Albertan's! Petition to get speed limits raised to something sensible.

[Iciclehead]

All, looks like a few enterprising souls are trying to get the British Columbia practice put into Alberta, if you agree, please sign on and help get the government moving that way.

Here's the link:
http://www.change.org/p/government-of-alberta-raise-alberta-highway-s-speed-limit-to-120

In addition, I sent the email below to the media....so, feel free to plagiarize or utilize as you see fit!

Sir/Madam,
I found interesting and to a fair degree rewarding to finally have some movement by people toward dealing with the question of inappropriate speed limit setting in our province.

Over the years, there have been endless numbers of media reports about the “killing speeds” on Alberta highways, as if there are thousands of crazies running amok on the highway. The police forces happily trot out their statistics for the latest long weekend – 3500 tickets, 5000 tickets and more. They take the exceptions – some guy going 193kmh in a school zone as if it were a profile of the normal person who is being ticketed.

Bunk.

Absolute Bunk.

Various studies and surveys have found that something like eight out of 10 Canadians admit to exceeding speed limits from time to time. Average speeding margins were 10 to 12 kilometres per hour over the limit, which correlates well with our illustrious police force’s data after they reap the benefits of one of their long weekend zealotries.

Speaking as a Dutchman, and as is borne out by the European examples, the problem is that our police forces have deluded us into believing that speeds moderately over the currently posted limits poses a serious threat to road safety.
Perhaps the real problem is that we are setting our limits unrealistically low and the majority of motorists (who are all those sensible and reasonable voters and taxpayers who are footing the bill for our leaders and police) are merely voting with their sensible feet as to what they think is an acceptable balance between safety and the time it takes to get to their destination.

There is nothing magic about setting speed limits. Most civil engineers will use the 80th percentile (the speed at which 80 percent of the traffic travels at or below). We already make the balance between safety and speed in our current traffic laws, what we are arguing about is whether the current balance is right. If the highway speed limit was set to 50 kmh, there definitely would be fewer fatalities but the vast majority of citizenry would most definitely rebel and take a marginally higher risk on their journey as a trade off against wasting their lives at 50 kmh on a trip from Calgary to Edmonton.

By global standards, North American speed limits are absurdly low. In most European countries the highway speed limit is either 120 km/h or 130 km/h. About three-quarters of the famous German Autobahn have no speed limit at all with average speeds of about 150 km/h.

I can speak from personal experience after many hours on Autobahn, backed up by numerous studies: the overall safety record on Autobahn is comparable to that on controlled-access highways in European countries with speed limits. As a matter of fact, I did the Munich to Stuttgart trip not long ago (a distance of over 230 km) in around 90 minutes, with peak speeds of 260kmh in perfect safety. And I was by no means the fastest car on the road that day – actually think it was the housewife with her groceries in the back of her black Audi station wagon. Need I say more?

So what to do?

Number one: put in a protocol that sets speed limits rationally, using the 80th percentile rule backed up by road observations to try to match the posted limit to the normal speed of traffic flow on that particular piece of road.

Second, drive our highway designers to build roads suitable for the speed needed and rethink some very poor highway design practices (e.g. the angled merge lane). Keep in mind, the purpose of our highway infrastructure is to get people and goods from point A to Point B as fast as possible consistent with acceptable levels of safety. It is not to provide a revenue source for the police.

Third: Toughen driver training to European standards. Make sure that all of our drivers can do more than just “steer”. They actually understand and practice the behaviours consistent with safe motoring for themselves and the people around them – whilst not being a rolling road block for everyone else.

Fourth: Once you have all this, then enforce the living crap out of the highway system, but much less on the speed side of things. Look for the behaviours that lead to accidents and dangerous situations. Relentlessly pursue those who drink and drive. Go after the tailgaters, the red-light runners, the inattentive drivers, the extreme speeders as well as those impeding the flow of traffic by driving unduly slowly. Make the penalties harsh enough that they will change or go bankrupt. Train your police force to get off of the idea that only speed kills – get them on to the idea that bad driving in all its forms kills.

Then, perhaps, we will have the safer roads we all aspire to.

