i think that speedlimits are good and necessary---they are there for our saftey--I could ask ---do we really need stop lights and signs? heck do we really need driving rules at all--why bother having a liscense to drive?

I went to Germany about 10 years ago. The roads are narrower than they are here and I was afraid for my life the way the cabbies drove. And yet, my husband and I noticed that there was hardly a dent on any car anywhere. Everyone had nice, unbattered cars.

Imagine if you tried to cross a street where the speed limit used to be 20 and some fool is late and there is no longer a speed limit and he's going 80? How'd you feel after that thing hit you?

You can't make a stereotype of officers and call them "donut dunkers". If there was no law enforcement, people wouldn't slow down when they were going to fast and there would be more wrecks. What's wrong with a cop sitting on the side of the road (eating his lunch because he's human) and watching his radar for a drunken driver who is putting other people's lives in danger? So what if he has a donut while he watches for druggies and marked cars? He's not driving like an fool with a cellphone in his hand and his coffee in the other while he speeds 10 miles over the limit so he can get to work on time because he wasn't responsible.

I don't think that a speed limit is the problem. I think it helps!! It's the people who are disobeying that cause the crashes, just because they are going faster. Most people actually do the speed limit or less than 5 above. You can get into trouble for going below the minimum too. It causes road rage because people need to get where they are going and if you are heading around a bend, you can hit someone who is going 15 in a 50 mph zone.

Can you imagine the situation if people did whatever they wanted? People weaving in and out of other cars going 60 mph at 90 mph?? The faster you go, the faster you die.....the further you get flung out the windshield.

People in Europe are not like Americans. We have illegal immigrants with no license, people who are too young to drive with no license, we eat in the car, use the cellphone in the car, are always in a rushed state and prone to a bunch or road rage, (Europeans are MUCH more laid back), drunk drivers, drug addicts, etc. Americans are well too focused on entertainment to be as responsible as they should be and taking away some rules can have drastic effects.

The problem is with the people, not with the laws.

You know what irks me the most? I don't know if they do this a lot where you all live, but the speed cameras make me so mad. Thay park near school zones every day and photograph people who go 7 miles over the limit. I think they would better be served with a real patrol car. What's the camera going to do if soembody runs over a kid? Nothing. All they do is generate money for the PD and do nothing to stop real problems. IMO

yeah but how would you feel if your kid got hit by someone going 37? i think that you would be thankful that he was there

That's what I'm saying. They just have a van with a camera-no cop to see if soemthing is really happening. that's what bugs me. A speed camera is not going to chase after someone who hits and runs a child walking home from school. they are just there to take photos.

oh i see---i thought you meant the cop himself. yeah i dont think that they should do that in a school zone--at a stop light perhaps but not when the saftey of children is concerned

Yes, speed limits are necessary. I would refuse to live in a country with no speed limits. You children would not be safe in your neighborhoods; they'd never be able to cross a street on their own. I wouldn't allow them to, anyway - knowing that at any moment someone could come down the street so fast my child wouldn't have time to react.

Speed limits are fundamental aspects of safety in residential and commercial areas. A highway? No, they aren't necessary.

I lived in Germany too, and yes I've been on the autoban. It is a fantastic highway; but the driving rules in Germany are far stricter than they are here. And guess what? Sections of the autoban DO HAVE SPEED LIMITS. Any time the highway goes through a town or city, guess what? You're down to 30-50 mph. Even they understand that you cannot have drivers barreling through populated areas.

Do people speed? Yes. But MOST people don't speed beyond 10-20 miles over the speed limit, so their speed is STILL being controlled. If it's a 30 mph zone, they may be going 40 or even 50. That's better than 80, don't you think?

And, as such, speed limits help protect me and others who are travelling on our roads. We all know you can push it up a little bit. Just don't get carried away. Or, you are bound to get caught one way or another.

It is called civilization. We live by the rules. Like it or not. We don't make up the rules, but rules are made so that we can somehow co-exist with them. If we all could just decide that speed limits do not exist for us, then we would have mayhem.

There is a special spray you can purchase that makes your plates reflective and unable to be photographed. It's a little too big brother to me.

Cambion, I think speed limits exist because people cannot be counted on to use common sense and intelligence. Look at people. Morons are out there, operating two ton vehicles going sixty miles an hour.

Germany may have less accidents per year because there are less drivers/cars on the road. Just a guess.



We do make up the rules, Roberta. It's not like some higher power lifts a finger and decides you can only go 10 in a school zone.

