Speed Limits

[sweepthefloor]

MVA vs. MVC? All wrecks are crashes but they are not all collisions, and I guess they are mostly accidental and not intentional but according to some traumatologists and trauma education: MVC is the appropriate language. The big push for the terminology change is to drive home a prevention message.

Do people accidentally text and drive? drink and drive by accident? speed by accident? drive like maniacs by accident?

My work is the same regardless of the precipitating factors so I really don't care if the person was drunk, texting or speeding recklessly.

It's all a big blur to me over the years: the guy with the high speed collision in a corvette sustaining bilateral lower extremity crush injury status post emergent bilateral amputation.

The next day the Surgeon says: take off the sedation, wake him up so we can pull the ventilator, and all I kept thinking is, "fuck I don't want to do this right now." No person wants to wake up in an ICU with no legs. It is horrific and life changing.

I don't have the answers but it's life and limb we are talking about here. I drive fast but I go with the flow of traffic. Would I speed on a road pictured in the OP photo? No.

Don’t want to follow any of the above advice? Don’t worry. I will still be here at the hospital, waiting to cut off all your clothes, see you naked, and then charge you for the experience.

 

[sweepthefloor]

That's not quite true either.

Impact survival rates at different speeds are significant. Urban/ residential area speed limits are very Advisable for example.

Increasingly it seems to me we are people who cannot set our own boundaries sensibly. ( look for example at fora behaviour ).

I did find it difficult to stick to American speed limits I admit .

I agree with the significance especially in residential areas because a pedestrian struck by a vehicle at a higher speed is going to induce a more severe injury.

 

[oggbashan]

I agree with the significance especially in residential areas because a pedestrian struck by a vehicle at a higher speed is going to induce a more severe injury.

In the UK road accident research suggests that a pedestrian struck at 30 mph is likely to die but at 20 mph is likely to survive.

http://www.thecarcrashdetective.com/2015/09/pedestrian-fatality-rates-increase-with-speed.html/

 

[Fata Morgana]

In the UK road accident research suggests that a pedestrian struck at 30 mph is likely to die but at 20 mph is likely to survive.

http://www.thecarcrashdetective.com/2015/09/pedestrian-fatality-rates-increase-with-speed.html/

Yeah they hammered that home on my speed awareness course!

 

[sweepthefloor]

In the UK road accident research suggests that a pedestrian struck at 30 mph is likely to die but at 20 mph is likely to survive.

http://www.thecarcrashdetective.com/2015/09/pedestrian-fatality-rates-increase-with-speed.html/

From the article:

This is completely preventable, which makes it completely unacceptable.

Thanks! The fatality risk associated with the speed is startling.

 

[phrodeau]

It's funny, the posters who claim that speed limits don't save lives and can be safely ignored are the same posters who remind us that traffic deaths in America are greater than gun deaths.

 

[jaF0]

Pedestrians have an even greater chance of survival if they stay out from in front of moving vehicles.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Military are not the only people who use working vehicles! A small light car would struggle to do many of the asks agricultural and small holding cars are asked to do, or even leisure towing.

Draft horse breeds may one day be the rage. Say in 100 years or so.

And one day when the oil barons have all dripped dry
And the nights are seen to draw colder
They'll beg for your strength, your gentle power
Your noble grace and your bearing.
And you'll strain once again to the sound of the gulls
In the wake of the deep plough, sharing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6pHviqYL7I

 

[Christobal]

Pedestrians have an even greater chance of survival if they stay out from in front of moving vehicles.

Now dont be getting all reasonable.

 

[oggbashan]

Pedestrians have an even greater chance of survival if they stay out from in front of moving vehicles.

And if the drunk driver goes onto the sidewalk?

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[Hard_Rom]

Draught horses will be eating algae and seaweed by then. Just like humans will be.

Oil will run out someday. No getting around that. So either electric or muscle power for transport.

 

[Christobal]

And if the drunk driver goes onto the sidewalk?

Well that happens

Or are you are in

If it saves one life crowd

Ever had an accident.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[jaF0]

Draught horses will be eating algae and seaweed by then. Just like humans will be.

Oil will run out someday. No getting around that.

By then, bio-oil from Algae should be perfected and in general use.

 

[ryan8558]

By then, bio-oil from Algae should be perfected and in general use.

you're assuming the seas will still sustain life by then....

 

[OldJourno]

I was reading a story earlier about the multiple fatality bus accident in Texas. They made mention that the driver at fault had crossed the double yellow center line several times and that his sped was between 67 and 71 which was legal, the speed limit being posted at 70MPH.

It struck me as odd that the speed limit on a non-divided highway was so high. I've never seen one above 55 unless a median fully separates the travel directions. I'm not sure I'd bee too comfortable with traffic passing at 140MPH in such a limited width.

Of course this was Texas, and they're not too bright there, so ...

So happy for you that your intellect is far superior to the average Texan.
As for the roads, I've been driving a few years and while I prefer divided highways, I've traveled many 2-lane paved roads out west that have speed limits up to 75 mph. In fact, I've traveled in Montana when it had no speed limits during daylight hours on 2-lane roads.
I think one of the dumbest things government ever did was spend billions to make these wide, safe interstate highways, then put up a 55 mph speed limit.
I can see a need for heavily traveled roads having lower speed limits, but I find that the lower speed limits the farther east you go to be ridiculous.

 

[water505]

Oh noes!

It's going to either be windmills or people plugged into the Matrix...

Cars in CA will be the first to have solar panels and wind sails. If you run out of juice on a still night there is a convenient door in the floorboard to do the Fred Flinstone thing.

 

[RobDownSouth]

They claimed that about the 55 mph national limit. That speed limit increased, not decreased fatalities.

Meanwhile, back in the reality-based world, pesky facts say otherwise.

#SmartestGuyOnTehGeneralBoard
#HeTriesSooooHard

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff502/Soonyigump/LaughAtQuery_zps2d8fd4fe.jpg

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

It's funny, the posters who claim that speed limits don't save lives and can be safely ignored are the same posters who remind us that traffic deaths in America are greater than gun deaths.

Straw-man argument.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Cars in CA will be the first to have solar panels and wind sails. If you run out of juice on a still night there is a convenient door in the floorboard to do the Fred Flinstone thing.

The market tells us what is bullshit.

Clearly we have a proclivity to fossil fuels since no other ancient source of energy can fully compete. Even those who advocate for wind and solar generation for their electric cars cannot discuss the pollution of the discarded batteries and physical limitations of the metals needed to power this utopian model of the future.

 

[Hard_Rom]

The market tells us what is bullshit.

Clearly we have a proclivity to fossil fuels since no other ancient source of energy can fully compete. Even those who advocate for wind and solar generation for their electric cars cannot discuss the pollution of the discarded batteries and physical limitations of the metals needed to power this utopian model of the future.

So what technology would you suggest we develop for the day we run out of oil?