New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws • Hacker News Board

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#201

Post by wink » Thu, Jul 07, 2022, 12:40 PM UTC

omnimus wrote: post #200

wink wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, as someone living close to the Austrian border and being over there very often... every single trip every nth car overtakes me when I'm going 130 as allowed. You just need to be local and know where you'll have to pay a fine. Depends on which of theirs though, the one from Salzburg to Italy isn't so bad, but the others are.

No need to be local just install Waze and you will see all cameras and policemen in the app.

I wasn't complaining, I'm completely happy to go 130 - just stating the fact that there are more locals speeding than Germans. And the "fun" fact is that on certain days there are actually more cars with German plates on their Autobahn than Austrian ones.. or certainly a 2:1 ratio at most.

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#202

Post by standardUser » Fri, Jul 08, 2022, 1:43 AM UTC

cypress66 wrote: post #140

standardUser wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, I was stating a reason why a rational person would not want to drive at excessive speeds, as the comment asked.

Why do you assume what's rational and what's not? There are plenty of situations where arriving sooner is more rational and important than saving gas. (leaving aside legality or safety)

Most people think wasting an expensive and harmful resource for minimal gain is irrational.

Re: New cars will stop drivers from speeding under European laws

#203

Post by snapplebobapple » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 9:23 PM UTC

nicbou wrote: post #151

atoav wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok I'll bite. The single most thing I hate about driving car in Germany is the lack of an upper speed limit on big stretches of the Autobahn. If you cross over from any neighbouring country any driver will notice that what before was a friendly chugging along now has become a stressful battle between people who just want to go somewhere with a good compromise of speed and fuel use and speedsters who will breath up yo…

I drive under 100 in the rightmost line and it's not a problem, since there are trucks and campers there. Just stay out of the left lane. However speed limits make sense from an environmental perspective. The difference between 100 and 130 is quite a lot of petrol.

The environmental argument for speed limits is ridiculous because many places have a carbon tax/other taxes meant to capture the unpriced environmental cost that accrues to the commons. With the carbon tax the person doing the speeding is paying for any excess harm they to the environment they may be doing and is willing to pay that cost in order to go faster so they should be able to go faster. If you don't think the cost of carbon is properly priced argue to raise your carbon tax, don't argue to add additional special taxes for various things you don't like.