Not convinced by this one. Surely reducing the kinetic energy in this scenario is the safest course of action?
It's easy to second-guess.
I have no desire to ride fast (I rather enjoy doing 40 mph on a park drive), but I need my bike to be able to go 100 mph so that when the person next to me going 55 mph starts to merge into my lane, I have the choice of slowing down or very rapidly accelerating out of danger. It's the same with cars. Having the "headroom" means you can speed up quickly in emergencies.
How is remaining near an impaired driver vs. leaving them behind the safer option?
It isn't always practical or possible to find another route, and staying behind a drunk driver and thus near them, or running the risk of running into the results of some sort of mistake on their part is certainly more dangerous than putting them safely behind you.
I don't think I've ever been in a situation where a drunk driver has been speeding around at 100mph - they almost universally go near the speed limit, but controlling their vehicle poorly.
I do not want to be in a situation where I am behind them. Even if I let them put a fair amount of distance in front of me, roads are not always well lit. If they crash, or hit something, I might now be having to deal with debris on the road that I won't be able to see easily, or potentially at all until it's too late.
I fail to see a safer course of action outside of just not driving at all, which, as I live in Texas, is distinctly not a possibility.
I don't think anyone is recommending that. I think they're recommending staying behind a drunk driver, and slowing down enough that you're no longer near them and have plenty of time to react to the results of any sort of mistake on their part. I think we can all agree that tailgating a drunk driver is an absolutely terrible idea.
(In general, I try and leave enough space to react to a sober driver's mistakes as well.)
> putting them safely behind you.
"Behind you" means you're in front of them. This is literally putting yourself in the path of danger. If they're relying on cues from traffic, speeding past them may let them know "they need to speed up" - and now they have some nice tail lights that are much easier to follow than those road stripes...
> I might now be having to deal with debris on the road that I won't be able to see easily, or potentially at all until it's too late.
You might have to deal with that whether or not a drunk driver wrecked in front of you. And even if you've left one behind you, what are the chances there's not one in front of you too?
You'll have more time to react going slower. If you keep your windows clean, your prescription up to date, your headlights in working order, and put down your phone - and I'd wager most debris you can't see in time to avoid is going to be much smaller, and as a result much less dangerous, than an entire car threatening to collide with you going the speed limit.
Contrariwise, if I speed up and pass him, I have to keep worrying about him. What if he decides 70 just isn't fast enough? He's both more willing to drive fast, and willing to drive faster, than I am, so if I make it about who can stay ahead of whom, I lose. But I, being neither drunk nor proud, am both more willing to drive slowly, and willing to drive more slowly, than he is. So I make it about who can stay behind whom, and I win.
(None of this, I hasten to note, is intended in support of mandated governors on cars, nor should it be taken as such; I've seen enough to know that trying to make something foolproof results only in a lot of annoyance and a better fool. But it makes anyone a better driver, and safer to be around, to understand that faster doesn't always equal better.)
So.. you reasoned that it would be safer to be /in front/ of the drunk driver?
Yes? In one scenario I am stuck behind them and potentially having to deal with the results of any sort of screwup on their part, or having to find a completely different route, which isn't always practical.
In the other I leave them behind me and am no longer having to deal with them.
In what world is it more advantageous to be near a drunk driver than away from them?
When you're behind them you iust need to leave a suitable braking gap. They're unlikely to come backwards.
Certainly. For that short time, rather than the extended time if I'm driving behind them.
>then when you're in front of them you risk their poor brake control amd distance judgement until you get far enough away from them.
Thus why I get away from them quickly.
>When you're behind them you iust need to leave a suitable braking gap. They're unlikely to come backwards.
Until they run into something. Even if they manage to not completely wreck, they very well might leave behind debris.
If I stay near them I am going to constantly be having to react to their actions, which are extremely unpredictable by nature. Even with a suitable breaking gap, I can't account for every possible outcome, and any lapse in my concentration is many times more dangerous than it would be otherwise. The longer I am behind them, the more fatiguing it is to be on a hyper state of alert, increasing the chances that my focus will slip.
If this is a concern, you are following too closely. You should always be far enough from the vehicle in front of you that you have ample time to stop without hitting them if they stop abruptly or hit something.
Why is it even possible? Because a car that can't do 100mph is going to have terrible performance 0-75
There's long stretches of highways in rural areas with speed limits higher than 75
>Not to mention, why are cars dumb machines? If someone is going crazy fast in an area where there is no safe way to decelerate, then the car should not allow that speed to be reached.
There are sometimes legitimate reasons to be going quickly. I have, at times, needed to have bursts of speed into the 90s to safely get around a drunk driver going 70.
You're now asking for cars to behave unpredictably based on their determination of the road conditions.
And you set the limiter to 75. Now someone is driving 75 in a 25.
Most highway deaths are rural[1] and involve a single car - they veer off of narrow lanes into a ditch or trees, or hit a large animal. The difference in reaction time needed to avoid said animals or other obstructions is not that different from 75mph to 90mph - low visibility is the underlying problem there, not speed.
The idea that we're suddenly safer on roads if we limit speeds is also not necessarily true.
In 2013, German autobahns accounted for 31% of the countries traffic, yet only 13% of the deaths. They had a rate of 1.9 deaths per billion kilometers travelled, while urban roads had 4.7, and rural roads 6.6.
I don't think there's really evidence to support the idea that limiting our cars to lower speeds will be beneficial.
[1] http://www.npr.org/2009/11/29/120716625/the-deadliest-roads-...