Cars to be fitted with speed limiters from July 2022.

yoke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118449724#Comment_118449724

It’s an interesting statement, but to take it a bit further, some drivers can equally begin to switch off while driving down a “boring” road at a constant slow speed in an ordinary car - it was a big problem in America back in the day on their highways.

The evidence we have at hand says very strongly that driver aids do work in reducing the number and severity of accidents, and one of the main reasons we have much fewer fatalities per road user now compared to the 80s is due to safety features and handling on modern cars compared to cars from the 80s, as opposed to updated speed limits.

magicbastarder

So you’re saying that planes are safe then, once in the hands of trained humans.

i was really just saying your analogy was pants.

magicbastarder

you've taken a context where safety has been created largely through reliability of the machinery, professionalism of the pilots/ATC crew, and total segregation of the vehicles, and the lesson you're taking from that is 'better brakes'.

yoke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118451548#Comment_118451548

Just cos you can’t see an analogy and say it is pants, doesn’t make it pants.

So basically you are saying that through the reliability of the machinery, professionalism of the pilots, and design of the airfields, they are safe, but we cannot possibly make cars or roads safer, and we should instead focus our efforts on getting people to travel under a fixed speed limit which doesn’t change with the weather and cannot possibly change for every bend in the road, and applies to all cars equally because all cars are equal, and because the biggest thing causing disabilities and fatalities is people breaking the fixed speed limit.

…and to top it off, that better brakes and handling don’t mean much and aren’t going to save anyone. Right.

Just earlier today I was reading about an incident where a driver skidded out on a bend at an 80kph limit and killed a cyclist, and it was determined that 80kph was not a safe speed to be taking that bend at. It didn’t say the name/model of his car but I’d be very surprised if he didn’t at least have **** tyres, or similar.

magicbastarder

anyway, regarding the debate as a whole, there seems to be a focus on motorways and motorway speeds which seems disproportionate with the issue there. i don't think anyone will disagree that motorways are the least risky road system to drive on.

personally, i just don't see the point in speeding on a motorway; i rarely hit 120km/h on one anyway. the difference between doing 120 and 140 between dublin and galway, for example, is something like 10 or 15 minutes. long ago (pre motorway tbf) i learned that how fast you go on the fast bits makes far less difference than how slow you go on the slow bits (i have fond memories of driving through the likes of skeheenarinky at about 15km/h)

i'm more interested in the topic of speed limits in urban and suburban areas, where motorists are *much* more likely to have to interact with more vulnerable road users.

yoke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118451569#Comment_118451569

That’s fair enough, but the point I was making is that rather than getting fixated on speed limits, which is a huge and almost impossible task (speed limit has to be safe for all types of cars on all sections of the limited road, but still fast enough to allow progress through the road in a “reasonable” time and not cause traffic backlogs elsewhere) without standardisation of roads, which itself is another huge/expensive task, perhaps we should focus more on car safety and create better minimum standards for road handling and safety features on cars. I’m not saying to totally abandon all rules of the road, just that in practice, the biggest reduction in deaths over the past 30 years have been due to safety features and road handling improvements in cars, and I see a lot more potential there in saving lives, which will get left unrealised if we instead focus/waste resources on trying to just enforce the current system (diminishing returns)

magicbastarder

it's also partly due to a massive falloff in the level of drink driving.

Northern Monkey

I’m in Australia at the minute and all new cars here have an audible gong that keeps going once you go over 114/115 kph. It doesn’t stop you speeding if you want to but its really frustrating and definitely keeps you under the limit for the most part.

darrencan1988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118394293#Comment_118394293

A group of lads changed out the signs for motorway signs messing I was pointing out the fact if the car read the signs someone was going to die in that village anyway.