awavey wrote:the issue is we put a speed limit of 20mph on a street but there arent enough police to enforce it, so the only way to get the motor vehicles to slow down to keep to the 20mph speed limit is to use "sleeping policeman" aka speed bumps, if people drive to the speed limit, by and large most of the speed bumps are navigable over, after all a 20mph speed limit doesnt mean you should actually be doing 20mph its better to be doing 10-15mph
the pollution increase comes, because actually what most motorists do is drive in excess of 20mph in between the bumps, so have to brake for the bumps, then speed up again to make up the time they think they are losing, so they brake,accelerate, brake, accelerate, rather than just try and maintain a steady speed and actually end up at the same place in the same time.
if motorists could be trusted to drive at safe speeds, to stick to the 20mph limit, there wouldnt need to be any speed bumps at all, they are ultimately a necessity as a failure of motorists to conform to road traffic law.
I would hate for the speed bumps on my road to be removed, they are the only thing that stop motorists treating the road as a free for all rat run, its still a rat run, you still get some motorists who treat it as a free for all autobahn, or who clearly know friends in the motor trade who can replace shock absorbers for free, some even seem to see it as a challenge to how fast they can tackle speed bumps and Id put most in the >40mph bracket, and some in the 60-70mph bracket, on a road with speed bumps and parked cars at least one side, if not both sides including pavement parking in some places. there hasnt been a speed check on the road by the local police in nearly 20 years the speed bumps are the only thing keeping things from really getting dangerous.
I'd say it's mostly down to government/powers that be to fail to indoctrine people/society that when you are in charge of a thing that kills and maims you have to be bloody careful ALL the time and take absolute responsibility for such, and by not sticking to the rules it will have serious implications on your life.
Government allow people into motorvehicles with a mickey poor one off test, government allow killing machines to legally have the same power as a formula One car, government allowed infrastructure to make it worse for those outside the motor, approved design changes of motors that allow them to be driven at excess speed with ease, government fail to implement law changes from the existing, inadequate/futile ones that for motorists don't have the same punishment level for the same act elsewhere. Governement won't change/don't apply laws that means motorists have no fear of being banned/repercussions. Police do sod all/ignore/fob off far too often and are weak, claim they don't have the time/money yet through inaction make the cost/time far worse than if they'd done something meaningful. Police are bias too often, fail/won't apply the law.
Yes humans do wrong things but just as with cycle helmets, hi-vis, rear lights, cycling in the gutter etc (all the downsides to cycling), if you bash people into submission long enough and with a loud enough voice the message becomes accepted as a standard to adhere to because by not you are fearful of the serious repercussions including death.
Maybe we should simply have the death penalty for dangerous driving, even if death is not the outcome, maybe we should have onboard computers fitted as standard to every motorvehicle plus camera which will be used/accpeted in court IF the police/CPS pull their fingers out their arris. Maybe we should get motoring convictions to be tried not by jury due to the inherrent bias by the jurists themselves, that's another thing down to government.
We know humans are rubbish at sticking to many things, but if the powers that be don't act to curtail a known issue throughout millenia, don't adjust the environment, don't dramatically adjust or ban the use of the things that are killing and maiming then they are complicit and culpable in the carnage we have.
Things like speed humps have made not a jot of difference and never were going to, just like the stupid barriers in London won't prevent 'terrorism'
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