You Can't Just Lower Speed Limits

In an attempt to reduce horse-vehicle collisions, the city of Reno has installed nighttime speed limit signs on Veterans Parkway. In this video, I discuss how speed limits are decided and why more substantial changes are going to need to be made before there is any reduction in vehicle speed.
City of Reno Twitter
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South Reno wild horse collisions dropped in 2022 after spiking in 2021
www.rgj.com/story/news/local/...
Q+A: Why are wild horses dying in wrecks on South Reno's Veterans Parkway?
www.rgj.com/story/news/2021/0...
City Growth Competing with Horse Herd in South Reno
thisisreno.com/2022/02/city-g...
Pedestrian Fatalities Crash Facts
zerofatalitiesnv.com/app/uplo...
Growing Pains: South Reno residents irate over noise, traffic and accidents
thisisreno.com/2022/09/growin...
Street racers at it again, more arrests and tickets over the weekend
thisisreno.com/2022/08/street...
Accidents on Main Rural Highways
safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/...
RTC Steamboat Parkway Virtual Community Meeting
www.rtcwashoe.com/engineering...
• RTC Steamboat Parkway ...
Speed Traps Have No Long-Term Effect on Speeding
www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...
Understanding the 85th Percentile Speed
www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...
Forgiving Design vs. the Forgiveness of Slow Speeds
www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...
STEP Raised Crosswalks
• STEP Raised Crosswalks
'Wombat crossings' reduce pedestrian casualties by 63 per cent, says new study
www.smh.com.au/national/womba...

[@korawichbikedashcam6293]

"you can't police your way out of bad engineering design practice" as a civil engineer I love this quote so much.

[@bestaround3323]

In the (un)wise words of someone in over their head, "Watch me."

[@deforged]

but you CAN generate tons of municipal revenue through expensive citations

[@sethbingo]

"Just one more lane bro trust me"

[@pauls3204]

Yes you can We do it all over the UK

[@RafTheDude]

No no no, see, one more lane won't fix things. That's why you gotta add TWO more lanes instead!

[@Gregory_12]

"Well actually, if we add enough lanes, we will get to a point that induced demand won't matter because everybody drives" -🚗

[@MetallicMutalisk]

I love how that "smaller street" is a frigging 4-lane wide ass road

[@sabotooth]

It's dumber than that. When they opened it, they tried to have a 45 mph speed limit on the portion that is 6 lanes of flat gently curving road. I bet 85% were speeding then so they did raise it to 55. Now they think this nighttime limit is going to work... Just going to get them more citation revenue.

[@davidroddini1512]

@@sabotooth Hey, it “works” for them 😜

[@SanderEvers]

And that's the problem. More lanes = faster cars. A small street should have 2 lanes at most. And also those lanes should be just wide enough for a vechicle. Also there should be a seperate protected cycle path.

[@johnclements6614]

In the UK that road would have a 50 or maybe 60mph limit with a lower limit at the junctions. But it is unlikely it would have been so wide in which case it would have been 30 or 40 with a brightly painted speed camera to stop the speeders.

[@danwylie-sears1134]

@@SanderEvers More lanes don't necessarily equal faster cars. Wider lanes, longer sight-lines, wider clear zones, and bigger turning radii all make for faster cars. The number of lanes does matter, but a two-lane rural road with all the above pushing people to drive fast is going to be much faster than a six-lane through street with the opposite plus streetcar tracks down the middle and a raised strip of grass between the inner four (the travel lanes) and the outer two lanes (for access to parking spaces and businesses).

[@martymcfly8731]

A month ago, a boy died from being hit by a pickup truck going over 40mph. It was nighttime and he was walking home with friends. He was walking on the bike lane since the side of the road they were walking on didn’t have a sidewalk. The driver wasn’t charged and it was deemed an accident. I don’t understand how someone could be driving on the bike lane since the road is pretty wide. However, there are claims that the driver might have been distracted due to looking at his phone. Stroads suck.

[@runswithraptors]

They judge it an accident because the driver was negligent and checked their phone while driving? Typical

[@davidperry4013]

This proves my point that car centric infrastructure is cancer.

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

@@runswithraptors Idk but it seems in America, there's a bias against nondrivers too. Jay in jaywalk means stupid. When there's road accidents, the news kind of often spin it as victim blaming the nondriver versus bringing up road and city design. Propaganda doesn't help.

[@RyanBreaker]

What that driver does at 5:18 is among my biggest pet peeves when it comes to other drivers, ignoring that big fat solid white line that shows where the intersection starts and where you're supposed to stop by. I have no idea why it's acceptable for a seeming majority of drivers to just ignore this and just stop wherever they want.

[@sudazima]

almost all stoplights here in NL are on your side, which means you wouldnt be able to see the stoplights at all if you go over the line like that with the light essentially directly above you.

[@onorebakasama]

Yeah, it's very rare to see drivers not do that. It's worse if you're a pedestrian; drivers get incredibly indignant about you having the *audacity* to be using the crosswalk. The US needs to do as the Netherlands does and put the stoplights on the near side of the intersection, not the far side.

[@chloro8306]

There's no excuse for it on that road, but I often do this in the city where sightlines suck because cars are allowed to park all the way up to the corner. Otherwise you can't see.

[@CrazyBear65]

They put those lines too far back. You need to pull up far enough to _see_ before you turn right on red. Besides that, Big Brother needs to stop attempting to micromanage people's lives.

[@acidchunk]

@@CrazyBear65 Curious what you mean about the "Big Brother" comment, because that's kinda the point of big brother. But to address the first half, right turn on red should probably be done away with. It's kinda dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, and it will help deter stopping ahead of the line since most people who do that are trying to see to turn right, as you so rightly put it. Also, we need more roundabouts.

[@LeeHawkinsPhoto]

Thank you for making this statement! Speeding is only a problem here in the US because we believe in signs and cops more than we believe in designing a little danger into our streets to make sure drivers don’t do it.

[@CrazyBear65]

Speed limits are set too low as it is. Hardly anybody goes the speed limit. They need to raise them, but they keep them too low in order to generate fine revenues. I've never been to Germany, but I've read that they don't even have speed limits over there. That's how it ought to be on highways everywhere. Streets in cities need to have slower speeds, simply because of the presence of pedestrians who might randomly step out into traffic, and all the red lights, and cross traffic, and buses that hog the street, and bicycles zipping in and out of traffic ignoring red lights...

[@davidroddini1512]

Lee, of course we don’t want to make roads more dangerous for drivers! Everything is designed around the automobile here. We just need to get rid of the animals, pedestrians, cyclists, etc that want us to “share the road” with them. 😉

[@paulmentzer7658]

@@CrazyBear65 And how will suburban comunities pay for they Police? State Police Forces and Suburban Police forces are rarely paid out of taxes, instead they are paid out of traffic tickets. No speeding, no tickets, no revenue to pay for the Police. Most Suburbs want Police and low taxes, thus low speed limits to generate tickets. In Califoria they installed red light cameras to catch people running red lights. The problem was the Police wanted the Cameras where a lot of people did right turns when the light was red, instead of intersections with a history o accidents. Why? the Police were looking at maximizing revenue NOT stopping accidents. This is a nationwide problem, Police are seen as a source of revenue NOT law enforcement by the local Government (I must point out this is less true of older inner city Police Departments, generally started before the automobile and as such expected to enforce the law not produce revenue through tickets).

[@VestedUTuber]

@@CrazyBear65 The only road they don't have speed limits on is sections of the Autobahn.

[@VestedUTuber]

@@paulmentzer7658 "And how will suburban comunities pay for they Police?" That's the thing. The whole concept of the modern American suburb is a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too. They want urban amenities and services, but want to live out in the open in excessively sprawling housing developments and without city-like taxes. There's not enough money coming in to have both without fucking people in the ass over it.

