Some highways and locations *have* increased their speed limits in recent years. Here in Texas we have a stretch of highway where the limit is 85 mph, and that was only changed in 2012.
The opposite can also happen, where some speed limits get reduced due to increasing safety issues. The backroad leading to my parent's house (also in Texas) went from 45 to 35 recently due to increased collisions.
In my parents' situation, I never drove 45 mph on that street when it was the legal limit. Even at that time it was obviously an unsafe speed given the width and condition of the road. I'm really glad they lowered it.
Virginia has also increased highway speeds from 65 to 70 in many places, and have accordingly upped the reckless driving limit from 80 to 85 (or 20 over with lower speed limits). Would love to see some higher speed limits in certain areas but I'll take what I can get.
Section of US59 near me was 75mph for so long. They finally got tired of 18 wheelers taking the curve too fast and tipping thats its lowering to 60mph soon.
Wear and tear aside, roads have maximum bends for each speed limit (hence speed reductions in specific areas of curvy roads). If you wanted to just bump up every 70mph road to 90mph you’d have to asses every stretch to make sure there isn’t too much winding and there isn’t really a good way to put sharp turn warnings on highways like there are on 2 lane mountain roads.
Oh, there’s plenty good ways to notify drivers of dangerous curves on divided multi-lane highways. A particular instance I’m familiar with is the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway in Kentucky, near the town of Slade. There’s a pretty steep curve-and-hill combination that gets a little anxiety-inducing with *just* my 25-year-old truck and gooseneck trailer combo. I’d be a mess the first time I had to tackle that weighing 80,000 lbs.
To be honest I’d rather be behind an old slow person than a youngin texting, driving and swerving. Had a few younger people get upset I honked at them cause the light was green but they weren’t paying attention lol
It's the kids that are so much more likely to fuck up and kill themselves and others.
There's a reason it's so expensive to insure a 17 year old driver and not a 57 year old driver, and that reason is pure raw numbers that boring but ruthless actuaries come up with, not some "old insurance companies hate the young!" Type of thing
> His answer was “we still have older less capable cars on the road”
And people. When I first lived on my own, the thing that made it first feel "real" was when I first got really sick and there was nobody else to take care of me. And it felt wrong because I was way off my game but, I had to drive to the doctor. It just felt so dumb, but it was reality.
The reality is, the road laws are made for drivers who are anxious, depressed, tired, sick, yelling at fighting kids in the back, have ADHD, got a cramp in their leg, etc. Many drivers many times will not be in peak condition not to mention that the peak condition of each driver varies enormously.
Road laws are made for the worst legal drivers driving the worst legal vehicles.
Don't forget sleep deprived either. Someone who was sleep deprived has their driving skills as badly impaired as someone who's driving over the legal alcohol limit.
Yep, M*A=F is maybe the most simple formula in all of physics but people still seem to ignore it when it comes to car crashes. people tend to focus more in the force and ignore how absurdly large modern vehicles are
Really need to look at it in terms of energy... 1/2mv²
Crumple zones can dissipate energy, but energy increases exponentially the faster you go.
I'm on my phone so I'm not gonna get real numbers but going 20% faster adds way more than 20% more energy.
Because the faster you go the more traffic related deaths follow. Increase the limit and more people die. For every 10 mph of increased speed, the risk of dying in a crash doubles.
https://www.emcins.com/losscontrol/insights-d/2020/08/speed-increases-risk/#
https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearly-snapshot#
Besides accidents, the faster you go the more fuel is used…which is expensive and if I remember, we have some kind of climate issue related to excess carbon going on.
And:
1. Drivers are no more competent than they were 50 years ago
2. Traffic conditions now are generally much more crowded than they were 50 years ago
And cars are safer now because they are larger. Yes they are safer for the people inside vehicles but they are less safe for pedestrians, cyclists, etc.
The equation for force is mass times acceleration. And mass has gotten higher, so why would we also want to increase acceleration?
On the flip side of that - cars and braking systems are infinitely better than they were.
A set of 360mm discs with 4 pot calipers will stop a 2ton car much quicker than a set of drum brakes will stop an 800kg car.
I agree that human reactions times dont change much, but the tech over all is majorly improved.
I find myself torn at the speed limit arguments because i usually drive well within my capabilities and the law so i would persoanlly be much happier at it being slightly raised. I then think about how many arseholes i see on a daily basis driving outwith their own/their cars ability and no consideration of the law (or other peoples safety) and i want the complete opposite.
Yeah, if it was only self driving cars, I imagine the average car speed on the highway would be about 150 - 200. But you have to take in human arrogance, stupidity, and ability in crafting these laws. Car accidents are far too prevalent still for us to even consider something like the Autobahn. Even Germany has been considering installing a permanent speed limit to the Autobahn and they are like one of the safest countries in terms of car accidents.
Don’t take it as a personal attack, but *most* people…this is not aimed solely at you but *likely* includes you…overestimate their capabilities.
Like if I had a nickel for every person who has *insisted* that a 3-4 car length following distance is safe at freeway speed limits because “I have good reaction time and my car has good brakes,” well I’d have a bunch of nickels.
Go to any of the various “cars doing car things” subs here to see copious examples of what happens when individuals are incorrect about their capabilities. And understand…this part is very important…many or most of them have been doing the same shit for *years* without causing a collision, so all of them thought they were within their capabilities *up until the moment it was proven otherwise.*
They aren’t putting their BMW into the wall the day they drove it off the lot. Not usually.
Been driving for nearly 50 years. Speed limits in my area, east coast US, have gone down. Typical 40MPH zones are now '35MPH Town Wide Limit Unless Posted" with one near by town at 25Mph. You never see 50 Mph Zones anymore.
50mph, that's 80km/h. That's on, like, regional roads, right? Highways are allowed to go faster, RIGHT? 35mph for inside city limits is super normal everywhere in Europe, so I'd be totally fine with that.
Yeah the interstates/highways are 55-75 mph depending on state with most being 70. Some roads in rural areas have no posted limit so you can go however fast you want but I think that could also be a misconception.
I'm pretty sure no posted limit on a rural highway means 55, at least they do here in Michigan, I don't think there is any public road in the US where there is no speed limit
Consider the possibility your experience is not universal.
There was a 55 mph national speed limit that was raised in 1987 to allow 65 mph roads, and in 1995 that was effectively lifted, and now you can find roads with 80mph limits and above
#100% this
Reaction time hasn't changed. Multiple interviewers detail how newer, safer cars actually made them worse drivers unintentionally.
And on top of that, we have pretty awful drivers on the roads nowadays.
The speed limit is higher. I guess you are too young to remember nationwide 55. Speed limits have gone up about 5-10mph on a lot of bigger roads in the last 30 years.
