Where I live, I'm spoiled with the level of traffic we have. So I might be speaking to you guys who have to deal with very slow speed limits and movement all day and that's just what you're used to. But there's some important things that need to be brought up.
1) Slow driving isn't necessarily safer, infact, it can be exponentially more dangerous. You would hope a slow car on the road would be in the right lane, but that doesn't happen all of the time. A car that's going slower than the flow of traffic, is impeding it. This can be a huge problem when people try to get around them and pass on the right. Now you have people traveling at huge varying speeds. Some guy might be switching lanes from the right to the middle doing 70, and you have another car attempting to passing the slow car, switching from the left to the middle doing 85. If no collision occurs, the sight of the 85 mph car's brake light could potentially cause a chain reaction of braking cars that be seen for hours.
2) Montana actually had no speed limit for a few years. Not only was is the safest stretch of years, but when they reverted to a speed limit, the amount of accidents doubled that year.
3) There are places in the U.S doing tests of 80mph speed limits. What they noticed was more people actually tended to follow the pass on the left and drive on the right philosophy. Not everyone wants to cruise at 85-90mph, so they stay in the right going a little slower and faster traffic passes them without holdup.
If it were up to me, autobahn rules outside of city centers for 2+ lane highways, harder to get a license (even a highway test), and better education on left lane etiquette. There's no reason a car should be doing unrestricted speeds when there's a huge potential for traffic. But, in the middle of the desert, from Vegas to LA, there's no reason to be stuck doing 65 (granted, many drive 80-130 on that stretch anyway). Not only do no/high speed limits cause less accidents, but they actually encourage the pass on the left only philosophy.
Of course, that probably wont happen for a while, if ever in the U.S. I agree with expanding trains to provide the hulling of goods. Not only would that affect the number of trucks on the roads, but the roads themselves would last longer due to reduced loads and stresses. Also I agree with higher speed limits the further left you go (lane wise). I even think there should be a minimum and higher speed for car pool lanes.
1) Slow driving isn't necessarily safer, infact, it can be exponentially more dangerous. You would hope a slow car on the road would be in the right lane, but that doesn't happen all of the time. A car that's going slower than the flow of traffic, is impeding it. This can be a huge problem when people try to get around them and pass on the right. Now you have people traveling at huge varying speeds. Some guy might be switching lanes from the right to the middle doing 70, and you have another car attempting to passing the slow car, switching from the left to the middle doing 85. If no collision occurs, the sight of the 85 mph car's brake light could potentially cause a chain reaction of braking cars that be seen for hours.
2) Montana actually had no speed limit for a few years. Not only was is the safest stretch of years, but when they reverted to a speed limit, the amount of accidents doubled that year.
3) There are places in the U.S doing tests of 80mph speed limits. What they noticed was more people actually tended to follow the pass on the left and drive on the right philosophy. Not everyone wants to cruise at 85-90mph, so they stay in the right going a little slower and faster traffic passes them without holdup.
If it were up to me, autobahn rules outside of city centers for 2+ lane highways, harder to get a license (even a highway test), and better education on left lane etiquette. There's no reason a car should be doing unrestricted speeds when there's a huge potential for traffic. But, in the middle of the desert, from Vegas to LA, there's no reason to be stuck doing 65 (granted, many drive 80-130 on that stretch anyway). Not only do no/high speed limits cause less accidents, but they actually encourage the pass on the left only philosophy.
Of course, that probably wont happen for a while, if ever in the U.S. I agree with expanding trains to provide the hulling of goods. Not only would that affect the number of trucks on the roads, but the roads themselves would last longer due to reduced loads and stresses. Also I agree with higher speed limits the further left you go (lane wise). I even think there should be a minimum and higher speed for car pool lanes.
It seems ridiculous that there isn't a skid pad test like autoX in the wet or something as the driver's test. I've learned so much about control in the 3 autoX events I've participated in its not even funny.
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