[@bgiv2010]

The safety paradox: the wider and safer the road feels, the faster the drivers will try to go. From what I've heard, making the roads narrower will make drivers more cautious than increased traffic policing.

[@superspooky4580]

as someone who likes to speed and drive fast what you said is 100% TRUE. A small narrow cruvey road is much harder to speed on that a nice flat straight shot. I have some roads where I live that the speed limit is 45mph but because its a 6 lane road thats wide and straight I can push 100mph without a problem. yet on other small 2 lane roads with trees surrounding them and a bumpy surface I actually will go slower than the speed limit because I don't feel safe going too fast

[@davidty2006]

The threat of the driver's vehicle being damaged is what makes them slow down. Have a narrow gap that might put a scratch on their car and they'll slow down for it.

[@Marklin15]

Narrow roads and tight turns are not friendly for trucks!

[@bgiv2010]

@@Marklin15 luckily humans are not trucks and trucks do not need to go everywhere. also are cops any better for trucks? how about collisions?

[@NoovGuyMC]

​@@Marklin15 american trucks moment, and trucks do not need to go everywhere

[@DjangoBit]

My city has lowered the speed limit in one of the neighbourhoods from 50km/hr to 40km/hr due to complaints from the residents of speeding and excess through traffic. There does not appear to be any plan to enact traffic calming measures at this time. What's peculiar is that elsewhere in the city the council has shown they understand traffic calming measures. I would hope in the future this neighborhood gets what they want, even if they don't realize it, with shortened, perhaps even raised, crossing as the intersections aren't terribly far apart. The roads are, however, about 40 feet wide; this for a two lane residential street, with large driveways and limited street parking, hence the speeding problem.

[@Robbedem]

I hate it when speed limits are lowered because the current speed limits aren't followed.

[@jeffparker1617]

My city is doing several test areas of 30km/h and 40km/h areas. I e-mailed my councilor to point out it won't work without calming measures. No reply.

[@nishiljaiswal2216]

Tactical urbanism! There are some cheap ways to traffic calm and have neighbors pitch in

[@DjangoBit]

@@nishiljaiswal2216 I'd be tempted to if I had more spare cash and it was in my area. This is across town from me and I've got no reason to go there save for my bi-annual jean shopping trip.

[@nishiljaiswal2216]

@@DjangoBit oh i see, I thought it was a street useful to you

[@GaigeGrosskreutzGunClub]

"huh, we're starting to see wild horses on our streets, maybe we should stop suburban spread?" "nah, put up a sign"

[@artirony410]

yeah that whole area of town used to be a giant ranch and so there's just wild horses that still roam the area

[@michieldame701]

And nobody thought to tell the horses, and show them the signs of where they can and cannot go... (headshaking) tsk tsk...

[@AlbertaTrackside]

@@michieldame701 if those horses had just taken personal responsibility and worn safety vests to make themselves more visible, none of this would be happening

[@davidroddini1512]

What I can’t figure out is why the video mentions “Wombat Crossings”?! How is having crossings for wombats going to help the horses? It’s not like the horses even use their own crossings! For that matter, when was the last time they even saw a wombat trying to cross the street in the area?

[@michieldame701]

@@AlbertaTrackside And a flag, don't forget the flag for crossing...

[@JustJanitor]

I walk to work every night. Last week along my route I take. An SUV jumped the curb blew through the park fence and was up on its side between two trees. Happened about 20 mins before I left based on the sirens I heard. It sucks. I hate all these cars, the road I walk down is a six lane major road. The sidewalk is right next to the road and is only approx 1 meter wide. Hate it.

[@kollibriterresonnenblume2314]

I've had to walk on roads like that too and it can be terrifying. Like, can't they at least separate the sidewalk?

[@ethanlamoureux5306]

The cars are not to blame for your discomfort with the pedestrian situation. It’s not possible to eliminate the cars, so you should get busy lobbying your city for better pedestrian facilities.

[@earthwobbles3534]

That is scary! I would try to reduce exposure by adding a little speed. Razor A5 Air is a popular kick scooter that might help. Longboards can be another alternative. Also makes you more noticeable. Best.

[@tacticallemon7518]

@@ethanlamoureux5306yea distracted drivers are to blame how the hell do you manage to jump a curb?

[@unsafevelocities5687]

As an Australian, it's funny to hear you call them "wombat crossings" because a wombat is a small marsupial mammal we have here. They work pretty well, but are rarely placed on larger roads -- even 35 mph four-lane roads seem too large to me. On nearly all roads with more than one lane in a given direction, we place pedestrian traffic lights here in Australia. If the road is 30 mph or less, and two-lane (single lane in each direction) then you'll start to see wombat crossings everywhere large numbers of pedestrians frequently cross the road. I don't know why we called them "wombat crossings" -- an official(ish) reason I found was the crossing humps are reminiscent of the short, wide, and stocky animal. However, I have a sneaking suspicion an Aussie traffic engineer named them because, "Yeah, nah, it's like runnin' ova a wombat, mate!"

[@darthmaul216]

Wombat booty has reinforced cartilage, so hitting one at high speed will probably total your car

[@davidroddini1512]

Wait what?! I thought that a wombat crossing was like a horse crossing, deer crossing, elk crossing, etc. Never seen a wombat at one though; maybe it’s more difficult to train them to use the crossing? 🤔 🤪

[@unsafevelocities5687]

@@darthmaul216 I remember watching some dashcam of a Hilux or 80-series (can't remember which) hitting one at 100 km/h, front-left wheel. The vehicle flipped or nearly flipped -- it was spectacular!

[@unsafevelocities5687]

@@davidroddini1512 Yeah, I know right, they have their own signed crossings! Now they're trying to take over the poor zebras' crossings. smh Tbh, initially the thought flashed through my head that I hadn't heard of some conservation infrastructure it was named after.

[@emdB67]

@@davidroddini1512 I've never seen a Zebra at a Zebra crossing or a Pelican at a Pelican Crossing either. ;-)

[@fermitupoupon1754]

The issue I've always had driving in the US as a tourist is that the speed limit is so inconsistent. In my country you can just look around you, look at the road markings, and have a 95% sure guess at what the speed limit is. Narrow residential streets, most likely 30kph Streets within city limits, most likely 50kph Small road with no centre markings outside city limits, probably 60kph Road outside city limits with centre markings, generally 80kph Road outside city limits with a green (painted or grass median), 100kph Motorway during the day time, 100kph, during night time 130kph. I know it seems like a lot, but once you figure out how the road markings coincide with speed limits it becomes really intuitive. I haven't had a speeding ticket in decades.

[@DEmersonJMFM]

Generally speaking, you can tell the speed limit based on surroundings (even the road texture). Each state of course has its own standards.

[@edwardcollins741]

There are places in the states where the speed limit will suddenly shift, without any change in the road conditions or structure, between two adjacent communities so that a speed trap can be set up to generate local revenue from speeding fines. The US can be that messed up.

[@michaelz.7140]

the netherlands am I right? hate driving there

[@hendman4083]

​@@michaelz.7140 Why you hate driving there? In general it is considered to be the best country for car drivers.

[@michaelz.7140]

@@hendman4083 roads are tighter, 100 km/h ridicoulous speed limit on highways, where you fall asleep behind the wheel. but mainly because the reoads are tighter and you can hit other cars more easily. germany is king!

[@jlpack62]

Traffic engineers will fight redesigns to the death because their success metric his how many cars move through a corridor, not how safe it is for anyone not in a car.

[@LucarioBoricua]

Then where does that leave those of us who are traffic engineers and are driven crazy by car-centric stubborness of our bosses, or even worse, the DOT / public works officials contracting our services?

