Sideonecincy said:
I hardly find 51 to be considered to be highway speeds, I considered 80 to be highway speeding...
if something jumps out in front of my car whether im going 35 or 50, chances are im still going to hit it. I'm making myself sound like im highly uncapable of properly operating a car right now though.
OK, I am thinking there is something seriously misunderstood here.
Pop quiz.
Part 1
How much further does it take for an average car to stop from 51 MPH than 35 MPH?
Part 2
In one second, how much more distance does a car travelling 51 MPH cover than one travelling 35 MPH?
Part 3
If the speed limit is 70 MPH in a different state, and you can 'get away with' 7 over or "almost 80", what is the maximum hwy speed limit in Ohio?
Answers:
1)
51 MPH: 51 feet reaction time + 130 feet braking distance =181 feet
35 MPH: 35 feet reaction time + 56 feet braking distance = 91 feet
Answer: 90 feet longer - or 6 car lengths. So if that child chooses to step out into the crosswalk while you are 4 car-lengths FURTHER away than what would be normal safe braking distance at 35, they're dead.
And this is under dry conditions. This is because the distance required to stop the car increases as a square function of the speed. Darkness and rain both increase distance, darkness increases reaction time, rain or snow increase distance to 150% and 200% respectively.
2)
In one second, the car doing 35 MPH travels 51 feet
In one second, the car doing 51 MPH travels 75 feet
Difference (loss of cushion space in 1 second) = 24 feet
If a truck pulls out in front of you with 20 feet (more than a car length) to spare at 35 MPH, then at 51 MPH, you're buried 4 feet deep in his bumper in the second it takes you to see and react.
3) Still 65 MPH. It doesn't matter what the &@%^ speed you could get away with in the other state. Do you get that the "gimme" 7 MPH from 70 to 77 with no ticket, increases your stopping distance from 315 to 373 feet - that a 10% increase in speed is an 18% increase in danger? That the forces unleased in an accident go up as the square of the speed, not linearly?
I am sorry, because I am sure you are a caring and intelligent person, just not exhibiting those qualities right now. Driving attitudes like yours seriously &!$$ me off. And not just because a speeding driver killed a friend of mine, a driver coincidentally doing about 50 MPH in town near midnight - mowed him over as he stepped out of a taxicab.
And I was a split second from death at the bumper of a driver who figured it was cool to speed in a 30 zone and came through blind intersection, at night on a rural road, when 'nobody's on the road anyway'. I was stopped at a stop sign - the only thing that saved me was I dropped something and paused for one extra second at the stop to pick it up. There was NO way in the world I could have seen or avoided that car . I could have pulled out with NO sight of any oncoming vehicle, and at the speed they were doing, they would have been on me and T-Boned me in the driver's door and I wouldnt have had a clue what hit me.
