Brazil is far from lawless. In really small communities 12-year-Olds are driving scooters without wearing helmets, sure, but in all Metropolitan areas laws are pretty strict and there are expensive fines.
Yup, 10 over is my default unless I’m on a highway, which is then 15 to 20 over.
It’s funny, but those who actually go the speed limit are the ones that people get mad at for going too slow. Even though they’re technically the only ones obeying the law.
And the most dangerous are the extremes on both ends encountering each other. It’s crazy to me how normalized vehicles are considering the death that they cause, the behavior people exhibit on the roads, and the sheer absolute ignorance that seems to be paid to making them safer. Maybe it’s just apathy?
I agree with fuck cars but anywhere outside of Urban centers in the United States no personal vehicles would be absolutely untenable. It’s almost every month I have to drive on a dirt road that I am not biking.
On the other side, Germany has TÜV with a mandatory vehicle inspection every 2 years with some exceptions for new cars.
They check vital components for road safety and won’t allow the car to be on public roads when it’s not fixed within a month. And it’s not like your tires have no rest profile anymore, it’s like you have to change them when they’re at 1,6mm… recommended is to change at 4mms…
Some “Prüfer” are chill but sometimes you won’t pass because your winter tires you were drivimg for 5 years, are 0,3% bigger than the allowed ones in the registrationpapers… at least I heard.
Yeees. But some of the guidelines are confusing. So the basic rule is that you have to keep a “2-second distance”. This is the distance you vehicle would travel in two second without breaking. The Formular is 2x(v²/100). But at lower speeds its a completely different calculation. And when you are waaay faster you are supposed to leave half your speed in metres as a gap. Then there are separate rules for fog and long vehicles and multiple vehicles that drive in a row on one lane roads and all that.
There are also rules for the distance you should keep to the cars and especially bikes next to you and they are different depending on if you are in a “place” or outside of one :)
Wait no. So I’m Shure I got the Formular wrong, but there is one that is specifically for the distance covered per second. And of course time is a cariable because how else would you define speed.
I know, but sorry we’re miles apart from each other. I’ve seen “street legal” cars in UK which will get you in jail in Germany xD Tbh I don’t mind those restrictions but some are way over the top here
we have this every year in slovenia. you have to pass a technical inspection then register your car
my mom’s car failed bexause her handbrake was 11% less efficient than new (limit being 10%). she had to get it replaced and then the car passed perfectly with 0 issues stated
i’d rather do this shit than have some jerk driving around with a car thats about to fall apart and maybe not have a working brake
Speaking as an American here… could we NOT park cars in the left lane. I’ve seen enough habits of drivers in other countries where the left lane is exclusively for passing, it’s so simple and superior for traffic but Americans be dumb selfish shits behind the wheel.
You don’t understand, I have to turn left in 25 km and what if I can’t get back into my lane after I let you pass and I miss my turn. I’m not a confident driver so I am going to do what’s safest and best for me and everyone else can just accept it. I’m going fast enough at 5km over the posted speed limit and you can just slow down, life isn’t a race unless I need it to be.
I think the real trouble is that it’s hard to convict on that. It’s not like speeding, where you either are or you aren’t, it’s much harder to establish that you shouldn’t be in the outside lane. I mean, it seems pretty clear in most cases, but the lack of a clearly defined boundary makes it very difficult in law. This ends up making it feel like a waste of time to law enforcement, both police and courts, because they could be doing things that will be more likely to have the intended outcome.
It’s really annoying though, because advanced driver courses sometimes do define it: 10 seconds.
If you’re not overtaking within 10 seconds, you should move over. Personally, I find it easier to estimate a 7 second distance by eye - 10 seconds is quite conservative.
No, they let me go with a warning, but while the one was talking to me, the other cop was peering in all my windows, so I’m pretty sure it was all an excuse to inspect people cars…
Where i live it’s fucking madness. People change lanes randomly, sit in the far left going 10 under the limit, pass on the right or left at seeming random, and sometimes just drive in the middle lane doing 30 mph in a 70 mph zone with their fucking hazards on. Don’t even get me started on their merge technique, jealousy and resentment are what rule people’s decisions and nobody has ever even heard of zipper merging. It’s a shock there aren’t more accidents than there are.
I once watched someone sitting in the far left at the limit, come up against someone driving on the left going 10 under, decide to undertake, and then slow down to like 30 under to “punish” the person.
I’ve changed lanes to pass only to have people change in front of me to block me, then change back when i changed back.