[@CrazyBear65]

Roads are built for vehicles, not for pedestrians! That's what sidewalks are for.

[@LucarioBoricua]

@@CrazyBear65 You kinda need to know where to make roads inconvenient, or even outright absent (in favor of streets), based on the built environment and the expected pedestrian activity of said environments. A huge conflict arising in the debate of car-centrism of urban design is when state/province/national DOTs insist on building fast arterial roads through city centers. Then these agencies somehow uphold the incompatible design by insisting on car-centric standards, or on enforcing the mobility-oriented functional classification in an environment which requires the accessibility-oriented functional characteristics. I remember a traffic engineering conference, back in 2018, talking about traffic safety problems of a big arterial route in a central Florida metro area, I distinctly remember commenting in the conference's introduction how the arterial being studied looked like a freeway / motorway that was missing the interchanges. This is the kind of thing we need to be re-thinking if we really want to make cities livable, safe, quiet and socially just.

[@qjtvaddict]

@@CrazyBear65 build sidewalks then

[@davidroddini1512]

@@LucarioBoricua Well roadways are designed for cars right?! All we need to do is get rid of the animals, pedestrians are cyclists that we’re supposed to “share the road” with. 😉

[@HigherQualityUploads]

My city just increased the limit from 25 to 35 on a residential street. Why? Because it just so happens to link between two big stroads, and people are using our street instead of the one that's actually built for that purpose a mile down. In a sane society they would block the road off from cars going all the way down the street and do heavy traffic calming, but nooooo. :(

[@unsafevelocities5687]

That's terrible. Traffic calming isn't even necessary if the street is a dead end as the traffic would just evaporate. Heavy traffic calming alone would also likely see the traffic evaporate.

[@roberts1677]

Your idea of a sane society differs from mine.

[@HigherQualityUploads]

@@roberts1677 Then I would advise you look into urban planning and traffic flow research.

[@roberts1677]

@@HigherQualityUploads I've been watching a lot of urban planning videos, which is odd because I don't like cities. I've done some reading on traffic and I am a member of the National Motorists Association.

[@HigherQualityUploads]

@@roberts1677 If you are a motorist, then you should want less people driving and taking alternative transport methods. The biggest obstruction to motorists *is* other motorists (aka traffic.)

[@kerrizor]

When I see a wombat crossing, I don't think "Oh look! Traffic engineers are keeping me safe!" I think "Oh look! I'm in a rich neighborhood with political clout!"

[@tristanridley1601]

People who live there have the power to demand safe streets! You know you're in a decent city when they finally bring that to EVERY street.

[@nameless-og]

​@@tristanridley1601 in my experience it visually creates a lot of noise and people just become harder to see. They only work well if people are constantly crossing there. If it's just occasionally, drivers are also just more focused on defeating the annoying obstacle in their path (which also generates MORE noise, not less, than when cars were just cruising through)

[@MojaveZach]

suu just put in one of those raised crosswalks and I couldn't be more proud of my school

[@williamhuang8309]

I also love how they don't even define when "night" is. So at 6pm and 7pm, some people could think that it's night while others still think it's day

[@magiccards88]

Was looking for a comment like this, like how do you know, and what if it changes while you're on the road and suddenly your speeding whereas 30 seconds ago you were fine?

[@ravenwing199]

Well it's meant for when it gets darker and hard to see the road. So common sense?

[@Loki-pd3zj]

​@@ravenwing199 common sense ain't common buddy

[@lugoorstar]

​@@Loki-pd3zjyou're supposed to turn the beams on during sundown, but there's people who only turn them on when they just about can't see anything. Just saying, sadly it's the norm for "special people", that if you don't smash something into their brains with solid numbers and *lots of fines* they will hapilly do everything as wrong as they can.

[@Lessenjr]

​@@ravenwing199 it would be bad practice to create rules that are defined by subjective opinion. This could easily translate to unnecessarily higher traffic fines over trivial factors like how much daytime is actually left. Not considering all obvious details and factors is how societies end up with laws that sont work as intended or have unforseen consequences that may be worse than the problem we've attempted to solve.

[@theflightengineer_]

"This is a suburb that requires a car to get around" Every 60 seconds in Africa a minute passes.

[@MarioFanGamer659]

Non-car dependent suburbs exist.

[@theflightengineer_]

@@MarioFanGamer659 I know, there's just so many car dependent ones in the US.

[@th5841]

@@theflightengineer_ Is this just a hard fact or are there ways to change it?

[@theflightengineer_]

@@th5841 Well, anything can be changed. It just depends whether the people in charge want to change it or the people who want it changed are loud enough.

[@MelGibsonFan]

@@th5841 it’s a fairly complicated problem. American suburbs were mostly constructed in the mid 20th, around the boom of the automobile. With this county being vast and sparsely populated people sought openness. The crime waves and deindustrialization of the 70’s to the 90’s exacerbated this problem. People fled to the surburbs but economic opportunities are still centralized in urban centers. So in the absence of mass transit, the car became the only way. Now a lot of ex suburban yuppies have moved into the cities (gentrification) and are pushing anti car legislation. Problem is there’s no hunger in the suburbs for it and we don’t have the mass transit system necessary to accommodate. As someone who works n heavy construction, don’t even get me started on what it would take to reorient suburbs into “walkable” suburbs. To be honest we should focus on the cities, NOT the suburbs.

[@mariusvanc]

One other issue with differential speed limits like this is... what is "night" anyway?

[@ge2623]

I think it requires people to use their brains and good judgement……so, nobody knows.

[@Schlabbeflicker]

When a black thread is indistinguishable from a white thread.

[@davidty2006]

Why is there different limits for night?

[@ge2623]

@@davidty2006 In some places it's because animals are more active at night.

[@PiousMoltar]

When it's dark, duh

[@daveharrison84]

The new talking point I learned from this: 85th percentile and forgiving design are for rural highways. If it's not a rural highway then it should not be designed like this.

[@tristanridley1601]

On rural highways the goal is to safely maximize the speed and throughout of cars. It's safe to assume a lack of pedestrians or bikes or intersections. Current design standards fit that location quite well, eh? "Freeway standard" sounds great until you realize you don't want to live on or near a freeway.

[@roberts1677]

If it's a rural highway it shouldn't have a speed limit at all.

[@annabelholland]

or just build a completely separate bike/footpath to make it safe for pedestrians

[@superspooky4580]

@@roberts1677 agreed (not like I go the speedlimit anyway haha)

[@fearsomefawkes6724]

That's an awful idea. We don't need people ripping around at ridiculous speeds on roads shared with tractors

[@WhiskyCanuck]

I don't think I've ever seen sidewalks in a city that are flush with the road surface & not raised 4-6 inches, therefore forming a little bit of a barrier. That looks nuts.

[@davidroddini1512]

In the U.S. the raised ones are quite rare. I have lived in several different states in the U.S. and can’t remember seeing any that weren’t level with the road surface.

[@superspooky4580]

@@davidroddini1512 Really. Do you live in newyork or LA. Everywhere else I have seen have raised sidewalks.

[@ravenwing199]

​@@superspooky4580 Yeah I don't see that in the old town roads designed for horses and trains.

[@user-ri9tt2ip4m]

Imagine my shock when I got to the US and trying to use a sidewalk that not only flush with 55 mph road, but also suddenly ENDS😅

[@N8cast]

Cop: Why where you going so fast? Me: Well officer, it just kinda felt right. On a serious note, agree with this video on every level.

[@flazryuful]

You joke, but that's actually what's happening. I wish anyone luck trying to convince an officer of that during a traffic stop though.

