Cars going sooooo fast

[Anonymous]

I drive to an early morning class on a 35 mph road near where I live. Today, for the gazillionth time, I had to pull over to let someone pass me who wanted to do 45 on the road. (The road goes through a residential area where there are kids, pets, and a lot of wildlife.) On my drive today, I had to slow down to let a cat cross the road, and also slowed to let two deer pass.

On the way back from my class, I saw a deer on the side of the road that had obviously been hit. He was laying down but his head was up and he was alert and it just makes me so sad because it is so preventable. I called the non-emergency number to report it and they assured me they'd send someone out to tend to the deer, but I'm sure it will not have a "Happily ever after" outcome.

What is it with the speeding? Why?

[Anonymous]

These accidents happen because some drivers don't keep up with traffic speed. It is so dangerous to other drivers when someone drives 15-20 mph slower than all other drivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These accidents happen because some drivers don't keep up with traffic speed. It is so dangerous to other drivers when someone drives 15-20 mph slower than all other drivers.

NP but this is a criminal's justification. Whenever someone says "speed of traffic" what they mean is "I want to speed and if you're not speeding that makes you the problem."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These accidents happen because some drivers don't keep up with traffic speed. It is so dangerous to other drivers when someone drives 15-20 mph slower than all other drivers.

NP but this is a criminal's justification. Whenever someone says "speed of traffic" what they mean is "I want to speed and if you're not speeding that makes you the problem."

No, the point is to drive the damn speed limit! I can’t believe how often people who apparently don’t have busy lives or any place to be, thoughtlessly back up traffic. Some people need to carefully plan daily schedules and should be able to count on drivers observing the speed limit. If the limit is 35 and you’re going 20 for no reason at all yes, pull over!

[Anonymous]

When laws aren’t enforced people with loose morals will break the laws. Simple as that. If you are a good person you will do the right think even when no one is looking.

[Anonymous]

The key word is “limit,” ie, the maximum safe speed allowed under dry, sunny conditions. Slower if there’s rain or snow. There’s no law that says one must drive the speed limit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These accidents happen because some drivers don't keep up with traffic speed. It is so dangerous to other drivers when someone drives 15-20 mph slower than all other drivers.

NP but this is a criminal's justification. Whenever someone says "speed of traffic" what they mean is "I want to speed and if you're not speeding that makes you the problem."

No, the point is to drive the damn speed limit! I can’t believe how often people who apparently don’t have busy lives or any place to be, thoughtlessly back up traffic. Some people need to carefully plan daily schedules and should be able to count on drivers observing the speed limit. If the limit is 35 and you’re going 20 for no reason at all yes, pull over!

You are unhinged. OP was traveling at max speed limit. The speeder was going at least 10 mph over on a residential street

[Anonymous]

I was going the speed limit of 35 - as I do have a class to get to on time. Where did it say I was going 20?

[Anonymous]

Same. I personally like to go 5 over the speed limit; I'm not a "slow" driver. In the past year I'm having trouble exiting my neighborhood. It's a 45mph road and a lot of the cars are going 70. I cross to the median very quickly, but they're nearly hitting me and they weren't visible at all when I started crossing. The visibility was only meant for 45/50mph. We've had numerous crashes at the intersection and 1 fatality. Those cars were going 95mph.

If you're going the speed limit, I would never pull over to let someone pass. If you're going 20 in a 35mph zone, you need to speed up!

I think in society in general, there is just a lot of rage inside of people. I feel it in myself even. Covid made you realize you can't rely on anyone else and that no one cares about you. I think it's spread to every aspect: driving, schools, work.

[Anonymous]

Most speed limits are set without any sort of scientific study or analysis to determine the actual safe speed.

One should obey the law, and that generally includes obeying speed limits, but just recognize that there is often no correlation (based on any sort of a data or analysis) to determine what the actual safe speed is for most roads. In the absence of data, planners error on the side of lower speed limits.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate you pulling over. No one cares that you want to enforce the speed limit by driving 15+ under.

[Anonymous]

The only time I’ve been in a car that hit a deer, the driver was going 25 mph. The deer leapt from the side, thinking it could clear the car, but it couldn’t. The deer took off the driver’s side view mirror, bounced off the roof, and landed on the windshield. The windshield was punched in, almost to the driver’s face, but thank God, it stopped the deer just short of hitting the driver. Had we been going 40 mph, that probably would have been the end of the driver.

Collisions with deer are not always preventable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only time I’ve been in a car that hit a deer, the driver was going 25 mph. The deer leapt from the side, thinking it could clear the car, but it couldn’t. The deer took off the driver’s side view mirror, bounced off the roof, and landed on the windshield. The windshield was punched in, almost to the driver’s face, but thank God, it stopped the deer just short of hitting the driver. Had we been going 40 mph, that probably would have been the end of the driver.

Collisions with deer are not always preventable.

+1

DH was going 17 mph in our neighborhood when a deer ran out of the woods and straight into his car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key word is “limit,” ie, the maximum safe speed allowed under dry, sunny conditions. Slower if there’s rain or snow. There’s no law that says one must drive the speed limit.

Speed limits are not a maximum safe speed; at best they are a compromise between that and a buffer zone to discourage violating the laws of physics.

DC and other places have set speed limits lower than even a conservative engineer would, to increase the yield from highly lucrative camera tickets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The key word is “limit,” ie, the maximum safe speed allowed under dry, sunny conditions. Slower if there’s rain or snow. There’s no law that says one must drive the speed limit.

Speed limits are not a maximum safe speed; at best they are a compromise between that and a buffer zone to discourage violating the laws of physics.

DC and other places have set speed limits lower than even a conservative engineer would, to increase the yield from highly lucrative camera tickets.

Or, they are following the physics that shows risk of severe injury or death to pedestrians increases with car speed, with the curve getting steeper at 25 mph and above (see “driver speed” section here: https://www.nhtsa.gov/book/countermeasures/countermeasures-work/pedestrian-safety)

DC is a city and has prioritized cars over pedestrians for far too long. Good for DC for finally doing something to improve pedestrian safety.