But most of all, and it should be noted i drive a two seater sports car here, i’ve had people in their huge ass SUVs look over at me, MAKE EYE CONTACT with me, and then merge into whatever lane i was in at the time like they were trying to drive me off the road.
It’s a phrase some people use. Specifically prevalent in California. “Parking their Ass in the left lane” Means somebody driving in the left lane at 10mph below the speed limit.
A section of the A24 was limited to 130 kmph for 20 years to reduce accidents. Because the reduction the speed limit was lifted early this year. Now there are 8% more accidents with injury and 42% more injured. Politicians call now to make it possible to limit the section again.
For highway lowering the speed may be effective but lowering the speed limit from 50 to 30 won’t stop drivers from going 50 unless the road is designed for lower speeds. So long as lanes are wide and there are little obstructions for drivers to worry about hitting, such as bumpouts, boulevards, etc., they will go as fast as they feel comfortable unless there is a cop behind them.
Edit: 50kmh to 30kmh I don’t know what that is in freedom miles
In Germany the speed limit in Cities is 50km/h and in residential zones 30km/h, strong controlled with a lot of radar traps. If you exceed this they screw up your life, in case of hitting a pedestrian even possible with jail time. It cannot be confused by the lack of speed limit on some highway sections, that traffic regulations are very strict and controlled in Germany and any violation can be very expensive.
Well, respect radar control, it depends also in which city or village you are of the local administration, in some are existing only few and in others on every corner. Often also mobile radarstations in “civil” parking police cars.
It’s not actually. It’s quite an old network so it was built before cars could go as fast as they can go now. There are surprisingly sharp corners and very short off ramps. If it were built from scratch today it would be even safer. Speed limits are bs outside of particularly tricky areas.
Ah yep my bad, I was speaking generally. The image in the article is only a short section of highway but it does look like one of the 2 lane sections that are usually quite old. If they were more modern and built for higher speeds they’d have an even shallower curve and would probably be 3 lanes with a hard shoulder. If you drive on the Autobahn you’ll have a few moments where you notice the difference in road layout from those which more modern highways implement - the on and off ramps in particular can be a bit scary.
That is the problem, people with high end cars have enough money to pay an expensive fuel. Apart with an industry which mostly expensive high end E-cars, the high fuel prices only affect the people wich don’t have money for such cars.
Speed limits absolutely do work if there are cameras and consequences. Unfortunately everyone seems to have decided that suspending licences and siezing cars is a human rights violation.
Speed limits do work, but the road should be designed with the speed limit in mind. Just slapping a new sign up and reducing the speed limit is going to lead to non-compliance - even if the speed limit is enforced by police.
The UK recently released figures on speed limit compliance. For 20mph roads (30-35kph) they primarily measured roads that didn’t have traffic calming measures recommended for 20mph roads (ie the roads don’t “feel” like 20mph roads), and they found 85% of drivers exceeded the speed limit.
if there are speed limits i usually am forced to spend more time dicking around looking for signs or cops or checking the speedometer, instead of focusing on the road and how safe my current speed actually feels
This can be solved quite easily by introducing head-up-displays in cars showing the speed in front of the driver. HUDs were introduced years ago in some airliners allowing the pilots to maintain situational awareness while having quick access to the critical information about the aircraft. And introducing safety standards from commercial aviation is almost always a good step.
I think traffic calming is really interesting for this reason, building roads to make you feel most comfortable at the correct speed. The road design here is usually good, but when driving I feel really anxious on roads that have a design not matching the speed limit too.
100% agreed. If I don’t set cruise control, I usually speed on my commute due to me just focusing on the grip of my car, distance to/from other cars, and perceived speed. It’s just hard to gauge speed without checking often on my speedometer, which isn’t as safe. Even just trying to follow at a constant distance in the right lane is difficult because the semi trucks usually end up having wide speed differences at random times, meaning 60mph-80mph depending on the hill usually.
If your mental capacity is reached by checking your surroundings while all the traffic is going roughly the same speed as you, then no way youre capable of handling “no speed limit” where everyone is driving to their liking.
It’s not just you who’d be suddenly free to do whatever they want, but everyone else too.
Claiming “I know better what’s best for me” is the best sign of someone who absolutely doesn’t.
I think you’re misunderstanding their message. To me it reads that places where there’s low speed limits, are also places where you need to pay a lot of attention on the street and surroundings and wouldn’t want to drive faster anyways
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