[@Moses_VII]

Unfortunately, the person described isn't an outlier. That's why speed limit isn't always enforced.

[@agrud]

I wonder if it'd be possible to contest a speeding ticket arguing that you were going the design speed

[@flazryuful]

The counter argument to that is simple; you as a driver are required to pay attention. These things aren't going to get fixed or go away with a single person going to court. They need adjustments to the very way we do the design of our cities. If you want to see more on it there is the book 'Confessions of a Recovering Engineer'. There are several channels that cover it as well. Not Just Bikes has a mini series on the above book, and through the videos mentions several others.

[@N8cast]

@@agrud Will try and report back

[@Khannea]

How cvan you people live like this??? This is hell on earth !!!

[@Tiogar60]

Because most people don't even notice bad urban design, because it is how they always lived. And oh damn, they have sooo many excuses for it, ranging from "muh freedom" to "those damn commies want to take our cars". A lengthy campaign from car companies in the 20'th century caused people to associate driving with success.

[@OBSMProductions]

Status quo bias, generations of propaganda, and people can adapt to their environment. But I grew up in the south and I still hate it.

[@GaigeGrosskreutzGunClub]

We're told what the default is and don't really think about it.

[@CreatorPolar]

Because they usually don’t have much choice. And when they do have choice it’s usually expensive

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

Road rage. Many Americans are not happy being forced to drive, be stuck in traffic, and live fearing accidents either. Many were brainwashed that they think there's no other way, that the car is "freedom", or public transit or government city redesign is "communism" (in a bad way), etc.

[@solentbum]

Many UK roads have Roundabouts, they force traffic to slow down , and together with other traffic islands make the roads safer for Pedestrians. Several Towns I have visited in France have small roundabouts as you enter the town, built with high kerbs and adverse cambers, to force even the fast trucks to slow down or overturn. Many residential roads have been modified in recent years with frequent choke points and changing priorities. Coupled with speed bumps, and a change in the Law, pedestrians are starting to be given back their streets. Commenting on the horse problem:- In several National Parks in the UK, animal deaths have been reduced by better fencing and cattle grids for major roads to keep the animals off, whilst all other roads have a 40 mph limit, which tends to be self enforcing. .

[@tacticallemon7518]

the issue is that the UK’s government isn’t partially run by auto manufacturers

[@hachiroku8677]

In Brazil, city officials usually lower speed limits, so they make more money with traffic tickets. I got at least ten tickets for traveling up to 4 mph above the speed limit.

[@ge2623]

Maybe don't speed?

[@idromano]

@@ge2623 stop trolling

[@idromano]

Pior que eu nem acho que seja de propósito. Acho que seja pelos mesmos motivos apresentados nesse vídeo: vamos desenhar ruas que incentivam altas velocidades e, depois, vamos instalar uma placa e responsabilizar o indivíduo pelas ações que essa rua o induziu a fazer.

[@ge2623]

@@idromano Pointing out the obvious is trolling?

[@hachiroku8677]

@@idromano Seu ponto é válido, mas quando vc entra nos sites de empresas de radar de trânsito o principal argumento de venda é o aumento da arrecadação com multas. Em Brasília, por exemplo, já houve denúncia de que o dinheiro da multa era usado pra pagar salários e bônus dos funcionários do departamento de trânsito, o que é vedado por lei. Aliás, um amigo que mora lá me disse que começaram a lucrar tanto com os radares no Eixo Rodoviário que decidiram instalar um a cada 700 metros. Mas acabou sendo um tiro no pé, pois os motoristas passaram a andar dentro do limite constantemente e o número de multas aplicadas desabou. Brazil não é pra amadores.

[@Awesome_Aasim]

Reminds me of NJB's video of "The Wrong Way To Set Speed Limits" and RGR's video of "Secret to Stop Speeders In Your Neighborhood Forever". This talks all the points looking at a real-life example of how lowering speeds requires corridor redesigns. I think 85th percentile rule just tells us how we designed our street or road, it does not tell us whether that is what our target speed should be.

[@Moses_VII]

Though I don't watch them all, I appreciate how many people are covering the same exact topic in urbanism. It helps reach a wider audience because of the different ways in which the same argument is presented.

[@CruelViper88]

A simple example here in the Netherlands is that every road with a speed limit, also comes with a certain design. For example, the roads in residential zones are often made of bricks, tight corners and speed bumps to keep ppl driving slow (15km/h). Next step are roads withing city boundaries, your only allowed a max of 50km/h there. Only 2 lanes, NOT 4 or 6 lanes wide. And paved. Regional roads outside city limits go up to 80km/h, these roads have different marking on the asphalt. Slightly wider, and appropriate signs, often 2 or 4 lanes wide) Finally the Highways, up to 130km/h depending on the signs. Has hard shoulders, signs are bigger and placed different, barriers, and more lanes.

[@esgee3829]

the history of the 85% percentile rule so explains why most of terrible socal has 45-60 mph 6-10 lane "regular" roads. i was really hoping for b-roll of wild horses.

[@jasonreed7522]

As soon as he read the title of the original source i knew why it was such a dumb rule. "Rural Highway Design" is being applied to "Suburban Stroads", no wonder they have such issues, Rural highways are generally forgiving of higher speeds and speeding because of less traffic and the near complete absence of pedestrians. (Although deer are suicidal, but thats because headlights are so bright it overloads their brains until the last second)

[@mikeschumacher]

That and speed surveys have to be up-to-date for police in California to issue speeding tickets (outside of freeways). So when a city wants to do traffic enforcement they often do a speed survey that raises the speed limit, because of the 85% rule. This is changing in California at least to allow for some discretion, but I don't know what the new standard is.

[@esgee3829]

@@mikeschumacher i've only seen them go up where i have gone in CA. thinking it will be like hell freezing when i see a single speed limit go down. having visited many developing countries, i can firmly say it's safer to be a pedestrian in any one of them vs in southern CA.

[@mikeschumacher]

@@esgee3829 Yep. LA Times ran a story a while ago of the problem. City cops want to do enforcement on a 4/6-lane stroad signed for 40mph, find the speed survey is out of date, get a new speed survey done and have to change the speed limit to 45 or 50. Community is livid.

[@esgee3829]

@@mikeschumacher seems to me that some civic minded attorneys need to get their heads around how to attack current laws and legal precedent to re-write how speed limits are set and enforced. relatedly, if communities are so happy to overpay for police services (if you look at most muni budgets you'll see how bloated police spend is), they should be more than happy to overpay for automated speed cameras and more of them (rather than cower to demands that they 'pay for themselves'). Bottom line is speed cameras work much better than extra police enforcement to reduce speeds and keep peds and cyclists safe (and maybe to keep some incremental numbers of drivers safe too).

[@yellowcrescent]

This is like when they set the speed limit on a 4+ lane (in one direction) freeway to 45 or 55 mph then are surprised when people are doing 70+ like all other freeways, which really just makes things more dangerous. Also that "street" in the video reminds me of a rural highway where I grew up where the speed limit was 65 mph... lol (granted, it didn't have sidewalks or bike lanes). When I was in Portland, OR last year, I noticed that during rush hour they put an "Advisory Speed Limit" on the electronic signs, which honestly makes more sense. Makes you aware if the traffic is slower up ahead without trying to set the speed limit super low when it only makes sense during a couple hours a day.

[@OperatorKregs]

I commute in that area, those electronic signs where cool when they first came out and work well when they say "slow", indicating heavy traffic. When they just post an advisory speed I notice everyone just ignores it mostly.

