Copper Admits The *REAL* Reason For Speed Limits
Road to Success Podcast has done a podcast with a police sergeant from the UK. A lot of ground covered including speed limits and the real reason speed limits have no relation to the vehicle, driver skill or the state of the road at the specific time.
Skill Levels & Speed limits
The officer acknowledged that different speed limits for different skill level of drivers would be appropriate but that it would be impossible to police so the speed limits have to be set for the lowest common denominator.
It would be impossible to know what license the driver of each vehicle has, so it would be impossible to know if the speed they were travelling at was legal. They would be there all day stopping people “speeding” who were actually permitted to travel at that speed.
Average Drivers
Another point he brought up was everyone feels like they are an above average driver, and the problem with that, is that we drive in a way that is obviously not safe, for example not identifying road hazards, following too closely, we are not aware of the danger we are in.
This I thought was a great, fantastic, amazing point to make.
I think we all see it. People who are driving fast but are obviously not aware of the danger they are in. They are relying on the ability of other drivers to make their situation safer but they don’t realise it.
This point he made I think is probably the most convincing argument I’ve heard for speed limits.
Speed Limits
On the other hand I think speed limits are the bluntest and most unsophisticated solution to the problem. The problem being people travelling at speeds they think is appropriate when the speed clearly isn’t.
I don’t think putting a speed limit on a stretch of road “cures” the problem of people over estimating their abilities. Putting a 50 MPH limit of a stretch of road does not stop the over estimation because the situation on that road is always changing and so does the speed that is appropriate on that road.
There will be times when travelling at 50 MPH will not be appropriate, a driver overestimating their abilities and/or the abilities of the car has the same problem as they did to start with.
Core Problem
The only good solution, like all good solutions is to deal with the core problem. In this case the core problem is people over estimating their abilities because their experience of what can happen in the worst case scenario is slim to non existent.
Ignorance
To put it another way and I think this could be used to describe the life experience. We are all ignorant until we are put in that situation we have never been put in before. We all make judgments on the behaviour of other people, what we would do if we were in their position. Except we don’t know what the other person’s position is, at least only on the most superficial level, like when driving. When driving we may not know the other person exists until we come around the corner and find a car parked in the road while the driver is taking a piss in the bushes. No problem except there are cars coming in the other direction and we have nowhere to go except into the back of the parked car.
People Are Excellent Drivers
Granted, I would say 99.99% of people of the road are truly excellent drivers. They drive safely at the speed they feel comfortable with.
However there is that 0.01% of people who are capable of making some truly massive errors of judgement, parking on a country road while they take a piss because they think no one will come. For example.
And we are all susceptible to brain fade for whatever reason, being lost I think is probably the one everyone experiences occasionally and we know how much attention we are giving the road when we are looking for that house number.
The Point
I guess the point I’m trying to make is generally, driving is very safe. Most of us will rarely see an accident happen live in front of us (touch wood). But we know that obviously this doesn’t mean crazy things don’t happen, they happen all the time.
Craziness
But do we drive in a way that says nothing crazy is going to happen? And is driving at a lower speed, the magic bullet to dealing with the incredibly rare crazy incident?
First off all there is a trade-off between getting to where you are going in a way that keeps you alert and flows with the people around you and the speed that is supposedly “safe” ie the speed limit.
Being Pragmatic
I think we as drivers acknowledge craziness can happen at any speed and the important thing is to be alert at all times and to make good, sensible decision if the craziness unfolds. And we also acknowledge that bad things can happen but the risk, outweighs the benefits exponentially. Driving is worth the risk.
Given all this, no I personally do not think speed limits are the magic bullet. For sure they can offer useful guidance as to what the appropriate speed is, in some unknown condition and at some unknown time, but as a hard and fast rule, especially when the speed limit is not realistic, limits are definitely not the answer.
Accidents
I touched on it above, I think accidents happen when something crazy happens. People turn without looking, people not paying attention to what is happening in front of them, people doing things which are completely unexpected (parking after a corner on a country road blocking a lane) and yes, people travelling at speeds which do not take into consideration these things.
People Doing Idiotic Things.
A lot of the craziness/idiocy can be read. By looking at the body language of everything that could affect your progress down a road. It’s easy to spot someone who is lost, it’s easy to spot someone that might doing something unpredictable and so on.
More Dangerous
I could argue that arbitrary speed limits and/or speed limits that make no sense, make things more dangerous not less. Reading body language is easy when it happens naturally. When speed limits change on the hoof, for example variable speed limits on the M25, things become unpredictable. We have no idea how the cars around us are going to react to a sudden change in speed limit. Will they lose speedy quite quickly, will it be more progressive, will they change lane and so on.
If someone is travelling along a road at a speed far below what they feel comfortable (because of the artificial limit) will they be concentrating on the job at hand? Will their minds wander? Will people pull out of junctions assuming people will be travelling at the artificial limit? Will people be travelling at a higher speed they comfortable (they are scared of points) because of the queue of traffic behind them? And what affect will this have on their driving?
Safe speed is self regulating
99.999% of people, 99.9999% of the time drive at a speed they feel comfortable with, and the speed they feel comfortable with will be generally set by the speed other people are driving at. Safe speed is self regulating.
Bad Things Will Happen
People doing idiotic things will always happen, I think the key to safer roads is to reduce the opportunity for people to do idiotic things and top of the list to stop it, is for people to be aware of their surroundings, to be 100% concentrated on driving.
This Is A Problem
Unrealistic speed limits create space for the mind to start thinking about things other than the road around it, and this is when stupid/idiotic/unrealistic things happen. When people think they are travelling slow enough to do something extra on top of driving, this is a problem.
Unacceptable
Coming back to the policeman in the podcast. He talks about 4 or 5 people dying everyday on British roads, about 25,000 people a year getting injured on British roads and how this is unacceptable.
I don’t think anyone will disagree with him, less is better.
Point Of Contention
I think the point of contention comes from the method to achieve the goal.
He believes speed is the problem and speed limits are the cure or at least the best cure we have given what the police can enforce.
On this point I would disagree, based on the reasoning above.
Awareness
People being more aware of their surroundings is a better solution. People concentrating 100% on the act of driving is the answer. Unrealistic and/or arbitrary speed limits make people concentrate less on their surroundings and more on the speedometer. I don’t know how anyone could argue this is a safer situation.
70 or 90?
Would I prefer being on the road with someone doing 70 but chatting on the phone or daydreaming or with someone doing 90 but 100% focussed on driving?
I’ll take the focussed driver everyday of the week.
