It's even happened to me quite a few times to be dangerously followed by some huge trucks. They would honk, flash their lights, and once there was this madman that reminded me of the truck driver in a film called Duel by Steven Spielberg. Do you remember this guy that gets chased by a truck after he passed it?
In this case, my crime was to drive on the right lane at the speed limit. When that moron passed me, he started to push me against the wall. Wow! All I could then do was call the cops.
95% of the people who drive on those urban highways never respect the speed limit. And those like me who do are pains in the ass.
Here is where we're at. Respecting this limit is a heresy.
On the highway
In this case, the problem is not as bad since 100 or 110 km/h seems more acceptable for more people. I would say that here there's only about 80% who go faster than the speed limit, generally by about 20%.
In the city
Only one comment: Is there anyone that drives at the 50 km/h speed limit? It's very rare.
The country road
These roads are places where many drive way over the speed limit. These roads are often the most dangerous, since we face oncoming traffic. When we drive at the speed limit, or slightly faster, many will try risky passing manoeuvres and that's when a good number of very serious and sometimes fatal accidents occur. I will always remember this family that I saw leave a restaurant where we were just arriving on this small road. Two hours later, a saw the crushed wreck of that car come back on a platform. The driver had tried to pass and was literally squished by a wood carrying truck. Obviously, all its passengers were dead...
Heretic conclusion
Why should we respect the speed limit? Since the majority of drivers do not; since the political and judicial authorities do not seem to care; since even the schedule and the planning of public transportation is thought with driving over the speed limit in mind...Why?
Because in doing so, we would reduce global consumption of the whole automotive park, the number of accidents, and we would save billions in healthcare linked to the lesser number of accidents and the lesser smog problems.
Let's make a little calculation. If the average person drives around 15,000 kilometres in a year slows down by 10%, his or her consumption will diminish by around 10%. Owning a car that uses about 10 litres per 100 kilometres on average, he or she will save about 150 litres and $135 a year.
Now, let's multiply this number by 25 million vehicles in Canada. We would save 3,750,000,000 litres. Almost 4 billions litres! And $3,375,000,000! Some could argue that the poor oil industry would suffer! Yeah, right...
All that with a 10% speed reduction. That's why I propose the heresy of respecting the speed limit for ecological, economical and safety reasons. Remember, it used to be a heresy to say that the Earth was round, or that there was no big deal in drinking and driving, so I think that one day we will have to get to that.
In this case, my crime was to drive on the right lane at the speed limit. When that moron passed me, he started to push me against the wall. Wow! All I could then do was call the cops.
95% of the people who drive on those urban highways never respect the speed limit. And those like me who do are pains in the ass.
Here is where we're at. Respecting this limit is a heresy.
On the highway
In this case, the problem is not as bad since 100 or 110 km/h seems more acceptable for more people. I would say that here there's only about 80% who go faster than the speed limit, generally by about 20%.
In the city
Only one comment: Is there anyone that drives at the 50 km/h speed limit? It's very rare.
The country road
These roads are places where many drive way over the speed limit. These roads are often the most dangerous, since we face oncoming traffic. When we drive at the speed limit, or slightly faster, many will try risky passing manoeuvres and that's when a good number of very serious and sometimes fatal accidents occur. I will always remember this family that I saw leave a restaurant where we were just arriving on this small road. Two hours later, a saw the crushed wreck of that car come back on a platform. The driver had tried to pass and was literally squished by a wood carrying truck. Obviously, all its passengers were dead...
Heretic conclusion
Why should we respect the speed limit? Since the majority of drivers do not; since the political and judicial authorities do not seem to care; since even the schedule and the planning of public transportation is thought with driving over the speed limit in mind...Why?
Because in doing so, we would reduce global consumption of the whole automotive park, the number of accidents, and we would save billions in healthcare linked to the lesser number of accidents and the lesser smog problems.
Let's make a little calculation. If the average person drives around 15,000 kilometres in a year slows down by 10%, his or her consumption will diminish by around 10%. Owning a car that uses about 10 litres per 100 kilometres on average, he or she will save about 150 litres and $135 a year.
Now, let's multiply this number by 25 million vehicles in Canada. We would save 3,750,000,000 litres. Almost 4 billions litres! And $3,375,000,000! Some could argue that the poor oil industry would suffer! Yeah, right...
All that with a 10% speed reduction. That's why I propose the heresy of respecting the speed limit for ecological, economical and safety reasons. Remember, it used to be a heresy to say that the Earth was round, or that there was no big deal in drinking and driving, so I think that one day we will have to get to that.