[@shakenbacon-vm4eu]

I’m in Damonte. I remember the tweet of the city so proud of themselves for lowering the speed limit. God I hate it here, we’re moving back east this fall. Btw, I try to walk and not drive to the park across the street with my tiny kids as much as I can, but sometimes I just want to drive the 200m cuz the walk is TERRIFYING especially with a very fast mobile 4 year old

[@raptor_boquita]

Vehicle: *Looses control* Cyclist: *Gets run over by said car because of the bycicle gutter*

[@bui3415]

Then they say, "The bicyclist should've kept his lane"

[@th5841]

@@bui3415 …or «only losers bicycle. I stopped it when I turned 16».

[@WhiskyCanuck]

@@th5841 Won't somebody think of the children?!

[@davidroddini1512]

Well that’s what cyclists get for wanting us to “share the road”. Cyclists should ride on sidewalks or where those are lacking on the grass. Better yet, get a car like most people! 😜

[@th5841]

@@davidroddini1512 One car lane should be taken and made as a protected bake lane. Two lanes should be taken as bus lanes. Grass is for grass, sidewalks are for pedestrians. Cyclists are those who understand all the benefits of bicycling. Car drivers are the rest. Many European countries have understood this for some time now. When will USA wake up and understand this?😜

[@DutchLabrat]

Make this your mantra: Signs Exist to Absolve Responsibility!!!! Are you a manager of a dangerous plant or a manufacturer of a dangerous tool? Don't redesign, don't address the risks, just slap a few signs on it and walk away. Now if things go wrong just point and the sign and claim it is the victim's fault. Same with roads.

[@robertodell9193]

Very insightful. You're absolutely right yet that never occurred to me.

[@Deleteguest]

This is actually an incredible comment. I never thought it of this way. Amazed by how true this is. I'm using this!

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

The sad truth is they (mostly) exist because law is stupid. If you create a perfectly secured box in America and someone lock picks it and gets hurt on the inside only an electrician should access then it is possible for them to sue the company that produced/owned the box as it lacks a warning. Similar to things like electric rails or the incident where a thief broke into a house, slipped in the dark, and managed to legally win a case for their injuries.

[@WallaWaller]

Your biggest issue getting raised crosswalks accepted in the states is that most people here jump to the worst possible assumptions and pretend that any inconvenience is going to ruin them. From the people I've spoken to about this putting raised crosswalks in is on par with putting random speed bumps on the interstate. Because someone can't go full speed through a crossing when they have the green it means it's bad and therefore should never be considered. Before making the roads safer, you have to convince the American public that doing so won't make their cars explode or add 5 hours onto their daily trips. You also have to convince them to allow their children to exist outside, to not get pissed off at someone trying to use a sidewalk or bike path, and to accept that their need to arrive at the store or work 20 seconds early isn't worth someone else dying via car crash.

[@davidroddini1512]

But America is the land of freedom and liberty! You expect Americans to give up the right to go as fast as the road was originally designed for just because some bureaucrat wants to protect some dumb wild horses! The founding fathers would roll over in their graves! We didn’t fight for our independence from England just to have to slow down our cars for some dumb horses who don’t even use their dedicated crossing areas!

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

Unfortunately it will slow down their commute, the reality of why roads are dangerous is because it is designed to get the through above all else. A lot of drivers in the comments admit to being reckless despite knowing it is wrong or can harm others. If drivers are going to be irresponsible no matter what then things need to be toned down.

[@edwardcollins741]

In the past 30 years cars have also become faster, larger, and more cushy and isolated from the sort of sound and vibration feedback that makes driver's aware of how fast they're going. That is a problem too.

[@OperatorKregs]

If you know how to drive them then they handle at speed worlds better now too. The issue is that causes drivers to be overconfident if they don't have the best driving skill(most people in the US don't). So because the car feels good under higher speed and tends to handle easier, they will just go faster and faster until something happens.

[@rockfire1669]

I’m sorry, if you were using the sounds and vibrations of the car to determine your speed, I don’t think redesigning the road is going to change much.

[@uomouomouomouomo]

Subscribed! Sending this to all of my car brained folks I know! You explained this perfectly.

[@Rahshu]

American traffic engineering, to me, seems a lot like the American economic profession: self-serving, immune to data that contradicts its own presuppositions and favored models, and very quick to use obscure language and specialist jargon against its non-professional critics to avoid accountability or reform. There is a hell of a lot of money backing both professions, so changing things is extremely difficult. It seems that both money and cars bring out the worst in people.

[@amzarnacht6710]

Money far moreso than cars.

[@amzarnacht6710]

@@regurgitatedbucketofslime4518 Huh? How do furries have anything to do with this?

[@seanthe100]

American engineering is about allowing Alot of people to get to their destination much quicker! Time is money in the USA when you look at the 39 countries in the OECD the US has the third shortest commutes out of all countries even shorter then Canada. So it serves it's purpose and helps maintain that $26 trillion economy

[@seanthe100]

American engineering is about allowing Alot of people to get to their destination much quicker! Time is money in the USA when you look at the 39 countries in the OECD the US has the third shortest commutes out of all countries even shorter then Canada. So it serves it's purpose and helps maintain that $26 trillion economy

[@virgilromero3252]

Hold the phone, 15% are now risking the 85 according to their 85th percentile rule

[@LexYeen]

Welcome to America. 🙃

[@annabelholland]

To me, it would be confusing on the definition of night when used for speed limits. Also, since it is not in the usual format or in a red circle, 'night 35' seems like the name of a road or something. but anyway, physical features can be used to reduce speed such including chicanes. only problem is emergency vehicles. Plus, UK roads often follow the usual speed limit rule (mph): 30 in cities (can be 20) 60 on single carriageways or roads without a barrier 70 on motorways which explains the reason why narrow, windy country roads have a default speed limit of 60 so that they do not have to put repeaters. But the condition of the road makes it so that the safe speed varies, often 35 mph. This is one good example of speed control.

[@louiscypher4186]

I don't understand why you wouldn't introduce a solar powered variable speed zone sign. That way there's no confusion the digital sign automatically flicks over to the new speed limit at the correct time.

[@blanco7726]

@@louiscypher4186on highways sure, whats the point on country roads. Variable speed limits only make sense with considerable traffic right?

[@louiscypher4186]

@@blanco7726 That's a common misconception, although most often used for congestion. A variable speed zone is where the speed limit changes according to the current environmental and road conditions. In this case, the variable speed zone applies at "night" which has apparently already lead to confusion over what constitutes "night" as well as visibility of the black sign. Employing 1 sign that is capable of automatically switching between both speed limits removes both the confusion and the visibility issues.

[@reubendensmore4648]

I understand the pain of slapping a crossing sign being not enough. In Springfield Illinois, there is a pedestrian crossing on McArthur boulevard that has a sign, a light, and a zebra crossing, yet drivers blow over it like nothing is there. The only way to slow drivers down would be to redesign the road so it forces drivers to go slower. There are plans to resurface it and add better accommodations to pedestrians and cyclists, but all of the options either involve widening the road or keeping it how it is. If I were to give my ten cents, it would be to replace the outer lanes with protected bike lanes and add bollards at the crossing. Thank you for the video.

[@CanadianSpaceBoy]

The thing about the 85%rule is that if no one was speeding you end up at 0 mph because it would become smaller after each study. To set and accurate 85% you'd need to calculate it on a road which does not have a speed limit

[@johnluiten3686]

Yep, I’ve seen this here in my 30 years in the neighborhood. Main road was 55mph when I arrived. Now 35-45 depending upon stretch.

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

The place looks like everyone drives a tank sized vehicle, and lives behind a wall for some reason.

[@LexYeen]

Have you heard of America before?

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

@@LexYeen Vaguely .

[@tangydiesel1886]

Speeding in Texas is just the norm. A narrow two lane blacktop without lines still has a 65mph Speed limit, which is pretty generous, and the majority of people still go 75-80mph on it.

