Brookledge accident

[fivestrideline]

Nikki has part of it right - enforcement presence DOES reduce speed… right around the cop. And often this cop presence creates a ripple effect of the Slam On Brakes And Then Floor It Once They’re Out Of Sight reaction.

If the goal is to reduce speeding in general, road design is the most effective. A massive, stick straight, multi lane, super wide highway with clear-cut everything around it encourages speeding (people feel safer going faster, or simply FEEL like they’re going slower than they are), whereas fewer lanes, narrower and more “landscaped” roads slow down drivers the entire way.

Ripping out our superhighways and making road unnavigable by the US’s giant OTR trucks (and horse trailers!) isn’t a solution, obviously. But law enforcement isn’t a perfect solution either (as anyone who has played the ‘why are we all stopping OH there’s a cop on the other side of the interstate great’ game can attest). Honestly, my opinion is that mass transit has a huge potential to fix a lot of these issues, but the US is notoriously crap at implementation of light rail and even just buses.

[Quincy]

@Nikki

Nope. Cops giving tickets won’t help. It’s an annoyance at best.
Driving four lengths behind and not being on your phone. I bet the semi that hit the horse trailer was either on his phone or tailgating.
Using AI tech in your cars

I don’t trust AI to take control in cars-no thank you.

Stronger penalties for cell phone use while driving will help. Agree staying 4-5 seconds behind a car will decrease accidents, but people just don’t do it. Also, everyone going 80 mph isn’t exactly safe. Stuff happens on the highway/freeway…it takes longer to stop at 80 than at 65 or 70 mph. And people are overconfident in their driving abilities.

[fivestrideline]

@Quincy

I don’t trust AI to take control in cars-no thank you.

Ah, but if the cars are all traveling at the same speed the same distance apart, that’s… a train. Sacrilege! We can’t just have trains! We have to trust the algorithm!

(Sarcasm, if that isn’t obvious. I’m not saying rail and mass transit are a substitute for personal vehicles on every level, chill.)

[SonnysMom]

I think there is a big difference between a police speed trap and consistent enforcement. Yes, the police show up once or twice a year in a particular area everyone is slamming on the brakes since they are used to speeding in that area unchecked.
However, the way I drive to work the police routinely put up speed monitoring signs. They are in a few spots along a couple mile stretch on a regular basis. As in maybe every 10 days to 2 weeks. Guess what?, people keep their speed down through those two areas. And the in-between areas they only go about 5 miles an hour above the 40 or 45 MPH speed limit. We all know that police are REGULARLY in the area.
If there is a REGULAR police presence versus a GOTCHA police presence the speed tend to stay down. Even if there are out of towners they tend to pick up on the local vibe and slow down a bit.
My guess is that for truckers they chat about areas that are REGULARLY enforced versus once/twice a year. Yes, that is a bit of a guess on my part. More like warnings- hey this township, stretch of road, etc… is serious about speed enforcement.

[MHM]

I think the widespread use of driving apps probably makes a difference as well.

People figure if there is a speed trap, their app will alert them when they get close to it. And until that happens, they probably figure they don’t need to pay very close attention to the speed limit.

[sami-joe]

You know what the Autobahn has that we do not?

One hundred percent surveillance over every inch of their roadways and automatic prosecution for passing in the right-hand lane and any other basic traffic laws including distance from other vehicles.

Huge fines, loss of license, possibly a lifetime ban from driving for any infraction.

I’m in. Are you?

[nutmeg]

While it’s been a long time, the horse transporters in Germany used to have a governor on the engine that prohibited you from going faster than 80 km/hr. So while the riders were maiming themselves right, left and center speeding in their shiny Audis, the horses & grooms would toddle along just fine.

[Nikki]

We have that already with the cameras In The big city.

Won’t stop people from acing like morons and playing in their phone.

[Nikki]

Waze started this and now google maps has it.
It’s very useful for objects I. The road, stalled cars, accidents etc.

Police speed traps are caught too.

[Nikki]

I wish we had mass subways out in the sticks. I would love to drive into town and take a train to work as I have an hour commute each way.

[sami-joe]

@Nikki

The big city

That’s great news. Is there room in the courts for those cases?

ETA:
Also, when we know we’ll lose our right to drive after a single infraction, it tends to puts
a damper on our stupid.

In any case, most of the country is not that.

[Nikki]

Of course there is.

[deweydee]

Many commercial semis are the same, here in the US. At least the fleet vehicles, not so much the owner/operator outfits.

There’s been a post going around about a TX driver with a super duty and gooseneck up in flames. It seems a van had pulled out in front of them.

[Rumorhasit93]

@Nikki

The signs (stop, yeild etc), the warning signs across the highway telling of any hazards going on, License stops where the police ask for your license (this is mainly to weed out drunk drivers), etc

I speak English fluently (and can even spell ‘yield’ correctly!) - I’m American and often drive in Canada and get confused on those roads. The road signs are not in French, either so, yeah, nothing to do with speaking a language.

[sami-joe]

Have you ever been to court?

We were told today by our chief executive that there is no space in the courts for people who have a right to due process. Nevertheless, you’re confident that every one of the captured-by-video speeding, traffic scofflaw defendants will get his or her day in court? I don’t see how our overburdened, understaffed district courts could keep up.

While, as of 2015, nearly 70 percent of the road ways in the US are urban, the square miles served by the 30-ish percent of rural roads is far greater than the square miles in urban regions, hence our mutual wish for functional rural mass transit a la much of Europe and Asia.

I don’t see automated traffic courts making their way across the rural US. County sheriffs will never give up that turf.

[moonlitoaksranch]

Speaking of drivers with very little English…

When moved to the Midwest it was when Russian oligarchs were having their assets seized because of illegal activities. Things like yachts. Big expensive stuff.

So, we were moving with one truck and one car. My truck hauled the horse trailer (duh). Hubby needed to move his small fishing boat so we contacted a company that does that sort of thing and found a storage facility near the little town we were moving to. The guy I spoke with on the phone was from New Jersey and had the most stereotypical accent I’ve ever heard. He sent his driver to pick up the boat. Driver was Russian. Very Russian. He knew three words of English via Google,

So, right when Russian oligarchs are getting press, this strange Russian man pulls up to a boat storage company in a two dog town in the rural Midwest. They were so confused. He called me and said “They not let me leave boat here”. I called the company and joked that we were the owners and most definitely not rich Russians. They had a good laugh and it all worked out. Russian guy did a good job. No damage.

[trubandloki]

@deweydee

I’m always amazed when horses load so willingly.

They do not watch the news or read the internet. They do not know about bad drivers.

[findeight]

This has drifted some from the original subject. The guy drove his truck into the back of another big a** truck in broad daylight, no translation needed.

[deweydee]

That’s true!

I’ve ridden in my trailer and it’s a bit noisy and the roads aren’t always so smooth or drivers around you so conscientious. For an animal that can be very sensitive, they’re pretty nice about loading into what I would think isn’t a super relaxing ride. But maybe I’m anthropomorphizing them.

[Mara]

You’re never wrong, are you?