Topic: Speeders Should be Demonized!

[safristi]

BUT....WHAT A GREAT WAY TO GOooooooo....!!!!!.........we'll ALL  be in Heaven in time fer tea and 72 CRUMPETS!!!!

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Those articles ARE ridiculous. Say this in a really dramatized/concerned big-local-live-breaking-making-the-anchorperson-a-star voice:  
"The QEW in east Hamilton and Oakville is like a speedway, with vehicles routinely cruising at more than 120 km/h"

A speedway? A SPEEDWAY? Ca'mon... get real.  

Yes, I see those speed demons that do 230km/h too, and I think they're risking things, yes, but as stated by many above I don't think speed is the main cause of accidents and fatalities. Where there IS an accident, I'm sure it raises the fatality rate, but I don't mind heightened speed at all. What I DO mind are inconsiderate drivers, those who pay no attention, those in the left lane in their beige Corollas oblivious to those behind, those who swing left over 4 lanes of traffic to the left lane from the on-ramp still going about 85km/h, those who tailgate, those who fly-by you in Winter, etc etc etc.

I honestly could care less about the speed of the flow of traffic, until there is a baffoon dangerously weaving between cars at 160 when most people are going 115-120.

I think people need to learn how to drive again and to re-focus on it. I wouldn't mind going back for retraining if everyone else had to and it'd do some good.

[johngenx]

If everyone is driving 115-125, things would work well.  It's the speed DIFFERENCE that causes collisions.  Someone driving 160 in the left lane and some driving 110 in the right lane is diaster waiting to happen.  We need to crack down on people that drive 85 in a 110 zone as much as people driving 130.  It's about flow.

I like to drive fast, but heavy traffic just ain't the place to do it.  I try to keep with the flow, somewhere a bit faster than the pokes, but below the crazies that are whistling by at a huge speed difference.

It's usually the people that do 120 in the 80 zone while traffic is flowing at 100 that will give a  look of astonishment and decry me as a lunatic when I tell them about hammering along highway 22 in the C36 at 5AM on a Sunday morning at 250km/h on a straight section with miles of visibility and not a car in sight.  At least I would have only killed myself.  (A famous Canadian sprinter crashed his own C36 at over 200km/h and walked away, can anyone recall him?)















Donovan Bailey

[Smainville]

I'm totally against high speeds, we against high insurance and high speed driving compounds the problem.  At high speeds there is no room for accident avoidance.  Sorry City_Pig but police are doing a brutal job on our roads, I travel the 417 to Ottawa daily and you will never see a cop car.  Go to Ottawa on the week-end when traffic is down by 80% and you see cop cars all over the place, nobody is being thaught a lesson as most of these people are not the regular weekday offenders!     We don't have the roads, safety programs, the technology and know how to drive at high speeds.  Next time any of you are at Canadian Tire, Walmart, Home Depot etc. have a look at any 10 cars and note the condition of the tires, pretty scary!  What else needs fixing, yikes!

[The Fuzz]

No need to apologize, Smain. We know we are doing a brutal job and do you want to know why? Because we are understaffed, that's why. How can we do enforcement when we have to answer other calls for service, all of which are higher on the priority scale then enforcement? I have around 20 tickets this year, yes...20. I SHOULD be averaging 10 per month to feel useful but I just don't have the time! We waste so much time on paperwork and court that if the public knew they would be absolutely stupified!

On weekends there is fewer calls for service during the day since there are fewer businesses and offices open, hence fewer shoplifters, fewer frauds, fewer alarms and fewer people out and about meaning fewer accidents. Only then can we get enforcement done...If we don't have follow-up investigations to do, missing people to investigate (that have gone "missing" 25 times this year, but since they are under 16 we have to waste our time looking for them...even though they are not missing, they just don't want to be in the foster home) or paperwork to do.

In Hamilton (a city of 500,000 people) you'll be lucky if there's 50 uniform officers on the street at any one time. Of course if anyone asked the white shirts they'd say "Oh we have XXX number of officers at any one time" but forget to leave out that XX of them are injured so can't go on the street, XX of them are sick and can't go on the street and XX of them are off on maternity leave. Our MINIMUM number is 18 on the street but we regularly go out with 14 or 15.  

Do you really wonder why we are losing the fight not only against speeders but against crack dealers and users as well???

[tenpenny]

120 is hardly speeding on a modern highway.

Here in poor NB with such bad roads, that's the accepted normal speed on the major highways.

125 and up, you'll probably get a ticket.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

C_P, the war against crime and drugs is far more important to me.

Speed isn't much of an issue to me (so long as you drive accordingly and are courteous), but those things certainly are.  

I'd like to see more money and officers assigned to those sort of things.

I was listening to CHUM FM this morning, and they were saying - and I can't believe this could happen but obviously know it to be true yet little monies are allocated toward it - that it took something like 10 weeks to find a new police chief for Nouveux Laredo at the TX/MX boarder, and at the end of his 8 hr shift he was killed in a hail of gunfire. It's no wonder officers and boarder patrol accept bribes to look the other way - you're paid $45Gs a year for work, but can make a cool $100Gs without committing a physical crime to overlook something or simply not to check a specific vehicle crossing the boarder. I feel for you moral cops out there.

