this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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Example: Traffic Speed. Everyone always exceed the speed limit on highways. Why do we still have the limit? Like, either enforce it, or remove it. This stuff doesn't make sense at all.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Traffic speed? If you know where all the speed cameras are, you could dodge them and hope there are no other police checking you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That's the whole fucking point. Speed traps are only there to decrease the number of people killed, and we still have idiots complaining about it.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (1 children)

When minor things are against the rules which are selectively enforced, it means the authorities get to pick and choose who to punish based on whatever criteria they feel like, which gives them power.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I don't think everyone always breaks the speed limit, but probably they do at some point during every journey. They knew this went they introduced the 20mph speed limit but they introduced it anyway because they thought it would reduce the average speed by a few mph.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/365789/do-20mph-speed-limits-save-lives-100-fewer-casualties-wales-sparks-uk-debate

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (3 children)

What is a speed limit on highways?

Confused greetings from Germany.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger
- ADAC 1974

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

On the highways here, the original speed limit of 55 was to save our nation's resources, not just "55 to stay alive" but also it was an efficient speed to maintain and still pretty fast.

Inside the city it works much better to make drivers feel unsafe going fast. Narrower lanes, speed bumps, roundabouts, etc.

In answer to your actual question - some laws are just old and haven't been unwound yet and others are used as pretext for profiling, police (or, more properly whoever is running them) like to be able to stop people for no reason but that can be seen as illegitimate, so they keep laws that everyone breaks, jaywalking, etc to have an excuse.

I don't think there is any one law everybody breaks really but also no person who has lived perfectly law abiding life.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You're not expected to break them. For your example, you're not supposed to go over the speed limit. And it is, in fact, extremely easy to do so. Most people are fine with it. And, no, it's not impossible to do so. There is nothing forcing you to go faster for little to no gain and increased risk for you and other.

You expecting to go over tells something about you.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (8 children)

Practically no one actually drives at or below the speed limit in the US, especially on freeways. Whether or not you personally like this doesn't matter -- it's just how it is.

You're welcome to try it, but speeding is so pervasive in our culture that this will single you out and Ruggedly Individualistic Americans will get frothingly butthurt at you over it. Prepare to get tailgated, cut off, bullied out of your lane, stuff thrown at your car, etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It sounds like you're proud of your culture of not giving a crap about rules set to improve safety for everyone. On that account, I agree that we'll never see eye to eye about this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What part of what I wrote expressed that I was "proud" of it?

I'm just telling you how people behave. I don't have any control over anybody but myself. For what it's worth, I'm probably one of the six people in this damn country who doesn't drive like a nut.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Everyone always exceed the speed limit on highways

You're projecting yourself

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

This sounds like a distinctly cultural problem where the word 'limit' clearly doesn't mean very much to the population in question.

It's a limit, not a target, and certainly not a floor as some USAsians seem to treat it.

Here in Australia you can be fined for exceeding the limit by less than 10km/h. Yes, even if you are 1km/h over, and whilst this would probably get thrown out in court you'd still have to take time off to attend court.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

In the US it's technically a target, since you can be ticketed for going too fast or too slow.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It honestly frustrates me so much with the speed limit thing. On a societal level, speed (and differences in speed) tend to be one of the biggest factors in car crashes, so ignoring speeding is just accepting more dangerous roads.

On a peronal level, i try to do the limit or maybe 5-10 over (20 over is the norm in my area, even in school zones). The really frustrating part is as soon as i act like everyone else a try to do 20 over i get a ticket and my insurance goes up. This is frustrating becauae it just feels as if I'm being punished for doing what most people consider to be "safe" and normal. If it was drastically obvious that 20 over is faster than the flow of the traffic, it would feel a lot less frustrating if i get a ticket.

It can actually feel dangerous doing the limit on roads notoriois for 20-30 over. People agressively pass, tailgate and cut you off. Its fucked up but you get more dirty looks for doing the limit than you do for doing 40 over the limit. I think part of this is the north american attitude of cars being an extension of yourself. Someone doing 40 over is both couragous enough to go that fast, and also wealthy enough to own something faster and wealthy enough to afford the ticket, or at least that seems like the trend.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Here we have a blanket 3km/h tolerance so they measure you, take 3km/h off and then use that to see which bracket of speeding you fall into (10, 20, etc).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How do you expect constant enforcement? I'll go over the speed limit on the motorway when it's quiet and the lane is empty. Police generally don't care if you're doing 75 or 80 in a 70, as long as you're not driving like an ass. The most important thing is keeping pace with traffic.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'm too German to understand what's here.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Counter question: do you think everyone is sensible?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago

You seem to be assuming that people would keep driving as they currently do if we removed speed limits entirely. I'd be willing to bet that this is not the case. Most drivers have a number in mind on how much they're willing to exceed the speed limit. For me that is 5 - 10kph, so if the limit is 60kph, then you're not going to catch me going 80. Without speed limits I probably would.

So why do we have such laws? Because they work. Not perfectly but to some extent.

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