Are slow drivers really inhumane on the road?

A car going 80 brings 52% more kinetic energy into an accident than a car going 65.

 

Golf carts for everyone!

 

Oh, you mean that scam called insurance?

 

My first assignment on my first internship was a small-town city council meeting.

They spent 20 minutes railing against the teenagers who skateboarded on sidewalks downtown. Lots of complaining about how they have no respect for the rules and just do whatever they want. One council member was particularly agitated and outspoken.

They go on to a few other matters, and then one of them brings up an apparently ongoing discussion they are having about making golf carts legal to drive on town roads. The town lawyer has checked into it and reported that it's pretty difficult given state laws. The council member who had particularly ranted about how the skateboarders went into a long speech about how he was going to drive his golf cart wherever he pleased and he didn't care what the law said.

 

Most speed limits are arbitrary and have more to do with raising revenue than safety.

Humans by nature try not to harm themselves. Thus most may speed, but not past the point where they are not in full control. Set the speed limit at the average speed that people actually travel, then ticket the handful of idiots that blow past that.

 

Humans by nature overestimate their own abilities.

 

Hard to disagree with that. But hack has a good point. Most people will drive at the fastest speed where they feel safe. If I get up to 80 I definitely start to dial it back down. Makes me nervous going any faster than that. And some of us are smart enough to not drive that fast in traffic. Though I could be overestimating my own intelligence.