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Comment by hrnnnnnn | Hacker News Reader

I've run into these things twice, one of those times someone behind me tried to overtake nearly causing a head-on collision with oncoming traffic.

It is absolutely baffling to me that these things are allowed on roads where they can only manage less than half the speed limit.

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I wonder where people get the illusion that "roads" are reserved for cars which can go at arbitrary high speeds. Roads are for any kind of vehicles, many of those cannot go very fast. Start with real tractors, which used to go no faster than 25 kph, some of them now go 40 or 50, but that's it. A driver of a car has to be able to safely cope with slow traffic. Of course there are plenty more, like bicyclists, horse carriots and on the country side often even pedestrians.

I can understand that slow traffic can be quite annoying, but calling it a safety hazard puts the blame on the wrong party.

It's similar to how "Jaywalking" became a thing in the U.S.

Shift blame to the pedestrians instead of the cars.

There are rules for all road users in most countries. Rules for pedestrians govern where and when they may cross roads, and usually prohibit walking in lanes designated for faster moving vehicles. Busier or faster streets tend to have rules that impose more separation between pedestrians, cyclists, and cars, and blame for a collision usually falls on whoever violates them.

This is partly for safety of course, but it is also intended to support throughput. People and goods do not flow easily in cities where trucks move at walking speeds.

I can talk only about Germany. If there are sidewalks, pedestrians have to use them, also if there are special assigned bike paths, they have to be used too. But where those features are missing, both pedestrians and bicyclists have to use the road - unless it is marked as a motor way. And of course a road can only be marked as a motor way, if there are alternative ways to reach the same destination for the prohibited vehicles.

Slow traffic is absolutely fine, if you can actually identify it as slow traffic.

Just by looking at tractors, cyclists and pedestrians you know they are not going very fast, but a car going 20mph where the limit is 50mph is insanely dangerous because your brain instinctually thinks the car is going about as fast as you are and you have to get quite close to pickup the speed difference.

Here in Denmark you can get a fine for going too slow, it's called being an unnecessary nuisance.

Sorry, a car can go slow for many good reasons not visible to the following traffic (and be it only, that something in front of that car is slow, but you cannot see it). You have to be prepared to that. A car can even be entirely stopped and you should be able to stop without hitting it. Failing to do so is entirely the fault of the following traffic.

It is an entirely different matter, that one isn't allowed to drive unnecessarily slow to not block the following traffic. This is about the traffic flow, not of safety.

In the UK, slow moving vehicles, including tractors, are prohibited on motorways (as are cyclists and pedestrians). They are allowed on other high-speed roads though.

Yes, but those "tractors" would be prohibited as well. The motor ways in Germany are only for vehicles which can drive 60kph or more. I guess the law is similar in Sweden.

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