[@josephj6521]

I’ve been having a battle with my council in Australia to improve our residential roads and make them safer for everyone. They keep responding with garbage. But they go spend millions on bullshyte doggie parks but neglect the very safety of residents and visitors. True. Road design is everything and signs don’t work on residential streets. Police don’t enforce speed limits due to lower traffic volumes.

[@superspooky4580]

police don't do crap for speed limits. Not only do most drivers work together to report cops but alot of people run anti radar and laser hardware to defeat cops.

[@kbar3612]

@@superspooky4580 Back in the early nineties some highway traffic pig in New Mexico tried telling me that radar jammers were illegal and he’d try to confiscate it. The shit people let these pigs get away with is mind blowing.

[@Muhahahahaz]

@@kbar3612 radar jamming is strictly forbidden by the FCC… it’s literally a federal offense, with a fine of up to $10,000

[@SwiftySanders]

I love the line. “You can’t police yourself out of bad engineering design practices.”

[@john-wo4rv]

F O R G I V I N G D E S I G N

[@GaigeGrosskreutzGunClub]

We need less forgiving design and more apologetic design, as in apologizing to pedestrians and cyclists for punishing them

[@sabotooth]

@@GaigeGrosskreutzGunClub skip that, the cyclists and pedestrians are morons. They should be kept away from roads at all times

[@acchaladka]

Zachary Staggs of El Paso TX is a total hero. We need more students working on trying to prove the null hypothesis, like he has. Great video. Thank you.

[@amzarnacht6710]

As an admitted fast driver I've found there is only one method to curtail my natural tendency to move quickly: Speed bumps. Their designs have a **great deal** of affect on how I'll treat them. The most effective ones are modifications of what you called in this video a 'wombat crossing' though not a cross walk. It's a speed hump that has cinder-blocks in its center and is about 4 blocks wide (8-10 ft). If you go over them at the posted speed it's no big deal; no sudden hit to your suspension like parking lot bumps, just a rise and fall. Go over them doing five miles per hour more than the limit, however, and they quite literally throw the ass end of the vehicle up just as the front end of a typical car is going down, hammering the suspension far harder than any parking lot bump. Those are the ONLY things that will keep my foot off the throttle (granted, I'm not doing 70 in a 30. I'll be the one doing 35). As for boulevard or commercial roadway speeds... I'll go the prevalent speed of traffic which is usually far faster than the posted speed.

[@zephyros256]

If the lanes are smaller than highway widths, and the roadway looks smaller due to barriers or vegetation I would be willing to bet it has at least some effect on your speed...

[@perplexedon9834]

I spend most of my time riding these days since moving to the city, but I used to be really hard on myself for constantly finding myself speeding. After learning more about car infrastructure I realised that in the case of someone like me driving at a speed that feels safe for the road, speeding is a failure in infrastructure design, not a personal failing on my part. It really changed the way I thought about dangerous driving. It should be uncomfortable and feel unsafe to speed. That simple.

[@alankingchiu]

Excellent video. Stroads are not good and need to go away.

[@kollibriterresonnenblume2314]

Great summary of some problems and solutions. This is the first time I've seen one of your videos and I have subscribed.

[@TheZombaslaya]

Yeah this is the issue in the US, we design streets for higher speeds and then put an artificially low-speed limit that no one follows. The worst example of this is by far the interstates where you might be able to drive 75+ safely but it'll be 55 or whatever. I like how a lot of European countries design their cities. They're usually very pedestrian friendly, with tiny streets you can't possibly speed down. But then when you get on the highways you can generally drive faster than in the US (80mph is about the average speed limit).

[@badddkattt]

Years ago I talked to a retired civil engineer who had worked for the Connecticut DOT said that Interstate 84 had been designed to be safely driven at 85 miles per hour. I just Googled a 2018 story where a section with a 55 MPH limit was being proposed for a 65 limit. The average measured speed was 68 and the 85th % was 77.

[@VintageToiletsRock]

I would like to add that just adding speed bumps to a road designed like a highway is nearly as lazy as adding a new speed limit sign. The wombat crossings are awesome, but most speed bumps damage cars not going 5mph, which is ridiculously slow. They also encourage quick breaking and acceleration from drivers, which can cause vehicle collisions and are silly if the speed limit is only achieved immediately around the bump... might as well turn the road to dirt since the road will be so bumpy that you'd might as well be driving off road at that point.

[@josephfisher426]

Raised crosswalks work better.

[@superspooky4580]

Agreed and the proof is me. In areas with speed bumps ill slam on the brakes to go from 40 to 3mph and then floor it right afterward.

[@chandy3859]

You can try doing it during rain that cause the dirt to turn into mud. I would assume the bump were only put in place where the accident most likely to happen instead of the entire length of the road. And i wonder which is most likely to cause vehicle collision. Quick breaking and acceleration or just a high speed cars.

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

As a person who lived in a rural area that connects to a relatively high speed area we have speed bumps done to protect pedestrians and none of the issues you describe happen. People otherwise travel the area like a highway. If drivers are going to do what you said, then the punishment for it is losing your license if they refuse to be safe.

[@artirony410]

the street racing thing is so real lol, I live near McCarran and hear them all the time and I know tons of people who live in Damonte who also hear/see people racing all the time

[@th5841]

i live in Oslo, Norway, and I hardly ever hear it. So it isn’t inevitable.

[@artirony410]

@@th5841 yeah we just have a major road that encircles most of the city and there's big stretches with nothing on them where the speed limit is already very high and so people will race on it at like 2am

[@roberts1677]

If they put a drag strip closer than Fallon maybe people would race on that instead.

[@smitajky]

I was thinking that if drivers BELOW the speed limit were blamed for collisions then that 85th percentile rule expects 84% to speed up and only 15% to slow down. Meaning that this rule would have the effect of continually raising the average speed of vehicles on the road. People who BELIEVE that it is safe to speed would be supported. Those who think otherwise are overridden. Unfortunately people are not good judges of what is safe or reasonable. Therefore they always campaign for "freedom". Which in this case is the freedom to risk OTHER people's safety. The theory of better roads was that if there is a substantial margin of safety then even a foolish driver is kept safe. So curves on freeways are designed for 200 km/hr + speeds but the limit is 100 km/hr. Statistics did show a big improvement in safety on such roads, as long as the speed limit remains enforced adequately. Traffic calming is fundamentally making a road LESS safe intrinsically so that people will slow down. It is a nice theory but cannot get past the problem of being intrinsically less safe. There are no simple solutions to people who, en masse, make bad decisions.

[@ChronoTango]

This is the first time someone has explained some of the new road designs I’ve been seeing and I don’t have an urge to scream how dumb that is. It’s incredible that something meant for the design of incredibly long and high traffic interstate roads was shoehorned into suburban communities.

[@williamutz5675]

The way he says El Paso has me dead 😂💀. 10:13

[@MKRN98]

I love what Netherlands did when it comes to roads. They redesigned roads in the way that on certain roads you can't even drive faster than 30 km/h because of fear of crashing on the tree that is planted right next to the road. In America in general roads are way too wide and encourage to drive twice as fast as the speed limit is. Chicago is guilty of that with their roads. How many times I was almost wiped off of the crosswalk by some moron driving 60 mph, 60 MPH in the city. State of disrepair is another thing though... America is far behind Europe nowadays unfortunately

[@weerwolfproductions]

Yes, we regard the canals the same way. Many roads are alongside a canal which tends to make people careful and attentive. We did the same with mopeds (up to 25 km/h), moving them from bicycle lanes to the streets, so sharing space with cars instead of bicycles. This worked out great - there are still accidents between mopeds and cars, but they happen in the same spots they always have: at intersections. But the number of moped vs cyclist accident has dropped a lot. the biggest danger in traffic is speed difference between objects. Whenever i watch those car crash compilations, especially the usa ones, i always go 'why didn't you slow down when approaching an intersection, even if you have a green light'. Or how drivers insist on keeping their gaspedal at the speed limit when they can clearly see a car turning onto the road ahead of them. they drive so fast, that car will never be able to get onto the road unless people allow them, by slowing down themselves. consideration for other road users seems to be absent with many USA drivers. At least, when watching those car crash videos.

