expected ... traffic speed
You're not supposed to be speeding you know?
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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Tell that to like 99% of drivers on the Interstate-95 around the PA-NJ Turnpike section (USA btw).
It's so the police always have something they can stop you for.
When minor things are against the rules which are selectively enforced, it means the authorities get to pick and choose who to punish based on whatever criteria they feel like, which gives them power.
just magically "enforce" it with no unintended consequences, please
Traffic speed? If you know where all the speed cameras are, you could dodge them and hope there are no other police checking you.
That's the whole fucking point. Speed traps are only there to decrease the number of people killed, and we still have idiots complaining about it.
Speed traps don't stop or prevent crime/accidents, they generate money. In fact, one could argue a police speed traps causes accidents when a group of cars in the front suddenly slam on their brakes.
Oh, about that: China also randomly flies drones that patrols the highways. Of couse, that's getting into the Authoritarian territory, and people in Democracies don't like it, but it is an option.
IMHO it's not authoritarian. Your speed in public space should be public. I struggle every day with fucking idiots in BMW or VW who almost hit my car because they can't drive properly. I wouldn't mind seeing them in jail if it meant some kind of control on my own speed.
Ehh, for a bit Virginia tried enforcing them with aircraft.
It stopped because it was expensive, not because it was too authoritarian.
Manned Aircraft is much more expensive than drones, especially fuel cost. You can get like a DJI drone for like around $2000 (there are cheaper ones, but then you have to fly closer, since the cameras sucks on the cheaper ones) with good enough cameras to see the license plates by flying just hovering outside of the edge of the highway (so that, if it fails for some reason, it falls outside of the highway and doesn't affect the traffic), and angle it towards the highway, and you'll see all the license plates clearly, and with the help of the distance markers on the side of the road, determine their speed. As long as they don't crash the drones, they are gonna last a long time, and if batteries are worn out, they can just get new ones. It's not exactly "cheap", but the government has a lot of budget. Getting like 20 of these can cover a lot of area. You don't have to catch every one, just enough to make people think again before trying to speed. And randomly change the locations of patrol so there is no way to predict where they are being watched.
Also, they can get like some expensive ones, some cheap ones, mix and match. The cheaper ones will have trouble getting a clear license plate if it also have to keep a safe distance, but the people don't know which drones are the expensive ones, get like 20 DJI Mavics, 40 DJI Mini 2 SE, mix them up. Think of like having real cameras mixed in with fake cameras.
I know it looks expensive, but just look at the police budget and it's barely a dent. Cut out all of those "riot suppression" (aka: protest suppression) stuff from the budget and you got a lot of budget to work with.
As for manpower, redirect those writing tickets in the city, and teach them how to fly these drones. Parking violations have basically zero harm, fuck that shit, speeding has more potential to cause harm than parking violations.
I don't think everyone always breaks the speed limit, but probably they do at some point during every journey. They knew this went they introduced the 20mph speed limit but they introduced it anyway because they thought it would reduce the average speed by a few mph.
What is a speed limit on highways?
Confused greetings from Germany.
I know it is old, but... : 😁
https://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/animal-caught-speeding-on-a-german-highway/
Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger
- ADAC 1974
You're not expected to break them. For your example, you're not supposed to go over the speed limit. And it is, in fact, extremely easy to do so. Most people are fine with it. And, no, it's not impossible to do so. There is nothing forcing you to go faster for little to no gain and increased risk for you and other.
You expecting to go over tells something about you.
Practically no one actually drives at or below the speed limit in the US, especially on freeways. Whether or not you personally like this doesn't matter -- it's just how it is.
You're welcome to try it, but speeding is so pervasive in our culture that this will single you out and Ruggedly Individualistic Americans will get frothingly butthurt at you over it. Prepare to get tailgated, cut off, bullied out of your lane, stuff thrown at your car, etc.
It sounds like you're proud of your culture of not giving a crap about rules set to improve safety for everyone. On that account, I agree that we'll never see eye to eye about this.
What part of what I wrote expressed that I was "proud" of it?
I'm just telling you how people behave. I don't have any control over anybody but myself. For what it's worth, I'm probably one of the six people in this damn country who doesn't drive like a nut.
You expecting to go over tells something about you.
I don't drive, but every time I’m in my parent’s car, they drive the speed limit, then I see cars flying by on the highway, and I’m like wtf.
I double check the spedometer, it points at just below 60, the sign says speed limit is 60. How is everyone going so fast. They must be speeding.