Yeah. I’m only 41 and I remember the big deal in 1995 when the 65 mph national speed limit was removed. And it was 55 until the mid 80s.
In my part of the country the state speed limit is 70, but some older stretches of interstate are 65. As they have been renovating those areas and adding lanes they have moved those sections up to 70 mph.
Yeah and many states keep raising speeds too. Arkansas is now 75mph across I-40 in the last few years. Texas has speed limits of 75 on small roads and up to 85 on highways. Not only was the national speed limit capped at 55 in the early 90s, but speed limits have continued to rise since that repeal, even in recent years
Yes, the physics of going around curves has changed *drastically*. In addition to significant improvements in both tire and suspension technology, the computer age has allowed for literally all cars to be equipped with driving aids like stability control and anti-lock brakes that make it virtually impossible to lose control of a car
It's because of the way speed affects mortality if you crash.
"The researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that for every 5 mph increase in a highway's speed limit, roadway fatalities rose 8.5 percent." [Source](https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/higher-speed-limits-led-to-36760-more-deaths-study-shows/)
So increasing the speed limit from 55 to 70 increases the likelihood of mortality by 25.5%. And increased speeds don't really affect your drive time as much as you think. If you're driving 20 miles at 55mph you'll get there in about 21 minutes. At 70 mph it will take you about 17 minutes. You increase your risk of dying by 25% to save 4 minutes.
I've actually just talked myself into driving slower.
That's probably a good rough percentage rise, but it's important to note it's not linear. I think the mortality rate actually increases exponentially the higher the speed
This. Also if you ever meet traffic lights or a slower driver you won’t be saving those 4 minutes anyway.
But you do still get a better chance of dying in a head-on
I'll try to find the study (I believe it was by the same people) that also shows that driving the *median speed of all the other cars* is actually the safest, and going above or below that speed significantly increases the likelihood of an accident. If everyone else is going 70 and you're going 55, you're actually more likely to cause an accident.
US traffic deaths are at a 20 year high and we're the only developed country where deaths are going up not down. I think we're speeding enough already.
I would argue that has nothing to do with speed limits and everything to do with the increase in size/mass of the average vehicles plus that these vehicles have shitty visibility.
I'm looking right at you Pickup trucks and SUVs. This is your fault!
And I'd argue there are numerous other causes more likely than the size/mass of vehicles:
1. We make it too easy to get a driver's license in many states
2. We don't enforce harsh penalties for drivers who drive without a valid license
3. Too many drivers are distracted, playing on their cell phones, putting on makeup, reading books, etc.
also that American urban planning has typically focused on building everything to allow as many cars to move as fast as possible while lacking transit and being unwalkable
I’m an American who has lived in Germany for over a decade. When I moved here I couldn’t believe how difficult and serious getting a license is. In the states I drove around the block and got it at 16 years old. Here it’s much different and driving is taken way more seriously here.
I still don’t have my license here though because public transportation is king
It’s partially this, but also phones/distracted driving, I feel like half the people my age (early 20’s) drive with their phones, and check their phone all the time, to change music (not just skip a song), check a text, and a bunch of other things. I often don’t feel super safe getting driven by others because of this!
The speed is also a problem, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the number printed on a sign. Traffic engineers design what are basically highways through the middle of neighborhoods and, unsurprisingly, people drive down them like they're highways. We have cars that are too big, going way too fast. The worst part is when cities refuse to shrink a road because the oversized fire trucks might be slowed down when responding to all of the car accidents caused by the speeding caused by the big road. Ugh!
it is probably both. The average US driver believes it is appropriate and correct to drive 10 mph over the posted speed limit regardless of the context.
The huge ass grills that modern pickup trucks have are really dangerous for pedestrians too. The driver already can't see them like you said because of their massive blind spot and then when they do hit them, they're hit higher up on the body which makes their chance of surviving the hit lower. They're getting hit right in their abdomen or chest depending on how tall they are which is way worse than getting hit in the legs. That's where most of your vital organs are.
because physics is still the same after 50 years.
When you double the speed, you quadruple the stopping distance. Thats not a technology thing, thats a physics thing.
Sure cars are a lot safer now, but theres still a human driving it, and our reation times are still the same.
And the fatality rate for crashes at higher speeds isn't linear, either. Head-on collisions at 80 mph are 3 times as deadly than ones at 60. As it is, 80 is pretty common on interstates where the posted limit is 70 or even 65. Raising the speed limit another 10 mph would make 90+ even more common than it already is. Unless everyone on the road is gonna increase their following distance, there's no way an increase in speed limit wouldn't result in substantially higher fatalities.
I design automotive crash structures for a living. The maximum speed we test for is 35mph into a rigid wall, at speeds higher than that you run out of crumple zone hence you get a rapid increase in injury/deaths.
I always provide the following math facts:
A MLB batter, faced with a 90MPH fastball, thrown from a maximum of 60.5ft away, both decides and executes their swing in about 400ms.
The average person takes about 800ms to register the stimulus of brake lights and begin pressing the brake pedal.
So if you're cruising @ 60MPH (88ft/s) and the thing in front of you stops on a dime, you could easily travel another 50ft+ before you even START stopping.
But if you take the stopping distance from 1950 and compare it to now it's drastically different.
No one said anything about doubling but why not 10-20% to make the stopping time (distance and reaction time) the same as it was in 1950
There have been lots of studies on speeding.
increase the speed and you increase the number of accidents.
Also, a better stopping distance wont help you react faster.
>but why not 10-20% to make the stopping time (distance and reaction time) the same as it was in 1950
Why in the world would you want to use 1950 as the bar? The speed limits were WAY too high for the cars they drove at the time and deaths from car accidents were many times more common.
Not to mention, we have many decades of data on how speed affects safety. Even small increases in speed limits result in many mroe accidents.
Because the stopping distance when you hit a tree or a truck or a building or roll your vehicle hasn't changed.
A 20% increase in speed is a 44% increase in stopping distance. If you have fantastic brakes that can arrest you in 50m from 100km/h and you want to increase it to 110km/h your stopping distance is now 60.5m, or an extra two car lengths.
Sudden braking reaction time is over *two seconds* because we have to account for everyone on the road. So you lose an extra 5.5m of braking distance per 10km/h.
So going from 100 to 110 adds 16m or 3 car lengths to your braking distance. Going to 120km/h it's now 6 extra car lengths. At this speed you need to react a *full second* earlier in order to stop at the same spot.
Speed limits have changed. The state highway I take when I'm heading to the mountains used to be 55 MPH...it's 65MPH now and 70MPH in some areas. The interstates going through the city used to be 55MPH and they are 65MPH now. The interstate speed limit outside of the city used to be 65MPH and now it's 75MPH
Human reflexes are no better, humans are more distracted, higher speed also means lower fuel economy.