[safristi]

Many duties should be handled by Parole officers etc..and BIG QUESTION...why should a highly trained Police Officer have to be wasting time(My opinion) with speeders or for that matter minor issues...our society continues to underutilise trained Pros(NO not that KIND!!!)..Drs treating colds and sniffles ,teachers babysitting classes and obstreporous kids,you get the drift...save the COPS fer the gang bangers,murderers etc....get "speed Wardens ..like traffic wardens fer the BS Stuff......The Police Chiefs are supposed to be Generals...use their Army efficiently and effectively......

[onearmed]

I'm usually the one doing 120-140 but when doing that speed you have to keep your distance.  I don't like people doing 80 in the left lane and it really angers me because I have to pass in the right lane which is far more dangerous.  I'd like to point out to the 95% of drivers on the highway that the accelerator pedal is your friend.  Don't take 80 years to get up to the speed limit you're holding everyone up!!!  I try to drive under 120 on the 407 and I can't, its just not possible as that highway is designed for 130km\h.  If they would just update the speed limits, you'd find that you'd close the gap between speeds of cars on the highway.  They say the avg speed on the german autobahn is 130km/h. People will drive at the speed they feel safe, and that limit is rising as cars are smoother, safer, quieter and more stable at high speeds.  I don't know what the solution is but I know our speed limits are very very conservative and that cars 25 years ago doing 100km\h are about 2000 times more dangerous compared to cars sold today.   SHould we have desginated lanes such as the left at 120km\h-130km\h?  That would definitely keep the grannies out of that lane.

[sparky]

Before the first energy crisis in the '70s, the speed limit on the 401 was 70 mph. That's what the road was designed for, and that was when cars had bias tires, drum brakes, numb and unresponsive steering, and sloppy, primitive suspension systems. Seventy was considered safe for the death traps of the day, but today we can't go faster than 62 (100 km/h). This despite ABS, stability control, and the kind of tires, brakes, suspension and steering systems that would have shamed the finest sports, luxury and GT cars of 30 years ago. A 120 km/h speed limit would make a lot more sense.

[HeliDriver]

True, Sparky, but it also seems that our definition of what constitutes "safe" has changed over the years as well.

When I was a kid in the 70s, I don't think that such a thing as a bicycle helmet even existed. Smoking was an acceptable pastime, drunk-driving only slightly less so, and cars had only lap belts. All these presented risks that society at the time seemed perfectly willing to accept.

Fast forward to today, and it's pretty obvious that our society's tolerance for risk has changed a great deal. Sure, one can argue that driving a new BMW at 200 km/h is about as safe as driving a '74 Impala at 70 mph, but I think the point is that, rightly or wrongly, neither presents a level of risk that society is prepared to accept today.

[duck]

Solution:  Shoot  all the  speeders

[Smainville]

IMO if they put the limit at 120 we'll be driving at 160 with the same amount of enforcement, nonsense.  When I drive 120 I'm constantly passed, these ppl are doing at least 140!  We could just imagine the party the insurance industry would have if Ontario allows such increase.  Sure our vehicles our good, my X-Trail stops on a dime with incredible control, but that's if I'm awake and my vehicle is properly maintained.  It's all about reaction time, if a deer crosses the 417 any weekday when all those commuters are doing 160 could you imagine, or if the guy in front of me has a blow out or malfunction, could you imagine.  The answer is enforcement, sorry guys.

[sparky]

There is evidence that most people decide on a safe speed and stick to it, regardless of the posted limit. A 120-km/h limit, with reasonablle enforcement, would be safer than an unrealistic 100-km/h limit. Smainville, 160 km/h is 100 mph. You can't seriously think all the commuters on the 417 are going to drive at 80 km/h over the limit. If the limit were 120, the vast majority of drivers would drive 120, just as they do now.

[Smainville]

But Sparky they already don't, they pass me when I'm doing 120.  It's human nature to take advantage, we all know that.  If the speed is set at 120, someone will complain about the slow ones doing 120 in the left lane.  Sparky have you ever commuted the Limoge stretch to Ottawa during the week?

[safristi]

Human nature sets the flow average rate of speed MOST adhere to it...it feels manageable,safe for the driver and easy on the cars.Yes then there are the "outlyers" too slow 95  ,too fast 130 plus..on busy  
400 HiWays (IMHO).
          Set it at 120,after all that is pretty much what we all do anyway and then concentrate any enforcement on the GOOFBALLS (Tailgaters,Non signallers,unsafe practitioners (phones/coffees/makeup/drunk and excessive slow and reckless drivers).....
   100 KPH IS TOO SLOW for todays cars,drivers and roads (IN clear weather of course).....

[Smainville]

But as CP said, they're incapable of enforcing!

[safristi]

WELL THEN the Majority of us will just tootle along at 120KPH and ignore you SLOW BUGGERS!!!!!....see ya.......