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A result that will surprise approximately nobody with a driver’s license.
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"If only every woman in the world was periodically forced to choose between two fantastically beautiful men–one rich and civilized yet stuffy, and one poor but free and capable. Then we wouldn’t have to keep seeing that plotline over and over again, because everyone would be so bored from dealing with it in real life that it wouldn’t be the stuff of clichéd dreams."
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"I like my students to at least try to hear the music. To imagine themselves Americans for a day. To contemplate the possibility that words like “all men are created equal” might be bigger and more noble and enduring than the flawed men who wrote them. Like George Lucas and the original Star Wars."
One thought on “links for 2008-11-08”
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What surprises me about the article concerning speed limits is that it makes no mention of the double nickel. You are probably too young to remember it, but arbitrarily reducing speed limits to 55 (about 25 mph below the design speed of the highway) created the “I can’t drive 55” scofflaw approach to speed laws. This approach just continued when limits were raised.
There is also the factor of the design speed of a road. Most roads are built with a design speed that is well over the actual speed limit. At a forum about the rebuild of a road (that I use daily), I asked the engineer what the design speed was. I was motivated to ask by the pavement width. He said 45 mph. The posted limit then (and now) is 30 mph. It is requires concentration to keep under 40 and few people (mostly drunks or cell phone chatters) drive between 40 and 45. Most freeways (the ones designed for the original 70 or 75 limits) have sight lines and curves meant for 80 to 85 mph, or more, if the pavement is dry.
My fave example is another road where traffic slows from 45 to 35 when the speed limit goes from 35 to 45. The reason is that the road gets narrower, has a 1 foot shoulder where the bike lane would be, and a ditch where the curb would be. Most drivers adjust to those conditions, but don’t adjust to a hill that restricts your view of stopped traffic on the wider part of the road. They seem to assume that a wide road has freeway-style sight lines.
Of course, the biggest risk factor is physics: the fact that your kinetic energy (and thus your stopping distance) doubles between 55 and 80 mph is something few people can appreciate until it is too late.