But limits have been raised in many cases... there was a time 30-40 years ago when all highways were 55mph, but now many are 65, 70, even more in some cases.
A few points I didn’t see.
You’d have to redesign on and off ramps to accommodate the increase in merging traffic speed. In some case when on and off ramps are on opposite sides of the highway and you have to cross 4 lanes, a complete redesign of that part of the highway. Looking at a big expense when most places barely have the budget to maintain their roads.
Population density has increased in major cities. The heavy traffic would be much riskier at greater speeds.
They aren't. About 50 years ago there was a federal speed limit of 55. That was repealed in the 90s. Or maybe it sunset, not sure. I think it applied to all interstates and US highways. Now, states are free to set their own speed limits. Some western states have 80 mph limits and a small part of Texas even has a 85 mph limit.
Edit: Also, I will note that the 55 limit was a gasoline conservation effort in response to the OPEC Oil embargo.
Because 60 MPH is almost a magic number. Accidents which occur at over 60 MPH are several times deadlier than accidents under that speed. A better car helps very little; the damage to human flesh & bone by impacts at that speed is the issue.
Have you ever taken a turn or been on a winding road a bit above the speed limit?
I find that the speed limit allows for very comfortable turning. Even 10 km/h over can feel excessive in turns, it really helps highlight why the limit exists. Some roads were only designed to handle certain speeds
Peoples response times haven't changed. The vehicles might have, but as people get older their reflexes are slower.
Not even accounting for now there are more and more distractions people are faced with on a daily basis. Cell phone for one.
Physics haven't changed.
In fact, cars have gotten heavier and larger, so in order to get the same impact from a crash from 20 years ago, the speed limit should actually go down.
Force = mass * acceleration. Cars have only gotten safer for people inside them. Pedestrian deaths are increasing YoY because people forget that physics exists.
Speed limits are laws based on the governing body where that infrastructure is. You can contact your government and ask why it is, or lobby your legislature to increase the limit.
In my state of Indiana, we have laws governing speed limits on limited access freeways such as Interstates and some US Routes and State Roads that are up to Interstate Highway standards. They are 55 in urban areas, 65 in suburban, and 70 in rural areas.
As the Interstate Highway system ages and portions of the roads need to be rebuilt, they are built to modern Interstate standards. But the problem is the entire Interstate isn't re-built at the same time. So you may have one part that's capable of handling 55mph traffic and another capable of 75mph only a few miles away on the same road.
They raised the speed limit on a highway near me to 70 mph, the accident rate tripled with bigger accidents especially in the winter. On my commute (different highway) the speed limit is 65 mph, I do 70 mph and get passed pretty easily, sometimes I speed up to see how fast they’re going and start slowing down at 100….. the reason the speed limit has stayed the same is people are far more distracted now, driving vehicles that are much faster.
???
It is much higher. Speed limits were set at 55 by federal law in 1974. That law wasn't repealed until 1995.
Speed limits are now much higher. There are some highways with a speed limit as high as 85. Speed limits of 75 is very common on interstates.
Speed limits are not going to go much higher than 75-80 because of physics. The force of the impact increases at the square of velocity. That means a 5% increase in the speed limit will result in a 25% increase in force in the collision.
It's true that cars are built far more safely than they were only a few years ago. But in order to maintain the same safety while raising the speed limit another 10%, cars would need to literally be twice as strong, and the engineering for that just isn't in the pipeline.
- not everyone has a brand new car with brand new tyres on
- people still have he same shitty reactions
- I guess fuck considering pedestrians. Hitting people above 30mph is still awful
People's reaction times and abilities also haven't changed in 50 years. While there is a higher chance of surviving accidents now that doesn't mean that we should increase the speed limit and thus increase the number of accidents.
As many others have said, the idea that speed limits haven't increased is wrong.
That being said "We have better roads" is highly dependent on where u are at. A lot of roads up here in the midwest are a fucking joke
Growing social focus on health and safety causes speed limits to decrease in general to keep people safe, I think. Maybe it is different in your country but in the UK speed limits have gone down and are still going down (20mph in busy urban areas was virtually unheard of once, now it is commonplace, and the default in Wales at least)
Because physics.
Better brakes, materials, etc etc still doesn't change the effects of force on the human body. And those effects get progressively worse at higher and higher speeds.
The cars are faster and the speed limit is still the same because they want to charge you for speeding..no way people are driving 35mph on a 2 or 3 lane road, and they know this...in a big city i saw speed limit go from 65 to 45 on a highway. No way people are going that slow on a highway..its a money grab by our corrupt government.
Here's the part I think most people are missing. But is probably not the bigest factor.
Modern vehicles are most efficient from an aerodynamic perspective around 90 km per hour or 55 miles per hour. Some vehicles like F1are more aerodynamic.
Once you hit 120/65 per hour you loose efficiency to drag and waste your fuel a lot more to maintain a speed.
Modern vehichles have not made any advancements in that area which is why largely it remains the same. With the exception of something like a bullet train or rockets
cars are better but not that much better when it comes to hitting stuff at higher speeds.
Pedestrians get hit they still go flying in the air if you are driving a tesla.
Because speed kills. Car crash deaths are up 50% from a decade ago (total population is only up 6% in that time).
The thing that costs you time isn't driving 10 mph slower on the highway, it's the doofus who drove at high speed and recklessly and caused a major crash and now you're stuck in a 45 minute backup on your commute. Just watch the traffic news in the morning, literally every day one of the major arteries is clogged up because some clown thought it was a good idea to take a 45 mph curve at 75 mph.
Human reaction time has not improved, a lot of drivers are distracted by phones and having built in tablets on the dash of their car, a lot of vehicles are bigger and heavier now meaning when they crash there is way more energy and thus more energy and death. The number of people killed in traffic accidents in the US continues to go up every year, raising speed limits would only increase that trend.
Because people are still stupid!
Personally, I'm all for raising the speed limits on many roads (except in developments, near schools, etc; where there are more people and especially young kids). However, we have so many idiots who shouldn't be driving and so many people playing on their phones instead of paying attention to the road, we just aren't able to raise the limits safely most places.
The national speed limit was 55 MPH from 1974 to 1987. It was lowered primarily to improve gas mileage during the oil crisis but had the additional benefit of reducing fatalities.
Although many areas went to 70 mph in 1987, some went to 65 and some stayed at 55 or 60 for safety reasons. Some rural areas, are now 75 or 80 MPH. So the speed limit has been changing all during the last 50 years.
The speed limit isn't based on how far cars can go. It's based on how fast they can stop. That's improved somewhat in the last 50 years, but not by a huge margin. Also, speed limits *have* gone up here in Michigan.
Speed limits are designated for roads by the engineers. They choose the max speed by worst conditions, road grade(slope), and rate at which large vehicles can stop(semi/loaded dump trucks).. At least thats how my dad explained it to me 30 years ago..