Thank you for your consideration

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Isn't it amazing that after DECADES of vehicle development (and corresponding increases in vehicle safety and performance), advances in pavement design / composition, advances in tire design / composition and all the rest that speed limits are still often set by the same standards developed in the 1940s and 1950s, if not completely arbitrarily?

Hmm, what does that tell you?

The whole thing is about revenue. Completely. I routinely see limits that are either arbitrary or designed based on a 95-year-old person with cataracts driving a 1975 Buick with bald tires, worn brakes and suspension on an un-treated, un-plowed road surface after an ice storm - but of course the limit applies the other 99.99999% of the time.

This nonsense is absolutely, 100% about revenue and has never been about safety whatsoever. It's one of the biggest scams going - and most of the public stupidly just accepts it as normal or a "fact of life". I'm really glad to see someone starting to push back and challenge it. I wish more would.

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Isn't it amazing that after DECADES of vehicle development (and corresponding increases in vehicle safety and performance), advances in pavement design / composition, advances in tire design / composition and all the rest that speed limits are still often set by the same standards developed in the 1940s and 1950s, if not completely arbitrarily?

Unfortunately, those advances have been countered by a reduction In driver skill and attention. :/

[Iciclehead]

Originally Posted by Gogar

Unfortunately, those advances have been countered by a reduction In driver skill and attention. :/

I have often wondered which is the chicken and which is the egg.

I would premise that by setting traffic regulations that a trained monkey could probably execute as well as a human, that most folks have subconsciously decided that driving at our speeds does not require more than 50% brain power and little attention....leaving them free to pursue more fun stuff like their phones.

Additionally, over-neurotic focus on speed means that our police force has habitually ignored bad driving but are happy to set up speed traps which again reinforces the idea if all you do is control speed, a car is just a place you park your butt in while you are transported, leaving you free to seek/need distractions from other things.

I notice when I am back in Europe (northern), that the drivers are far more attentive, albeit aggressive, and seem to be focused on driving as opposed to other things, part of which I attribute to the fact that the roads, speeds and more complex traffic situations REQUIRE more attention.

There are idiots everywhere, so it is more a matter of degree.....

Dennis

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Agreed. I think it's partly an inevitable consequence of dumbing down the system. If you're anything other than one of the dumb people the system is designed around, it's dreadfully boring so people drive "on autopilot" (phones, etc.), speed, buy sports cars and whatever else just to eliminate the sheer beige-ness of the experience. If you do every single thing exactly as per the book driving is a huge drudgery and a waste of time now (also consider more traffic, more lights, more regulations, more BS because of more drivers). I know I look for ways to liven it up and make it not seem like such a waste of time - I suspect a lot of others too.

On a related note, the "dumbing down" is driven in large part by governments incentivizing driving - they make a KILLING when people drive. Gas taxes, vehicle sales taxes, registration fees, parking tickets, etc. Also consider that insurance companies and car makers / dealers are often HUGE campaign contributors. Where's the incentive to make getting / keeping a license harder? That's right - there is none. So the system gets progressively more and more dumbed down, compounding the above problem.

[Christien]

TLDR, but don't you guys already have a 110 limit through most of the prairies? We'd love some of that here in Ontario, but it's all 100, with many sections at 90.

[Drisump]

Ugh.....the simple truth is fewer people have any interest in cars or driving....and it shows on the roads of North America. The population gets fed the messages "speed kills", driving is an anti-environmental activity, people not obeying speed laws are selfish with no regard to others sharing the road with them, blah, blah blah. Media loves this stuff and like to periodically print a story where local idiot in a supercar gets caught doing some absurd MPH. Only recently have the authorities admitted to the magnitude of "distracted driving" causing serious accidents. The fact that people feel they can go to sleep or check their Facebook accounts while driving should tip off authorities that the speeds are set too low for the cars currently being driven. There seems to be fewer self preservation filters at play anymore, I frequently see people driving 50 mph with their eyes focussed on their lap with two car length buffer...WTF? Good luck

[Hawkeye's-911T]

Unfortunately, those advances have been countered by a reduction In driver skill and attention.

And there ya have it folks - in a nut shell

Cheers
JB