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Comment by bryanlarsen | Hacker News Reader

> Speed is not the issue.

Speed substantially increases the severity of collisions when they do happen. A non-fatal collision at 70mph might be a fatal one at 80mph.

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A truism, which is not very useful. The strategy of reducing speed to reduce collisions/severity compared to reducing dangerous behavior that leads to collisions is like the failed war on drugs.

I’ve been hit a few times in US and always it’s a distracted driver going fast and not following any rules. Speed limit didn’t slow them one bit. Not even in a school zone. Training, enforcement and more training is in my view a better answer. Not perfect, but better.

You can't train people to not get distracted, you can only train people to try to avoid distractions like phones or arguments in the car. But regardless how much you try there will always be distracted drivers on the roads.

Being distracted behind the wheel has a lot of cultural aspects - in US driving is viewed as almost a right, else where it is a hard earned and expensive privilege. People tend to value what they had to work hard for. Of course there will be those who don’t, but increasing the barrier to entry to operating dangerous machinery might be a good thing. Look at licensing approaches around the world and you will see places with higher barriers having a bit more order on the streets.

Slowing traffic is a component in Sweden's very successful "Vision Zero" to eliminate pedestrian fatalities. Not the most important component, but an important component.

I was commenting on freeway style roads. Pedestrians shouldn’t be on an „autobahn”. City streets are a different matter all together.

It’s not the fact that people pretend they don’t know that speed kills, the problem in America is that people don’t care unless an immediate family member is killed by someone else.

The problem here is the problem of casinos, people here buy into the illusion of control.

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