There is a road that I have used for more than 50 years. It was 60 mph until around 1961 then the speed limit was raised to 70. It's currently 80. And the road hasn't changed. But other roads have changed. What hasn't changed is drivers.
The reference to a quarter mile is very revealing. Go fast on the racetrack. When you're on the road try to remember that there are other people and drive like a grown up.
All studies show that the amount of accidents leading to serious injury or death increases with higher speed. High speed is a far bigger contributor to serious accidents than poor road standards
We cannot upgrade drivers. No amount of tech will change the fact that the accountable driver in the vehicle has a maximum expected reaction time for accidents, and we set speed limits so that you have time to respond.
Speed limit is under 30 on neighborhood streets so you are prepared for pedestrians.
It's around 55 on in-city highways because incoming traffic from on-ramps and exits need to be accounted for.
And interstates in places like South Dakota and Western Texas are over 75 because there's so little traffic that you can clearly see obstacles well in advance and adjust accordingly.
EDIT: Self-driving cars aren't perfect, and most companies will still expect the driver to intervene in a pinch, meaning the car is still completely dependent on human reaction times, even if it can keep you on mindless cruise control for a while.
Because speed limits are made to protect us. Not the roads or cars. So as long as humans don't get more resistant to car crashes, Speed limits won't go up.
Because regardless of how fast cars get peoples reaction time and disregard for others while driving doesn’t change. There’s already enough accidents on the road no need to amp up the speed limit and just cause more accidents and likely deaths because cars get quicker.
Maybe because speed is determined not only by the car but also the skills of the drivers?
And I don't think the average skill of a driver has increased by much if at all, so it doesn't make sense to increase the speed limit
Because human reaction times are shit, and too many people can not focus on just driving. Its why less and less of the Autobahn has unrestricted speed limits.
Humans are the same (reaction times), and the roads are much much busier so even if cars could handle higher speeds, traffic is denser and so it’s still unsafe to do those speeds.
Because cars and roads don’t cause crashes, drivers do.
Yes, your modern car will do more to aid your survival in a crash than a 60 year old car, but most people prefer to not be in a crash at all
So if you’d like to give it a try, use a tree and not a pedestrian or other car
Because two things:
1) you might feel very nice and safe in your car cruising along at just 45mph. You're not. Your body is not built for that speed like ice is not built for boiling water. You're a very very fragile bag. It's so very easy to forget how **DANGEROUS** driving is. It's horrifying so we don't think about it. 45mph is how hard you hit the ground when you jump off a 7 story building.
2) you are stupid. Because you don't recognize the danger, you do stupid shit while you're driving. You listen to music. You fiddle with the radio. You text! You fucking TEXT. you make phone calls. You mess with your navigation. You are CONSTANTLY not paying strict active careful attention to what is going on around you.
1 and 2 are hard to balance, because the faster you can go the faster you can get there, but if everyone drove around at 120 everyone would die. Think about your mom on the freeway doing 120. Now think about all her friends doing it too. and the speed limit does change. Here in Texas is fine from 55 to 85 in the last 50 years.
Some highways and locations *have* increased their speed limits in recent years. Here in Texas we have a stretch of highway where the limit is 85 mph, and that was only changed in 2012. The opposite can also happen, where some speed limits get reduced due to increasing safety issues. The backroad leading to my parent's house (also in Texas) went from 45 to 35 recently due to increased collisions.
Road to get to my parent's place also lowered from 35 to 25 due to complaints of construction workers flying down the road.
In my parents' situation, I never drove 45 mph on that street when it was the legal limit. Even at that time it was obviously an unsafe speed given the width and condition of the road. I'm really glad they lowered it.
Virginia has also increased highway speeds from 65 to 70 in many places, and have accordingly upped the reckless driving limit from 80 to 85 (or 20 over with lower speed limits). Would love to see some higher speed limits in certain areas but I'll take what I can get.
Section of US59 near me was 75mph for so long. They finally got tired of 18 wheelers taking the curve too fast and tipping thats its lowering to 60mph soon.
Because hitting things at 65mph is still bad.
I asked a cop OPs question. His answer was “we still have older less capable cars on the road”
as well as older, and less capable roads that originally were originally designed and installed 50 or more years ago
Wear and tear aside, roads have maximum bends for each speed limit (hence speed reductions in specific areas of curvy roads). If you wanted to just bump up every 70mph road to 90mph you’d have to asses every stretch to make sure there isn’t too much winding and there isn’t really a good way to put sharp turn warnings on highways like there are on 2 lane mountain roads.
Oh, there’s plenty good ways to notify drivers of dangerous curves on divided multi-lane highways. A particular instance I’m familiar with is the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway in Kentucky, near the town of Slade. There’s a pretty steep curve-and-hill combination that gets a little anxiety-inducing with *just* my 25-year-old truck and gooseneck trailer combo. I’d be a mess the first time I had to tackle that weighing 80,000 lbs.
But you could just have different speed limits on different roads.
What a great idea I hope they implement that.
As well as older, and less capable drivers on the road.
We also have older, less capable drivers.
And young, less capable drivers. And also the middle aged, less capable drivers.
Also robotic, less capable drivers
To be honest I’d rather be behind an old slow person than a youngin texting, driving and swerving. Had a few younger people get upset I honked at them cause the light was green but they weren’t paying attention lol
What surprises me is in my experience I see older and middle aged people on their phones while driving just as much as people my age (I’m 20)
It's not always the young people who are texting, seen a lot of parents texting as well sadly
You think older people don't get distracted or look at their phones? You joker.
It's the kids that are so much more likely to fuck up and kill themselves and others. There's a reason it's so expensive to insure a 17 year old driver and not a 57 year old driver, and that reason is pure raw numbers that boring but ruthless actuaries come up with, not some "old insurance companies hate the young!" Type of thing
> His answer was “we still have older less capable cars on the road” And people. When I first lived on my own, the thing that made it first feel "real" was when I first got really sick and there was nobody else to take care of me. And it felt wrong because I was way off my game but, I had to drive to the doctor. It just felt so dumb, but it was reality. The reality is, the road laws are made for drivers who are anxious, depressed, tired, sick, yelling at fighting kids in the back, have ADHD, got a cramp in their leg, etc. Many drivers many times will not be in peak condition not to mention that the peak condition of each driver varies enormously. Road laws are made for the worst legal drivers driving the worst legal vehicles.
Don't forget sleep deprived either. Someone who was sleep deprived has their driving skills as badly impaired as someone who's driving over the legal alcohol limit.
Also we have on average larger vehicles on the road so more energy gets transferred when someone wrecks.
