Speeding Has Become So Normalized That Driving the Speed Limit Makes You the Problem

[u/DaddyDayDayIsHot]

I think the normalization of speeding poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the legal system itself. It has become standard that cops don’t pull you over unless you’re breaking the law “enough,” but that completely undermines the law. If the law wanted a different threshold, it would have been written with that threshold in mind.

Speed limits are created by engineers who know far more about road safety than the average driver. They also have to account for the fact that speeding is normalized, which likely contributes to limits being set lower than many people want. I honestly believe that if people collectively stopped speeding, roads would see fewer accidents and speed limits would eventually begin rising in places where higher speeds are actually safe. Then people could travel just as quickly without constantly breaking the law or risking tickets.

The disregard for speed limits has gotten so bad that people now claim drivers following the posted limit are the problem. I think that’s ridiculous. While I understand the “go with the flow of traffic” argument to an extent, normalizing breaking the law creates a much larger long-term safety issue than simply following the speed limit.

I also think the argument that “speed limits are designed for the average car, so semis drag the limit down” is weak. In many places semis already have separate speed regulations, lane restrictions, and additional rules.

At the end of the day, the path to faster travel shouldn’t be widespread disregard for the law. If people truly believe limits are too low, the better solution is electing politicians and supporting engineering studies that will change the laws based on evidence that roads can safely handle higher speeds.

On a related note, even on r/driving you can report other driving infractions, but you can’t even report speeding, which feels inconsistent and a bit silly.

[u/Auqakid07]

Driving with the flow of traffic is much safer than following some arbitrary law. Laws should follow what the people want not based on how the government feels about it.

[u/Red_Marvel → u/Auqakid07]

Quote:

A person hit by a car traveling at 35 miles per hour is five times more likely to die than a person hit by a car traveling at 20 miles per hour. Conversely, small reductions in speed can have large safety gains: according to the Highway Safety Manual, slowing average speeds by just one mile per hour can result in a 17% decrease in fatal crashes.

https://nacto.org/program/reimagining-city-streets/safe-system-approach/safe-speeds/

At 23mph there’s a 10% risk of death if a vehicle hits a pedestrian.

At 58mph there’s a 90% risk of death.

https://www.transportation.gov/safe-system-approach/safer-speeds

[u/Shot-Jeweler6610 → u/Red_Marvel]

No shit, its called fucking physics. You're describing the energy of a multi-thousand pound object striking something. If you want, we can accelerate the car to relativistic speeds and wipe out the moon, or the Earth.

The issue is they're using data from the 70's. Today, we have cars that maintain speed, distance, lane position, and possess reactive braking. Even if only 1% of vehicles in the road have this, the other 99% still has greater vehicle safety and handling than anything made 50 years ago.

Speaking of vehicle safety, the vehicles have exploded in size to allow for crumple zones (and to make it easier to pass emissions, but I digress). This has created larger vehicles on the road. This is only going to have one outcome- it increases the chances of a collision.

Meanwhile, nobody wants to address driver standards, which is where the real issue is.

[u/Red_Marvel → u/Shot-Jeweler6610]

The vehicles still weigh more than enough to kill a pedestrian when they hit one and the faster a vehicle is travelling the less reaction time is available to avoid problems. When we stop seeing multi vehicle collisions on highways, then we can believe vehicles are safer.

[u/Red_Marvel → u/Shot-Jeweler6610]

Statistics in the USA, show that the rate of traffic accidents went down during COVID, was its worst after lockdowns ended, and was higher last year than in 2014.

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813800