Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "Are Higher Speed Limits Safer? | WheelHouse" video.

  1. As long as everything is going appropriately, speed isn't an issue. If you're doing 100mph down a city street it really only becomes dangerous if something unexpected happens or there's a mechanical failure. The point of driving more slowly is that if something unexpected does happen, you've got more time to react and less momentum/ energy to dissipate. As noted in the video, people tend to base their speed on a given stretch of road based on their sense of safety. Having landmarks closer to the road increases the sense of speed and will tend to lead to drivers driving more slowly. And most states have a rule that the listed speed limit is the maximum limit on the road, so if conditions change, you may get a ticket even if you're going the limit.
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  2. That's more or less what I thought. Here in Seattle we've been getting the speed limits reduced in order to reduce fatalities. But, the city isn't increasing the number of police enforcing the rules we have nor are the police out ticketing people for things like jaywalking or riding bikes in an unsafe way. They've already lowered the speed limit on most roads to 25 for arterials and 20 for residential streets. The residential streets makes sense as we have a huge number of narrow side streets with no room to maneuver if a child appears in the road or somebody opens their door. But, the speed limits for the arterials makes no sense. The limits themselves weren't unsafe, the typical speed limit was 30mph which on most arterials is reasonable, and a few being either 35mph or 40mph and rather than focusing on improving visibility and finding ways increasing the sense of speed, they change the speed limit to something silly. Needless to say, that concern about the speed limits not being taken seriously certainly does seem to be a problem, because nobody is under the delusion that the speed limit change was an appropriate response to jaywalkers being hit. And I haven't seen any increase in police enforcing the new limits.
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