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About Breaking Rules
The people who set the legal speed limits on our highways and byways are, presumably, experts. They are familiar with the various correlations between traffic speed, traffic density, accident rates, and accident fatalities. They have a wealth of data to draw upon, since Americans drive literally trillions of miles each year and we’ve been monitoring traffic fatalities for decades. So, assuming they aren’t simply diversity hires, our traffic engineers probably know a thing or two about speed limits and safety.
Despite all that, some significant number of my fellow Americans seem quite willing to exceed the legally posted speed limits. I’ve seen them do it, so I know this is true. I’ve watched drivers run just a couple of miles over. I’ve watched drivers set their cruise controls a full nine miles over the speed the experts have determined to be right and proper.
To be perfectly honest, there have been times, in my 45 years of driving, when even I have exceeded the legal speed limit — but never by more than 85 miles per hour, and that only on a motorcycle and not in a very, very long time.
I no longer exceed the speed limit. For the past twenty years, I’ve been the guy in the big vehicle plodding along at the legal speed limit, always in the right lane, passed at every opportunity by people who live their lives more urgently, apparently, than I live mine.
The people who impose mask mandates are power-obsessed politicians presumably informed by a political calculus that includes, somewhere deep in its Machiavellian equations, a variable representing the contributions mask mandates make to public safety. That variable is a bit problematic, as The Science (and no, that isn’t a pseudonym for the pompously mendacious little guy on TV) really hasn’t established so much as the sign of mask mandate efficacy, let alone its magnitude. Unlike, say, speed limits, we don’t really know if mask mandates contribute to public safety.
I was in a convenience store last night, unmasked. As usual, no one said a word; only once, so far, has anyone in this mask-obsessed state commented negatively on my ruggedly handsome and totally uncovered visage. The next time someone does, I’ll be tempted to respond that “I never exceed the legal speed limit, but I don’t wear a mask. Just think of it as me going nine over. Now give me my change, and have a nice day.”
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They really should depend on the vehicle too. A Chevette at 70 is far less safe than my Triumph at 90.
We are such a nation of car people. The post was really about masks. But I get it. I like cars more than I like masks too.
I always drive the speed limit – very briefly, on my way up to normal traveling speed. ;)
But most drivers around me do that too. 5 – 9 over seems the norm.
And I thought it was about sometimes we follow the rules and sometimes we don’t.
I’m with you in the right lane, but more on topic, here’s some good news:
https://nypost.com/2021/12/19/americans-increasingly-refuse-to-obey-mandates/
Yesterday the wife wanted to browse around in a little shop, and when we were inside a nice lady came up to me and asked if she could give me a mask. I said no thanks – I’ll wait outside. That’s the first time anyone has said anything about me being maskless.
What I’ve read is that there were two standards for speed limits originally. The engineering standard is for any given section of interstate to transit 1350 vehicles per hour at 70 mph. The 2nd standard is to open a road without any limits, measure traffic for a limited time, and set the limit to what 85% of the traffic actually drives. I imagine both those have changed in the 50 years or so.
We’ve had plenty of posts of mask wearing in the last two years, Henry. You gave us an excuse to talk about something fun! If we’ve had oatmeal on the table every day and today there are also barbecue ribs, you oughtn’t be surprised people are lining up for the ribs.
As far as who sets the speed limits, traffic engineers can give their opinions, but it is actually politicians who make the decisions. Just as medical researchers can give their opinions on what measures are and are not effective in fighting a pandemic, it is your state’s governor who actually decides what rules you are living under. Maybe city or county officials in some cases.
Probably political correctness has invaded the traffic engineering field, though many of the changes in cities is influenced by their political masters. Inner city bike lanes being one example.
Traffic engineering is another example where we do allow experts to affect our lives with little oversight. Take roundabouts, which have been a fixture in other countries for decades before they’ve started becoming a thing in the U.S. There actually has been very little debate about them, and they have probably been mandated from Washington for most states.
And I actually see too many stop signs where yield signs would do, as well as too many stoplights. These issues are rarely discussed on a local city council level, especially if the metropolitan area is small, since the roads are usually funded external to the local councils. This is definitely the case where I live.
One of my bugaboos is the timing of stop lights. I’d like to see them documented online, and explanations provided as to why they are that way.
But to get back to the mask comparison, one analogy I would make is coming to a full stop at a stop sign. Since perfectly healthy people are being required to wear masks — most people are not spreaders at any one time — the argument of harm when you don’t is a statistical one. It’s kind of the same thing with the stop sign. You know that if you roll that particular one (can see both ways with plenty of advance notice; no trees blocking your view, etc) it’s no big deal. But if everyone made a complete stop at every stop sign, there would be less deaths, and that’s a statistical truth. Yet, I’m not an advocate of enforcing every incidence, or even most incidences of rolling through a stop sign, and it informs my attitude on masks.
