Speed

There's a little known secret that can be used to stop speeding in your neighbourhood. Make the roads more narrow! A wide, empty street just entices drivers to increase their speed. They will unconsciously readjust their perceived risk and drive at a speed based on how comfortable they feel driving on your street.

I found this observation on the Grist web site: "Speed limits are set by drivers voting with their feet. That’s a problem for everyone else on the street." It was accompanied by the following video explanation of the 85th percentile speed limit setting method. Fine if you are a driver, but what if you are some other form of road user such as a pedestrian or cyclist?

Question: Have you ever touched on the subject of drivers doing 5 to 15 km/h below the posted speed limit? Slow driving is extremely annoying. The passing lanes are usually not available due to Murphy's Law, and the 4 lane stretches are great when you find one, but never when you need them!

This week on Twitter the question was posed about why we have cars that are capable of traveling at speeds significantly in excess of our posted speed limits? As luck would have it, one of the mailing lists that I subscribe to contained an article with a link to this video:

In cities, transportation agencies have long understood that motor vehicle speed plays a key role in fatal and serious crashes, and have sought to reduce speeds through design and regulation in order to save lives.

The Speed Management for Safety site was created by the Institute of Transportation Engineers as a resource for all transportation professionals seeking to safely manage speeds.

Ian Sisett was stopped by police for driving at an excessive speed near Grand Forks. He received a traffic ticket for that offence and the vehicle he was driving was impounded as required by section 251 MVA. Being without a vehicle, Mr. Sisett rode back to Grand Forks with the tow truck driver and stayed the night while family members arranged transportation back to Kelowna for him.

Despite the fact that it is older technology, radar is still frequently used by police to measure vehicle speeds today. When used properly, it is an accurate method of determining how fast a vehicle is traveling. The courts also accept qualified radar evidence of speed during a trial as commonplace.

Currently the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act sets a speed limit of 50 km/h on municipal streets when a different speed limit has not been posted by signs. A recent survey by Research Co. found that 58% of British Columbians would definitely or probably like to see residential speed limits of 30 km/h.

This case resolves liability for a collision that took place at the intersection of Rutherford Road and Cedar Ridge Place in Nanaimo. A car was being driven eastbound on Rutherford Road by Gordon Pereira at a speed of between 80 and 115 km/h in the 50 km/h municipal speed zone. A van driven by William Jory stopped at the stop sign northbound on Cedar Ridge Place and then began to turn west on Rutherford Road.