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Comment by aziaziazi | Hacker News Reader

If you drive slower you’ll break smoother.

I hate insurances and their hidden shenanigany-like algorithms but at the end it is a fair game I when you look at the big picture.

I never owned a car but I feel deeply concerned as I use the road by foot, bike and rentals and am often scared by the drivers usage of the road. You know : texting, updating gps, driving full speed in turns without visibility, taking over as Schumacher in the last lap… I’m mean yes it’s safe for the other ones in bigger cars and themselves until no deer encounter.

The speed limit is a LIMIT not a requirement. And don’t start me with "you’re dangerous driving so slow" lol.

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> The speed limit is a LIMIT not a requirement.

But after traffic analysis by engineers, the final number is set by politicians.

>> The speed limit is a LIMIT not a requirement. And don’t start me with "you’re dangerous driving so slow" lol.

It certainly is. Speed differential is a huge cause of serious accidents. That can be driving too fast or too slow. Many roads have minimum speeds, and as a commuting cyclist I can tell you the biggest threat is not being able to move with the general flow of traffic.

I'm also not sure how you came up with driving slower and smooth breaking being correlated, especially if you do limited driving.

I don’t known roads with minimum speed limit here in France but the highway (80km.h). I agree it’s a good idea to respect the min and max limit when they exist. I also 100% agree that its way safer to move at the speed of the flow. I’m also a commuter and don’t engage in flows I can’t follow. However I see too much people on low traffic condition driving at full speed where they couldn’t stop in case of… a deer/cyclist/dizzy child. Things happen and blaming random hazards won’t make the road safer. Slowing down, will.

> slower and smooth breaking being correlated

The energy of a moving object is proportional to the square of the speed, but your braving force is constant. If you want to decelerate from Xkm.h to 0km.h before the deer at 100m ahead, you’ll have a smoother stop if you drive slower. And that don’t even take reaction time into account.

> especially if you do limited driving.

Limited on a daily basis but it’s been 20 years I learned to drive and do it regularly for occasions like week ends, road trips, helping parents, going to buy heavy appliances etc… also riding a bicycle share many thinks with driving a car, a truc or a motorcycle.

> The speed limit is a LIMIT not a requirement. And don’t start me with "you’re dangerous driving so slow" lol.

There are many places that have minimum speed limits as well.

There's no jurisdictions where the minimum is higher than the speed limit though.

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