Speed limit increased to promote safety !!!

[Steeroid]

Hi All

News out here that might interest some of you:

The Abu Dhabi emirate has increased speed limits on its highways from 120 kmph to 160 kmph.

Apparantly this is being done to reduce the number of accidents on the highways. They feel that the expressways are capable of handling much higher speeds and hence people tend to speed, regardless of the speed radars....

The new move has one provision - the earlier system of providing a 20kmph margin over the speed limit (effectively it meant that the guys werent issuing tickets even if you were caught by a speed trap/radar doing upto 140 kmph) will cease and anybody crossing 160 kmph will be issued a ticket.


What do you guys think - is it a good idea to allow people to drive faster in order to promote road safety???

[tsk1979]

Dunno about that, but the margin thing is good. In delhi if you do 81 in a 80 zone you get a 400Rs fine. Infact even if you are at 181 the fine is 400rs!

[Rtech]

Speed does not kill...its the sudden stop that does the damage!

A guy driving at 60kmph can be more dangerous than someone traveling at 160kmph. For a real life example, do this next time you're driving on an expressway.

Lower your speed to about 70kmph and drive the entire stretch. You will notice your mind wandering, your eyes moving off the road to look at the scenery or maybe switch CD's, you chat with your passengers and basically be a whole lot less attentive because you feel you are going way too slowly to have any problems. Inadvertantly you tend to stop looking in your mirrors or stray from your lane. This makes you a dangerous driver. The guy doing 70kmph in the right lane is a dangerous driver even though he may not be doing the speed limit.

Now compare that situation to one where you are driving at about 130-140kmph. You automatically become more attentive and aware of your surroundings. You pay attention to the road ahead, you try and judge what the cars ahead of you will do, you stop fiddling with the radio and don't bother about the scenery. You are now a much safer driver than the others on the road.

Basically what I'm saying is that if a road is designed to allow safe driving at those speeds, there is no problem. Fast, attentive drivers are far safer than slow, inattentive drivers.

The raising of speed limits is not a new thing. It's been done all over. Certain interstates in the US have no speed limit during the day, and there has been no rise in accidents on those stretches. The main reason why low speeds are kept is to fill the coffers of the Cops manning those area's. Safety is just the pretense they use (case in point is the ridicoulsly low speed limit of 35 kmph on the JJ overpass in Mumbai).

[RX135]

Do they have minimum speed limit also? Is that increased? If not, there are greater chances of accidents happening.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by RX135

Do they have minimum speed limit also? Is that increased? If not, there are greater chances of accidents happening.

NO minimum speed limit and everyone drives like there is no maximum speed limit either. The only vehicles that are slow moving are the beat up pick-ups that are driven by the Pakis from Sharjah - not because they WANT to go slow, but thats all the 'vehicle' is capable of...

I think this will result in more accidents, because here in Dubai we give a wide berth to AD (Abu Dhabi) numberplates. Those overtake through the right, use their horns, flash their headlights, tailgate and bully other drivers and drive through the emergency lane - with traffic manners like that, you dont want to increase the speed limit...it would be a different matter in Dubai where you see much better behaviour on the roads.

[adya33]

Interesting move.
But surely as someone pointed that if the road is capable of handling vechicals moving with such high speed then why not take advantage of it?
but necessory safety measures should be taken

also the margine thing should also be put in place in this country. it is really stupid as tsk said, the fine should increase with increase in speed (e.g. in 80kmph zone is you are doing 100 then you pay 400rs for 120kmph you pay 600rs & so on)
also one main difference bet. India & Abu Dhabi is that if the speed margin is put in place here then people will take speed limit + speed margin as speed limit (e.g. 80kmph zone + 20 margin = 100kmph zone for Indians)
man you gotta love this country

[Surprise]

In certain places at Chennai the speed limit is 40kph. When your'e caught first in the signal with red light displayed, you tend to pick your speed when it is opened. The roads will be empty for you to move quickly. At the right spot, cops will measure your speed & jump into front of your vehicle resulting in forced stoppage of your vehicle.

