Do You Speed?

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Before everything was computerized they use to throw out tickets after 3 years. If you could lay low, no points or fines but you could end up spending the night in the hoosegow.

I usually speed a little to keep up with or exceed traffic. I feel going to slow or too fast in traffic throws everybody off and causes accidents. In very bad conditions I'll slow down and let the fools carry on and hope they don't cause me grief. Speaking as a one time professional driver dealing with time, speeding is an easy thing for cops to enforce but I see lots of terrible driving from people who never speed or get in fault accidents, but they cause lots of havoc around them. I worked for a company that was quick to fire you for any accident and I was never canned.
I've had lots of tickets in the last 30 yrs. but no accidents.

Woudn't be the first time. The funny thing is, I got a ticket in SK in the summer of 1996. The cop said that if I thought I could go back to Alberta without paying the ticket I was mistaken. He said there was an agreement between the provinces. When I went to renew my licence over a year later, I had budgeted to pay for the SK ticket, it wasn't on my record. Four years later I had taken a promotion in SK. I went to get my SK license fearing the worst. The idiots gave me a SK license and didn't say a thing about my outstanding ticket. I got another ticket with my SK license and then moved back to AB. It was only after I had moved back to AB that the SK government started sending me letters and making phone calls. When I apply for a loan the outstanding tickets pop up on my record, but I tell the bank that if its a problem I'll just go some where else and the issue is always dropped.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

The only way you can back up your record is how many tickets you have and how many accidents you've had, and how many claims you've made to insurance due to something you've done. I have 0 on all fronts, and I've been driving for 5 years. (Knock on wood)

Well how many kilometers have you driven in those 5 years? I never had a speeding ticket or accident for my first 5 years either. In 14 years I have one accident and 3 speeding tickets (all on highways in BC). My first few years of driving featured very little highway driving and maybe an average of 10,000km a year. The last few years I'm probably closer to 25,000km a year. I think it's not fair to compare me to someone who drives 75000 or more kilometers per year. I've never had been involved with an accident that involved another vehichle and no one else has ever suffered an injury because of my driving. To me thats good enough.

[serhat09]

I always speed, at least 20 and over in areas that I know there are no cops. Sorry

My record on crowchild, 205, swear to god. Not too proud of it, but it was a good race.

[Cube Inmate]

Originally Posted by nieuwy-89

I used to feel this way too, until I spent some time doing research in traffic safety. Unless you understand how speed limits are set, and the consequences of high average speeds on a roadway, you can't justify a blanket statement like that.

Read these, and then decide if speed limits are too low:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limit

http://www.who.int/world-health-day/...n/speed_en.pdf

I read them, and I conclude that speed limits are too low.

Your first reference says that the "85th percentile rule" is seen as a reasonable limit, but that many limits are set significantly lower. In Calgary, when I drive the speed limit, I am not going faster than 85% of drivers...thus, the rule-of-thumb is evidently not being used. Speed limits in Calgary are too low.

Your second reference is a clear piece of propaganda. By propaganda, I mean "the systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause." (dictionary.com) ... The WHO obviously has the interest of improving worldwide health, and I won't dispute that a lower-speed collision is safer for all involved (I DO understand basic physics). However, the WHO has not presented any actual evidence that a below-design-limit speed limit is beneficial in terms of preventing collisions. They have referred to various studies (without specific references, as is typical of such propaganda) that give vague numbers in regards to the benefits of a 1 km/h change in speed. However, they haven't even distinguished between "excessive" (above the speed limit) and "inappropriate" (too fast for conditions) speed. It's one thing to say that someone driving 111 km/h is 3% more likely to have a fatal collision than someone driving 110 km/h, but that has no relation to the speed limit...only to "inappropriate speed."