[@Burnlit1337]

This might be unrelated, but there's this intersection that I used to drive by daily that didn't have any stop signs. It was inside a residential and speeds set at 25mph. It between two roads that has about equal traffic, with one road leads out towards a commercial area. There is a main road on the other side of the block that handles most of the traffic The town said that received a complaint from a resident that it would lead to a collision; which it did a week later, after 3 over years of no issues. As if that person knew... Anyhow, they placed a stop sign on it but didn't shell out putting the lines on the road. This ended to drivers blowing through the stop signs; the police car parked right on the intersection didn't help and that cop gave out so many tickets that they eventually just settled with warnings or light fines. Then there was the sudden increase of car back ups, trying to get through that intersection, when there was barely any before. A year later I moved out that place. It has the lines and signs now but still getting back up by cars during start and end of the day. Before I left, I happened to strike a conversation with the cop that is usually posted there, and he said that he only gives out warnings and drops cones around the intersection. Sorry for the long story, but I just find this intersection very odd. Not sure if it still suffers with the traffic.

[@deadskimountaineer]

Roads in my town are being redesigned/rebuilt, and almost everyone is complaining about how much harder it is to drive. It is forcing people to slow down, and more people are riding bikes and walking now. It’s great. Also, if the road is wide enough for a fire truck and you freak out in your car saying it’s too narrow, you are the problem.

[@VancouverDave]

Haha. At the 47s mark, I thought you were going to say “One solution is to paint horse lanes on the shoulder”. “Horse, stay in your lane!” :-)

[@linuxman7777]

What we have here is a Stroad Situation. The stroad is a place for nobody, bad for cars, bad for pedestrians. A Pedestrian's place is on a proper street, path, or sidewalk, while roads are meant for the vehicle they are designed for, either the Train, Bus, Truck or Car. There is a horrible stroad near me where the speed limits are set too high, when it is incredibly dangerous and uncomfortable to drive, I think though instead of lowering the speed limits, they should just take the signs away and people will drive what feels right, which is much slower.

[@roberts1677]

Where is this? I've never seen a speed limit that was too high. I want to check it out. I'm also enthusiastically in favor of eliminating speed limits and "take the signs away" as you say.

[@linuxman7777]

@@roberts1677 Pennsylvania Route 65, for most of the stroad sections. It is undivided, has sidewalks, and the road itself is in poor condition. There are no clear zones, no shoulder in most sections. The speed limit is set to 45 for the worst stroad sections and that is too fast for the feeling of the road.

[@FastCarsNoRules220]

Same problem here in Canada, there are some wide roads with low speed limits and even the police don't follow the speed limit. I remember seeing a cop car drive past me at like 20 km/h over the limit without lights and sirens just because the road is wide.

[@bryce7344]

The way you talked about horse-vehicle collisions tells me everything I need to know about you, thanks!

[@Nuclear_Gandhi]

Cities should also try installing some street lights that actually illuminate their surroundings

[@avacadomangobanana2588]

Y es because light pollution across all of America isn’t bad enough please more light

[@catherineconspiracy]

lanes need to be narrowed! thats what is proven to slow down motorists.

[@thatoneotherotherguy]

Civil engineer here. I'm in favor of multi-use designs, not car-centric designs. I absolutely despise slip-lanes, and will always argue against them. So far I have successfully stopped 1 from happening.

[@shaunhall960]

I street sweep and most drivers here in Colorado don't follow the speed limit. We put in speed bumps in a back access road and that had the desired effect. Designing roads to reduce speed defiantly works.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

How about a combination of wombat crossings AND flashing yellow pedestrian beacons?

[@WhittyPics]

Sounds like the same problem we have on the east coast with Deer

[@robertodell9193]

Or the Midwest. Often came within a few feet of hitting a deer while inside the city limits of Sioux Falls.

[@larryjanson4011]

easy to solve. first: just drop the speed limit 24 hrs a day. to 30 mph in residential areas. 15 mph close to schools. 45 in commercial areas. second: put of signs warning about speed "humps" and install them. speed hump's is like a speed bump, but are two small rises. they are really nothing unless you are going over the speed limit, and then they far worse than a speed bump. but you must allow a spot for motorcycles. and make such visible to them. third: as to horses. just build a ten foot wall around the city. but place watering spots at least 1/2 mile away from said wall. forth: at school, major crosswalks install traffic lights. with walker controls.

[@pepsilove6306]

The city I live in, when they lowered the speed limit in a residential area that had alot of pedestrian strikes. They just put up speed cameras and mailed out tickets like wild fire. people slowed down real quick.

[@BoBandits]

I can’t believe that traffic engineer! Did he even go to college and learn any engineering?

[@highway2heaven91]

He did, he just learned how to engineer for cars.

[@crazy808ish]

Wow. An urbanist with actual realistic suggestions and expectations. That's pretty rare here.

[@louiscypher4186]

I was pleasantly surprised the suggested solutions didn't include banning cars, building subways forcing everyone to relocate into shoebox apartments in a mega city.

[@jakezepeda1267]

Ah yes, nobody would ever disobey a speed limit sign. Great work.

[@andos2923]

I used to live in upstate new york and lowering the speed limit is their answer to everything whenever there is something wrong with the road design. Some of their roads have overtly dangerous designs.

[@peterhallman9614]

If you need signs to indicate the speed you should be going, the road design has failed.

[@p11111]

If it's dark outside, isn't a black background sign even harder to see?

[@th5841]

With reflective surface?

[@p11111]

@@th5841 even so, the area of the lettering is much smaller than the area of the whole box. More likely that nighttime drivers only notice the day speed limit sign.

[@dnsbrules_01]

One thing they did in my area to help prevent speeding in school zones is install cameras. It has helped a little bit, however it took a few months due to the city not mailing people their fines until 2 months later. I had a friend who habitually did the regular speedlimits and was hit 5 times over a month and a half before they were told hey slow down by the city.

[@MM-fe9mz]

Definitely understand the speed feeling right thing, have a few roads here where the speed limit is 45, but with the level of traffic and turning vehicles, uncontrolled cross streets 40 feels more appropriate than 45 always find myself unintentionally driving under the limit.

[@ryanshea5221]

That transit manager... I have many words for them 🤡

[@nickberry5520]

I have long held the opinion that most American speed limits are wrong. 25 mph is to fast in the city; 55 is too slow on the expressway. Besides that, stop signs are NOT traffic calming devices, and all way stops shouldn't exist.

[@CMDRSweeper]

The more I look at things related to this, the more I think OpenTTD is correct in the way it handles traffic. One of the things you will learn fairly early on is that high speed trains do not mix well with low speed, which is what Germany and Japan have done with their high speed trains and commuter / freight trains. They get their own separate line, just for the high speed and you do not let any low speed trains get on that line. So in terms of the US, it would mean you put the cars on their own "high speed" area where they traverse from X to Y, but you never ever ever mix in the slow speed pedestrians on that line.

[@weerwolfproductions]

they also removed level crossings with roads for high speed train tracks. Road either goes over, or under the train tracks. It's one reason why The Netherlands doesn't have a high speed train, our space is so crowded that it's difficult to engineer tunnels and overpasses around a high speed train track, either an existing one or a new to build one.

