Ford Mykey spped limit dumbest idea ever made

[peadar1987]

Completely agree with this. Generally speaking, you've got no need or right to cruise above the speed limit. If you do get caught doing so, just take your lumps. I've got absolutely zero sympathy for people who rail against speed cameras.

I've only ever gotten one speeding fine. It was in France, in the Ariège. The road kept switching between limits of 50 and 60km/h, and it was quite twisting and overgrown at the edges, so the signs telling you the changes weren't immediately obvious. I got caught by a camera just after a change in limit, and got a €90 fine for doing 56km/h in a 50 zone. Grr!

[Samniss Arandeen]

I've been riding motorcycles daily for twenty years, and I habitually travel about 20% above the legal limit (when I judge it safe to do so; at other times, I'll be travelling substantially below the limit). I ride according to the conditions, not the regulations. I haven't paid a speeding fine or any other traffic violation in that time. Haven't broken a bone or shed a drop of blood, either.

This is why I'd love to remove legal limits almost entirely. If you drive too fast or too inattentively (Or in the wrong fcuking place GET OUT OF THE LEFT LANE YOU STUPID A...*slap*) for road and car conditions or for driver skill, you're going to run out of luck eventually. I see no need to restrict the options of a rational, reasonable, responsible person safely operating their vehicle for the sake of everyone else, especially when situations the regulations don't cover very well and it's those three Rs that get you through them.

As a former pilot I have always felt that people are disproportionally irresponsible when it comes to driving. They just do not seem to take it and the associated dangers seriously. Every time you get behind the wheel you need to ask yourself whether you are capable of operating heavy equipment safely. If the answer is no, you should not drive. Yet angry, tired, distracted or drunk people are driving around everywhere. It always struck me as odd that pilots are much more acutely aware of their own skills and limitations, even when the potential danger is much smaller when flying small aircraft. To kill someone (besides yourself) is a lot harder when you are flying. The same goes for licences - in flying you constantly need to prove you are still worthy of operating an aircraft. A driver's license, on the other hand, is typically something you obtain once and keep for the rest of your life as long as you do not do anything really stupid. No updates, checks, physicals, nothing.

Compare getting your drivers'/riders' license to your pilots' license and instrument rating.

When learning to fly, you learn how to safely perform and recover from barrel rolls, engine-outs, stalls, the like. You are never supposed to perform these as part of normal flight, yet still, $h!t happens and you gotta be prepared for it. This is part of flight school. There are entire courses you have to take and pass, and instructor flights you have to fly, to prove you know what the hell you're doing. As you mention, on top of that, you have to pass medical and mental checkups, and all of this even moreso if you want to fly in bad weather and/or at night. I know this from my Dad getting his private-pilot's license and generally being in a family of aircraft enthusiasts. I can't even imagine the untold thousands of hours it takes to do all of that for a commercial airliner, including 1500 hours in the simulator before being allowed near a real one.

My written driver's test was 50 questions mostly regarding signage, what side of the road to drive on and what to do once I'm in an accident. Nothing about car control at speed, lane discipline, or even mirror checking. My supervised driving test was a leisurely drive around the block, never exceeding 40 miles per hour, in light surface-street traffic and residential neighboorhood, and took all of five minutes. I did it in a dinky little economy car (a late 90s Ford Escort if you were wondering) and yet that same piece of plastic legally allows me to drive any vehicle up to 26 tons.

Guess which mode of transportation has fewer fatalities? That's right, you're safer, FAR safer, joining the Mile High Club than you are getting road head.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Samniss Arandeen

[Dodgey]

The issue isn't people who are responsible enough to drive to the conditions, it is with the people who are not responsible enough. If I speed past the limit of the conditions of the road I am not only putting myself at risk. If you lose control and you are not on a stretch of roadway devoid of property or people you put others at risk. Look at the amount of fatalities from traffic collisions in the United States alone. What do you think would happen if speed limits were removed.

[Wanderfound]

Compare getting your drivers'/riders' license to your pilots' license and instrument rating.

It's tightened up these days, but as every man and most of the women on both sides of my family have been motorcyclists back to at least WWII, I've heard a fair bit about ye olde motorcycle licensing.

Back when my uncles did it, the motorcycle licence test consisted of this:

* Ride to the local police station and present your application.

* While the policeman went inside (and back then, it was a policeman) to do the paperwork, ride around the block.

* If you aren't visibly bleeding when the policeman comes back out, congratulations: you have a licence.

[Javster]

Meh. Make it compulsory to hold a motorcycle licence for a few years before they let you drive a car. Let Darwin take care of the careless.

Why? You'd be forced to learn, costing a fair amount, then most likely you'd never use it again.

The example you give was obviously with a significant amount of extra risk Speed limits are not just for vehicles getting out of control, they are (I would say mostly) meant to give everyone more time to react. Additionally they reduce the energies involved when things do go wrong.

I feel speed limiters are a horrible way of enforcing driver safety. People that do not understand the importance of adhering to speed limits will find other risky modes or behaviour to endanger their lives and that of others. They should be educated or removed, but just limiting them in one way is not going to solve a lot of problems.

As a former pilot I have always felt that people are disproportionally irresponsible when it comes to driving. They just do not seem to take it and the associated dangers seriously. Every time you get behind the wheel you need to ask yourself whether you are capable of operating heavy equipment safely. If the answer is no, you should not drive. Yet angry, tired, distracted or drunk people are driving around everywhere. It always struck me as odd that pilots are much more acutely aware of their own skills and limitations, even when the potential danger is much smaller when flying small aircraft. To kill someone (besides yourself) is a lot harder when you are flying. The same goes for licences - in flying you constantly need to prove you are still worthy of operating an aircraft. A driver's license, on the other hand, is typically something you obtain once and keep for the rest of your life as long as you do not do anything really stupid. No updates, checks, physicals, nothing.

I hear in the UK, you have your license until 70, then you get a checkup to see if you're fit to drive. That's it. From 18 to 70, you have a license.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Javster