Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> Explain to me what makes them faceless and detached from the situation?

The fact that they’re not there.

The idea that the same speed is appropriate at 9am when kids are crossing the street going to school and 2am when there’s noone there and no cars parked on the side of the road, is insane beyond belief.

Speed limits are generally repressive and mostly just a tax collection scheme (though I strongly support most daytime city speed limits!)



What are you proposing? No speed limits outside cities in the day time? Or speed limits that change based on circumstances?

Don't we already have school zones which are 20mph when kids are around and higher otherwise?


as @katbyte already suggested, yes

No speed limits anywhere, or at least no enforcement.

As I said above, speed limits are repressive and a way for the government to bully its citizens and extract money from them. If the government actually wanted to solve the problem (making roads safer), they would simply design the roads differently. Speed bumps are also a very bad solution. Good solutions are "road islands" [1], "curvy roads" [2] or "metal rods" [3].

No limits on the highway either, except to mark more dangerous parts of the road (i.e. it's a suggestion not a limit).

By definition, if you don't crash, your speed was OK. So maybe there should be speeding-related fines only if you do crash.

[1] https://www.google.ch/maps/@46.9519887,8.6213984,3a,75y,174....

[2] https://www.google.ch/maps/@46.0665621,14.4965949,3a,75y,188...

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/14vls...


> By definition, if you don't crash, your speed was OK.

Definition of what? By this logic SBF shouldn't be jailed but rather given an award for making FTX users whole with modest interest.

The law must scale to all of society. There cannot be different rules based on whether you are lucky, "skilled", or not. Most people overestimate the their competence, as evidenced by fatalities involving motor vehicles. (A professional truck driver I knew died, killing his wife, and harming his nephew just driving back home.)


People tend to just ignore speed limits and drive at the speed they feel safe and comfortable.

If you want people to drive slower you just design the road to slow them down.


I'm sure emergency services would like that idea


That doesn’t make them “faceless bureaucrats”. It just means you don’t like speed limits because you know best




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: