151–160 of 192 posts
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The lethality of cars had nothing to do with the point I was responding to.
It didn't? What were they calling a shame, then?
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I don't think the solution to unsafe roads is to throw everyone that is at-fault in an accident in jail. I understand the frustration cyclists have with auto traffic, but we've seen a million times that harsher penalties don't always have the intended outcome. And we have a habit in the US of using prison as the answer for every malady. Instead, I think the answer is better road design, separating cars and cyclists u…
When people decry using the prison system as a cure-all, it's usually for things like drugs or mental illness. In essence, why punish people for things that either don't harm others, or aren't their fault? You're applying this to a serious crime, at least manslaughter if not murder. If prison isn't appropriate for that, what is prison appropriate for? I imagine an argument could be made that prison is never the right…
Because they're dangerous to society. Whether or not it's their fault, there are some people we can't have on the streets. If you plead insanity in a murder case, we don't want to release you, we want to imprison you in an asylum instead of a jail.
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Oh shut up with half-baked emotional arguments, if a 'few people' dying in accidents was always a good enough reason to slow down traffic there wouldn't be a road in the world faster than 20mph. At any rate, speed limits are set extra low with the expectation that people will go faster than the number on the sign. Trying to 'eliminate speeding' by itself is a nonsense goal.
I'm not making any arguments. Is it ok to go 90mph when the speed limit is 75mph? Even if its straight I90 freeway in the middle of Central Washington? I'm not sure, but today we have that choice as enforcement is choppy. Anyways, we'll be into self driving cars in 10 or 15 years regardless, the question is almost outdated.
As to your question, it depends on the road and 15mph is an unusually large number. I'm used to things more like '70-72 in a 65 zone' and '39 in a 35 zone'. On a straight freeway 90 is probably safe.
But my point was that the current system is broken in such a way that rigorous enforcement of the exact numbers on speed limit signs would make things even worse.
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It definitely is true. In a collision the vehicles absorb the energy of the collision inversely proportional to their relative masses i.e. the lighter car takes the brunt of the crash. Safety researchers are responding by using active protection systems: in vehicles equippped with v2v transcievers will stiffen or soften their crash protection systems based upon the relative masses of the vehicles.
Imagine the following: - two people driving paper-thin cars crash into each other head-on at 60 mph. The cars divide the energy of the collision evenly, disintegrate, and pass on a lot of energy to their passengers. - two people driving huge voluminous and massive SUVs crash into each other head-on at 60 mph. The SUVs divide the energy of the collision evenly, warping into unrecognizable crumply wads of steel. The pa…
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Exactly. Without a doubt there was a literal conspiracy to undermine urban mass transit during the 1930s and 1940s. Firestone, Phillips, Standard Oil, and GM were all convicted of conspiracy, for Pete's sake. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspi...
They were convicted of trying to monopolize sales of buses and bus parts, not eliminate mass transit.
If those companies where convicted of collusion, then it is very likely they conspired about more than a little monopoly.
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"While it is true that high speeds clearly enlarge such risks, it is a bit disingenuous to claim this as a primary concern while simultaneously forcing cars to be made smaller and smaller out of concern for increasing car mileage per gallon and promoting environmental goals. " Great point. In fact, I think the published collision ratings are based on colliding with a car in the same weight class. That is required bec…
Weight is also an overwhelming factor in the OTHER person's survival in an accident. We do not make the general public safer by encouraging an arms race of heavier and heavier vehicles.
What happened to those concept cars that were encased in rubber/(or some other bouncy material) so when they bumped against each other, they would harmlessly bounce off ? I distinctly remember reading about them in Wired some years back.
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Airbags and ABS and crumple zones don't weigh much. The cars are just bigger.
Are you sure about that? I read about people stripping all the airbags out of new Civics and getting dramatically better gas mileage.
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I'm not making any arguments. Is it ok to go 90mph when the speed limit is 75mph? Even if its straight I90 freeway in the middle of Central Washington? I'm not sure, but today we have that choice as enforcement is choppy. Anyways, we'll be into self driving cars in 10 or 15 years regardless, the question is almost outdated.
"So what if a few more people die every year...freedom!" is the emotional and clearly-wrong argument I'm referring to. As to your question, it depends on the road and 15mph is an unusually large number. I'm used to things more like '70-72 in a 65 zone' and '39 in a 35 zone'. On a straight freeway 90 is probably safe. But my point was that the current system is broken in such a way that rigorous enforcement of the exa…
I don't drive anymore. In my city, people barely get up to 80 kph given the traffic, but sometimes I get a crazy Beijing taxi driver who knows where all the cameras are, then I fear for my life.
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Imagine the following: - two people driving paper-thin cars crash into each other head-on at 60 mph. The cars divide the energy of the collision evenly, disintegrate, and pass on a lot of energy to their passengers. - two people driving huge voluminous and massive SUVs crash into each other head-on at 60 mph. The SUVs divide the energy of the collision evenly, warping into unrecognizable crumply wads of steel. The pa…
Sounds like you're restating my premise.