[@EvolutionDataOptimized]

The speed limit laws have gotten so bad that the interstate that I live near is constantly jammed and full of cars. Some of them even go 45 in the right lane when the speed limit is literally 55. The worst part about this all, is that car crashes occur frequently and constantly in the U.S. (with EVs catching on fire and worse, gas car crashes) which makes the car dealers look bad. Nobody seems to care about any of these stupid laws and social media posts, but thankfully many people are realizing what’s happening with the government. I hope people like you can help convince others that these cheap childish laws are ruining it for the rest of us.

[@TommyJonesProductions]

Lowering the speed limit is a revenue collection move. It's done to encourage drivers to speed when they see how ridiculously low the limit is. The solution is to stop letting just anyone drive. Most people are simply too stupid to be allowed to drive. Make the test harder and provide real training. Also: do something about the horse pests. Put up bigger fences or move them to a different location.

[@superspooky4580]

AGREED. way to many idiot drivers. I swear anyone with 1 braincell can passes the test to drive a multi ton machine at high speeds. Also agreed with the horses. Its not hard to keep them out. people with horses do a great job at keeping them in so :P

[@UndercoverDog]

For example, the Autobahn is also more secure than the highway, so yeah, very good point!

[@patglenn7762]

I would argue that reducing the speed limit DOES help in safety. As you've noted people will not change their speed unless they are directly confronted with the actual danger. I live in an area where we have lots of deer. Your horses are similar in this respect. I work a job where I drive extensively at night. I realized early on that reducing my speed would give both me AND the animal an opportunity to avoid a collision. As you correctly mention it gives the driver time to react, and additionally gives the animal extra time to escape. However: In the past 2 years, despite my best efforts, I have still had 4 collisions with deer. In only one of these instances did the animal die. In 3 out of the 4 instances, the animal has walked away. In 2 of the collisions there was only minor damage to the vehicle. And in one instance there was no damage at all. Our road engineers in Canada are have the same kind of philosophy. Most of our roads are built to the same standards as the rest of North America. Regardless, I have made it a conscious choice to SLOW DOWN at night to give the wildlife a chance. It would seem to me that the problem is not road engineering, but rather driver education. BTW, up here in Canada we have an even greater danger than hitting a horse.... We have moose. Trust me: You don't want to hit one of those.

[@Jetstream015]

I do live in Reno part-time. Know this road and area very well. So there's two additions to make: Veterans parkway was very recently constructed as an alternative and to relieve the Interstate (I-540). It's not just an average road. So yes people expect a decent driving speed. It's a main artery. Then it's about 10 miles long. Do you see pedestrians here? Almost never and very rarely. There's hardly anything on the East Side of it apart from a few brand new suburban neighborhoods. The only thing that surprised me is that they decided to put this one/last section right through these suburbs....

[@PokeMultiverse]

at 10:44, the study makes sense because an unspoken rule in america is that you wont often get pulled over for going under 10 over. so for 35mph limit, most feel safe going up to 44mph. Thats why you see the majority in that range and a sharp drop off at 45.

[@colescory2259]

in my town they reduced the speed limits from 60km/hr to 50 on big double lane roads literally because of old people. the old people cant even handle 50 and go 35 on those roads anyway. they changed all the school zones to playground zones because nobody could figure out the active times of the school zone.

[@chrislewis615]

Compared to Canada, American road designs really cheap out on street lights. How many people and animals die due to the ridiculous lack of road illumination? This is not to say that in Canada we don't have stupid urban planning, but at least if we do it we know that lighting it up will make it a bit less unnecessarily lethal.

[@siberx4]

The 85th percentile rule (and other similar approaches) are _supposed_ to inform designers that they are not free to pick any arbitrary speed limit, and that the speed of a road is a direct consequence of its design. If you want the road under test to operate as safely as possible *for its current design*, set the limit to the 85th percentile. If that's too fast and you want a road to operate _safer_ than that, you need to redesign the road to encourage drivers to naturally go slower, which will by extension result in a lower 85th percentile speed that you can then apply to the speed limits for that road. But road redesigns are expensive and signs are cheap, so they use the rule completely backwards to try and justify bad ideas.

[@bishopcorva]

Restructuring the road itself to have curves can have a effect on speeds. Utilizing raised bump outs, impact bollards and brighter lane markings to reduce the risk for pedestrian and bike riders along the side of the travel way. While the curves of the road itself will help reduce speeds overall, not sweeping curves, but the kind of curve that is "you better slow down or you're going to lose a wheel on that curb" kind of curve. Increased directional and color of the light will also have some positive effect.

[@brianbuddy2ACP]

Research shows that the best way to get drivers to slow down, isn't to lower speed limits, increase speed enforcement, or add bumps or dips. Instead, it's to make it feel uncomfortable and nerve wracking to drive too fast. One way to achieve this is to make the lanes narrower. This is good, because it can be done either temporarily for work zones, or permanently. Other ways this can be achieved is, adding center parking, edge parking, and adding a lot of driveways.

[@eaglescout205]

I think the biggest problem with Veterans highway is after the extension was built to Sparks, it became a cutoff for the Spaghetti Bowl. Re-engineering the cutoff for slower sections could be detriment to commuters using it causing more heavy traffic on 580 and 80 during the current construction at the interchange. Once the construction is complete, it would be a good idea to review Veterans.

[@moonman239]

One way to help this would be to pass a state law that: 1) Requires the state Department of Transportation to formulate and publish a set of standards for determining the safest speed for any given road under ideal road conditions. 2) Stipulates that if the aforementioned standards dictate a given speed limit, that speed limit prevails over any posted speed limit unless and until the government that posted that speed limit can prove that the posted speed is (in the case of a lower speed limit) is safer than the speed limit dictated by the standards, or (in the case of a higher speed limit) at least as safe as the speed limit dictated by the standards. So if you did 40 MPH on a city street but the speed limit sign says 25, but the standards say 45 MPH and the city didn't do it's homework, you win in court.

[@pharohphox7829]

It seems like one point that was touched on but not really expanded is growth. Many of these types of roads are designed based on traffic studies that occur during a snapshot of time. Then the road is designed and built according to the traffic needs and constraints (land available, weather patterns, drainage, protected land). Projected growth may or may not be factored enough or too much during the design phase. Where I live there is an interstate beltway that was built 30-40 years ago. It served the area very well for commuter and commercial (trucking) traffic. Then in the early 2000's several industries saw this area as a prime location to invest for manufacturing. Since that time, the population has more than tripled and the existing highway system is no longer adequate. The costs to expand or improve the current system are astronomical and any extended road work would cause the even more strain. The original highway planners could not have projected this. The other side of the coin is designing and building for rapid expansion that never occurs. This leaves roadways and infrastructure that lightly or not used but still needs to be maintained by the local and state governments at higher costs to the existing taxpayer.

[@begleycommonwealth]

Roundabouts in Reno, that has been incorporated here in Hamilton and it has made a huge difference forcing people to slow and maintain a safe speed.

[@weerwolfproductions]

The biggest advantage of roundabouts is that they hugely increase the number of cars being able to pass an intersection, despite the sense of having to slow down.

[@Kinsanth_]

If you want to reduce speeding, you have to enforce a section control in affected areas. Works like a charm here in europe. You have a section of the road, which has a preinstalled time for the section of the controlled street and if you exceed the speed or need less time to get through there, you are fined. When a sectioncontrol is installed, people DO go the maximum allowed speedlimit, but not faster to not receive a ticket. In the end it doesnt solve the speedingproblem, speeding is a mental issue, which doesnt get adressed

[@Slammaa]

wow i was JUST thinking about your channel / rewatching some videos then you posted an hour later