Speeding

I’m with you in that I follow the rules too and guess what, I get passed by every car and truck on the road except for 18 wheelers going uphill. Pity there weren’t more police officers.

Speed doesn’t cause accidents as much as speed differential does. Case in point: the highway merge.  If you follow your belief and accelerate into the highway at the regulated maximum then chances are you’ll cause an accident or at the very least disrupt the flow of traffic. 

Being right isn’t always the right thing for safety.

This hadnt been more exemplified that the left lane issue. Many law abiding folks didn’t see the harm in hogging the left lane as long as they maintained the speed limit.  The politicians disagreed and emphasized the keep right except to pass laws. 

Being safe is different from being law abiding. 

Laws are applied against the general vehicle type and driver skill. That 80 km/h max has to be as reasonable for a 5 ton vehicles as it does for a super car.  And that’s the problem and why some feel that as long as they are attentive and safe the speed limit may not be applicable. 

It’s a reasonable thing to think and necessary when entering traffic safely from a merge lane.

Hi there, my question for Canada would be that we have alot of 2 lane roads that when passing other vehicles you really have to speed up and be in control of this speed without having an automatic system stopping you from safely passing the other vehicle. I can see this causing numerous deadly head on collisions as the driver would be stuck with nowhere to go and bam!!!!

I don't always like or agree with all rules that govern my life as a Canadian and I'm aware of what I can do about it if I really disagree,  and some people have.

As I read your posting I had a vision that Trump was the driver because it seems he had his own rules he followed despite what he expected of others. Just take a look at the mess he created.

I guess I'm more a rule person, knowing what the common ground is we're all expected to follow.

In my community we have a number of residents who blatantly defy rules for driving,  both residents and visitors alike.

In my mind, keeping your speed down has the benefit of increasing reaction time in case something unexpected happens such as a deer bounding onto the road or another vehicle blowing a tire and swerving into your right-of-way. Now you have a greater chance and more time to make the correct decision. The other major benefit of keeping your speed down occurs when you do collide with another vehicle/bicycle/pedestrian - the damage will be less severe. What could have been a fatality is now an injury. What was an injury is now just damage to your vehicle. What was damage to your vehicle is now just a near miss.

I know speeding is a problem, I have yet to see what these drivers figure they are gaining by speeding by, sure is not much in time gained as you know.

My real problem is most, and I mean most drivers who ignore STOP signs no matter where. I have made comments to drivers I know as to why they don’t make a complete stop and their comment is, there is nobody coming so why not drift right on through.  I say to them, if that was a red traffic light would you do the same and there answer is no, I then say I rest my case. Running stop signs and speeding inside city limits is a real problem and of course we do not have enough traffic enforcement police.

The province also spent tens of thousands of dollars on regulation signs Keep Right Except To Pass, another sign ignored.

Yes, enforce the traffic laws that reduce injuries and death. Excessive Speeding, impaired and distracted driving. Our political leadership do not have the will to impose frequent, regular ,penalties on those who cause accidents.

We are seeing this lack of Political will , and individuals who chose not to follow common sense rules with the Covid pandemic. So on it goes, as do vehicle accidents.

We do need or want a police state. Simply enforce a few critical rules or laws that will Make a difference . Educate and enforce a few critical rules.simple. Other Countries have done this and I know it works for accident prevention on Industrial sites.
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We have become a mediocre country and Province. Most Canadians think that Canada,s governments have done a poor job on COVID. This is a start, if they vote.

Implementing a speed control on vehicle units can be undone by those who choose not follow any rules. The wild west attitude.

Driving attitude has taken a needless number of lives and injured many. Perhaps we need to approach driving with a pandemic view.

It's a privilege.. not a right.

In my previous life I had many discussions along these lines. I always told people that I really didn’t give a rat’s behind about attitude. What I really was after was behaviour modification. Maybe behaviour and attitude are connected but that’s a subject beyond my pay grade.

On that highway 4 which has some very bad stretches, there are a lot of people who tailgate.  They may know the road, and when they get to the straight stretch they speed.

There may also be drivers who speed because of drug/alcohol issues.  There are no places to pull over to let these drivers pass by. Both directions are very dangerous. The speed limit shouldn't be increased since the road is only two lanes with marginal  shoulders.

I certainly wouldn't be changing the law to suit traffic infractions. Perhaps the speeding ticket should be higher on two-lane highways.

when i started driving in the mid 70’s , the government of the day implemented a points system,which, as far as my understanding goes, doesn’t allow the rich to simply buy their way out of bad driving practices… “a cost of doing business” per say. If implemented correctly, drivers like this, sooner or later,(if those patterns continue),  SHOULD lose their license( i know I did). At some point , that individual  would have to re-assess their behaviour. Perhaps this form of discipline needs to be more robust, so it actually has some teeth. While i am not a big fan of impounding cars of excessive speeders,(without an opportunity to challenge it legally) it is pretty obvious that this style of management appears effective. However , the uber rich just get another car,and the uber poor just continue to drive without a license.

This story made me think of a TV show that was on quite a few years ago, and they performed an experiment to try and show why it how people speed or do not follow the rules.

They did this by first taking a group of people and had them drive around with their speedometers covered so they could not see how fast they were going.

The interesting part was that generally, people drove slower than normal, and when they all drove as a group, it seemed the best idea was to just match the person in front of you.

This takes away the “need” to go faster, and that old habit of people going just slightly over the speed limit because they think they can get away with going 110 in a 100 zone without getting a ticket.

If all the cars were going 100, and you didn’t know how fast you were going , you might be more inclined to just go with the traffic and not thinking you can or should go a little faster.

When I’m behind someone that is going too slow (which also happens and can be just as dangerous in certain situations), you know right away and can make a safe pass (if possible). I don’t think you would be as impatient either if you didn’t know exactly how much slower than the limit you were going.

Yes, there will still be speeders out there, and there will be dangerous drivers, but hiding the speedo will cut down on aggressive driving and road rage.

Are there times when you need to know the speed limit and speed you are going? Yes, like on a highway that has slow corners which take you from 100km/he down to 70/60/50 etc depending on the corner.

I think with new technology, car limiting and lack of speedos, it could be a lot safer out there.