General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

There are two things that are only somewhat connected being discussed, the speed of travel, and the speed limit.

I don't care as much about the speed limit as I do about the speed of travel. If the change to the speed limit was made without changing the speed of travel, then I probably don't care.

I highly suspect that increasing the speed limit to 120 would result in the speed of travel increasing to ~135, which would have a resulting increase in fuel consumption, death, and destruction.  I strongly oppose that.

Increasing the speed limit without increasing the speeds would require substantial enforcement, and I suspect I'd see pigs fly before Ontarian drivers accept the idea of automated enforcement on the highway, or the tax increase needed to fund pervasive live enforcement.

The biggest fears I have right now stem from the fact I have zero faith in our government to make good decisions.

I travel frequently through the United States. Their speed limits on most thruways are already 120 km/h and traffic flows seemlessly. You don't want to go much more than 15 km over the limit or you will get a ticket. Also. Remember that in the 70's. The speed limit was 70 mph or 120 kmh . It was never a real issue. Yes I know there is more traffic now. I drive about 50 000km a year mostly on highways. The issue isn't speed. The issue is people thinking they can get ahead faster by unsafe passes or lane changes.

So, 120km/h + 15km/h = ~135, which is what I said.

And yes, higher speeds absolutely makes crashes more deadly.  This is basic science science, yes, dangerous drivers ARE a problem, but higher speeds exasperate that problem, you have less time to react and more harm in the event of a crash.

A higher travel speed won't change those drivers who want to get ahead and make unsafe passes, all that will change is that those passes will be more likely to go wrong, and more harmful when they do.

And yes, I know US highways have higher speeds.  And yes, the "flow" just fine, but they have higher collision rates.  Europe is a better comparison, since they have higher limits, but also usually safer roads.  The differences are, that they enforce their limits far more strongly (you won't be going 15km/h or more over the limit in most countries) but you only need to listen to the rhetoric around any discussion of automated enforcement here to understand we will never do the same level of enforcement here. And second, their drivers are far better trained...here, driving is treated like a right by most, so the idea of taking away a license is hard to stomach, we will never have good drivers so long as that belief pervades.

Increasing speeds will increase harm, it won't necessarily mean the road doesn't function any more, but I'm sick and tired of our road system optimizing for getting people moving slightly faster at the tiny cost of more loss of life.  You'll note that our road safety was worse in the 70's, yes there are many reasons for this, but higher speeds are likely one of those reasons.

The other consideration comes from the 70s as well, which is fuel economy, higher speeds use more fuel per km. The speed limit was lowered in the 70's to save fuel, that need is even greater now than it was in the 70s.