New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night • Hacker News Board

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#521

Post by Noumenon72 » Tue, Dec 15, 2020, 6:01 AM UTC

Ekaros wrote: post #181

Noumenon72 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20/35 is 4/7 the speed, and therefore it makes every trip take 7/4 as long. So you spend an additional 15 minutes on every 20-minute journey. You're rapidly going to waste more human lifetimes sitting in cars than you would ever save from driving slower.

I wonder what is the effect on climate change? Are we killing the planet by doing this? Should we instead up the speeds to closer of where cars are most efficient? Also need to remember that each fatality is good for environment...

Around 45 mph is the most efficient speed for a car engine last I checked -- they always tell you to slow down to save gas, but never to speed up. I feel that shows their real agenda is more about limiting speed than efficiency.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#522

Post by Noumenon72 » Tue, Dec 15, 2020, 6:15 AM UTC

viraptor wrote: post #111

Noumenon72 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20/35 is 4/7 the speed, and therefore it makes every trip take 7/4 as long. So you spend an additional 15 minutes on every 20-minute journey. You're rapidly going to waste more human lifetimes sitting in cars than you would ever save from driving slower.

Until you can donate someone your time, that's not how it works. This take is "my 5 min is so important, I'm willing to risk someone's 60 years" (scaled to thousands of people). You can also make other choices that reduce your 15min to begin with. (If the small difference there makes important changes in your life)

I don't need to donate them my time, they are also saving the same 15 minutes per trip. Do I also have to invent time donation to propose other time-savers like dishwashers?

> "my 5 min is so important, I'm willing to risk someone's 60 years" (scaled to thousands of people).

The scaling matters! Boston has 1.8 million drivers losing 150 hours in traffic per year, according to https://inrix.com/press-releases/2019-traffic-scorecard-us/. Imagine that all of that traffic was caused by our desire to save a single human baby. 270 million hours lost to save 700,000. Would you agree that's not worth it? That probably those 270 million hours would produce enough economic output to save a different baby instead?

To me, a 75% increase in travel time is high enough and 35 mph is slow enough that I think everyone's 15 minutes is, in fact, worth risking someone's 60 years, once every couple of years. I could be proved wrong about the math, but it seems to me it's mostly an argument about risk tolerance.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#523

Post by Noumenon72 » Tue, Dec 15, 2020, 6:35 AM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #129

Noumenon72 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20/35 is 4/7 the speed, and therefore it makes every trip take 7/4 as long. So you spend an additional 15 minutes on every 20-minute journey. You're rapidly going to waste more human lifetimes sitting in cars than you would ever save from driving slower.

The number of people who justify driving as fast as possible to "save time" and then waste lots of time on other pointless activities is quite incredible. It's almost as if they're not really concerned about time at all...

First, the existence of hypocrites and irrational people is not a counterargument to appeals for efficiency.

Second, those pointless activities are what we're saving time for. I want to get more work done, and retire sooner, just so that I have more time for my pointless activities. People who don't begrudge every minute they spend in a car, in my view, are failing to maximize the leisure time that should be their chief goal in life.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#524

Post by NLips » Tue, Dec 15, 2020, 11:02 PM UTC

Silhouette wrote: post #356

NLips wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring whether it’s “human nature” to vary by that much, the remedy is simple: in a 60mph limit (the clue is in the name), target 54. +/-10% is now 48.6-59.4, instead of 54-66. It’s within the speed limit, and a smaller absolute speed differential between lowest and highest speed. Similar arguments have been made against average speed cameras on UK motorways - “I’ll have to be entirely focused on the speedo the who…

The speed limit is not a target. Platitudes like this and the evergreen "speed kills" can themselves be dangerous. Obviously driving at the speed limit all the time is not a legal requirement and there will be times when driving slower is appropriate. However, driving far slower than the speed limit for no good reason when there is other traffic around can itself increase the risk of something bad happening, because…

My suggestion for someone having difficulty keeping their speed in a 20% window was to aim 6 mph slower at highway speeds. That doesn’t constitute “far slower”.

In the Uk, if you are incapable of handling your car on a highway with other vehicles driving 12mph slower than the limit, then you are incapable of driving on highways - some vehicles e.g. HGVs are restricted to these lower speeds.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#525

Post by NLips » Tue, Dec 15, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #288

NLips wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring whether it’s “human nature” to vary by that much, the remedy is simple: in a 60mph limit (the clue is in the name), target 54. +/-10% is now 48.6-59.4, instead of 54-66. It’s within the speed limit, and a smaller absolute speed differential between lowest and highest speed. Similar arguments have been made against average speed cameras on UK motorways - “I’ll have to be entirely focused on the speedo the who…

If everyone is driving at the speed limit then it’s dangerous to be the outlier. Always go with the flow of the rest of the traffic.

I have never been on a busy motorway with everyone driving at or above the speed limit. Car drivers always vary between 55 and 70(+), and heavier vehicles are frequently as slow as 50. That is not a hazard. It would be a hazard were they to drive in the wrong lane, or fail to merge, but that’s a totally separate issue to the steady-state-avoid-speed-cameras which I was replying to.