[parl_match]

A law that prevents any FWD vehicle from going over 90 MPH, or offering significant insurance discounts, would go a long way towards reducing fatalities.

There is no reason for any casual motorist to be going 91+MPH on surface streets or highways.

[chrismcb]

How many fatalities are caused by cars traveling in excess of 90 mph? I don't know the number. I am sure it is greater than zero, but I would guess it isn't much larger than that (percentage wise) I'm not sure why you picked 90 mph. But I think any arbitrary number is going to have an issue. The speed isn't the issue. It is the difference in speed between the vehicles on the road at the same time as well as other factors. Consider than the fatality rate on the autobahn is about half of the rate as US.

[blincoln]

There are freeways in Texas with speed limits of 85 MPH. 5 MPH of wiggle room for emergencies seems like a bad idea IMO.

[acdha]

What emergency do you have in mind where 90mph is too slow? The average driver is far, far more likely to cause another emergency at that speed than avoid one.

[gpm]

I think his idea is that there are times where the safest thing to do is to accelerate out of a dangerous situation on the road. Which is sort of true, but at those speeds most cars tend not to accelerate very quickly so I don't find it particularly convincing.

[acdha]

Yeah, I’m really skeptical just because at that speed human reaction times are so limited. It seems like the guys who said they should have to pay for seatbelts because if they crashed into a lake it might be hard to get out without drowning - true at least once, somewhere, but orders of magnitude less common than the times where a seatbelt kept someone alive.

[gpm]

In lots of situations speed doesn't really limit how much time you have to react, because it's something like "someone is merging into you without noticing you" or "you and someone on the other side of an empty lane both started to merge into it".

But ya, the statistical argument of how often does accelerating out really help, vs. often is someone driving too fast the cause of the danger, seems very relevant.

[acdha]

I was thinking of the only time in 3 decades of driving where speeding up made sense: I was on the 405 in LA and I was behind some guy who had a stack of mattresses poorly tied onto the back of a pickup truck. The top one flew surprisingly high up and I realized that the way it had caught the wind meant that if I braked it would land pretty close to me, so I went under instead and it landed a few car lengths behind me. At 45mph, in my early 20s, driving a sporty car that worked out but at 90mph I don’t think I’d have had time to process it quickly enough. I also note that this was once a long time ago where as I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been endangered by someone going much too fast or seen the aftermath (cars in buildings, upside down on the wrong side, etc.) so I would in a heartbeat take a world where the extreme speed outliers are gone.

[nemonemo]

Does emergencies make speeding legal for usual cars? I could imagine police cars or ambulances could be exempt from the rule. Also, adjusting the insurance cost based on the speed limiter seems a balanced policy to me regardless of those freeways.

[tharkun__]

Why imagine? Police cars, ambulances and fire engines already are exempt from speed limits. But only if they actually are rushing to an emergency with lights and horns on. They are also allowed to go through red traffic lights.

Except at night to not wake you up they might not have the horn blaring then. But they also understand how much faster to go, when to have the horn enabled even at night, know to approach a red light slowly even if they have right of way and you are supposed to let them pass etc.

[gpm]

Speed limits of 85 MPH sounds like the bad idea to me.

[nanidin]

I believe low speed limits were raised in Texas due to the number of drowsy driver accidents that were occurring due to the amount of time it took to transit the state at the lower speed limits. Everything is a trade-off.

[basil-rash]

Clearly the experienced highway engineers in charge balancing a ton of different variables to make the Texas road network function in accordance with its design goals should have sought your advice.

[shepherdjerred]

You haven't driven through Texas. The stretch between El Paso and Dallas is 9 hours and there's almost nothing in-between.

[gpm]

Indeed, I haven't. I'm from rather farther north. I have driven reasonably long distances at reasonably high speeds though. If you ask me whether I'd have rather save 30 minutes on a 9 hour drive or have the speed limit top out at 85* I'm definitely picking the latter. If you ask me if I'd rather have people driving through a community I'm living in at 90 mph or 85 mph I'm definitely picking the latter.

