Cities and states do it. California and Washington both have aircraft that time cars over a measured distance to get a average speed and radio down to a patrol car to cite you.
2 years ago10 points(+0/-0/+10Score on mirror)2 children
20 mph is so fucking slow, nobody is going to respect that. I’d rather people go a little bit faster than to be one of those extremely slow old folks who shouldn’t be operating machinery anyways.
2 years ago-1 points(+0/-0/-1Score on mirror)1 child
Cops in my area don't ticket unless you're going 15 mph over the limit, and cops in most areas do the same (the number of mph over the limit they give you varies), so someone who's not even reaching the limit isn't driving that way to avoid tickets.
15 and 20 should only be used the last couple of hundred feet, exiting the collector and going into the neighborhood street. The collector should have a speed limit of at least 30, with wide sidewalks, marked crosswalks and proper safety for mixed use.
You should never have to drive longer than half a mile on such collector, until you enter a urban road (not a stroad), where speed limits are 45-50, with few connections and where you only slow down for the few roundabouts granting access to the collectors.
Then after a mile or two you should be outside the city limit, with access to autobahn with no speed limits, or country roads with 70 or so, (not enforced) in speed limits, and with common sense to slow down a bit when passing farms.
Country roads should never go directly through a village, there should be a parallel collector to those, with 40 or so in speed limit, only slowing down to 30 outside the church and at most 20 a couple of hundred feet outside the school.
2 years ago3 points(+0/-0/+3Score on mirror)1 child
It doesn't because the street is still as wide as before, with as little obstacles, people will still reverse out from their driveways with limited view and someone will be going 40 or 50, too fast to stop in time, BAM, there's a fatal crash, because everyone buys vehicles nowadays that does not have to obey any safety regulations.
2 years ago4 points(+0/-0/+4Score on mirror)1 child
Their importance is always with "feeling safe" and never about actually being safe.
This mindset is devastating to societies.
Oftentimes the safe "feeling" is actually markedly less safe, but because we live by "feelings" it is mandated. The most poignant example I can think of off of the top of my head is safety shoes. Places will have safety shoe requirements. If a visitor or worker comes in without safety shoes, they are given slip over safety ties. I don't know if any of you have worn these, but they are very difficult to walk in and a massive trip hazard. Slips, trips, and falls are the number one cause of workplace injury. Setting something on your toe is rare in comparison, especially for a visitor doing a site visit.
You exchange a very low risk of injury (wearing normal shoes) for a very high risk of injury (tripping because you have things strapped to your shoes.) Brilliant.
In my area, you need a rope anytime you're working over 10 feet. But if you're using a fall arrest system, it takes 17 feet for the system to fully deploy.
So you are legally required to wear a rope (ie a tripping hazard) while working at 15 feet, even though *everyone* knows it won't stop you from hitting the ground.
2 years ago2 points(+0/-0/+2Score on mirror)2 children
In the 60's someone in in America came up with the 85% rule which to this day is how speed limits are set allover the continent. The idea is basically that all new roads are built wide as a highway with no sidewalk and plenty of space for on street parking, then they measure how fast people are driving.
And because the street is wide, people will drive fast, 40 maybe 45, some even 60-70, even if it's a residential street full of driveways and kids playing in the street. The 85% rule then takes the average speed, say 45 and assign the speed limit so that 85% will drive below and 15% will be speeding, then they place out cops to hand out speeding tickets to those 15% while everyone else will be a slow burden blocking the road.
This doesn't make the street safer, it only means more people will be speeding and can be fined for it. Just another tax providing doughnuts for the local corrupt cops.
2 years ago3 points(+0/-0/+3Score on mirror)1 child
Even if it did, THAT'S NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S JOB!
The government's job is to pass legislation. In theory, in any system based on democracy, it's simply a tool used by citizens to organize large scale undertakings for the public good. It's also tasked with defending the STATE, not the people.
Safety is God's concern. No government can guarantee your safety; only God can do that. This is literally the philosophical foundation for the separation of church and state; prior to the invention of government, man had a relationship with God that governed his safety (among other things) and government has no right to interfere.
Anyone advocating for the government to do ANYTHING to "keep people safe" is a godless commie, full stop.
America must learn the difference between roads and streets, when every street is built like a highway (same width and large signs) then of course people will drive fast.
If your neighborhood had an actual street on the other hand it would be narrow, which means much lower tax for you as it cost less to maintain, less potholes, sidewalks so that you won't have to drive everywhere.
You and your neighbors would still park there and there would be flower planters and other obstacles, kids would be playing in the street, and with all that you don't even need a sign posting some bullshit "speed limit", people would be driving reasonably fast all by themselves and then use the roads to fast travel.