Study Reveals Shocking News: People Ignore The Speed Limit
from the they-needed-a-study-for-that? dept
For those of you who never have actually been in a car, some researchers have now revealed the obvious: most drivers are comfortable ignoring the speed limit. Of course, what's more interesting is the theory for the reason behind this: it's an unintended consequence of the decision by the federal government to mandate a nationwide 55mph speed limit back in 1974. Setting such an artificially low speed limited basically made people realize that speed limits had little, if any, relationship to actual safety regulations, and felt more comfortable trusting their own judgment in terms of what speed was safe for driving. Thus, now, even if speed limits were set to match safety levels, many people would still ignore them because they've learned that speed limits are somewhat meaningless. Yet another example of unintended consequences that result from bad legislation.
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Filed Under: speed limits, unintended consequences
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Have you actually looked into the rationale of the "federal government" instituting a nationwide speed limit of 55mph?
I think one reason for what you consider a slow speed would be fuel economy. Then there is road maintinence. Saftey is not the only factor which governs the rules of the road
Also, the speed on the interstate in Oregon is 65mph in most parts.
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The 55 mph speed limit law was repealed a while ago...
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Re: Charming Charlie
I think you need to read the paragraph again, it says
"it's an unintended consequence of the decision by the federal government to mandate a nationwide 55mph speed limit back in "1974"."
Obviously this is not in effect any longer, as you pointed out, you can drive 65 in some places, in utah most of the interstate is 75.
the resulting mentality of the people to ignore the limits is natural. if my boss tells me that i walk to my cubicle very slowly because he thinks we're going too fast, then i am much less likely to take him seriously. if you give stupid rules, people stop listening.
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Also, the speed on most interstates in any state is usually 65mph or more, not just Oregon.
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Ray
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People Ignore The Speed Limit
I regularly drive 55 in 65 zones. I measure my gas mileage, and correlate with different speeds I've driven. Slower means better mileage. The difference can be up to 36%. Thats the difference between 440 miles and 600 miles on a tank of gas.
OTOH, when you drive slowly, you're in your car longer. I figured out that I was making something like $3/hour by driving slowly. If I'm driving to work, then logically I should drive as fast as I can, since my time at work is more cost effective. But I don't.
Teaching myself to religiously follow every traffic was one of the hardest things I've ever done. If you like a challenge, you should try it.
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By all means, drive 10 under (at the slowest) but STAY in the right lane. Otherwise you count as a road hazard, which is why you can legally be pulled over for going that slow in most states.
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Re: People Ignore The Speed Limit
That is an untruth!! Smoother driving means better mileage. That's why "highway" mileage is significantly better than "city" mileage. I can drive at 80mph without braking and get significantly better mileage than you will at 35mph with constant start/stop traffic.
Also, vehicles with overdrive(or a 6th gear) that kicks in around 65mph will tend to outperform your slow driving as well.
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Not a new phenomenon
Three Words: War on Drugs
DMCA, which has taught a whole generation of American youth (and some of us elders) not to give a damn about what greedy corporations say are their so-called "rights" and bought the US Senate to enforce it.
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Cheers Big Ears
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Re: Cheers Big Ears
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Zappa Had it right
Only had to drive around old cars with plates from BC.
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Reality Check...
Instead we get increased enforcement with photo radar and the like which is going to cause more accidents, not less (panic last minute slowing, night time flashes, and if they get their wish reduced average driving speed which will lead to less focused/bored drivers).
I can't think of ANY GOOD REASON for the system we have and people have put up with it because of random selection enforcement has only been an nuisance. Now though we are seeing more photo cameras then ever. In Phoenix, AZ there are over 7 photo cameras on the main freeway(s) that you'll pass on an average commute. That means that one bad morning commute will cost you around $1,400 worth of fine with never being pulled over and with no indication during the day that you've broken the law until the tickets come in the mail. I can't imagine that after the massive amount of folks get caught in this BS net that this will be politically viable for long.
Freedom
Something to ponder...
Everyone has an internal wealth set point (think about it, we all get to a certain place in our lives and are happy with it and aren't really willing to work harder to get more. If you go below it, you'll work extremely hard to get back to it and if you exceed it you'll stop working very hard at all).
Why is this important? Because it shows that by giving a person with less means money doesn't mean that you've increased their wealth or status. What you've done is just removed their desire to work to meet their own set point. In short, you've made them lazy and in the long run worse off and more reliant on handouts. If you truly want to help someone, help them change their set point but never give them just money without a plan for changing their set point. That my friends is true charity.
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Who makes the laws?
