Re:Are road speed limits based on safety?
by dsfyu404ed on Friday March 10, 2023 @08:31AM
(#35094112)
Other than facilitating smug "we know better" commentary from the peanut gallery why not throw up chevrons?
It's long since been established that alerting drivers to specific hazards at or before those hazards is far more effective at reducing the hazard than dropping the speed limit or slapping up a "windy road" sign far in advance.
There is actually signage alerting people to this hazard, as is the norm, in addition to the lower limit.
Ironically, there is a low bridge a mile before this bit of road with huge signs alerting truck drivers that it is quite a bit 'lower' than they might be reckoning on.
Guess what, it still gets hit - so much so there is now flashing light signage in addition and, thus far, this has also proved ineffective.
I'll save the red traffic light signal example for later...
Sounds similar to the famous 8 ft 11 in bridge [1] (since raised to 12 ft 4 in, but still racking up victims). 177 crashes since 2008, most of them caught on camera at that site.
What people miss about this is that there is also a slightly awkward bend at mid-way point and it isn't unusual to see a car lodged into the fence that runs alongside.
Sometimes the speed limit is based on statistical information that may not be obvious until one day you are the fool who thinks he knows better.