The Wrong Way to Set Speed Limits [ST06]

What people said

gregmac · 2024-05 · Strong recommendation

Europe has a lot more roads with a lower design speed. Curves, narrow lanes, on-street parking, trees/poles/etc close to the road. These things cause people to drive slower, because it doesn't feel safe to go fast. In North America, roads are usually built in the complete opposite way, with long straight roads and wide lanes, so the design speed is actually quite high -- even if that wasn't the intent. People go fast, because it feels safe to go that speed, but isn't, because there are pedestrians and turns. We then "fix" that shit road design by having low speed limits. This video is all I think of when this discussion comes up now: [VIDEO]

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CalRobert · 2024-05 · Strong recommendation

Not much but it’s a start. Unfortunately the US treats every street and road like it’s a country road when it comes to speed limits, with a lot of deaths as a result. Great video on this at [VIDEO]

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noirdujour · 2023-01 · Strong recommendation

> MUTCD designs streets similarly to rural highways, and this can create conditions where people speed when they need to be driving slowly, because the design of the street doesn't reflect the speed the sign says you need to be driving. Not Just Bikes covers this shortfall in a video on speed limits[1], and it really opened my eyes on the relationship between rules and actual behavior. Essentially, speed limit signs affect driving speeds slightly, but the street design is important. Wide, open, straight roads naturally prompt drivers to drive to highway speeds, even in more suburb areas. It's amazing how often I check the speedometer and find that I'm driving much more than the posted speed limit when following the flow of traffic. [1] [VIDEO]

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