How this average speed limit helps in regulating or minimizing the traffic flow? or is this done to minimize accidents

[karthik247]

but then arn't the autobahn's getting a speed limit now..which never existed on those roads!

[Sankar]

A guy driving at 60kmph can be more dangerous than someone traveling at 160kmph. For a real life example, do this next time you're driving on an expressway.

Lower your speed to about 70kmph and drive the entire stretch. You will notice your mind wandering, your eyes moving off the road to look at the scenery or maybe switch CD's, you chat with your passengers and basically be a whole lot less attentive because you feel you are going way too slowly to have any problems. Inadvertantly you tend to stop looking in your mirrors or stray from your lane. This makes you a dangerous driver. The guy doing 70kmph in the right lane is a dangerous driver even though he may not be doing the speed limit.

Now compare that situation to one where you are driving at about 130-140kmph. You automatically become more attentive and aware of your surroundings. You pay attention to the road ahead, you try and judge what the cars ahead of you will do, you stop fiddling with the radio and don't bother about the scenery. You are now a much safer driver than the others on the road.

Basically what I'm saying is that if a road is designed to allow safe driving at those speeds, there is no problem. Fast, attentive drivers are far safer than slow, inattentive drivers.

Have to agree with you. I have noticed the same case thing with me. I tend to get distracted while i'm driving slow, chatting with friends and fiddling with the player etc. But i automatically get more attentive and concentrate on the driving part while i'm driving fast.

[Revvmaster]

Originally Posted by karthik247

but then arn't the autobahn's getting a speed limit now..which never existed on those roads!

Yes karthik, certain sections of the autobahn already have a speed limit and slowly the entire network will....

Sigh... i hope i get to do my 300 kmph drive on the Autobahn before the whole network is regulated.

Revv

[2fast4u]

"""ifSigh... i hope i get to do my 300 kmph drive on the Autobahn before the whole network is regulated.

Revv"""

u want to do in excess of 300 come to Bahrain.
the country is small might be a speck on the world Map but u have many Wannabe F1 drivers on the street and many deserted roads too.
if u get scared of Bahraini Drivers theres always the F1 circuit where u can test ur and ur vehicle limits for a Entry of approx Rs. 500 for 6 hrs.

have seen only 3 radars and 2 cameras in the last 3 months.

forgot to mention u have lots of whisky and babes tooooo for relaxation.

[vikrantw1]

I read in a research paper ( which was conducted in Montana) that when the US dropped its speed limit to 55 mph on the interstate the fatalities actually increased - and when they let the states increase these upwards ( Montana reputedely still does not have an enforcement of its state limits - unless the officer reckons u were driving riskily in the given circumstances) there was actually a drop
They concluded that it has more to do with flow of the traffic than anything else
Also the autobahn continues to have lower fatalities than US interstates
Also in the US a speed limit is determined by states on various roads by judging the speed at which 80% or more of the cars are driven - I dont know if that is the basis for setting speed limits in India

[NikN]

so strange that the 80km speed limit on the expressway hasnt caused more accidents than done good, although i would think they have that up there because of a large number not having descent speed rated tyres ?

[goldsun]

I am sure the cops know that the vehicles ought to move fast, so that there is no traffic snarls created. But the 40 km speed limit is made use of for their personal advantage many times, that is why it is not implemented uniformly. Many times, atleast it has happened to me that the cops will be silently watching speeding vehicles and some times, they will start charging.

[Aditya]

Speed does not kill. Improper usage of lanes does. People found underspeeding / overspeeding in respective lanes should be fined. We stil have nutters driving at ridiculously low speeds in the overtaking lane, holding up all the traffic. This leads to frustration, which in turn leads to deadly lane cutting and overtaking from the left, causing accidents.