A car can be as dangerous as "a loaded gun,"

Sorry I live in America where freeways are engineered
so you could go 60 meters per second
and still be safe!
 
Winky said:
Sorry I live in America where freeways are engineered
so you could go 60 meters per second
and still be safe!
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You keep telling yourself that. Things are engineered to be safe to the posted speed limit plus an extra factor of safety. That factor of safety is fairly high for roads but assuming every road is safe for 216km/hr is really a death sentence. Sure, some of them will be...but some of them won't be. Max safe speed is based on a lot of things, how tight the curves are, how the pavement is designed, how hilly the road is (affects how far you can see in front of you), etc etc. Even if the road itself is safe curve wise and asphalt wise you still have to look at sight distance, based on how far ahead you can see and the speed you're driving the time you have to react and stop/swerve when something is in front of you can be calculated, if you drive so fast that you reduce the amount of time that you have to react to a number so low that you can't stop/swerve in that period of time then you're driving an unsafe speed. The highways are all engineered in Canada too, it's not the design of them in Quebec that is the problem, it's the maintenance of the asphalt.
 
Sorry NIxy,that's not exactly correct. Even drivers of average skill are safe on American interstate highways at speeds 30%-40% higher than the posted limit if all drivers were of the same skill level or above. I suspect the same is true of Canadian limited access highways. The problems are that there is no consistent nationwide skill requirement for driving (and the tests in every state are in fact a joke) and there is no nationwide standard for private passenger car equipment maintenance. I don't think many states even have a safety inspection.
 
California, the state with the most cars, doesn't do a safety inspection. There's a smog check, and that's it unless you're trying to get a salvage title on a car, at which point you have to get an official brake and light inspection.
 
Yep, polluting is a far more important concern than working brakes. This is just one of many problems I have with the "environmental" movement.
 
I guess it's a trade-off... you don't shorten everyone's lifespan by a year or so, and in exchange you kill one or two people now.
 
yup its funny how High banked some of these interchange ramps are on the freeways.
It's like a bloody NASCAR super-speedway, we need restrictor plates!
 
By "gentleman's agreement" you can't buy a motorcycle with more than 100 horsepower (the original Hayabusas made around 135 at the rear wheel).
 
Winky said:
yup its funny how High banked some of these interchange ramps are on the freeways.
It's like a bloody NASCAR super-speedway, we need restrictor plates!
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Not quite winky. At Daytona, for instance, you can only walk about a third of the way up the banking. It gets too steep. I know what you mean though.
 
chcr said:
Sorry NIxy,that's not exactly correct. Even drivers of average skill are safe on American interstate highways at speeds 30%-40% higher than the posted limit if all drivers were of the same skill level or above. I suspect the same is true of Canadian limited access highways. The problems are that there is no consistent nationwide skill requirement for driving (and the tests in every state are in fact a joke) and there is no nationwide standard for private passenger car equipment maintenance. I don't think many states even have a safety inspection.
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30-40% above the posted speed is NOT 216km/hr (which is the 60 metres per second that winky refered to). I said they are engineered to be safe at the posted speed PLUS AN ADDITIONAL FACTOR OF SAFETY, that additional factor of safety is the 30-40% that you speak of. The speed limit around here is usually 100km/hr, 40% above that is 140km/hr, that is still a FAR cry from 216km/hr.

That said, I'm talking about the roads themselves, there are roads that because of the curves and stuff would not be safe to drive 216km/hr on, even if there were no other cars on the road. No matter how good of a driver you are if the curve is too tight and/or not sloped adequately you're not going to beable to stay on the road at an extreme speed like 216km/hr. My point was simply that even though roads are engineered the safe driving speed is not infinite and in many, if not most cases, the speed that Winky stated (60 metres per second which is the same as 216km/hr) is above the speed that you could safely drive on even an engineered road, even if no other drivers are on the road.
 
She ain't been to Arizona,
and my car has ground affects that really Kick in at that speed. (134.2 MPH) But yes I could only do it if the road was closed, free of the lil old ladies from Sun City and the mother of five who's backhanding the brat in the back seat.
 
Winky said:
She ain't been to Arizona,
and my car has ground affects that really Kick in at that speed. (134.2 MPH) But yes I could only do it if the road was closed, free of the lil old ladies from Sun City and the mother of five who's backhanding the brat in the back seat.
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The road from I-10 to Sonoita.
 
chcr said:
The road from I-10 to Sonoita.
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I never said that you couldn't go 216km/hr on any roads, I just said you can't do that on MOST roads, and you definately can't do it with others all around you. The roads are not designed for those speeds but sometimes it ends up that no large curves or anything are necessary so there isn't a limiting area for a certain distance.

That said, it still isn't necesarily safe. If a deer or something wandered into the road, would you see it early enough to stop? Going at such speeds the road would have to be pretty damn flat for that to be possible.
 
Actually it goes through a shallow valley for about ten miles. Straight as an arrow. You can see where it disappears into the mountains (you should slow down before then) about ten miles away. There are actually lots of roads like that in the Southwest US
 
chcr said:
Actually it goes through a shallow valley for about ten miles. Straight as an arrow. You can see where it disappears into the mountains (you should slow down before then) about ten miles away. There are actually lots of roads like that in the Southwest US
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Again, I never said that it's impossible on ALL roads...but roads are not DESIGNED for that speed. That said, if there's no REASON to put in curves or other limiting factors on a freeway the design engineer is unlikely to just throw them in for fun...so the road may end up completely straight and relatively flat because that was the easiest way to build it...not specifically so crazy people could drive over 200km/hr.
 
There are some pretty straight freeways in Toronto where I'm sure without other cars one could get up some pretty good speeds, the thing that would stop me would be the chance of something, like an animal, walking into the road in front of me.
 
No Nixy there are 90 degree turns on the freeways in this city
(they are banked like a NASCAR superspeedway)
that I could easily (and safely) go through
@ 130 MPH (I've dun done it).

When I was much younger and was still quite immortal

thank you very much!

As for the monstrously long straightaway stretches of road here,
you can go as fast as yer durned car can go!!!! Weeeeee!

There ain’t no damned deer in the freakin’ desert young lady!

Whoa watch out there goes a Jackalope!!!


jackalope.gif
 
chcr said:
Sorry NIxy,that's not exactly correct. Even drivers of average skill are safe on American interstate highways at speeds 30%-40% higher than the posted limit if all drivers were of the same skill level or above. I suspect the same is true of Canadian limited access highways. The problems are that there is no consistent nationwide skill requirement for driving (and the tests in every state are in fact a joke) and there is no nationwide standard for private passenger car equipment maintenance. I don't think many states even have a safety inspection.
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Yeah, right. Right up until everything goes tits up.


Speed limits are based on several things. The most important of which is human reflex. As someone who rides, I would expect you to know this already. The 'average' person takes between 2 and 4 seconds to react to input. That's how many car lengths? Increase the speed and that's supposed to go up too. Ever see it? Didn't think so. Hills, overpasses, bends .... they're all designed so that the apex is past the 4 second point. Not to mention morons overdriving their lights.

And 99% of drivers haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, or even the fact that they don't know. That's why they think they're good drivers ... and why they're so dangerous.
 
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