Not where I was. There were paved roads everywhere, and the city I was in was like any decent sized American city with skyscrapers, malls, shopping centers, etc. The only difference is that the women walked behind their men and covered their faces.
They absolutely sucked at driving though. They literally have 4 and 5 lane highways (going in one direction) and they would turn them into 5 and 6 lanes. If a driver was in the far left lane and needed to take an exit, they would literally just go. It then became your responsibility to not hit them. When traffic got pretty thick, everyone drove with their flashers on. We avoided those types of highways as much as possible.
Average speed cameras fixed this in the UK. Literally no one speeds there. There is a much easier solution.
Sounds like NHTSA recommended the veto so we don’t end up with competing standards.
Good move, IMO. For a system as large as this, with severe safety implications, you really don’t want to start on the wrong foot.
The article doesn’t say that the NHTSA asked Newsom to veto, just that they were working on a similar regulation.
It sounded like the car companies just wanted him to veto it so they could keep reckless drivers as a customer base.
The proposed regulation only kicks in at 10 mph over the speed limit (ie reckless driving and deadly to pedestrians)
It’s weird to see 10mph considered reckless driving.
In California, 10mph over is the slow lane.
If you hit a pedestrian going 35 on a 25 mph neighborhood street, the majority of the time, that pedestrian will die. Probably closer to like 70% if you’re driving a truck. Going 10 over in pedestrian areas kills people.
https://aaafoundation.org/impact-speed-pedestrians-risk-severe-injury-death/
To be fair, going 10 over on a highway isn’t as reckless.
you really don’t want to start on the wrong foot.
We all be walkin’ here. GET OUT (I kid)
The solution to speeding isn’t to tell people they are speeding, it’s to make people feel uncomfortable speeding via good urban design.
Cool, he vetoed one thing that I agree should have been vetoed.
People are not getting into speeding accidents because they don’t know they are speeding. This would solve nothing, but would be a distraction any time it triggers off an incorrectly indexed speed limit.
I feel like a system that noticeably increases the resistance of the gas pedal right around the current speed limit might be a good idea. It would make speeding require more intention on the part of the driver.
Cars in the Middle East had these like 20-30 years ago (source:me. I was there) and it was basically a constant buzzer that started when you went faster than like 88kph. It did absolutely nothing to deter speeding. Drivers just ignored it. What they did do was leave charred vehicle wreckage on the side of the roads and highways as reminders for people to slow down. That was pretty wild to see.
The non-stop chimes and beeps and spoken alerts in cars in South Korea is absolutely maddening. With these constant distractions, there’s absolutely no way this makes driving safer.
Imagine passing a speed limit sign that warns of an upcoming speed bump. It will immediately start loud beeping because you’re now speeding as you roll out, while simultaneously speaking out loud what the new speed limit is, while simultaneously also saying there’s a speed bump, all while your music and navigation play as well.
Thank goodness this was vetoed.
Every speed limit on Google maps is wrong in my area so yeah this bill is a horrible idea
One road I drive on frequently is posted 25, but Google Maps thinks it’s 55, which is a silly speed for that road with many turnouts. Meanwhile, the next road over, is also 25 and Google sees that one correctly, but going 55 on that road is nearly natural, with nothing but the road and usually green traffic lights every quarter mile.
My Volvo displays speed limits and I can have it beep if I go over, done by camera if I’m not mistaken, very rarely wrong.
While Google Maps may be incorrect, government data should be nearly perfect.
Also, you know you can suggest fixes in Google Maps, right?
I assume the idea is to be like the seatbelt beeps: they prevent the unwanted behavior by being too annoying to ignore for more than a few seconds.
I would legit rip out anything that did this. I wouldn’t care how integrated it was into the car.
You are a bad driver and are probably too reckless to have a drivers license.
In Sweden, if you go 15 mph over the speed limit, you immediately lose your license on the first offense. No one deserves to die because you decided to play Nascar.
You understand how speed limits are set in the US, right? they’re designed so that 85% of drivers will instinctively not speed on them. If you’re speeding, that makes you worse than 85% of drivers out there.
The US is the only western country with rising traffic fatalities for a reason.
Wouldn’t bother someone who’s deaf and blind. They’d just continue driving the wrong way down the highway, blissfully unaware.
I wish tesla’s and bmw’s came with lane assist so that its harder to change lanes without a turn signal. also all cars should come with lights always on, so many cars in the early morning or dusk driving around with their lights off its hard to notice them
Teslas absolutely come with lane assist. Annoyingly so in some cases to be honest, it freaks out about a little double dip around my house probably 50% of the time. There’s not even a turn, just a couple vertical bumps in a row.
Also, most modern vehicles I see have always on daytime running lights you have to specifically turn off.
Yup. My understanding is that the roads have a much higher effect on driving. Design roads for slow traffic and you will get slow traffic.
Milton Keynes, in the UK, seems to have nailed this. It’s effectively a grid of roundabouts. When the roads are empty, you can race along at 60mph (legally). As soon as it starts to build, the road naturally slows to 40, then 30mph. No cameras etc needed.
It also has the red ways. You can walk most places, without having to cross a major road. It uses underpasses for pedestrians and bikes etc.
