When people speed, they are in that 15% group at the top, and they are either law breakers or they are in a hurry, which also means that they are a law breaker. The only sure way to fix a speeding problem is enforcement and hit them in their pocketbook. It really does slow people down, and they start watching for those cops, and that slows them down. Really does.

<a href=”http://prismengineering.blogspot.com/2009/05/boy-racers-have-already-knocked-wall.html”?http://prismengineering.blogspot.com/2009/05/boy-racers-have-already-knocked-wall.html

The public road is not the place to seek stimulation. Anyone who’s using it for such needs to have their driving privileges removed. We’ve all seen such drivers. They’re usually young, male, and first class douches.

As the movie indicates, the scientists at Traffic for London claim that by keeping people within the speed limit will lower accidents by 10%. Fewer accidents and at lower average speeds — sounds like a winner.

Members of the various governmental bodies that set speed limits are often quite open about how they set speed limits - 5 or 10 miles per hour slower than they think most people will drive.

Many traffic safety studies demonstrate that relative speed differences between vehicles are much more likely to cause accidents than the absolute speed of traffic. If everyone is driving at 80 mph plus or minus 2 mph, the group is generally safer than if some people are driving 60 and others are driving 80.

As far as “Intelligent Speed Adaptation” AKA a governor, I can think of dozens of times that the ability to speed up allowed me to avoid a collision, whether pulling into traffic, at an intersection or passing on a two-lane road.

What’s going to happen to traffic if everyone’s governor limits them to 60 mph and someone decides to drive 58 mph on a two-lane road? A long line of tailgating cars leading to a giant chain-reaction of rear-end collisions.

Also on the issue of speed, in my county they recently installed an “intelligent” traffic system. It allows the county to adjust traffic light timing. However, since they don’t co-ordinate posted speed with the timing, it makes the speed limit meaningless and induces speeding. If going the speed limit doesn’t reduces your chances of catching a red light, why bother.