Not just one or 2 cars. Like almost every car.
Edit: This is in the USA, the Interstate-95 / PA-NJ Turnpike btw.
Because you don’t see the cars going the same speed as you. If everyone on the interstate was going 60 you would only ever see the 10 cars near you. But 10 people going 70 could pass 100 cars. Each of those drivers would see 10 cars going 60 and 10 cars going 70. Despite the fact that less than 10% of the cars were speeding.
For what it's worth, the I-95 corridor from about Richmond to Boston, particularly the DC-Balitmore-Philly-NYC part, is probably one of the worst stretches of highway in the country for generalized insanity and phenomenally poor driving skills on display from everyone involved. It is easily my most hated patch of asphalt in the universe.
A small but measurable improvement would be made to the world instantly if every person in DC and Baltimore had their licenses revoked. Although if experience is any judge, that still wouldn't prevent any of them from still all being on 95, three inches from the car in front and raging over "only" being able to do 80 in a 55.
This sounds like a distinctly cultural problem where the word 'limit' clearly doesn't mean very much to the population in question.
It's a limit, not a target, and certainly not a floor as some USAsians seem to treat it.
Here in Australia you can be fined for exceeding the limit by less than 10km/h. Yes, even if you are 1km/h over, and whilst this would probably get thrown out in court you'd still have to take time off to attend court.
In the US it's technically a target, since you can be ticketed for going too fast or too slow.
It's a limit, not a target, and certainly not a floor
It depends what it is. In some nations limits are reasonable and therefore obeyed while in others they are way too low and therefore commonly ignored.
Too strict laws like this lead to people disregarding it. Even worse, it may even lead to other sections of the same subject law being disregarded, because if it is commonly acknowledged that one section of specific law is ridiculous, why not the others.
Here we have a blanket 3km/h tolerance so they measure you, take 3km/h off and then use that to see which bracket of speeding you fall into (10, 20, etc).
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On the highways here, the original speed limit of 55 was to save our nation's resources, not just "55 to stay alive" but also it was an efficient speed to maintain and still pretty fast.
Inside the city it works much better to make drivers feel unsafe going fast. Narrower lanes, speed bumps, roundabouts, etc.
In answer to your actual question - some laws are just old and haven't been unwound yet and others are used as pretext for profiling, police (or,n more properly whoever is running them) like to be able to stop people for no reason but that can be seen as illegitimate, so they keep laws that everyone breaks, jaywalking, etc to have an excuse.
I don't think there is any one law everybody breaks really but also no person who has lived perfectly law abiding life.
I'm too German to understand what's here.
You seem to be assuming that people would keep driving as they currently do if we removed speed limits entirely. I'd be willing to bet that this is not the case. Most drivers have a number in mind on how much they're willing to exceed the speed limit. For me that is 5 - 10kph, so if the limit is 60kph, then you're not going to catch me going 80. Without speed limits I probably would.
So why do we have such laws? Because they work. Not perfectly but to some extent.
They exist just in case they need to crack down on you.
I always think of dog leash laws this way. In many places they aren’t enforced and the majority of dog owners let their dogs off leash. However, if the owner loses control of their dog and it gets into trouble, like biting someone or another dog, then the law can always say, you’re liable because your dog was supposed to be on leash.
I think the same goes for speeding and other laws. It basically puts liability on the lawbreaker if they take a certain risk. If nothing bad happens, fine. But, if something does, then it’s your fault.
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Because it can be enforced selectively, and if everyone is guilty of something, anyone in particular can be harassed under the cover of a legal justification.
Yep. And in some places, one can see the enforcement is against minoritites and other scape goats at a disproportionate level. This also has the "bonus" of being able to make one group look like they break the law much more often and are dangerous
Yep. In Switzerland not having your ID on you is an arrest-able offence. Of course, the police never check the ID of anyone white or who blends in.
But if you look brown / disabled, then they will check you…
Aside from selective enforcement, some laws (like traffic laws) are there for your protection AND to establish liability if something goes wrong.
If the government sets the limit at 30 and everyone goes 50, when an incident occurs, nobody can sue the city for bad roads because everyone was going faster than the intended speed.
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How do you expect constant enforcement? I'll go over the speed limit on the motorway when it's quiet and the lane is empty. Police generally don't care if you're doing 75 or 80 in a 70, as long as you're not driving like an ass. The most important thing is keeping pace with traffic.
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