Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

irishnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 92 posts

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#61

Post by wiredfool »

whelp_24 wrote: post #29
wiredfool wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 2 countries I've driven in in Europe with higher limits, France (130 in good weather) and Germany (unlimited in some sections). UK is 70mph. Max I've seen in the US is 75mph. Most traffic in Germany, even in the unlimited sections, tends to max out around 130. France tends to hit that 130 and not go above it. I stand by 120 as a generally reasonable speed for a motorway with a speed limit.

The speed limit being 70 in the us is a bad joke. A relic from the gas shortage we had once that must have proven lucrative. Our roads are long wide and straight, it shouldn't be so low. (though Texas has some 85mph sections)

That was 55.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#62

Post by petercooper »

cameronh90 wrote: post #58
petercooper wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you're going 31 in a 30, after accounting for measurement errors Sure, it is a limit rather than a recommendation. In terms of statute, anyway. Almost every social or legal convention in the UK pragmatically treats it as a recommended speed for some unknown reason and you could even pick up the attention of the police doing 40mph in a NSL on a bad day. (I even recall my driving instructor telling me I shou…

I've found that this seems to entirely depend on who taught you to drive, and perhaps to some degree where you learnt to drive. In rural areas, almost everywhere is NSL but you'd die in pretty short order if you drove at 60 on tiny rural roads. My instructor very much taught me that it's a limit rather than a recommendation, however, that's also balanced out with the minor fault of "making progress". Obviously if som…

The "solution" (until we get self driving cars, anyway) may well lie in the automatic speed limiters the EU are pushing and hope to make mandatory in the next few years. I'd really love to defer as much liability for speeding to my car as possible. It knows what the speed limits are, it can read signs, I just need a button that prevents it going over that speed and lets me otherwise drive however I like.. but we're not quite there yet.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#63

Post by dynm »

> In urban, residential and other built-up areas the limit would be cut from 50km/h to 30km/h.

> The limit on main arterial routes in towns and cities would be capped at 50km/h.

> On national secondary roads, the baseline would fall from 100km/h to 80km/h.

One thing I always wonder with changes like this is, why make such a dramatic change (a 40% reduction in urban areas) in a single step? It seems more sensible to make the the change more slowly and study the results. Or, even better, make the change in half the country and let it run for a year as an experiment. (This could be a multi-armed experiment when you compare to, e.g., increasing enforcement instead.)

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#64

Post by super256 »

JeanMarcS wrote: post #25

Ideal would be speed limit based on the road. I drove some "roads" in Ireland, where speed limit is 80km/h but driving faster than 40km/h is daredevil behavior. And don't mention the fact that some roads are not large enough for crossing another vehicule, but it can happen (and sometime the locals drive at 80... A lot of surprise braking !) But it's obviously more difficult to implement, and more difficult for the sp…

> and more difficult for the speed camera management.

In Germany the police needs a specific reason for placing a speed camera. Like a statistic that there are a lot of accidents on that street at that particular spot, or that the street is exceeding noise levels. So, they already have to take into account every individual speed limit; and if the Germans can do this, the Irish can certainly too! :)

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#66

Post by cameronh90 »

petercooper wrote: post #62
cameronh90 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found that this seems to entirely depend on who taught you to drive, and perhaps to some degree where you learnt to drive. In rural areas, almost everywhere is NSL but you'd die in pretty short order if you drove at 60 on tiny rural roads. My instructor very much taught me that it's a limit rather than a recommendation, however, that's also balanced out with the minor fault of "making progress". Obviously if som…

The "solution" (until we get self driving cars, anyway) may well lie in the automatic speed limiters the EU are pushing and hope to make mandatory in the next few years. I'd really love to defer as much liability for speeding to my car as possible. It knows what the speed limits are, it can read signs, I just need a button that prevents it going over that speed and lets me otherwise drive however I like.. but we're n…

In my younger days, I was more likely to drive over the limit, and to be honest I don't think it really made much of a difference in how quickly I got anywhere, but it used a lot more fuel, was more likely to kill me and was far more stressful having to keep switching lanes to maintain those speeds.

Nowadays I'm more like you described, and I prefer to just punch in the speed limit on the cruise control and enjoy my podcast/music. If the traffic ahead slows down, I slow down. I leave the outside lane to the angry BMWs.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#67

Post by tcfhgj »

laci37 wrote: post #59
serpix wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

130km/h is just ludicrous. The consumption compared to 100km/h is about 50% extra and the time saved is wiped out with just one bathroom break.

My typical drive to visit family is roughly 125 kms with a 130 km/h speed limit and 125 kms with a 110 limit. If I drove at 100 all the time it would take 25 minutes more. More than a bathroom break I think. Honestly I feel that driving faster is safer for me, since I tend to zone out if I don't have to pay attention to overtaking trucks.

> Honestly I feel that driving faster is safer for me, since I tend to zone out if I don't have to pay attention to overtaking trucks.

If you don't drive while being sleepy this is just a matter of getting used to it. I used to drive to family visits 160-170km/h, but switched to 110 km/h (or train+bike depending on the circumstances). It feels slow at first, but you get used to it. The same when you do it the way around.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#68

Post by wiredfool »

comprev wrote: post #52
JeanMarcS wrote: post #25

Ideal would be speed limit based on the road. I drove some "roads" in Ireland, where speed limit is 80km/h but driving faster than 40km/h is daredevil behavior. And don't mention the fact that some roads are not large enough for crossing another vehicule, but it can happen (and sometime the locals drive at 80... A lot of surprise braking !) But it's obviously more difficult to implement, and more difficult for the sp…

The road from Head of Dunloe down into the Black Valley is 80km/h. You'd be lucky to push 40 on the straight sections!

Hah. That's the one place I've ever had a car pull over to let my bike by.

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#69

Post by tcfhgj »

dynm wrote: post #63

> In urban, residential and other built-up areas the limit would be cut from 50km/h to 30km/h. > The limit on main arterial routes in towns and cities would be capped at 50km/h. > On national secondary roads, the baseline would fall from 100km/h to 80km/h. One thing I always wonder with changes like this is, why make such a dramatic change (a 40% reduction in urban areas) in a single step? It seems more sensible to m…

these speed limits aren't anything new and their impact is well known

Re: Plans to cut speed limits ‘will significantly improve road safety' – minister

#70

Post by wiredfool »

dynm wrote: post #63

> In urban, residential and other built-up areas the limit would be cut from 50km/h to 30km/h. > The limit on main arterial routes in towns and cities would be capped at 50km/h. > On national secondary roads, the baseline would fall from 100km/h to 80km/h. One thing I always wonder with changes like this is, why make such a dramatic change (a 40% reduction in urban areas) in a single step? It seems more sensible to m…

Because speed limits are quantized: 30, 50, 60, 80, 100, 120.

The 50->30 (30->20 mph) is a well known baseline 0 change for built up areas. It's meant to be not for major roads, it's meant for neighborhoods and other areas with many pedestrians.

Post reply on HN