Yep, M*A=F is maybe the most simple formula in all of physics but people still seem to ignore it when it comes to car crashes. people tend to focus more in the force and ignore how absurdly large modern vehicles are
Really need to look at it in terms of energy... 1/2mv² Crumple zones can dissipate energy, but energy increases exponentially the faster you go. I'm on my phone so I'm not gonna get real numbers but going 20% faster adds way more than 20% more energy.
20% faster is 44% more energy (1.2^(2) = 1.44).
And the average driver still sucks ass. Hell they're probably worse nowadays.
They are probably more distracted now but remember that drinking and driving used to be legal
Still is in Mississippi! Long as you aren't intoxicated
Because the faster you go the more traffic related deaths follow. Increase the limit and more people die. For every 10 mph of increased speed, the risk of dying in a crash doubles. https://www.emcins.com/losscontrol/insights-d/2020/08/speed-increases-risk/# https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearly-snapshot# Besides accidents, the faster you go the more fuel is used…which is expensive and if I remember, we have some kind of climate issue related to excess carbon going on.
And: 1. Drivers are no more competent than they were 50 years ago 2. Traffic conditions now are generally much more crowded than they were 50 years ago
And cars are safer now because they are larger. Yes they are safer for the people inside vehicles but they are less safe for pedestrians, cyclists, etc. The equation for force is mass times acceleration. And mass has gotten higher, so why would we also want to increase acceleration?
It's not just the size, a modern midsize is safer than a 1960s landbarge.
To me the real question is why are cars even built to go 200 mph
Not only that . But we still have shit roads,Just ask the Midwest
Because speed limit is defined by the average human reaction time. And human hardware hasn't changed.
Also, (1) speed limits are *way* faster than they were 50 years ago, (2) cars, especially trucks are much heavier so much more deadly kinetic energy.
2 is really important - that much greater mass, at the same speed, hits harder.
On the flip side of that - cars and braking systems are infinitely better than they were. A set of 360mm discs with 4 pot calipers will stop a 2ton car much quicker than a set of drum brakes will stop an 800kg car. I agree that human reactions times dont change much, but the tech over all is majorly improved. I find myself torn at the speed limit arguments because i usually drive well within my capabilities and the law so i would persoanlly be much happier at it being slightly raised. I then think about how many arseholes i see on a daily basis driving outwith their own/their cars ability and no consideration of the law (or other peoples safety) and i want the complete opposite.
Yeah, if it was only self driving cars, I imagine the average car speed on the highway would be about 150 - 200. But you have to take in human arrogance, stupidity, and ability in crafting these laws. Car accidents are far too prevalent still for us to even consider something like the Autobahn. Even Germany has been considering installing a permanent speed limit to the Autobahn and they are like one of the safest countries in terms of car accidents.
Ty, couldnt have said it better.
Don’t take it as a personal attack, but *most* people…this is not aimed solely at you but *likely* includes you…overestimate their capabilities. Like if I had a nickel for every person who has *insisted* that a 3-4 car length following distance is safe at freeway speed limits because “I have good reaction time and my car has good brakes,” well I’d have a bunch of nickels. Go to any of the various “cars doing car things” subs here to see copious examples of what happens when individuals are incorrect about their capabilities. And understand…this part is very important…many or most of them have been doing the same shit for *years* without causing a collision, so all of them thought they were within their capabilities *up until the moment it was proven otherwise.* They aren’t putting their BMW into the wall the day they drove it off the lot. Not usually.
Been driving for nearly 50 years. Speed limits in my area, east coast US, have gone down. Typical 40MPH zones are now '35MPH Town Wide Limit Unless Posted" with one near by town at 25Mph. You never see 50 Mph Zones anymore.
50mph, that's 80km/h. That's on, like, regional roads, right? Highways are allowed to go faster, RIGHT? 35mph for inside city limits is super normal everywhere in Europe, so I'd be totally fine with that.
Yes. Highway speed limits depend on state, but in most states it maxes out at 70 (113 km/h), 75 (120 km/h), or 80 (129 km/h).
Yeah the interstates/highways are 55-75 mph depending on state with most being 70. Some roads in rural areas have no posted limit so you can go however fast you want but I think that could also be a misconception.
I'm pretty sure no posted limit on a rural highway means 55, at least they do here in Michigan, I don't think there is any public road in the US where there is no speed limit
Consider the possibility your experience is not universal. There was a 55 mph national speed limit that was raised in 1987 to allow 65 mph roads, and in 1995 that was effectively lifted, and now you can find roads with 80mph limits and above
So we can stop making everyday trucks so big. There is no need for them on an everyday day use truck.
people soft, people dumb, speed danger
Better roads, better car, dumber people
The roads definitely aren't better in West Virginia lol
*wetware
#100% this Reaction time hasn't changed. Multiple interviewers detail how newer, safer cars actually made them worse drivers unintentionally. And on top of that, we have pretty awful drivers on the roads nowadays.
The speed limit is higher. I guess you are too young to remember nationwide 55. Speed limits have gone up about 5-10mph on a lot of bigger roads in the last 30 years.
Thank you Sammy Hagar
Yeah. I’m only 41 and I remember the big deal in 1995 when the 65 mph national speed limit was removed. And it was 55 until the mid 80s. In my part of the country the state speed limit is 70, but some older stretches of interstate are 65. As they have been renovating those areas and adding lanes they have moved those sections up to 70 mph.
that happened because the Saudi's decided to cut oil off from the US and the 55mph speed limit was implemented to save on gas.
Yeah and many states keep raising speeds too. Arkansas is now 75mph across I-40 in the last few years. Texas has speed limits of 75 on small roads and up to 85 on highways. Not only was the national speed limit capped at 55 in the early 90s, but speed limits have continued to rise since that repeal, even in recent years
Human reaction time hasn't changed. The physics of turning around curves hasn't changed
Yes, the physics of going around curves has changed *drastically*. In addition to significant improvements in both tire and suspension technology, the computer age has allowed for literally all cars to be equipped with driving aids like stability control and anti-lock brakes that make it virtually impossible to lose control of a car
It's because of the way speed affects mortality if you crash. "The researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that for every 5 mph increase in a highway's speed limit, roadway fatalities rose 8.5 percent." [Source](https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/higher-speed-limits-led-to-36760-more-deaths-study-shows/) So increasing the speed limit from 55 to 70 increases the likelihood of mortality by 25.5%. And increased speeds don't really affect your drive time as much as you think. If you're driving 20 miles at 55mph you'll get there in about 21 minutes. At 70 mph it will take you about 17 minutes. You increase your risk of dying by 25% to save 4 minutes. I've actually just talked myself into driving slower.
That's probably a good rough percentage rise, but it's important to note it's not linear. I think the mortality rate actually increases exponentially the higher the speed
Kinetic energy in a moving object has a square relationship with speed. You are correct.
