California Senator Scott Wiener is introducing a new set of bills to make streets safer across the state, including one that would change how you drive.
Hmm. I’m always crusading for people to slow down and stop being in such a frantic hurry all the damn time. In Utah, people go 85 in school zones (in fact 125 in some cases) and kids are being killed every day because of it.
Is 10 mph over the speed limit too much speed? I don’t know, but I know that too many people drive as IF they were having a life-threatening medical emergency rather than following safe speed limits. If the weather is good and the road is clear, it’s fine to go a few miles an hour over the speed limit.
But, speed limits aren’t there just to make your life inconvenient. There’s a reason they deem some zones safer for going faster than others, usually because of residential areas having lots of kids around, etc. Speed limits aren’t just arbitrary.
In some places where drivers are not usually exceeding the speed limit I can see where this could be a nuisance. But in Utah, where almost nobody drives at a sane speed, and people go WAY over what could be called acceptable levels of speed, nothing else has worked to slow drivers down. So, this seems like it could be a real step in the right direction.
If people WON’T do the right thing, should we FORCE them to, especially if it saves lives? That’s the question.
Have you ever rented one of those electronic scooters? I was visiting LA and riding one to Venice Beach. I knew you weren’t allowed to ride them in Venice Beach proper so I stopped about a block away to park it. The app said that I was inside the forbidden zone, so it wouldn’t let me lock the scooter. I thought fine, I’ll ride a block or two away. But it said I was in the forbidden zone, so I couldn’t drive it. I tried rolling it but the wheels were locked up. I started dragging it and an alarm went off the whole way.
Later I was riding a scooter back to the hotel on a main road, and two times the system thought I had entered a no go area (despite just following the road) and the scooter lost power, although thankfully it didn’t stop entirely.
Now imagine you’re on an expressway and this system decides you’re actually on an access road running parallel to the expressway, where the speed is 20mph instead of 65. That’s not just annoying, it’s a threat to your safety and those around you. I already have GPS making that mistake a few times here and there.
Or imagine a solar flare or attack disables the GPS system, would that mean that all cars stop moving?
That’s what I was thinking as well. If Google can’t get this straight I sure as heck don’t trust whatever system the government will underfunded to make this happen.
I don’t think it’s punishment to make people follow sensible speed limits, at least it SHOULDN’T feel like a punishment. Like I said, those limits aren’t there just to make life inconvenient. Frankly I don’t see why people behave like driving is a race to a finish line.
I’d rather think that we should educate people better in the first place, instead of waiting and then punishing them. But in Utah, people do not listen and do not have the responsibility to drive with care and caution. What do you do when people just refuse to do what’s right?
I think you’ve misunderstood my point. The punishment is things like traffic tickets, fines, license suspensions, and so on. Laws don’t magically force you to drive at the speed limit, they institute punishments that are applied to you when you exceed it.
The reason “punishments” like traffic tickets exist at all is exactly what you said - laws by themselves don’t seem to work to get people to drive at the speed limit (or close to it even). How else can you regulate and enforce them? If not by issuing tickets or fining people who SHOULD know better (and yet continue to act like imbeciles behind the wheel).
The speed limit laws are there for a reason. People ignore them because people are assholes. So - how do you enforce the law when people WILLFULLY refuse to see the reason to follow them?
It’s obvious you don’t live here in Utah. Nobody who has lived or traveled here would ever say people obey anything close to the speed limit here. Just last night, another batch of stories on the local news about drivers going too fast, that killed several school kids and one that wiped out a whole family who were stopped on the side of the road.
Utah is all about idiots willfully killing people. That really should be our state motto.
Yep I think so. And I’m pretty law-abiding, which makes me an enemy in the eyes of other people for some reason. Personally I think it’s imperative to act responsibly as a driver and obey the speed limits and take weather and road conditions into account.
I know that all seems kind of “no duh” but you wouldn’t believe how many people in Utah speed through lights and intersections and construction and school zones as if their asses were on fire. Really, nothing so far has helped stop the excessive speeding.