Finally, and quite clearly, the WHO is not interested in considering the *other* interests of those involved in transportation, such as the efficient flow of traffic. That's odd, considering that increased traffic congestion is one of the major contributors to environmental pollution...? The document you provided was aimed solely at *reducing* speed, and not at ensuring the efficient operation of a vehicle-based society. Do you really rely on that kind of biased source as evidence in an argument?

By the WHO's position (slower is better), our society would be far better off if we reverted to using horses for our travel needs.

Who believes that? ... maybe

[ken0042]

I do agree with most of what you are saying, CI. I'm trying to find a video that showed something interesting in regards to speed and a crash. I don't recall the exact numbers, but it was something like comparing 65 mph and 70 mph. They showed a semi pulling in front of both cars 100 feet away, and the stopping distances of the cars was going to be 105 and 112 feet respectively- so both were still going to crash into the truck.

The difference they showed was that the 65 mph car was doing 8 mph at the time of impact, whereas the 70 mph one was doing 35 mph at the time of the impact. And of course you are far more likely to be hurt hitting at 35 mph than 8.

The video was well done; with sort of a Matrix like effect of the narrator walking around and between the speeding cars.

All that being said, I still speed.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Well how many kilometers have you driven in those 5 years? I never had a speeding ticket or accident for my first 5 years either. In 14 years I have one accident and 3 speeding tickets (all on highways in BC). My first few years of driving featured very little highway driving and maybe an average of 10,000km a year. The last few years I'm probably closer to 25,000km a year. I think it's not fair to compare me to someone who drives 75000 or more kilometers per year. I've never had been involved with an accident that involved another vehichle and no one else has ever suffered an injury because of my driving. To me thats good enough.

I drive over 30,000 km per year. I've been involved in four vehicular accidents while I was behind the wheel. Insurance deemed none to be my fault.

In the first one, a guy coming the opposite way at an intersection thought he could execute a left turn across my path before I arrived . . . . wrong. Screech. Crash.

In the second one, a guy in a brand new Jeep Cherokee talking on a cell phone abruptly executed a u-turn in front of me on a slippery street. T-bone crash at low speed.

In the third one, I was moving into a right turn late coming up to a light when a guy at a dead stop in the left lane thought he should make a right turn as well, abruptly cutting in front of me. Icy street. Crash into his right rear end. The guy was going to argue until a taxi driver got out and acted as my witness.

In the fourth one, going down 37th st. minding my own business in the right lane when a guy in the left lane a few yards ahead of me decides he needs to make an emergency turn into 7-11 across a couple lanes of traffic. Crash. Two spaced out teenagers hanging out at the 7-11 thought it was "awesome dude" and acted as my witnesses.

I've also had my vehicle driven through a telephone pole and totalled by my idiotic stoned and drunk uncle (same age as me) in a massive coincidence in a small town. Fortunately, I was sleeping peacefully in my bed but did manage to get up in time to witness the gratification of seeing him in handcuffs in the back of the cop car mouthing "I'm sorry" as he was driven away from the wreckage.

And since we're on the topic, there was the time I was riding my bicycle down a city street when a car comes by and abruptly, only feet in front of me, executes an emergency turn into a service station. Crash, bang, slide over the hood and land on my head in front of the vehicle. Ouch. Too young and too stupid to sue.

And then there was the time I was riding from Banff to Kelowna on my bicycle just outside of Lake Louise in a massive rain storm when a Parks Canada truck goes by. Naturally, I've got my head down in the howling rain and didn't notice they had parked a few hundred feet up ahead, gotten out and were starting to RAKE the ditch. In a rain storm. WTF? Crash, bang, into the bumper so hard it knocked ball bearings out of the steering column . . . . and I rolled out into traffic on the highway but fortunately didn't get flattened. Technically, that one was my fault.

If you live long enough, poop will probably happen.

Cowperson

[Sylvanfan]

I think my dad has to have the all-time record for violent not at fault accidents that he's survived. Than again for years he drove like 75000 km a year too. The more you're on the road, the more likely you are to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.