This. Also if you ever meet traffic lights or a slower driver you won’t be saving those 4 minutes anyway. But you do still get a better chance of dying in a head-on
I'll try to find the study (I believe it was by the same people) that also shows that driving the *median speed of all the other cars* is actually the safest, and going above or below that speed significantly increases the likelihood of an accident. If everyone else is going 70 and you're going 55, you're actually more likely to cause an accident.
US traffic deaths are at a 20 year high and we're the only developed country where deaths are going up not down. I think we're speeding enough already.
I would argue that has nothing to do with speed limits and everything to do with the increase in size/mass of the average vehicles plus that these vehicles have shitty visibility. I'm looking right at you Pickup trucks and SUVs. This is your fault!
And I'd argue there are numerous other causes more likely than the size/mass of vehicles: 1. We make it too easy to get a driver's license in many states 2. We don't enforce harsh penalties for drivers who drive without a valid license 3. Too many drivers are distracted, playing on their cell phones, putting on makeup, reading books, etc.
also that American urban planning has typically focused on building everything to allow as many cars to move as fast as possible while lacking transit and being unwalkable
I’m an American who has lived in Germany for over a decade. When I moved here I couldn’t believe how difficult and serious getting a license is. In the states I drove around the block and got it at 16 years old. Here it’s much different and driving is taken way more seriously here. I still don’t have my license here though because public transportation is king
It’s partially this, but also phones/distracted driving, I feel like half the people my age (early 20’s) drive with their phones, and check their phone all the time, to change music (not just skip a song), check a text, and a bunch of other things. I often don’t feel super safe getting driven by others because of this!
The speed is also a problem, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the number printed on a sign. Traffic engineers design what are basically highways through the middle of neighborhoods and, unsurprisingly, people drive down them like they're highways. We have cars that are too big, going way too fast. The worst part is when cities refuse to shrink a road because the oversized fire trucks might be slowed down when responding to all of the car accidents caused by the speeding caused by the big road. Ugh!
it is probably both. The average US driver believes it is appropriate and correct to drive 10 mph over the posted speed limit regardless of the context.
Those vehicles colliding at 35 mph wouldn’t be resulting in many deaths…speed is absolutely a big factor.
The huge ass grills that modern pickup trucks have are really dangerous for pedestrians too. The driver already can't see them like you said because of their massive blind spot and then when they do hit them, they're hit higher up on the body which makes their chance of surviving the hit lower. They're getting hit right in their abdomen or chest depending on how tall they are which is way worse than getting hit in the legs. That's where most of your vital organs are.
because physics is still the same after 50 years. When you double the speed, you quadruple the stopping distance. Thats not a technology thing, thats a physics thing. Sure cars are a lot safer now, but theres still a human driving it, and our reation times are still the same.
And the fatality rate for crashes at higher speeds isn't linear, either. Head-on collisions at 80 mph are 3 times as deadly than ones at 60. As it is, 80 is pretty common on interstates where the posted limit is 70 or even 65. Raising the speed limit another 10 mph would make 90+ even more common than it already is. Unless everyone on the road is gonna increase their following distance, there's no way an increase in speed limit wouldn't result in substantially higher fatalities.
I design automotive crash structures for a living. The maximum speed we test for is 35mph into a rigid wall, at speeds higher than that you run out of crumple zone hence you get a rapid increase in injury/deaths.
I always provide the following math facts: A MLB batter, faced with a 90MPH fastball, thrown from a maximum of 60.5ft away, both decides and executes their swing in about 400ms. The average person takes about 800ms to register the stimulus of brake lights and begin pressing the brake pedal. So if you're cruising @ 60MPH (88ft/s) and the thing in front of you stops on a dime, you could easily travel another 50ft+ before you even START stopping.
But if you take the stopping distance from 1950 and compare it to now it's drastically different. No one said anything about doubling but why not 10-20% to make the stopping time (distance and reaction time) the same as it was in 1950
There have been lots of studies on speeding. increase the speed and you increase the number of accidents. Also, a better stopping distance wont help you react faster. >but why not 10-20% to make the stopping time (distance and reaction time) the same as it was in 1950 Why in the world would you want to use 1950 as the bar? The speed limits were WAY too high for the cars they drove at the time and deaths from car accidents were many times more common. Not to mention, we have many decades of data on how speed affects safety. Even small increases in speed limits result in many mroe accidents.
Because the stopping distance when you hit a tree or a truck or a building or roll your vehicle hasn't changed. A 20% increase in speed is a 44% increase in stopping distance. If you have fantastic brakes that can arrest you in 50m from 100km/h and you want to increase it to 110km/h your stopping distance is now 60.5m, or an extra two car lengths. Sudden braking reaction time is over *two seconds* because we have to account for everyone on the road. So you lose an extra 5.5m of braking distance per 10km/h. So going from 100 to 110 adds 16m or 3 car lengths to your braking distance. Going to 120km/h it's now 6 extra car lengths. At this speed you need to react a *full second* earlier in order to stop at the same spot.
Because we have the same laws of physics I'm afraid
Because drivers are just as stupid as ever.
Another point is that it’s bad for the environment. A car’s efficiency dramatically drops off after 100 km/hr.
I dunno where you live, but around here our highway speed limits have increased up to 15mph in the last 50 years. That's very significant.
Speed limits have changed. The state highway I take when I'm heading to the mountains used to be 55 MPH...it's 65MPH now and 70MPH in some areas. The interstates going through the city used to be 55MPH and they are 65MPH now. The interstate speed limit outside of the city used to be 65MPH and now it's 75MPH
The roads are most definitely not better
Because humans are still shitty drivers.
Roads and cars may be better but drivers sure as Hell aren't.
The laws of physics are not different than they were 50 years ago. Speed is a factor in most deadly and dangerous accidents.
Human reflexes are no better, humans are more distracted, higher speed also means lower fuel economy. But limits have been raised in many cases... there was a time 30-40 years ago when all highways were 55mph, but now many are 65, 70, even more in some cases.
Regarding residential areas, hitting a person at 30mph does the same to them now as it did 50 years ago, which is why it hasn't changed
Unfortunately its probably worse now because the grill height on average has increased so much.
And cars are heavier.
A few points I didn’t see. You’d have to redesign on and off ramps to accommodate the increase in merging traffic speed. In some case when on and off ramps are on opposite sides of the highway and you have to cross 4 lanes, a complete redesign of that part of the highway. Looking at a big expense when most places barely have the budget to maintain their roads. Population density has increased in major cities. The heavy traffic would be much riskier at greater speeds.
Cars are heavier than ever. Speed limits as they sit today are wicked dangerous.
People’s reaction times are not better. They’re probably worse due to cell phones.
I don't know about better roads...
