No Speeding: Pedal to the Metal May Becoming a Thing of the Past

holly cow, i was just thinking how effed up it would be if something like that was introduced.... that is total invasion of privacy.....
 
Its not a big deal really. Maybe it should be installed on all suv's.

As for me I would't care too much I would just push harder. Ive always missed how firm my old jetta pedal was compared to the soft girly protege pedal. If anything I would speed more. Makes for a good workout.

You should see the s*** GM does with Onstar, you take a turn too fast and someone calls you up to see if you were in an accident. Becuase of this I will never drive a GM.

Now if they were to finally come up with a way to keep idiots out of the fast lane we could talk.
 
Envision a situation where on a 80 km/h highway (single lane in each direction) a person legitimately pulls out to pass someone doing 75 km/h. The person attempting to pass accelerates their car to 80 km/h to pass the slower vehicle. However, because of the slight incline in the road their passing attempt takes longer than expected and they find that they are still trying to pass the car when the broken line in the centre of the road becomes a solid line. A third car heading in the opposite direction to the first two cars approaches the same incline from around the bend. The driver of the passing car attempts to depress the accelarator harder to quickly pass the slower moving car before they arrive at the bend in the road, however because of the Ministry of Transport GPS system they find that they are unable to get the car to accelerate any more than the posted 80 km/h and they are unable to pass the car completely before they reach the bend in the road. At this point, the driver of the passing car hits the approaching third car head on which causes both cars to crash into the slower moving car. The drivers of the passing and the third car are killed in the crash while the driver of the slower moving car is seriously injured. All in the name of safety.

This is a laudible idea to increase the safety of drivers on our roads today since speed is shown to be a factor in a significant proportion of motor vehicle collisions (as are driver experience level, driver age and a host of other factors). HOWEVER, I don't think that this idea has been thoroughly thought through. All it takes is ONE such death caused in a manner that I have described above to initiate a massive class action suit that will make this whole project dissappear faster than a Smartie with a fat kid. If this is the best that our Ministry of Transport can come up with, s*** we are in deep trouble.

R
 
shoot no problem


*starts working out the right foot*

I will have a thigh and calf of Zeus!!!!
 
The thing that pisses me off the most about things like this is the fact, I say again fact, that speed is far too often blamed for accidents where the speed was not the major factor, but the driver's lack of skill or more likely common sense.

By this I mean people who follow too closely, pass when they shouldn't, or are reaching for their quadruple latte / fiddling with their iPod. Watch a couple episodes of "Seconds Before Disaster" and you see that very few accidents of any kind are caused by simply one factor. In nearly any given accident you have several factors at play and usually one of them is human error.

For example a multiple car pile-up on a highway in the US or Canada. When the injured are taken to the hospital and the cars are cleaned off the raod the tickets that are issued are for speeding or failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. this stems from the 50's when the number of cars on the road multiplied by a huge factor. Thus the rate of fatalities from car accidents increased. Federal studies that ran on into the 60's and 70's concluded speed was the major factor at play. Becuase of that and other factors including the oil crisis led to a federally mandated reduction of speed limits on our highways and biways. Even after the speed limits were raised in the 80's and then turned over to the states' judgments in the 90's our country and to some extent Canada has remained fixated on the "speed kills" philosophy.

Now, don't get me wrong. Speeding, especially in extremes, does make driving more dangerous. Stopping distances are greatly increased and time to react is reduced for, in most cases, very limited decreases of travel time from place to place. But, the judgement and skill of the driver is the greatly overlooked factor.

You can exceed the speed limit and still be a safe driver. You have to increase your following distances, understand the amount of time it will take to slow your vehicle, be aware of road conditions, pay attention to traffic patterns and for god's sake pay attention. Speeding, riding someone's ass and searching for your favorite track on the iPod or dialing home is inherently more dangerous (and probably the cause of more accidents) than is speeding by itself.

For those who argue this, do a google search and compare the fatality rates of the US vs. Germany per capita. It's amazing. Germans drive in traffic at speeds that would turn most of us white. I've been there and I wouldn't want to drive on the Autobahn. However, they lose far fewer people every year than we do in car accidents. Why? Because driving is serious shizer over there. In fact up until recently very few German cars (real ones, not the ones we import) had cup holders. They know how to drive at speed and that's why less people die there every year. Their cops ticket those who follow too closely or attempt to drive in the passing lane. Speeding is not their big priority.

Anyhow, sorry if I veered too far off topic. This is just one of my rants.
 
^ very true. i think the fact that Americans are far too preoccupied in the car instead of what's around them is a big factor on accidents. when they have accidents though, it is a serious one. but by far their death rate by cause of a motor vehicle collision is less than it is in America.
 
will this work the other way aswell, meaning that people who drive 5-15mph below the limit will be forced to do the goddam speed limit for once.
 
protejay5 said:
will this work the other way aswell, meaning that people who drive 5-15mph below the limit will be forced to do the goddam speed limit for once.

(hah) Thats funny right there
 
I love the people who ride my ass when I have like 10 feet between me and the guy in front of me. I mean, for godsakes where am I going to go? If I just touch my brakes that guy is going to run straight in to me. It's called common sense people!!

I think the real problem is that there are a lot of people out there who think that they are the greatest driver in the world and they have super-human reaction times. As already stated, the higher the speeds, the more distance it takes to react.

and as for the big brother system...f*ck that!!
 
What happens when you try to pass someone going 20 in a 30 zone? Normally you can whip around them by going 35-40 for a few seconds. With this system you'll end up stranded in the middle of the road with oncoming traffic. Umm, no thanks.
 
NO ******* WAY are they taking over my drivers seat. **** that. if they do something like mp3wannabe has, where they DO monitor you, but you're not punished for bad driving, only rewarded for the good.... that wouldn't be TOO bad, but i'd still be paranoid as hell.
 
I can't see this happening...who's going to buy a Corvette, or any other sports car for that matter if you can only go 70mph -the whole country will be driving Kias. Although they did start implementing that new technology that moniters you current car payment status...if you're late on a payment a signal locks your ignition so the car won't start. I guess anything can happen.
 
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