Slate published an article on speeding a few days ago (the author is against it) and presumably he wants to influence the deep state, in this case traffic engineers, to construct roads that are inconvenient to drivers, that is they don’t encourage speed. And here’s a quote that you’ll recognize from the last two years, since everything is:
And of course, in the recent past, the CDC has been urged, and probably has attempted, to get involved in the debate about traffic deaths, since it’s a national health problem. Of course racism is too, and I remember them being urged to get involved in that also.
It’s no wonder they made major mistakes coming out the gate in the one area they are supposed to be focused on, epidemiology.
It’s almost as though they have lost sight of their purpose as a consequence of adding to their scope of overview.
Do we need a “Best Ricochet Sentences” compendium every year?
Let’s do it in 2022!
If someone can pass you on the Right, you’re in the wrong lane.
The Montana “Reasonable and Prudent” speed limit went away [due to a judge’s ruling that it didn’t give sufficient notice of what would qualify for a ticket] more than 20 years ago – about three weeks before I was leaving on a road trip that included crossing Montana.
Exactly.
This thesis is very thought-provoking. I think it has caused all of us to stop and reconsider our pre-conceived notions.
I will go further and say that the Comment really deserves a Like from all of us who are open-minded and charitably disposed to our fellow man, especially from the Christians among us in this Christmas season.
Okay, it’s wrong, sure.
But that doesn’t change the fact that we should Like it.
You’d agree that it’s generally true on a highway though, right? On the slower-traffic-keep-right principle?
It’s just that there are exceptions. Like the guy who’s weaving through traffic, comes up behind you very fast, and doesn’t give you time to yield the lane before he passes on the right. . . I’m sure there are others.
I think the idea is that, many/most times, unless you just passed someone yourself, you probably shouldn’t be in the left lane anyway.
The Best Ricochet Sentences thing or the exceeding 85mph thing?
Fair enough, but also if you’re about to pass someone, or if the traffic is so heavy that the left lane has effectively become a travel lane.
If you’re “about to pass someone”, you can’t be passed on the right because the vehicle you are passing would be blocking the ability for the person trying to pass you on the right to do so.
You don’t pull into the left lane a mile before you’re going to pass someone. You approach from behind, still in the right lane, you signal and check your blind spot, then pull into the left lane very shortly before you reach the vehicle being passed. As soon as you have reached a safe distance in front of them, you signal and change lanes back. At no time should there be sufficient room in the right lane for a vehicle to successfully pass you on the right,
Not safely, no. But some do it anyway.
This is kind of a freeway vs. highway thing.
That all seems correct, but I’ve only ever driven in two places where drivers were that disciplined. The first was Germany and the second was rural Texas. And those were great places to drive. Everywhere else I’ve driven, it works that way partly, sometimes, or not at all.
Hey! Someone on Ricochet understands me!
That is exactly what I was thinking of: I am in the process of making a proper pass on the left when he zooms up and passes me on the right.
I would call that an exception that proves the rule.
Don’t forget about guns. They were too busy trying to involve themselves in gun control to be prepared for the latest pandemic.
Indeed. I doubt it is traffic engineers telling city governments that they should be taking normal lanes away on the busiest streets and converting them to bike lanes. If I were a bicyclist, I am pretty sure I would rather be riding down quieter streets even if it’s a few blocks further than riding right next to a ton of cars and trucks on the busiest downtown streets.
There is no way that these changes are making things safer. It’s all about discouraging automobile use and encouraging bicycle use, for the sake of Mother Earth.
I’m actually in favor of both these things. The first reason is safety. People drive more attentively and safely when they think the road is more dangerous. One of the interstate exits near me uses a pair of roundabouts instead of traditional lights for its intersections, and it greatly reduces stop-and-go waiting on the exit ramp. People actually pay attention to the other cars in the roundabout.
Second, I despise arbitrary laws and that’s exactly what most speed limits are. That’s why they’re so often broken — the visibility and lane width on most interstates make 75-80 no more dangerous than the listed speed limit, whether 55 in Pennsylvania or 80 out west. People drive the speed at which they feel safe and ignore the law, because the law doesn’t reflect reality. The way to get people to only drive 25 mph is to create a road that feels dangerous going faster than 25 mph. Until then, the speed limit is more about revenue generation than safety and as such will be treated with all the respect such laws deserve.
You may presume their expertise if you like, but I do not. Speed limits are more likely established by politicians than traffic engineers.
I don’t speed, but that is because I don’t like getting tickets.
I’m surprised you don’t know. The 55mph limit was first imposed to maximize fuel efficiency during the oil crisis.
However, it quickly became “55 saves lives”. And you can’t really argue that unless you counter that 25mph saves even more lives, which I’m sure it would.
It took a concerted effort to change back finally. In the meantime, it allowed law enforcement the ability to pull just about anyone over since few observed the limit on open roads.
I remember buying a radar detector and using it from DC to Philadelphia. But I had to stop using it because of all the false alarms.
So, back to the mask mandates….do not comply!
IIRC states were bullied into compliance on the 55 mph limit with threats to withhold federal funds since this was a Washington initiative.