I live in a small town and most of the officers in the town do not follow the speed limits, turn signals don't seem to be important, stop signs and red lights are not indicative of a requirement, but more so a suggestion. However, if you or I does anything, they will be on us like the IRS. Is it just me or does anyone else see the same thing? Maybe it is just an observation from an observant person.
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Lead by example!
Just because you enforce it, does NOT mean you are above it.
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Unintended consequences aren't all bad!
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Re: Unintended consequences aren't all bad!
There are reports, studies, etc which say anything you want to hear. Consider the source. Is CATO credible ?
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1205
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Speed Limits
The trouble comes when people drive as fast as they think is safe. A good number of drivers think they are safe, its all those other people causing the trouble. None of them realize when they get on the road they become part of a system. And their actions effect everyone. Studies have been done on compaction waves in traffic caused by drivers grouping and tapping their brakes.
So, the government can set whatever limits they like but people are going to think for themselves. And thats where the trouble begins.
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Speed Vs. MPG
Rule the bends, bend the rules.
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The old road is still in place by the way, and now that people know it's become mostly useless and police never enforce it, it's not out of the ordinary to see someone go down it at 80 to get in front of traffic at a later intersection of the two roads.
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I have heard officers comment that the limit should be posted at what is the most common self imposed speed limit (or 2 over), and make it the limit...no soft over speed allowed....and I agree.
ie: Interstate Hwy drivers self imposed avg 73 so post at 75mph limit.
This allows officers to give tickets that are due and not spend the day in court arguing that it was not significantly over the posted limit, or the driver was just following traffic flow.
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Speed limits on Interstates
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Re: Speed limits on Interstates
So if the road has a speed less than 85, does the state DOT still receive federal funds for maintaining that road?
I understand that many roads have lower speeds under the guise of safety, but there seem to be some where the speeds are artificially lowered for one reason or another- such as this 4 mile straight stretch near me with no houses, no lighting, tumbleweed, deer and foxes running around, but for some reason the local government believes 40 is what the road was engineered for. Normally this wouldn't raise eyebrows, but every day, there's a few cops looking for speeders. Later, I was surprised to learn the cops refer to it as "Revenue Alley". I'd like some engineering justification to that lowered speedlimit also!
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Ireland.
Every road in THE WHOLE OF IRELAND, barring a couple of short highways around Dublin is single-carriageway. This means that you can't overtake anything anywhere in the entire country.
So you end up with two-mile-long queues of insanely frustrated, bored drivers following around all the sociopaths who actually keep to the country's 50mph speed limit.
Ireland is an awesome country full of wonderful people and amazing places, but there's no way I will ever go back after having driven there.
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Story: Are Vehicle Odometers Accurate?
http://pugetsoundblogs.com/roadwarrior/2006/02/15/are-vehicle-odometers-accurate/
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Traffic Engineering
Also I remember a study from my younger days that said the safest speed to travel at was actually a little faster than the traffic average.
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Right idea, wrong conclusion
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Re: Right idea, wrong conclusion
Among the thousands of personal reasons for speeding is the fact that in most places, you can get by with a lot of it some of the time, and in other places, you can get by with a little of it all of the time. People naturally push "the real limit."
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Re: Right idea, wrong conclusion
Blame human nature, not government conspiracy. This article is totally off!
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Re: Right idea, wrong conclusion
No one said that everyone obeyed the speedlimit prior to this. What the researchers noted was that *after* the national speedlimit was instituted, it became that nearly everyone began to realize that the speedlimit was just a guideline. Prior to that many more people actually trusted it to be meaningful.
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing.
This article is typical of junk analysis with an agenda that tries to pass itself off as journalism and real research.
Fascinating, considering that the "analysis" came from a civil engineering and economics professor, not any reporter (or myself). So, you can pick nits with the *research* but blaming us for pointing out what the professor said is pretty weak.
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Speed Limits, law, and revenue
They are there to generate money from fines. Yes it is illegal to set "quotas" on tickets, BUT it is legal to collect data on the number of tickets issued and then in some back room discipline for failure to perform duty adequately. You think it doesn't happen, your dreaming. You write tickets or else!
As for "soft limits" the limits are there for the technology used to detect the speed. In places like the entire state of PA. LOCAL (ie: city, borough, township, village, etc.) police are NOT authorized to use radar or lidar, ONLY the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) can use "electronic speed detection." Now what they are allowed to use is: VASCAR (nothing more than a stopwatch really, more on this in a momemnt) , Accutrax (also nothing more than a stopwatch really), pacing.
VASCAR when it first came out required the use of two rubberized contacts placed on the road similar to those you may still see for traffic surveys or that in the past activated the bell at the full serve gas station (something most here, unless your from OR or NJ don't have any more or never even heard of) you drive across it and it measured the time and displayed a speed based on x distance. Later versions of VASCAR retired the hoses, and became more and more "electronic" in nature. PA still insists that VASCAR meets the state law on prohibiting "electronic speed detection" by any one other than PSP. The local's have tried several times to change this, and went down in flames each time. Thats what all the white lines are plastered all over the local roads in PA. Some use other colors, may not use full lines across the road.
