Quote:
Originally Posted by WhiteTiger
From what I can find, speeding ranks in the Top 5-10 reasons for fatal car accidents. Most of the other reasons I've seen can pretty much be lumped into "distracted driving". So since it looks like speeding and distracted driving are two of the biggest causes of vehicle accidents (fatal or not), then it's something the cops should very much be looking into.
Too bad giving someone a speeding ticket really doesn't seem to work on slowing folks down anyhow.
As for my 'favorite' police fishing trap, there's a single block playground zone leaving Elbow Tr going East on 58th Ave SW. It drops to 30, and the like nabbing folks there. I usually see them there once or twice a month.
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Okay great. If I accept that the speeding under 20km over the posted limit is bad and equals more death argument, I still don't think the speeding fine system is working. If it were, we would also be citing way fewer traffic fatalities in Calgary than Vancouver and Toronto. I still maintain that we would be better served by taking the resources off of the ticket book and onto something else, even if it were driving related.
But I don't accept it! Too fast for the conditions is an issue, but when has speed enforcement ever targetted this area. Too hard to prosecute. What is more a problem is faster or slower than the median speed. Is the heavily ticketed 10-20 over crowd really the deathly menace some of you would make us out to be? Reading the wikipedia piece on it doesn't convince me it is:
Motor vehicle speed
The U.S. Department of Transportation's
Federal Highway Administration review research on traffic speed in 1998.
[18] The summary states:
- That the evidence shows that the risk of having a crash is increased both for vehicles traveling slower than the average speed, and for those traveling above the average speed.
- That the risk of being injured increases exponentially with speeds much faster than the median speed.
- That the severity of a crash depends on the vehicle speed change at impact.
- That there is limited evidence that suggests that lower speed limits result in lower speeds on a system wide basis.
- That most crashes related to speed involve speed too fast for the conditions.
- That more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of traffic calming.
The Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) of the Australian state of
New South Wales (NSW) asserts speeding (travelling too fast for the prevailing conditions or above the posted
speed limit[19]) is a factor in about 40 percent of road deaths.
[20] The RTA also say speeding increases the risk of a crash and its severity.
[20] On another webpage, the RTA qualify their claims by referring to one specific piece of research from 1997, and stating "research has shown that the risk of a crash causing death or injury increases rapidly, even with small increases above an appropriately set speed limit."
[21]
The contributory factor report in the
official British road casualty statistics show for 2006, that "exceeding speed limit" was a contributory factor in 5% of all casualty crashes (14% of all fatal crashes), and that "travelling too fast for conditions" was a contributory factor in 11% of all casualty crashes (18% of all fatal crashes).
[22]