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Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

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Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#91

Post by glial »

antiquark wrote: post #69
kragen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i just spent three hours on the bus today and i would much rather have spent an hour in a car instead, though my risk of dying would surely be higher there are a lot of places within 100 km of my house that i'd enjoy visiting but where public transport doesn't go. if i had a car, i could go there easily. if that means shortening my life expectancy by 20 minutes, that seems like a worthwhile tradeoff. the risk i'd be…

I've instructed my kids to avoid public transit, and drive as much as possible, for totally different reasons.... https://nypost.com/2022/10/11/nyc-subway-murders-jump-to-hig...

There were 255 traffic deaths in NYC 2022[0], so according to the statistic on the site you link to, driving is 36x more dangerous.

[0] https://www.silive.com/news/2023/01/nyc-traffic-deaths-drop-....

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#92

Post by whateveracct »

tra3 wrote: post #34

I’ve learned “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” from shooting sports, but I find it applies equally well to most (all?) areas of life. When I started driving, I used to speed to the next stop light, change lanes frequently. I stopped doing this when I got older, partially because I see people that zip around at the same stop lights anyway.

This is why I always try to pass people who brake for no reason. Some people are constantly on their break - it's just how they drive. It's nice to not have all those brake light signals to constantly react to.

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#93

Post by techdmn »

danaris wrote: post #81
lsllc wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a total lack of "lane discipline" (as Clarkson would say) in the US. In fact I'd argue that it's not a lack of discipline, but just a lack of understanding of how you should drive on a highway. People tend to migrate to the "fast" lanes (the left), so you naturally end up with people either passing on the right or tailgating them. Of course, you should always be in the right lanes except for passing. I do won…

> Of course, you should always be in the right lanes except for passing. First, I should note that I 100% agree. However, as the highways have become more crowded, it has become less practical to actually adhere to this. If I'm going 70MPH (the prevailing speed on the NYS highways where the legal speed limit is 65MPH tends to be somewhere between 70 and 78MPH), and there are a half-dozen cars going 60MPH in the right…

The way I like to think about is this: If I see a maniac looming in my rearview mirror, where do I want that driver to be? Surely not bottled up behind me, where they can cause all kinds of trouble. I want them out in front of me, where I can keep an eye on them and where I control the distance between us. Furthermore, I would like to put this nutjob in front of me as quickly and as cleanly as possible. Fortunately they are often happy to zip by on my left if I give them the slightest encouragement: Room to do so.

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#94

Post by rufus_foreman »

screye wrote: post #84
toast0 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That number (edit: rail deaths) feels too high. Other than major train collisions/derailments, is it even possible to die because of trains ? Pedestrians and others are struck by rail vehicles regularly. Additionally, where rails come into contact with other pathways, they are a hazard to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists and sometimes even cars when railway is poorly designed or implemented.

Genuine question. How ? A train is something you can see coming from a mile away. It doesn't blindside you. 'Deer in headlights' events occur, but it not like the person couldn't have foreseen it coming. It's like blaming parkour deaths on walls. A pedestrian crossing a street can be 'struck' by a car, because a car can actually come out of nowhere. There is a reason that most car deaths in cities occur on a 'uncheck…

People do things like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/11doux4/people_clim...

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#95

Post by tristor »

screye wrote: post #84
toast0 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That number (edit: rail deaths) feels too high. Other than major train collisions/derailments, is it even possible to die because of trains ? Pedestrians and others are struck by rail vehicles regularly. Additionally, where rails come into contact with other pathways, they are a hazard to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists and sometimes even cars when railway is poorly designed or implemented.

Genuine question. How ? A train is something you can see coming from a mile away. It doesn't blindside you. 'Deer in headlights' events occur, but it not like the person couldn't have foreseen it coming. It's like blaming parkour deaths on walls. A pedestrian crossing a street can be 'struck' by a car, because a car can actually come out of nowhere. There is a reason that most car deaths in cities occur on a 'uncheck…

Looking at rail fatalities without filtering by intent of the persons involved is equally as fruitless as looking at firearm fatalities without filtering to only homicides. Most fatalities are suicides. Suicides are likely preventable in various different ways but don’t tell us anything about passenger safety on rail.

