Speed

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.

Holland has a serious pollution problem from nitrogen oxides and particulate matter in the air. The air pollution levels are above those permitted by European law and are mainly caused by motor vehicle traffic and factories.

The University of Waterloo has identified speed as the best predictor of crashes after analyzing data from onboard devices in vehicles. The research examined four aggressive driving behaviours, speeding, hard braking, hard acceleration and hard cornering for possible links and the likelihood of crashes. Of the four, only speed was statistically significant as a strong predictor of crashes.

This must be speed week as I have heard from two drivers who are having difficulty following the speed limits and one who knew that he was speeding and wanted advice to plan his ticket dispute.  The three situations give some insight into how the pressures of every day driving encourage us to disobey.