* El Paso to Dallas is 635 miles, driving the whole way at 85 mph would take 25 more minutes than driving the whole way at 90mph. The reality is even further in 85 mph's favor because you aren't able to sustain 90mph the whole way and we're only going slower when we would be able to.

[EGreg]

Are all those towns on the way a joke to you?

[shepherdjerred]

No, that’s why I said almost nothing :)

[brian-armstrong]

There have been cars that can do this and even provide geofenced exceptions for motorsport, e.g. the Nissan GT-R https://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/22/nissan-gt-r-recognizes-t...

[dheera]

Also prevent tailgating (have a minimum follow distance to car ahead based on speed, and auto-brake to match that minimum distance) and prevent going faster than the lane to your left while they are at it.

The minimum follow distance alone would prevent a LOT of crashes.

[hobotime]

You need to be able to pass left-lane campers on the right now and then.

[nemomarx]

Isn't the car already very dangerous at 70 or so? I can't think of a lot of streets where you'd be able to get up to 90 even.

[kayodelycaon]

It’s pretty easy to do a sustained 120 mph in a Honda Accord for several hours on I-71 through Kentucky. (Not personal experience.)

A Toyota Prius can maintain ~90 mph on I-294 around Chicago. Anything above 95 mph degraded the tire traction to an unsafe level. (Personal experience.)

I don’t do that much anymore now that my manic episodes are under control and I’m better able to recognize my judgement is impaired.

[lakis]

  I actually have to set up a car alert for when I go above 90, because the car is so quiet and powerful that I can easily go above 90 without realizing (obviously on the highway) . 
  New cars have improved tremendously.

[dogman144]

… empty and well paved country roads are a thing

[parl_match]

Most vehicles (and most drivers) aren't capable of safely driving at 90mph, no matter how "empty" the road is.

[cityofdelusion]

I’m not sure where you are getting your talking point, but here in Texas, there are stretches of highway where people safely pass at 90-100 mph with no issue. We have a lot of gigantic, straight, barren countryside.

[dogman144]

Yes exactly

[fragmede]

it does matter how empty the road is. 90, in a modern car, on an actually empty road, is totally fine.

[seoulmetro]

No, most vehicles are more than capable of this. The drivers are not.

[huhuhu111]

there are a few reasons though, like life threatening emergencies when the road is basically empty

[acdha]

How many situations are there where going over 90mph is make or break? Unless you’re Keanu Reeves driving a bus improbably, that seems like a freakishly rare situation compared to the number of crashes caused by people incorrectly thinking they could safely drive that speed – and with so much energy involved, those are usually fatal.

[huhuhu111]

on many highways, it doesn't feel that fast in at least parts of America because the lanes are so wide... specially in a car (I went much faster on motorcycles)

[acdha]

I know, but specifically what is this emergency situation where being able to go 120 is enough but 90 is not? I’ve spent plenty of time on fast freeways and even the ambulance drivers are rarely going that fast because it’s unsafe.

[huhuhu111]

it's pretty rare, so hopefully you should not get a speeding ticket for it because you would go to jail and that emergency would not matter.

[parl_match]

Most vehicles on the road can't really be safely operated at 90mph, especially by the layperson, no matter the need.

[kayodelycaon]

If you have a turbocharged v4 I a light vehicle it’s pretty dang easy to drive 100+ mph. If you’re paying attention, the road conditions are good, and you’re not aggressively tailgating or passing people, it’s relatively safe.

The problem is it doesn’t take much to become unsafe and physics is not very forgiving of bad judgement.

[parl_match]

> The problem is it doesn’t take much to become unsafe and physics is not very forgiving of bad judgement.

This is pretty much it. All it takes is a pothole (you'll barely see it coming at that speed) or something else, like a deer or small animal. And oops, it's over.

Lots of people over-estimate their ability.

[huhuhu111]

tailgating at 100mph? I don't think that's what it's called... probably "reckless driving" or "aggressive driving" if you need to pass cars dangerously