Hi Tony: Nice to know i can always trust a geek to math it up:) Ok, so losing control is correlated to reaction time, i'll grant you that. And, I'm not saying that people should drive beyond their own limits; only that, regardless of anything else, a collision can kill you just as easily at 30mph as 70mph.
All other factors being equal, would you prefer being the the path of the
on-coming vehicle driven at 75
by a 28 year old (say) or on driven at 35 by an 80 year old?
Sure, what caused the collision was an inability to react in time to events.
But that's where the math ends. Why was the driver caught by surprise?
Under the influence?, distraction, age, weather conditions, a car that has poor
handling,
crappy headlights or windshield wipers?
Those are the elements that cause accidents more than just speed alone and a
motorist should be
aware of their own and their car's limitations. That's where real
accountability comes into play.
Speed limits, and motor vehicle laws in general, removes that personal
responsibility to the degree that
those who do damage never really have to be fully accountable. Causing damages
should entail harsh enough
penalties that keeps bad drivers from behind the wheel. Instead, it's just an
insurance and state racket
and that 5th DUI (for example) will just mean a short suspension. Forget
DUI's. But if you cause an
accident that harms someone you won't be driving for a long, long time.
Your conclusion only covers the physics, it says nothing about conditions of
the road, the driver, or the type of car.
Math alone doesn't cover the whole picture.
Let's try this analogy:
in a full (75% full) bathtub i only have to submerge my head 1/4 of the way
down to risk drowning
in a bathtub 5% full, i have to twist myself face-down and my nose will
probably touch the bottom of the tub.
But i can drown just as easily in a couple inches of water as in a full tub
though the math might say otherwise.
And speed limits are arbitrary; and here in the north, those signs are set for
winter conditions (the floor, not ceiling of what
the state deems a safe range),
They are mostly ignored, and rightly so. Is that posted speed limit as valid at
3AM as it is at 3PM? Or that red stoplight
at an empty intersection? Most people have the good sense god (or someone) gave
them to drive reasonably.
Laws, in general, prevent them from exercising their better judgment and
confines them to "lines and signs".
That is a management policy, like herding; and those laws is how the Shepard
gets paid.
On Wednesday 14 October 2009, Anthony Carrico wrote:
> Rion D'Luz wrote:
> > The subject of speeding is such a straw man. It's unenforceable. 25mph >
> can kill as easily as 70mph.
> > As many ppl are on meds as drink-n-drive and fundamentally speeding
> > does not kill, influences do not kill, texting does not kill, its
> > losing control that kills. speed is irrelevant despite what anyone
> > says.
>
> Let's check the math:
>
> If you have one second to react at 25mph, then you have about 1s*25/70 =
> 0.357s at 70mph.
>
> Let's say your car weighs 1500kg,
>
> 25mph = 11.17600 meters / second
> 70mph = 31.2928 meters / second
>
> 0.5*1500kg*(11.1760m/s)^2=93677joules
> 0.5*1500kg*(31.2928m/s)^2=734429joules
>
> So you have one second to get 94kj under control vs. one third of a
> second to get 734kj under control, while on drugs and the cell phone.
> Nope, it doesn't check out.
>
--
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