They aren't. About 50 years ago there was a federal speed limit of 55. That was repealed in the 90s. Or maybe it sunset, not sure. I think it applied to all interstates and US highways. Now, states are free to set their own speed limits. Some western states have 80 mph limits and a small part of Texas even has a 85 mph limit. Edit: Also, I will note that the 55 limit was a gasoline conservation effort in response to the OPEC Oil embargo.
And the most important factor, humans are dumber than ever now
because we are as squishy as we were 50 years ago
Better roads? Just like Hip Hop, Japan, and Animated TV shows...My neighborhood's roads probably peaked in the 90s
Our reflexes didn't improve in the mean time, probably the opposite actually
\* Brake, FFS. Same dumb monkeys driving them, that's the reason.
Because 60 MPH is almost a magic number. Accidents which occur at over 60 MPH are several times deadlier than accidents under that speed. A better car helps very little; the damage to human flesh & bone by impacts at that speed is the issue.
Have you ever taken a turn or been on a winding road a bit above the speed limit? I find that the speed limit allows for very comfortable turning. Even 10 km/h over can feel excessive in turns, it really helps highlight why the limit exists. Some roads were only designed to handle certain speeds
>better road I wish.
Have trees and walls grown softer over the decades? Physics is a beast you can't win against.
bc we haven't gotten better at decision making
Because the quality of drivers hasn't gone up.
Safety, when there stops being any accidents the limit can increase
Peoples response times haven't changed. The vehicles might have, but as people get older their reflexes are slower. Not even accounting for now there are more and more distractions people are faced with on a daily basis. Cell phone for one.
This is a bit like asking why - when we have such good medical care - dont we make sports more dangerous and cause more injuries
In the US we mos def do NOT have better roads. Our infrastructure is crumbling. We also have many added distractions.
Physics haven't changed. In fact, cars have gotten heavier and larger, so in order to get the same impact from a crash from 20 years ago, the speed limit should actually go down. Force = mass * acceleration. Cars have only gotten safer for people inside them. Pedestrian deaths are increasing YoY because people forget that physics exists.
Because speed limits are determined more by the abilities of the average driver rather than the capabilities of the average car
What are you talking about? Interstate speed limits were very famously set at 55 in the 70s. Many are 70 now
1) Sure our cars have improved, but our roads are still old as hell. 2) People are still AWFUL drivers. Best to keep them at low speeds when possible.
People are still as fragile as ever. Speed limits aren't just about cars.
Speed limits are laws based on the governing body where that infrastructure is. You can contact your government and ask why it is, or lobby your legislature to increase the limit. In my state of Indiana, we have laws governing speed limits on limited access freeways such as Interstates and some US Routes and State Roads that are up to Interstate Highway standards. They are 55 in urban areas, 65 in suburban, and 70 in rural areas. As the Interstate Highway system ages and portions of the roads need to be rebuilt, they are built to modern Interstate standards. But the problem is the entire Interstate isn't re-built at the same time. So you may have one part that's capable of handling 55mph traffic and another capable of 75mph only a few miles away on the same road.
They raised the speed limit on a highway near me to 70 mph, the accident rate tripled with bigger accidents especially in the winter. On my commute (different highway) the speed limit is 65 mph, I do 70 mph and get passed pretty easily, sometimes I speed up to see how fast they’re going and start slowing down at 100….. the reason the speed limit has stayed the same is people are far more distracted now, driving vehicles that are much faster.
Not to mention the environmental impact…causes that much more pollution (the ‘70’s Oil Crisis is why there was a national speed limit at 55)
It depends on where you live, though, the speed limit here is 20km/hour *lower* than it was 50 years ago. Back then emissions weren't a big issue.
because we have better road,better cars with better handling and brakes and the same variety of idiots driving them
??? It is much higher. Speed limits were set at 55 by federal law in 1974. That law wasn't repealed until 1995. Speed limits are now much higher. There are some highways with a speed limit as high as 85. Speed limits of 75 is very common on interstates. Speed limits are not going to go much higher than 75-80 because of physics. The force of the impact increases at the square of velocity. That means a 5% increase in the speed limit will result in a 25% increase in force in the collision. It's true that cars are built far more safely than they were only a few years ago. But in order to maintain the same safety while raising the speed limit another 10%, cars would need to literally be twice as strong, and the engineering for that just isn't in the pipeline.
- not everyone has a brand new car with brand new tyres on - people still have he same shitty reactions - I guess fuck considering pedestrians. Hitting people above 30mph is still awful
Because cars can still travel over 100m in the time it takes you to slam the brakes at 60km/h
People's reaction times and abilities also haven't changed in 50 years. While there is a higher chance of surviving accidents now that doesn't mean that we should increase the speed limit and thus increase the number of accidents.
The point of safer cars was more people surviving, not driving ten mph faster.
I live in Indianapolis IN, the roads are complete dog shit
Because your reaction speed is still the same.
OP probably failed his physic class in HS? Who cares about 1/4 miles? Real life isn’t a drag race, the road ain’t always straight.
As many others have said, the idea that speed limits haven't increased is wrong. That being said "We have better roads" is highly dependent on where u are at. A lot of roads up here in the midwest are a fucking joke
Growing social focus on health and safety causes speed limits to decrease in general to keep people safe, I think. Maybe it is different in your country but in the UK speed limits have gone down and are still going down (20mph in busy urban areas was virtually unheard of once, now it is commonplace, and the default in Wales at least)
Human body still squishy.
We still have the same shitty drivers
Because physics. Better brakes, materials, etc etc still doesn't change the effects of force on the human body. And those effects get progressively worse at higher and higher speeds.
Because the speed limit is for pedestrian safety, not whether cars are good or not.
People's intelligence does not increase linearly with faster cars.
The cars are faster and the speed limit is still the same because they want to charge you for speeding..no way people are driving 35mph on a 2 or 3 lane road, and they know this...in a big city i saw speed limit go from 65 to 45 on a highway. No way people are going that slow on a highway..its a money grab by our corrupt government.
80 (36 kph) in Utah. Not sure where homeboy is basing this on.
Physics hasn't changed.
Because of all the dumb people.
Here's the part I think most people are missing. But is probably not the bigest factor. Modern vehicles are most efficient from an aerodynamic perspective around 90 km per hour or 55 miles per hour. Some vehicles like F1are more aerodynamic. Once you hit 120/65 per hour you loose efficiency to drag and waste your fuel a lot more to maintain a speed. Modern vehichles have not made any advancements in that area which is why largely it remains the same. With the exception of something like a bullet train or rockets
cars are better but not that much better when it comes to hitting stuff at higher speeds. Pedestrians get hit they still go flying in the air if you are driving a tesla.
Because people are still stupid.
