Quote:
Originally Posted by allanoue
This is true, people are crashing in to them at a higher rate, Looks like you have a similar problem. What do you think Google should do?
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The underlying problem is that there's a subgroup of aggressive drivers that feel like law doesn't apply to them. Others see those drivers getting away with breaking all sorts of traffic laws and themselves begin to break the law in lesser ways.
Your question is cleverly phrased to get me to acknowledge inadvertently that the reason I've been in more accidents is my fault, not the fault of the road ragers and law-breakers, because I've chosen to obey most laws more thoroughly than in the past.
You didn't have to use semantic subterfuge for that, I already know that's part of the problem and if you'd just asked I'd have freely replied so.
Let's look at one part of what you perceive as the problem: Traffic laws that seem to make it more difficult for you to drive on our roads. Why are traffic laws designed and implemented? We've had cars in our society for well over a century now. During that century many millions of people have died in auto crashes, millions more injured. Someone dying unexpectedly in our society hurts society as a whole, because they can't work, can't contribute taxes, can't be the doctor to someone's kids, etc. Injured and maimed people also cost our society, in terms of money and lost productivity/contribution toward the success of our society as a whole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...n_U.S._by_year
Because we all, together, are a society, and because we all, together, paid to build our road system, we all, as a society, have the obligation and the absolute right to dictate how those roads are used so that we can preserve the lives and the health of the members of our society. It's the same basic principle behind why we have laws against murder, burglary, bank robbery, etc.
Over the last 100+ years our society, which has often had the highest quantity of scientists and engineers of any nation ever to exist on this planet, has looked at the causes of crashes on roads, and created laws and regulations specifically to make it safer for all members of our society to travel in this country. For instance, laws to regulate intersections created stop signs and traffic signals. Laws to separate pedestrians from road traffic (such as requiring sidewalks and signal-regulated pedestrian walkways) came into being early on. Speed limit laws, direction of travel laws (drive on the right, not the left, etc.) were all set in place as a direct result of studying all the new ways people found to die in cars.
In the last century some basic driving safety principles became apparent from study after study. A few of big ones are:
1. Following distances of 2 seconds or more greatly significantly reduce the chance of a crash. Following distances less than 2 seconds greatly increase the chance of a crash. This is because of physics and basic human biology, and no matter how superior a person thinks their reflexes are they cannot avoid the laws of physics or the fact that human meat brains take lots of time to form courses of action and then take them. That's why following distances are regulated or recommended in all states in this country.
2. Speed variance creates crashes. A study I read once said that a speed variance of 5-15mph between an individual and the prevailing speed of traffic, faster or slower, increases the chances of a crash by 500%. Five times. That's really significant. That's why we do traffic studies to set most speed limits*. Those studies determine the speed at which around 85% prefer to drive, add a speed buffer over that, and set the limit at that. For example, a on given stretch of road people mostly driver around 65, add 5 and set the limit at 70. That way the vast majority of people are driving around the same speed plus or minus, and the crashes from variance decrease.
3. Speeds exceeding the capabilities of the road, the car, and the driver's reflexes and training cause crashes. Most roads are designed with a speed in mind. The speed target takes in consideration things like bank angles in curves, sight-lines and visibility from and to intersections, lane widths, pedestrian patterns (Industrial area? Schools and parks? Residential neighborhood?). Driver's licensing requirements and testing, car inspection and design laws, etc. are all designed to reduce crashes.
4. Not letting other drivers know what your intents are makes you more unpredictable and increases the chances of a crash. Face it, we humans are terrible at reading minds, especially minds that are encased in glass and steel cages. Laws requiring turn signal use to let others know your intent, requiring brake lights to indicate you're slowing and stopping, those are all in place so that everyone knows what others around them are planning to do. Turn signals are especially important because humans are terrible at being aware of everything all the time. Not a person alive can guarantee that they've seen every single car that could be affected by their maneuver, so using signals even when you think there's nobody there at least gives the person you didn't see a chance to react.
5. Regulating traffic through intersections reduces crashes and pedestrian collisions. Stop signs, red lights, yield signs, they're not there for decoration. People with green lights take their turn to go, pedestrians enter crosswalks when the signal says to go. Every single person at an intersection is responsible for the safety of every other person there. It's called societal cooperation, and without it we'd have chaos. There are no exceptions.
Many of our traffic laws are focused around these principles. People who violate these laws increase the chances of a crash dramatically. There's a reason why there will be over 5 million reported crashes this year, with well over 30,000 fatalities and almost two million injuries. The NHTSA estimates that there may be as many as 10 million more crashes that go unreported.
http://www.rmiia.org/auto/traffic_sa...of_crashes.asp
People like VaFish increase crashes, deaths, injuries, and property damage every day. They try to blame their victims, but ultimately it's their own bad driving decisions that lead up to the crash. His comment about the lane blocker being partly responsible for being rear-ended is laughable. When, not if, he rear-ends someone he will find out the sad truth about that misconception. Hopefully the person he rear-ends won't wind up like me, a person in his 20's with a fat settlement check in his hand and not a single good night's sleep to be had ever since. Also hopefully the person he rear-ends because of tailgating isn't a CCW that puts a couple of rounds through him. That's because in the world of road rage (and using a vehicle to threaten someone by tailgating them is definitely road rage) there's always a bigger fish. One of these days he's going to pick the wrong fight.
And to answer your question, allanoue, I will continue to obey all laws to the letter with the exception of speeding. I stop at all stop signs and all red lights. I don't run stale yellows. I use my signals properly to let others know what I'm going to do. I stay back 2 seconds, and increase that to 4 seconds when being tailgated to protect the tailgater from rear-ending me (and thus destroying what little of my upper back and neck remains from the other tailgaters crashing into me). I turn into the nearest available lane. I only use the passing lane for passing. I make sure all my bulbs work on my vehicle, particularly brake and turn bulbs. I make sure the intersection is clear of pedestrians and red light/stop sign runners before entering it.
I still drive over the posted limit if neccesary, but only to maintain my speed within 5mph of the prevailing speed of traffic. This is because that decreases my risk of causing a collision by the greatest amount and helps traffic flow faster overall. My goal is that everyone gets to where they're going safe and sound, not just me. I think about the others on the road, something that can't be said about a lot of people out there today.
As to Google, they can't program their cars to break the law, because doing do would expose them to all sorts of liabilities. Ultimately, it's the lawbreakers that expect other drivers to be lawbreakers that are causing those problems. Mainly for them it's people who expect the google car to run a light or stop sign and rear-end them when they actually stop. Honestly? Every driver is captain of their ship and it's their sole responsibility to drive their car safely.
*For a while, speed limits on highways were set politically rather than through scientific study. This resulted in greater speed variance and collision rates. Thankfully that's no longer the case.
Edit to add: driving is a deadly-serious activity. If you're treating it as a game then you're part of the problem.