Complacency

[Jason Axtell]

Jeff Bone said:

> of speed than the speed limit allows;  if speeding has 
> victims, its the people
> who could safely drive faster than the ludicrously low speed 
> limits and yet are
> legally prevented from doing so.

Glad to see that you decided not to read to the end of my email, where I
make a statement to the effect that speeding laws giving absolute numerical
limits should not exist. So, when I say speeding, I mean "driving in a
manner that is not safe given current conditions."

Addressing your accusation of "pure crap," there are certainly situations in
which speed is the sole cause of accidents (or would be if we didn't have
speed limits in some form). Allow me to point out some of them:

Counter example 1:

Fog. Fast drivers. 20-car pile-ups. Nuf said.

Counter example 2:

Have you ever tried to merge onto the freeway, only to notice that the
onramp was incredibly short? Due to the high volume of traffic and the speed
with which it was traveling, there was virtually no way you could accelerate
sufficiently in the space provided. I have to navigate two such onramps each
day on my commute to work. The only reason I am able to do it at all is
because the drivers are at least sort-of following the speed limit. This has
nothing to do with the quality of their driving or mine. This has to do with
physics.

Counter example 3:

You're driving by a school and a bunch of young children are playing. One of
them runs out into the street without looking first. You can't stop in time
due to your speed. The kid gets injured. Now, perhaps you say this is the
child's fault, but I doubt that is much comfort to the parents, or you. The
fact is that young children aren't very good at looking both ways first. You
need to take this into account and reduce your speed.

I would also say that I do not share your definition of victimless. I'm sure
we both agree that, when an accident occurs, the amount of damage/injury
generally increases as the speeds of the vehicles involved increases. As
such, if you're happily driving along at 100 mph (or whatever speed you
consider yourself safe at) and I somehow cause an accident involving you,
then we're both a whole lot more likely to get seriously fucked up as a
result than if you were driving more slowly. Was the accident your fault?
Nope. Entirely mine. Are you (and me) going to pay the price for you going
that fast? Yep. Did you commit a crime? Who cares? We're both dead.

Jason Axtell
axtell@alum.calberkeley.org