85 th percentile.
Discussion
Ok, the 85th percentile is defined as below:
"Traffic engineering studies have found that the best way to ascertain the appropriate speed limit is to survey the speeds of free flowing traffic. The speed at which 85% to 90% of the vehicles are traveling at or below has generally been determined to be a limit which minimizes accident risk and maximizes motorist compliance. It blends an optimum combination of efficiency, consensus, enforceability, and safety."
The interesting part here is the "speeds of free flowing traffic" part.
If traffic is free flowing, ie; its self governed by drivers (supported by the 85th percentile), then why do we even NEED a speed limit?
Most drivers automatically pick the safest speed without ANY guidance from a sign when allowed to,(85thpercentile) so speed limits are just plain idiotic to even try to enforce.
Maybe its time to derestrict all roads and allow drivers to "drive" at a safespeed?
"Traffic engineering studies have found that the best way to ascertain the appropriate speed limit is to survey the speeds of free flowing traffic. The speed at which 85% to 90% of the vehicles are traveling at or below has generally been determined to be a limit which minimizes accident risk and maximizes motorist compliance. It blends an optimum combination of efficiency, consensus, enforceability, and safety."
The interesting part here is the "speeds of free flowing traffic" part.
If traffic is free flowing, ie; its self governed by drivers (supported by the 85th percentile), then why do we even NEED a speed limit?
Most drivers automatically pick the safest speed without ANY guidance from a sign when allowed to,(85thpercentile) so speed limits are just plain idiotic to even try to enforce.
Maybe its time to derestrict all roads and allow drivers to "drive" at a safespeed?
deltaf said:
Maybe its time to derestrict all roads and allow drivers to "drive" at a safespeed?
We have to allow for the behaviour of nutters and new and inexperienced drivers too. Somehow.
Speed limits provide generally sound guidance to the inexperienced, and they provide an easy-to-use legal tool to hit the nutters with.
Most of us don't need speed limits (i.e. more than 90% of us) but there's a wide range of abilities and attitudes out there to cater for.
I'd argue that for motorways, and I'd certainly get rid of scameras in NSL zones, even if a higher limit was posted.
IMO the motorway speed limit should be similar to the rest of Europe - something that all drivers find a comfortable speed within on the inside lane. If you find someone's going slower than you want to, overtake them.
Problem is that our 70mph limit is archaic, put up in the mid-'60s when it was the absolute full-tilt maximum speed for the majority of new cars, and most older cars couldn't hack it.
70mph creates MLMs. They pull out, but daren't break the speed limit, and create a traffic jam/hold-up in the middle lane, forcing people to speed in the outside lane. If people aren't killed doing 80-100 in the outside lane, I don't see why the limit shouldn't be a nice round 100. Pick up a car mag, you'll find that all cars on sale can do it.
With the exception of NSLs and motorways, other roads should be a mixture of 30s and 40s. I find it rather impossible to keep a car at 20, staring at the speedometer rather than the road is more dangerous than doing 30 through it, and speed humps? What's the point of even a 20 zone if you have to slow to 15 to avoid wrecking your suspension?
The majority of roads should be 40. Traffic jams normally bring them down to 30, but how often do you see them being caused by some numpty doing significantly less than the speed limit?
IMO the motorway speed limit should be similar to the rest of Europe - something that all drivers find a comfortable speed within on the inside lane. If you find someone's going slower than you want to, overtake them.
Problem is that our 70mph limit is archaic, put up in the mid-'60s when it was the absolute full-tilt maximum speed for the majority of new cars, and most older cars couldn't hack it.
70mph creates MLMs. They pull out, but daren't break the speed limit, and create a traffic jam/hold-up in the middle lane, forcing people to speed in the outside lane. If people aren't killed doing 80-100 in the outside lane, I don't see why the limit shouldn't be a nice round 100. Pick up a car mag, you'll find that all cars on sale can do it.
With the exception of NSLs and motorways, other roads should be a mixture of 30s and 40s. I find it rather impossible to keep a car at 20, staring at the speedometer rather than the road is more dangerous than doing 30 through it, and speed humps? What's the point of even a 20 zone if you have to slow to 15 to avoid wrecking your suspension?
The majority of roads should be 40. Traffic jams normally bring them down to 30, but how often do you see them being caused by some numpty doing significantly less than the speed limit?
The point im pushing at here is simply that as most drivers are driving at a safe speed anyway, as defined by the 85th percentile, your "nutters" can then only go as fast as everyone else...ie a safe speed.
The need for a speed limit seems to be kinda redundant to me, or am i missing something?
The need for a speed limit seems to be kinda redundant to me, or am i missing something?
Nope deltaf I'm with you on this one. Whats the point in a law that 99% of people break? Have we ever scrapped the speed limit and seen what happens? No. But we do know that the death rate is going up,when due to car safety and advances in medicine, it should be going down. So why not give it a try we can't do any worse than we are at the moment.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff