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The faster you go, the less chance you or the people you hit have for survival....its for your own safety and every one else out there...why is that so hard to understand?
Then why did the US traffic fatality rate go down when the 55 limit was abolished in the mid-1990s?
The number one cause of motor vehicle accidents: excessive speed. Period. Go on YouTube and search for speeding accidents. You can see dozens of examples of people driving like bats out of hell, and when the situation goes sideways, people die.
Not complicated.
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Then why did the US traffic fatality rate go down when the 55 limit was abolished in the mid-1990s?
The number one cause of motor vehicle accidents: excessive speed. Period. Go on YouTube and search for speeding accidents. You can see dozens of examples of people driving li
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Why do freeways have the lowest accident rate but have the highest speeds?
I suppose by the time they arrived, the import brands already were by governments in their respective country of origin, automotive culture [lack thereof] or any combination of the two.
Speed limit means lets see how far I can push that limit before I see blue lights in order for me to get to my destination a few minutes quicker than I would otherwise, plus it's fun to drive fast and show a complete disregard for other drivers who attempt to adhere to said limits whether they are rational or not.
I just took about a 300 mile trip on the interstate here in Florida, and I had my cruise set at 70 (the speed limit) I was about the slowest car on the road. I stayed in the middle lane because people were constantly merging off of on ramps, and cars were blowing by me like I was standing still.
I just did a round-trip from the Denver metro to Las Cruces, NM. Total miles was around 1300.
The posted speed limit for much of I-25 is 75, excepting work areas and more populated areas like Pueblo and Albuquerque where it drops down to 55.
I tried to stick to the posted limits as much as possible, but I was passed constantly even in those more populated areas.
I don't have any issue with the faster speeds. The roads are pretty straight and well-paved and one can go a hundred miles with only one or two other cars within sight.
I'm actually surprised that the limits haven't been raised to 80 or 85 on some of those stretches. Drivers certainly don't get pulled over for driving that speed, unless they are weaving or otherwise making spectacles of themselves.
Closer to home, most of the larger arteries have speed limits of 40 mph. I think average speeds are somewhere around 50-55.
On the highways, the posted limits in the metro range from 55-75 depending on what part of the city and if there isn't traffic, people will definitely go faster.
But, there's usually traffic, so...
Why do freeways have the lowest accident rate but have the highest speeds?
I'd agree with that even without doing research first.
The difference in speed relative to one another, on average, is less on an interstate than driving 35-45 mph in an urban area and having someone slowly pull out from a side street into your lane.
The design of interstates with on-ramps and off-ramps offer better transition to and from corridor. No system is perfect, but the interstate SUPPORTS traffic flowing more smoothly vs stop-and-go city traffic.
You don't have drivers trying to force their way into traffic to make a left turn across a 6-lane city street because they "need to". Screw what you NEED. It's a BAD idea. Turn right and go around the block, or make a U-turn down the road.
Every time you change lanes, you surrender your position holding the right-of-way. Every time you turn from a stop sign onto or crossing a free flowing road, you're surrendering your right-of-way. Keeping a clean driving record is part knowing how to execute these common maneuvers without getting caught with your pants down, and the other part is minimizing the number of times you expose yourself to fault.
Why do freeways have the lowest accident rate but have the highest speeds?
Because people are distracted by cell phones and such on a freeway you’re just driving in a straight line, surface roads you’re on your phone and all of a sudden you look up and bam you just smacked into another vehicle stopped at a red light, or your trying to beat a traffic light before it turns red but you hit someone turning at the same time. People get distracted looking for a address and don’t pay attention to traffic, stupid stuff like that you don’t have on the freeway.
If the cops really truly cared about safety, rather then being hypocrites, they would set an example by requiring two cops in every car. One to drive and one to operate the tech. But we all know that what they really care about is filling their ticket quotas. Two cops in two cars can collect twice as much revenue as two cops in one car. Revenue comes first, safety second.
you don't seem to understand, the cops do not make those choices. Hypocrites?????? It's the towns and districts that hire them and all the cut backs...Police departments and fire departments are the very first to receive cut backs....
Where my son works, they are working so much over time its a sin...why? Because all police forces are short handed...why? Because the people that run the budgets are putting tax payers monies into other expenditures...
As the mother of a cop, I and other parents of cops along with wives, would only wish they could have two cops in one car as backup, but they can't any more, not enough money to hire them, and let me tell you, it's a thankless job. As your comment here proves....
do you have any idea, how many cops are killed every month by speeding cars and drunks on traffic stops. Do you even know, that if you see a cop who has a car stopped, your supposed to slow down while going around them?
Cops do not get paid nearly enough for what they put up with...and see every single day....it's pathetic and a disgrace what our cities pay them. And then you have mayors telling them to stand down.
I know of a cop who called in a stolen car, and began a chase, and his supervisor called him back and told him to abort the chase...why? Because they worry about civilians getting killed. You can replace a car, you cannot bring back a life.
And that ticket quota might have been alive and kicking 30 - 40 years ago, but today, most cops don't have the time to police highways and roads...and btw, who in their right mind would want to stop someone on a 6 lane highway, and risk getting hit by cars going 70 MPH. Are you kidding me? Those guys want to do their jobs and get home to their families.
I'm so sick and tired of people trashing cops....especially couch cops who think they know it all, or criminals who posses rap sheets and a gang mentality.....are there bad cops, yeah, a few, but not to the extent others would have you believe.
And if you don't believe me, apply for a job, go thru training and then come back and make these kind of crazy comments.....
Please think, before you make comments like this....it's easy to judge, and then when your in trouble, whose the first person you call?
Please think....
Last edited by cremebrulee; 08-02-2018 at 12:54 PM..
Something I am unable to wrap my head around is, the continuing 70 MPH speed limits....which is crazy...absolutely crazy, and we've all driven that fast on interstates, but when it 55 people do 65 and when its 70 people do 80 and more? Why? When you know full well, if you crash someone's going to be dead?
These arse holes who do these so called studies and then raise the speed limits all the time, are they nuts? I mean seriously? How fast does one really need to go? So so many people are killed every month and yet, they refuse to change it....it's like we're dumb robots, walking around in a daze....oh yeah, lets raise the speed limit to 75? Geeze Louise....are they nuts?
And no one says a word?
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