If you eliminate likely suicides, rail travel is stupendously safer than driving.

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#96

Post by LorenPechtel »

techdmn wrote: post #75
jcgrillo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "flying by on the right" thing feels like a recent (within the last ~decade?) phenomenon. Am I imagining it?

Unpopular opinion: People fly by on the right because someone else is camping in the left lane. The disclaimer is that with too much congestion the whole thing breaks down, and some people are determined to drive like idiots regardless, but it's worth examing why the right lane is open when the left lane isn't.

Note the "across three lanes"--this isn't a case of camping in the left lane as there must be at least 4 lanes for this to happen.

Rather, it's idiots weaving through traffic. They treat the flowing traffic as basically static obstacles and things can go very wrong if they cease to be static.

I've also seen it because the guy who flew by me on the right was impatient with the amount of clearance I left before moving back to the right lane--cut right as soon as there was a gap wide enough to move through.

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#97

Post by LorenPechtel »

konschubert wrote: post #42
giantg2 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I did find it entertaining." I found it a bit disgusting due to how shotty the logic/ application was, even if the methods were sound. "If you accidentally kill somebody on a bike you’re likely to serve prison time for manslaughter." I wouldn't find this "likely". You have to be involved in some reckless or negligent action that directly resulted in their death. It is possible of course, and does occasionally happen…

I you commute by bike you know that the risks are significant. I stopped cycling because I have a family to come home to. This has negatively impacted my quality of life.

Yup. I used to bike a lot in a small town. Move to the big city and quit--the first place we lived there was no safe bike route, period. Second place, likewise. Where we live now there is a safe path to one store. I haven't actually eyeballed it but now I think there's an acceptable route to one other.

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#98

Post by LorenPechtel »

brk wrote: post #33
standardUser wrote: post #31

> Maybe highway miles are much more dangerous than non-highway miles, and we shouldn’t be on the highway at all. I imagine it's pretty hard to get seriously injured or die when not on the freeway. I've long thought that should be the primary application of self-driving technology. It's ultra-simplified and relatively standardized compared to other types of roads, and it's where the most life and limb can be saved. No…

>I imagine it's pretty hard to get seriously injured or die when not on the freeway. I don't have data handy, but it seems like an awful lot of fatalities occur in and around intersections (which imply not-a-freeway). Freeways feel like they are safer overall, most of the time you are moving in the same direction as the vehicles immediately surrounding you, which reduces the chances for head-on or side collisions, wh…

Yup. Miles driven actually have little impact on accidents. Rather, it's interactions that matter. Miles of you all going down the same freeway at about the same speed involve almost no interactions.

(This is also why airplane fatalities bear little relationship to the flight time--because they're mostly takeoff and landing. Accidents when you're peacefully up at cruise altitude are rare.)

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#99

Post by LorenPechtel »

And to throw out another factor that messes up this analysis:

Most accidents involve the interaction of two cars. The faster vehicles get to their destination the fewer vehicles are on the road at any one time and thus the fewer interactions there will be.

I have no numbers on how big an effect this would be.

Re: Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)

#100

Post by giantg2 »

jachee wrote: post #86
giantg2 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised you draw the line at cameras but not at GPS enforced speed, which of course includes location data for jurisdiction purposes at least.

GPS-enforced speed could be done fully internal to the vehicle. THe jurisdiction data would have to be accurately stored internally, but that’s not incredibly difficult; e.g. Apple Maps has speed limit info for something north of 90% of US roads.

True. But they can do that with red-light cameras to where only the offenders data is captured. I think the issue is more on how they will implement the system than how they could implement the system. I can't see them setting up GPS enforced speed and not wanting the ability to track the location because of theft/national security/[insert favorite soapbox].
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