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this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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That would be fine and dandy if most speed limits (in the US at least) were assigned intelligently and not just according to the 85th percentile, which just measures how fast people actually drive down the road, and assumes anything in the top 15% is unsafe and should therefore be illegal
Its still find and dandy for us all to slow down to below the 85th percentile. Especially cars.
Completely agreed, now we have to get the entire population on board. I don't want to be trying to swerve around drivers going slower than the traffic around, and I don't want people swerving around me all bloody day. Both of those are vastly more dangerous than simple speed. Drive the road conditions, which includes the speed of traffic around you.
Don't swerve. Slow down.
Ok cool. You addressed half of my concern. Now I've become the obstacle. How do I keep people from dangerously swerving around me?
In fact, this has INCREASED the likelihood that I, personally, will be in an accident because now, more people around me are swerving trying to get past.
Call the police? Tire spikes?
How do you normally respond to crazy people who operate weapons dangerously in public?
Both of those are horribly ineffective options. Let's call cops who won't get here before a crash happens, and let's throw tire spikes that will force a crash to happen.
The proper response is to create distance from the situation. In this particular scenario, by merging into another lane as soon as it's safe, and accelerating back to the speed of traffic.
None of this changes the fact that the slower driver, while within the letter of the law, is the root cause of all of this danger. Speed is determined by more than an arbitrary number on the side of the road. It's determined by myriad road factors, from congestion and moisture to the current traveling speed of traffic.
If you want to reduce the speed safely, you have to reduce the speed people naturally want to travel at. Anything else will result in speed disparities, which are always more dangerous than just raw speed.
You realize that all drivers should be prepared to approach a bicycle going 5 kph, right?
If you can't slow down safely when you come up behind a slow vehicle, then you're driving too fast and should probably have your license taken away.
I'm not concerned about myself not being able to stop. I'm generally not concerned about my behavior. I'm concerned, once again, about how OTHER drivers will react to ME going slowly and becoming an obstacle. I can control myself, I can leave proper follow distance. I CANNOT make anyone else do that. No one can, all we can do is encourage better behavior.
If we follow that thread, how do we encourage people to slow down? We can do so with fines and enforcement. We can fine anyone who goes over an arbitrary speed. Or, we can do it with physics and behavioral psychology. Make it so that those same roads are less easy/fun/convenient to drive on at high speeds.
I'm beginning to doubt that you've read half of what I've posted, so I'm not going to continue with this.
Usually what I do is swirve a lot to the left on my bicycle as soon as I see a car coming behind in the rear view. Its very effective in slowing drivers down.
Spoken like someone with absolutely no sense. Hope that keeps working out for you, no driver deserves to have the death of another on their hands because of that person's bad decisions.