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Re: Solve speeding by limiting cars!



> In article <4895bo$oar@nntp.atlanta.com>,  <dwarner@atlanta.com> wrote:
> >Strangely enough, I'm still alive, and the only times I've suffered bent 
> >sheetmetal were in parking lots and bumper-to-bumper traffic..  Oh, I
> >also ended up in a ditch after missing a turnoff on a dark rainy night at 
> >about 10 MPH UNDER the posted limit, "proving" that low speeds 
> >cause accidents.
> 
> Good point. I'm only 22 and have only been driving for 5 years, but despite 
> nearly always exceeding the speed limit I've received no tickets and the only
> time I've ever had a collision was when I was pulling out of a driveway very
> slowly on a residential street and hit a parked car, breaking the cover on
> my taillamp. That PROVES that low speeds cause accidents, too.
> 
   Sorry. These things prove nothing but the fact that accidents are
possible under any conditions.  You both got in accidents (or ditches) not
necessarily because you were going slow, but because you were unfamiliar
with the area in poor weather or just not observent enough.  Had you been
going faster, it just would have been worse.  Speed in and of itself is
not dangerous, but it is inheritantly so.  Many drivers seem to forget a
fundamental law of physics which states that the kinetic energy is equal
to mass (the car's weight) times velocity SQUARED.  Regardless of the
car's mass, the point is that for doubling your speed, the momentum of the
car increases FOURfold.  From 50 to 75, while only a 50% increase in
speed, momentum increases 125%, which requires far longer breaking
distances and makes accidents far more dangerous.
   Granted, most speed laws on today's highways have been around since the
50s, when cars needed 250 feet to come to a stop from 60 miles/hour, and
they got 10 miles to the gallon.  Today, a good car can get 25-30 miles to
the gallon, and yank itself to a halt within 140 feet.  Which is why, of
course, almost everyone cruises at 65 or 70 and doesn't feel guilty about
it.  But speed kills, no doubt about it, whether on highways or not.


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