From: jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison)
Subject: Re: Speed and Driving
Organization: University of BC, Electrical Engineering
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 04:38:48 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.115027.7296@ac.dal.ca> jshimeld@ac.dal.ca writes:
>
>I, for one, enjoy living in an environment where crossing the road is not
>generally a life threatening experience.  I cite Halifax, where drivers
>actually stop at crosswalks for pedestrians.  Having lived a good portion
>of my life in Ontario, I find the drivers in Nova Scotia infinitely more
>courteous and safety conscious than their Ontarian counterparts (not to 
>say that there aren't bad drivers in N.S. either though).

Well, I don't stop for pedestrians, because I am environmentally aware!
Think of all the wasted gas and brake pads if you have to go from 120
to 0 every time some is sort of loitering on the street corner, and might
actually be crossing. :-) (Ok, I'll stop or slow down if they've already 
out onto the road)

>
>Just because it is possible to build cars that can travel at 120 mph does
>not mean that we should raise or even eliminate existing speed limits in
>North America.  There are many more factors involved, not the least of
>which is a driver's responsibility to the rest of the drivers and 
>pedestrians on the road.  Since there always seem to be drivers who
>are willing to drive too fast for the conditions (bearing in mind
>road and weather conditions, vehicle performance, and driving capabilites),
>I think it is reasonable to enforce speed limits.
>
>Besides providing a factor of safety for the public, speed limits also
>serve an important legal function; they allow the distinction between
>an accident, in the true sense of the word, and reckless driving.  Since
>most accident victims seem to need compensation for their suffering, this
>is not a trivial point.  Speed limits are the most practical method of 
>judging a driver's innocence or responsibility in an accident.  I'm
>not saying speed limits are the "be all and end all"; they are simply
>the most practical method of dealing with a complex problem.

I haven't been folowing this "speed" thread, but has this "conspiracy theory"
been mentioned: All roads are built to make drivers feel safe and secure, and
drive at realistic speed for that road. But then the government picks
an arbitrary (low) speed, with little bearing on the road design. That way
80% of people are "speeding" according to the law, but not according
to the engineer who built the road! The BC government rakes in huge amounts
of cash on speeding tickets. face it, it's a hidden tax on driving. A single
cop could bag at least 3 people an hour. that's $300 out here. An hour's
work and he's earned his keep. (maybe he'll even stop a crime that day!
ie criminal code of Canada type stuff)
>
I know someone who works in a municipal road traffic dept. and speeds
are often set low by noise complaints, not because of safety. 
For example, UBC has three highways leading into it. They are all divided.
two have wide lanes, one's kind of narrow. The speeds are 80, 70
and 50, even though they can all handle twice that.
Another factor is speed buffering: a good road that joins a crummy road
never goes from 120 down to 60. They throw in a big region of 90 to
slow you down (and give a spot for cops to catch you).


One thing that bothers me: what's the point of the technological arms
race between cops and drivers? Should the cops be spending money on
new toys to catch a small number of people with good radar detectors?
There's no technical reason why X/K/Ku band RADAR isn't good enough.
In fact it has better range, easy enough for even a cop to operate.
these newer RADAR/LIDAR etc systems user higher frequencies with shorter
range, and are harder to operate (ie the cop has to get out of the cruiser,
track the vehicle for several seconds without losing sight of the vehicle)
-- 
__________________________________________________________________________
 John Paul Morrison                     |  Just another "Enemy of Canada"
 University of British Columbia, Canada |  Say NO/NON to Constitutional
 Electrical Engineering                 |  hegomony and fear-mongering
 jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca                     |  by politicians/scum.
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