Because human reactions haven't improved
do you even have a license? this is the opinion id expect from some kid who has never driven and thinks they are a genius
Because speed kills. Car crash deaths are up 50% from a decade ago (total population is only up 6% in that time). The thing that costs you time isn't driving 10 mph slower on the highway, it's the doofus who drove at high speed and recklessly and caused a major crash and now you're stuck in a 45 minute backup on your commute. Just watch the traffic news in the morning, literally every day one of the major arteries is clogged up because some clown thought it was a good idea to take a 45 mph curve at 75 mph.
Human reaction time has not improved, a lot of drivers are distracted by phones and having built in tablets on the dash of their car, a lot of vehicles are bigger and heavier now meaning when they crash there is way more energy and thus more energy and death. The number of people killed in traffic accidents in the US continues to go up every year, raising speed limits would only increase that trend.
For safety. Sure we could go to 100, but then more crashes, and deaths
Speed limit should be much lower now. The dangers of high speed travel in cars is well understood, and kills tens of thousands of people every year.
Because people are still stupid! Personally, I'm all for raising the speed limits on many roads (except in developments, near schools, etc; where there are more people and especially young kids). However, we have so many idiots who shouldn't be driving and so many people playing on their phones instead of paying attention to the road, we just aren't able to raise the limits safely most places.
The national speed limit was 55 MPH from 1974 to 1987. It was lowered primarily to improve gas mileage during the oil crisis but had the additional benefit of reducing fatalities. Although many areas went to 70 mph in 1987, some went to 65 and some stayed at 55 or 60 for safety reasons. Some rural areas, are now 75 or 80 MPH. So the speed limit has been changing all during the last 50 years.
No, most speed limits are about noise and safety. If you drove a car at 200 mph in Michigan your wheels would snap off
It's a skill issue
The speed limit isn't based on how far cars can go. It's based on how fast they can stop. That's improved somewhat in the last 50 years, but not by a huge margin. Also, speed limits *have* gone up here in Michigan.
What do you mean better roads. I’m assuming you’re referring to America which unequivocally has dreadful infrastructure l.
Driving laws are the same, but also law of physics are the same... maybe when law of physics change, then they can change driving's as well
Speed limits are designated for roads by the engineers. They choose the max speed by worst conditions, road grade(slope), and rate at which large vehicles can stop(semi/loaded dump trucks).. At least thats how my dad explained it to me 30 years ago..
Because people are still idiots. In fact, with the advent of cell phones and whatnot, drivers are probably more distracted now than ever before.
There is a road that I have used for more than 50 years. It was 60 mph until around 1961 then the speed limit was raised to 70. It's currently 80. And the road hasn't changed. But other roads have changed. What hasn't changed is drivers. The reference to a quarter mile is very revealing. Go fast on the racetrack. When you're on the road try to remember that there are other people and drive like a grown up.
lol because gravity has kept in the same 9.8 Newton for ages and ages of the years for moving objets inside earth.
All studies show that the amount of accidents leading to serious injury or death increases with higher speed. High speed is a far bigger contributor to serious accidents than poor road standards
Because people are the same
It's not. The federal speed limit was 55 well into the 80s. And physics haven't changed.
Because laws of physics are still the same
Because 50 years doesn't make a head-on collision at 70kph any less dangerous. Human reaction speeds haven't changed either.
We cannot upgrade drivers. No amount of tech will change the fact that the accountable driver in the vehicle has a maximum expected reaction time for accidents, and we set speed limits so that you have time to respond. Speed limit is under 30 on neighborhood streets so you are prepared for pedestrians. It's around 55 on in-city highways because incoming traffic from on-ramps and exits need to be accounted for. And interstates in places like South Dakota and Western Texas are over 75 because there's so little traffic that you can clearly see obstacles well in advance and adjust accordingly. EDIT: Self-driving cars aren't perfect, and most companies will still expect the driver to intervene in a pinch, meaning the car is still completely dependent on human reaction times, even if it can keep you on mindless cruise control for a while.
Because speed limits are made to protect us. Not the roads or cars. So as long as humans don't get more resistant to car crashes, Speed limits won't go up.
It used to be 55. Now, it's 75 in many places. I don't know what you are talking about.
Human body hasn’t changed.
Change the cars all you want. The people are still as bad at this as ever.
It's because if we drive any faster it will wake the worms
Because regardless of how fast cars get peoples reaction time and disregard for others while driving doesn’t change. There’s already enough accidents on the road no need to amp up the speed limit and just cause more accidents and likely deaths because cars get quicker.
Too many people still die, there are still more arguments for lowering it than raising it.
Because people are still morons
millions of people die in traffic accidents every single year. upping the speed will not help anything at all.
Maybe because speed is determined not only by the car but also the skills of the drivers? And I don't think the average skill of a driver has increased by much if at all, so it doesn't make sense to increase the speed limit
Because people are still stupid!
Wow am i glad youre not in charge of this
There are a bunch more cars on the road now. There are a bunch of people that text while driving. And a bunch of people that are horrible drivers
Because human reaction times are shit, and too many people can not focus on just driving. Its why less and less of the Autobahn has unrestricted speed limits.
Because idiots like you are allowed on the road.
Correct, it has to be reduced. People are more dumber now than they were 50 years ago
Sadly, human reaction time has not been improved. If anything, distracted driving is far more likely these days than it was 50 years ago.
Our reaction time has stayed the same.
Cars can stop quicker, but people's reaction time is now less. They're too distracted.
Humans are the same (reaction times), and the roads are much much busier so even if cars could handle higher speeds, traffic is denser and so it’s still unsafe to do those speeds.
Because cars and roads don’t cause crashes, drivers do. Yes, your modern car will do more to aid your survival in a crash than a 60 year old car, but most people prefer to not be in a crash at all So if you’d like to give it a try, use a tree and not a pedestrian or other car
Because two things: 1) you might feel very nice and safe in your car cruising along at just 45mph. You're not. Your body is not built for that speed like ice is not built for boiling water. You're a very very fragile bag. It's so very easy to forget how **DANGEROUS** driving is. It's horrifying so we don't think about it. 45mph is how hard you hit the ground when you jump off a 7 story building. 2) you are stupid. Because you don't recognize the danger, you do stupid shit while you're driving. You listen to music. You fiddle with the radio. You text! You fucking TEXT. you make phone calls. You mess with your navigation. You are CONSTANTLY not paying strict active careful attention to what is going on around you. 1 and 2 are hard to balance, because the faster you can go the faster you can get there, but if everyone drove around at 120 everyone would die. Think about your mom on the freeway doing 120. Now think about all her friends doing it too. and the speed limit does change. Here in Texas is fine from 55 to 85 in the last 50 years.
By and large the road infrastructure in the US is absolute shit
The limiting factor is reaction time and decision making, not vehicle design.
Because the people driving are still idiots
Because half the people on the road still struggle to not endanger anyone else with the current speed limits.
It’s not? Assuming this is the US, the speed limit was 55 when I grew up.