Hmm. I’m always crusading for people to slow down and stop being in such a frantic hurry all the damn time. In Utah, people go 85 in school zones (in fact 125 in some cases) and kids are being killed every day because of it.
Is 10 mph over the speed limit too much speed? I don’t know, but I know that too many people drive as IF they were having a life-threatening medical emergency rather than following safe speed limits. If the weather is good and the road is clear, it’s fine to go a few miles an hour over the speed limit.
But, speed limits aren’t there just to make your life inconvenient. There’s a reason they deem some zones safer for going faster than others, usually because of residential areas having lots of kids around, etc. Speed limits aren’t just arbitrary.
In some places where drivers are not usually exceeding the speed limit I can see where this could be a nuisance. But in Utah, where almost nobody drives at a sane speed, and people go WAY over what could be called acceptable levels of speed, nothing else has worked to slow drivers down. So, this seems like it could be a real step in the right direction.
If people WON’T do the right thing, should we FORCE them to, especially if it saves lives? That’s the question.
Have you ever rented one of those electronic scooters? I was visiting LA and riding one to Venice Beach. I knew you weren’t allowed to ride them in Venice Beach proper so I stopped about a block away to park it. The app said that I was inside the forbidden zone, so it wouldn’t let me lock the scooter. I thought fine, I’ll ride a block or two away. But it said I was in the forbidden zone, so I couldn’t drive it. I tried rolling it but the wheels were locked up. I started dragging it and an alarm went off the whole way.
Later I was riding a scooter back to the hotel on a main road, and two times the system thought I had entered a no go area (despite just following the road) and the scooter lost power, although thankfully it didn’t stop entirely.
Now imagine you’re on an expressway and this system decides you’re actually on an access road running parallel to the expressway, where the speed is 20mph instead of 65. That’s not just annoying, it’s a threat to your safety and those around you. I already have GPS making that mistake a few times here and there.
Or imagine a solar flare or attack disables the GPS system, would that mean that all cars stop moving?
That’s what I was thinking as well. If Google can’t get this straight I sure as heck don’t trust whatever system the government will underfunded to make this happen.
Isn’t that just what a law is
It’s usually “if people won’t do the right thing, should we punish them for it?” Rather than forcing them to obey.
I don’t think it’s punishment to make people follow sensible speed limits, at least it SHOULDN’T feel like a punishment. Like I said, those limits aren’t there just to make life inconvenient. Frankly I don’t see why people behave like driving is a race to a finish line.
I’d rather think that we should educate people better in the first place, instead of waiting and then punishing them. But in Utah, people do not listen and do not have the responsibility to drive with care and caution. What do you do when people just refuse to do what’s right?
I think you’ve misunderstood my point. The punishment is things like traffic tickets, fines, license suspensions, and so on. Laws don’t magically force you to drive at the speed limit, they institute punishments that are applied to you when you exceed it.
The reason “punishments” like traffic tickets exist at all is exactly what you said - laws by themselves don’t seem to work to get people to drive at the speed limit (or close to it even). How else can you regulate and enforce them? If not by issuing tickets or fining people who SHOULD know better (and yet continue to act like imbeciles behind the wheel).
The speed limit laws are there for a reason. People ignore them because people are assholes. So - how do you enforce the law when people WILLFULLY refuse to see the reason to follow them?
To the contrary, in my experience most people actually do stick to the speed limit.
It’s obvious you don’t live here in Utah. Nobody who has lived or traveled here would ever say people obey anything close to the speed limit here. Just last night, another batch of stories on the local news about drivers going too fast, that killed several school kids and one that wiped out a whole family who were stopped on the side of the road.
Utah is all about idiots willfully killing people. That really should be our state motto.
Yep I think so. And I’m pretty law-abiding, which makes me an enemy in the eyes of other people for some reason. Personally I think it’s imperative to act responsibly as a driver and obey the speed limits and take weather and road conditions into account.
I know that all seems kind of “no duh” but you wouldn’t believe how many people in Utah speed through lights and intersections and construction and school zones as if their asses were on fire. Really, nothing so far has helped stop the excessive speeding.