Germany has fewer crashes per year because their drivers are taught better and you don't get a license if you suck.

also, they have a recommended speed of 130 kph and are working on having a speed limit. the autobahns in austria and switzerland already have limits. they may not have more accidents because the rules for licensing and insurance are way more strict and the roads are very well kept; but the accidents that do happen are pretty much the end of anyone involved. they aren't just fender benders, more like 12 car pile ups. there are actually sculptures on the sides of the highway made out of car wrecks to memorialize them and remind people to slow down.

i like speed limits. i need some protection from the morons who think they are stronger than a 3000 lb hunk of steel. a car doesn't care if you are innocent or guilty or have any respect for the fact that your bones go inside your skin, not out. a car doesn't care that my baby is riding in my back seat. that's why people have to care and that's why we have speed limits.

i think if the laws here were more zero tolerance in cases like DUI and wreckless driving there would be fewer fatalities.. as well as bumping the drinking age up to 25 and the driving age to 18 or 21.

Clearly a whole bunch of people must have been driving like hellspawn on crack since America raised highway/interstate speed limits by 10 miles (went from 55mph to 65 mph a few years back).

Zero tolerance may work...but considering how many people get cited/fined/arrested/jailed annually for reckless driving and DUIs, it might get to a point where more people are in prison than not. This would mean a raise in taxes and no raise in income to support the people who are serving time in prison (complete with a gym, cable television and game rooms) for being reckless - so I tihnk more people may be hurt than may benefit from zero tolerance laws on DUIs.

If speeding is such a bloody issue, why not start designing vehicles that don't go faster than the speed limit? And that's another thing I never understood - if, in America, people can't drive faster than 65 miles per hour legally, then why the hell do we make cars that can go as fast as 140 miles per hour? Why not make it so the fastest a car can go is 70 mph? Perhaps the reason this is not done is because it would take too much money and effort to recall the cars that have the ability to go super fast, and the pigs - I mean officers wouldn't have as much to do with their time if they didn't have to be bothered pulling people over for going 0.5 mph over the speed limit.

So, next question: What problem would there be in fixing the cars to only go about 65-70 mph? That way, the speed limit would be the limit of all vehicles by design, we could do away with speed limits and people could have the joy of knowing they've got the gas pedal to the floor without actually driving like a bat out of hell.

So, next question: What problem would there be in fixing the cars to only go about 65-70 mph?

ask the car industry lobbyists. they have a lot more money to throw around washington than you do i suspect. it's a good idea. it's better for the envinronment. but it doesn't look as well on a car commercial for the 20 year old boy or the 40 year old midlife crisis looking for a penis extension.

"zoomzoomzoom!!"

A friend of mine got a license plate cover that does that. She got pulled over and they demanded she surrender it to them. She said "No, I'm going to take it back to the store and get my money back". They threatened to arrest her, brought in back-up, etc. because of a license plate cover. Meanwhile my neighbors down the street are cooking meth in their house and I can't get the police to do anything about it.

at least pain isnt detectable to the eye--id go that way

Actually, you can drive 25 miles an hour in a school zone here in California. Just better be sure that the pedestrians are completely onto the other side of the road before you proceed.

In saying "we" don't make up the rules, I am speaking metaphorically. Obviously, there are people in Congress, the Senate, people who decide the rules of the road and how fast we can travel on them. I am not one of them.

There are things beside speed to be concerned with. The drunk driver who ran over my son who was on his bicycle, breaking his back and putting him in a body cast for two years, was only travelling at 50 mph. Still, he blamed my son for being there in the first place. That guy had 7 prior convictions but was driving anyway. He went to prison for three years. Now my son lives with pain in his back every day of his life.

In my opinion, they are there so people can push there luck and try to beat the system. If we have no limit, then we really can't make anyone nervous/mad so there's no need to shield us.

One thing I REALLY hate about speed limit is the freeways where there are 20 different speed limits; one for cars, one for trucks, one for nighttime, one for cars with more than 2 people in them. There is NO sense in reducing the speed limit for truckers because people like to cut them off, because face it, you don't want to be stuck behind one because they go to slow... oh wait, the CAN"T go faster, it's against the law!!! Although most big rig accidents are on turns, it still makes no sense to have different speed limits on the same road. If there was no speed limit and 4 lanes on each side, people wouldn't be so stressed about someone going too slow or too fast because there would be no such thing!

I don't think the problem is the speed limits, but rather the lack of enforcement OF the limits. I can count on one hand the number of police I've seen monitoring streets and highways in the last 6 months... and three of those were all at street corners checking inspection stickers.