The soft limit from 5-10 MPH over the limit is due to the error factor of radar, lidar, pacing, VASCAR, accutrax etc.. Its not really to give a 5-10MPH tack on to the posted limits. The only legal defense that any one has on speed detection devices is the LACK OF CALIBRATION of the unit, persons doing the calibration etc.. PA requires that VASCAR and Accutrax be calibrated, failure to keep them up and you can't use them to issue tickets! Radar is the same. There are also specific points as to when you can issue tickets based on the speed limit ie: at 55+ its 2MPH PLUS the 5-10MPH error factor. At 35 its 5+EF. Each area this varies. Some there is no fudge factor. I am sure everyone has heard of Waldo FL, where the posted speed limit in the whole town is 25MPH, and speeding is 24MPH! Seriously! Its a way to make $$$$ plain and simple.
There also is a problem with all the PITA's that want some six lane major roadway to be 35 or even less. Because of the "children." Oh, puhlease. Or the some back country road that has all the little yuppies move in and was once 60-70MPH now is 45-50. Been there.... road I travel started as posted as 70, then 65, then 60, now it down to 45-50 in some areas. Cross the county line 70! And its still mostly rural farm land... but a few yuppies and the place goes to pot.
This country needs to get out of the traffic enforcement, especially on speed limits, business and get back to work on real crimes, or actually preventing crime by patrolling rather than sitting around 5-10 at a time in a speed trap. Waste of tax money. A marked unit patrolling areas can do more to PREVENT CRIME than anything.
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Seriously
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my two cents: In most states, the speed limit for a road (and this applies almost absolutely to cautionary signs for bends and blind hills etc) are carefully determined by traffic safety engineers.
The reason most speed limits seem "artificially low" is because they're calculated for the maximum safe speed of a heavy truck or POS car with POS brakes and relatively poor maneuverability.
Maximum safe speed is derived usually from two main factors: 1)Will X vehicle be able to maintain traction around a bend, over a hill, on a ramp? and 2) In the case of an area with bad visibilty, will X vehicle be able to stop or safely maneuver before hitting something (fully stopped car, child, moose) in the road on the other side of the hill/around the bend.
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Under the speed is more dangerous
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Speed != Mileage
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Re: Speed != Mileage
Name two! No, wait - one! One race car that gets better than, say, 22 mpg when running at or around 9000 rpm. I'd say that's a pretty pessimistic estimate of "most street vehicles at their best". Fuel mileage is important for many kinds of racing, but they're usually looking to boost mileage from 4.5 mpg to 4.6, or something along those lines. Race cars generally have really poor fuel economy compared to road cars, for (should be) obvious reasons. The Audi R10 TDI is the only thing that could come close, and while I couldn't quickly find mileage data for it, IIRC even that was well under 20.
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Well, of course they do! Who enforces speed limits anymore?
Most police officers know cars traveling at 70mph will cause more damage should an accident occur, but also realize most of the accidents on the road are caused by factors unrelated to speed, but instead, poor judgment.
Shifting lanes without signaling, braking hard, following too closely, and the top of the list, environmental conditions is what kills. Speed just makes it look worse.
I've always been a speeder because I know what the limitations of my car is. I know the inherent risk should something "jump out" at me. But I also know people are worse than these risks moreso.
I always stay in the left lane. ALWAYS. The only time I move over is when someone needs to pass me. But it's these assholes who risk my life as well as others by tailgating me because I can't move over fast enough for them. I don't speed up to move over for them, so they'll just have to wait until I'm clear.
More often than not, they can't wait for me to make my 2 car distance before switching lanes, and thus, immediately cut over to pass me at less than 5mph. In some cases, some even speed faster just to make a statement.
Speed doesn't kill. Idiotic drivers do, such as one commenter who deliberately drives at HIS speed while the rest of the world is forced to go around him, increasing the chance for an auto accident.
Don't let idiots tell you that going slower saves gas. It's crap. Especially when the internal combustion engine is the WORSE thing created by man when it comes to output vs. efficiency.
Oh, and one thing to note: ignoring the speed limit applies only to the highway. For you assholes out there doing 40+ in neighborhoods, may you strike a tree and kill yourselves before you do someone's child.
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Re: Well, of course they do! Who enforces speed limits anymore?
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speed limits are about income
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crazy speeders.
Thanks.
Matthew T. Sain
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..Seriously?
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Not paying attention to speed limits.
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