages stupid aggressive driving than an irrationally low speed limit.
posted by mek at 9:59 PM on February 3, 2010


The guy in the first image looks like he's having a lot of fun, right before unknowingly careening over a cliff.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 9:59 PM on February 3, 2010


Great FPP, that article was very informative. Didn't know that the yellow signs weren't an actual limit, for example.

Personally, when I'm in the city I pay less attention to speed limit signs and more attention to the speeds of the cars around me, mainly for the reason he stated--it's safer to be going at a similar speed to the cars around you.

Also, I personally think 70mph on highways is perfectly fine--as far as I know, most cars burn more fuel the faster they go so I'm not sure you really save much by going faster. And I've heard that tires on most vehicles are only rated to 75mph, although that sounds a little suspect to me.
posted by DMan at 10:03 PM on February 3, 2010


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