RA40

iTrader: (6)

See where your state ranks at the site and additional data:
http://wallethub.com/edu/strictest-a...peeding/14211/

The top 5 strictest states:
Colorado
Arizona
Delaware
Illinois
New Mexico

mmarshall

I agree that speeding (especially speeding too fast for road conditions) is a big problem. But an even bigger one, IMO, has evolved in recent years...texting/cell-phone use while driving. Overly-complex controls and displays in many newer vehicles certainly don't help either, even some with voice-commands. .

My0gr81

I thought Montana was the most lenient one. I remember, for a while there, on a certain stretch of Interstate 15, they would only give an "environmental assessment charge" for speeding. Then, they realized the revenue stream, so started enforcing the limit based on what car you drove and the tire's speed ratings. If you got caught above the capabilities of the car, dangerous driving ticket, if not, then a spiel on safety and off you went.

Having driven through NY, MI and PA, as well as UT,AZ, NV, CA and MT. I find eastern states rely more on speeding tickets as revenue streams, so the enforcement threshold is high, where as western states maintain a lower threshold unless it is coupled with other infractions such illegal lane change, erratic/aggressive maneuvers and others.

doge

Current speed limits where put into place on 50's and 60's. Those limits were based off of the stopping distance of cars from that era. Cars are very different from what they were 50 years ago and I think speed limits should reflect that

Our tires, brakes, and suspension are exponentially better than what we had before. Throw in modern safety features such as airbags, esp, and abs intio the mix and it makes it that much harder to justify today's limits.

There is no reason for the speedlimits in my home town to be capped at 55mph. But to fair our traffic is so bad 55 is rarely reached.

Toys4RJill

When I visit Ontario weekly, the law is a 33 MPH over the speed limit and you receive an immediate 1 week drivers suspension, road side vehicle seizure, Max $10,000 fine. It has a done a lot for speeding.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

CA isn't as bad as I thought.

Autobahn in Texas anyone

mmarshall

Well, you just hit on a key point.....one that partly explains speed limits. It is true that brakes, suspensions, tires, and steering systems are much better today than in the 50s and 60s (don't I know it........I learned to drive on cars of that vintage) However, traffic was so much lighter back then (except in the very worst of big cities), that cars had a lot more room to maneuver and stop without running into someone right next to them or in front of them. If it took more room to stop back then (or to steer out of someone's way), you often had the room to do it. Not today, where traffic on many urban roads is so dense that it is sometimes difficult to even SEE the pavement between cars, much less stop on it.

mmarshall

The vehicle-siezure and 10K fine you mention are good deterrents on paper. But laws, if they are to be effective, have to be enforced....not just advertised. I don't know specifically about Ontario, but, in my area, and in many parts of the U.S., there are a lot of persons driving around with suspended or revoked licenses in addition to other things...speeding, failing to yield, DWI, vehicle manslaughter, possession of illegal drugs in the vehicle, etc....

I regularly go over my county's public arrest-reports (at least the ones that are published), and it's the same thing, over and over again, like a broken phonograph record.....cops stopping drivers for traffic-offenses and finding that they have long records or outstanding warrants for other offenses, and yet have never really been dealt with as they should have...or locked up.

LH1

Looks like anything goes in Texas.

PA is very lenient too. I wasn't sure where we'd land.

mmarshall

Take it easy on the PA Turnpike, though. It's regularly patrolled by State Troopers, and for good reason. It's an old road (first sections opened in 1940), has narrower lanes than most newer Interstate highways, has a LOT of heavy truck traffic, and has some dicey sections on it....particularly eastbound coming out of the Allegheny Mountain tunnel winding down the side of that ridge, and westbound descending Laurel Hill between Somerset and New Stanton.

U.S. 40 westbound, with its three-and-one-half mlle, 10% grade-descent down Summit Mountain (Chestnut Ridge) into Uniontown can be quite dangerous if you don't keep your vehicle and its speed under control. Ditto for U.S. 30, both ways, up and down over Tuscarora Mountain near McConnellsburg.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

texting while driving is definitely dumb and dangerous, but i still disagree that talking on a cell phone is a big problem since people talk in the car anyway, to passengers, children, etc. and obviously hands free bluetooth makes it even safer. the tendency i've seen is that people talking on the phone are often oblivious that they're in the passing lane going SLOWER than the speed limit, but that's hardly a 'big problem' (although very annoying. ).

our highway speed limits are ludicrously low, and i would argue that it's the difference in speed that's a big problem, not absolute speed.

fortunately, in a few short years, most of this will be irrelevant as the cars drive themselves more and more.

mmarshall

AAA and several other organizations did studies on that issue. I'll let their results do the talking.

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/07/aaa-s...dangerous.html


Well, it depends on the road conditions....and/or how wide a difference there is in those speeds. First, what is safe on dry pavement and good roads in good weather may be a killer in wet, slick, low-visibility, or tire-hydroplaning conditions. Second, traffic density is a factor....the more cars in any given lane, the less space there will likely be for a safe stopping distance in front of you in an emergency. Third, all else equal, although roads and vehicles ARE much safer than years ago, one cannot change the laws of physics, even with electronic safety-aids. The faster you go, the more kinetic energy the vehicle stores up, and the greater the potential impact-force will be if you DO hit something.

Maybe....until the electronic sensors in the highways start corroding or deteriorating from age, cracking, moisture and salt, and all those nice self-driving cars become self-wrecking cars.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

except self-driving cars don't rely on any sensors in highways or anything.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i said i didn't think it's a big problem, not that it's not a problem at all.

besides, what's the point of the studies? should ALL outside communication from a car be banned? as i've said many times, if that's the case, we should also ban all INSIDE communication too, and put each passenger in a hermetically sealed blacked out 'cell' so they can't 'distract' the driver.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Not a bad idea for those "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" brats