Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[powderjunkie]

But just think about how great it would be to set up our own foreign service and grift ambassador appointments to a bunch of deplorable ######bags. Did I say grift? Oops, I meant grift.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Whynotnow

I actually think it is,yes. Are you arguing for an unlimited speed limit since if you keep increasing it that must be better too right?

That’s just it isn’t it. Without a baseline for acceptable risk level this conversation is just about a few kms each way. We have greatly improved vehicle safety since the 1990s and haven’t adjusted speed limits. We’re speed limits too high then?

What rational do you have that today is the right trade off? You are clearly with your position are willing to put lives at risk for 10-15 minutes of travel time.

My issue isn’t so much of what is the right speed limit it’s the position you are taking that people advocating higher limits are trading lives for convenience when your current position trades lives for convenience.

So until we can agree on acceptable rates / km there isn’t really a way of having this discussion. Perhaps if the average individual saves more time in travel then on average is lost due to fatalities then it’s good policy. (I suspect this would allow way more dangerous roads)

I als add that the goldilocks fallacy is present in most political arguments which puts a higher burden on the person advocating change because of the underlying assumption that the status quo is correct. This has very negative affects on things like taxation and spending policies and debates.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

It's almost like traffic safety is a complex topic informed by a lot more than a country's maximum speed limit.

This is basically what I have been saying. The statement that lower speed limits reduce harm is not a factual statement.

In terms of the BC study I haven't read it yet.

The Urban study, I have specifically been talking about highways because that is the issue at hand, and I think that pedestrians and congestion add a wrinkle to the severity risk that changes things a lot.

As for the AAA study, this is the same study that cherry picked a single jurisdiction over a favorable 6 year span, and if you zoom out in that same location over 40 years there were multiple speed changes up and down, and the effect basically disappears showing a steady downward trend over time. (I kind of assume you would find the same thing with a careful look at the BC study).

If we want to go conclusion shopping, we all have access to AI now, so I can post some studies, I think I mentioned before I am leaning on the solomon curve earlier,. It's about the substance of data, and the data shows a general downward trend with generally better safety features in vehicles and driving habits, and speed limits not being a variable in that trend.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20838142/
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publication...7084/97084.pdf
https://www.accessmagazine.org/wp-co...save-lives.pdf