Raising Speed Limits Cost Lives

[barometriclow]

Speed limit increases are tied to 37,000 deaths over 25 years

Rising speed limits over the past 25 years have cost nearly 37,000 lives, including more than 1,900 in 2017 alone, a new IIHS study shows.

www.iihs.org

Not to mention the increase in fuel costs.

 

[Letterkenny]

What were the benefits?

 

[dmclone]

JFC calm down, they are going from 55 to 60. The next time you're on a rural 2 lane road, try to actually drive 55, it's embarrassingly slow.

 

[BurgundyClone]

less risky passing from people going too slow clogging traffic lanes causing too many drivers to have to make decisions. There will always be poor drivers causing accidents, but slow drivers force too many people to have to pass -raising it 5 MPH don't know if it alleviates anything or the slow drivers are going to continue to force poor decisions or if the speeders will slow their roll a little. We'll see!

 

[barometriclow]

What were the benefits?

Spending less time behind the wheel is in effect more life.

 

[JEFF420]

so does undrinkable water, the obesity rate in iowa, the high rates of alcohol consumption.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

How about simple math? More drivers, more accidents.

 

[Big Daddy Kang]

What were the benefits?

Lower payouts for the the study's sponsor - the insurance industry.

 

[baller21]

If we set a max speed of 45 on the interstate how many lives would we save? If everyone wore a helmet while driving their car how many lives could we save?

 

[dmclone]

Correlation vs. Causation

Also

"Both organizations are wholly supported by these auto insurers and insurance associations."

 

[dafarmer]

You could set the speed limit to 80 and people will still drive 10 mph over the limit. Only thing is, the roads are in such terrible shape that you can’t stay on the road.

 

[BCClone]

How about simple math? More drivers, more accidents.

Phones

 

[BCClone]

You could set the speed limit to 80 and people will still drive 10 mph over the limit. Only thing is, the roads are in such terrible shape that you can’t stay on the road.

I used to complain about the Iowa roads a lot, then I had to do even more driving in southern Minnesota and I learned to appreciate our poor roads.

 

[JimDogRock]

How about simple math? More drivers, more accidents.

The problem is that the forces that occur on vehicles and people during a crash do not involve simple math.
The equation to find kinetic energy uses the square of velocity, and humans don’t have a good intuitive ability to comprehend those differences at a glance.
We see 55 increasing to 60 and think that it’s not even 1/10 of an increase, so it must be marginal.
Punch in the values for a pair of 4,000 pound vehicles in a head-on collision at 110 and 120 mph, and you’ll see the difference is well over 500,000 additional pounds of force.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

The problem is that the forces that occur on vehicles and people during a crash do not involve simple math.
The equation to find kinetic energy uses the square of velocity, and humans don’t have a good intuitive ability to comprehend those differences at a glance.
We see 55 increasing to 60 and think that it’s not even 1/10 of an increase, so it must be marginal.
Punch in the values for a pair of 4,000 pound vehicles in a head-on collision at 110 and 120 mph, and you’ll see the difference is well over 500,000 additional pounds of force.

That only accounts for an increased severity, not number. IMO, more cars and more distracted drivers are far greater causes to the increase in accidents.

Speed may contribute, but that isn't happening in a bubble.

 

[AuH2O]

You could set the speed limit to 80 and people will still drive 10 mph over the limit. Only thing is, the roads are in such terrible shape that you can’t stay on the road.

My experience living in a state with higher speed limits that isn’t really the case.

Commuting in CO where it was 75 it seemed that almost everybody was 75-80. Some for the road conditions reasons and some due to how it is enforced. In SD where it’s 80 you don’t see people driving too much faster.

In Iowa I pretty much set my cruise at 79 and have never been pulled over on the interstate.

I really think in Iowa on two lane highways there needs to at least tighter enforcement during planting and harvest season. Most people are pretty aware of farm traffic but there are plenty driving way too fast on highways where you might go over a hill and have a combine or tractor. I would even be ok with increases in speed limits outside of those times, but we need to be really cautious during heavy farm traffic periods.

 

[ackatch]

Phones

the amount of people still sitting on their phones all the god damned time while driving is absolutely infuriating. I just want to scream every time I see someone doing stupid and then pass them or see that their on their GD phone.

Put the damn thing down and DRIVE

 

[chuckd4735]

How about simple math? More drivers, more accidents.

So adding more lanes also cost lives?

 

[Letterkenny]

You could set the speed limit to 80 and people will still drive 10 mph over the limit. Only thing is, the roads are in such terrible shape that you can’t stay on the road.

Is that really what causes accidents?

 

[Letterkenny]

I'm of the belief that as self driving cars slowly take over, accidents are going to plummet. Adoption will take a long time though.