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The limits of law : Comments
By Katy Barnett, published 22/1/2010A good law has to set up a system of incentives to make people keep it along with disincentives to stop them breaking it.
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<< …whenever they draw a firm line in the sand, there will always be those that go right up to it… >>
Yes. But wouldn’t it be better to have one firm line that the vast majority of drivers observe, rather than effectively having two lines or a range of speeds that drivers observe?
On our highways, there is a 10kmh leeway. It is patently obvious (in my part of the world at least) that all vehicles including big trucks are allowed by the highway patrolling speed-camera-wielding police to do 110 in a 100 kmh zone.
So you’ve got the type of driver that can’t help himself but to push it to the limit of what he can get away with and you’ve got the driver that observes the law and drives 10kmh slower. You’ve effectively got two speed limits for the same road!!
That creates conflict which translates into tailgating, dangerous overtaking, intolerance, road rage and just generally more chances of mishap than there needs to be.
It would surely be MUCH better if the police just declared what the actual policeable speed is, preferably being the same as what the signs say.
We’d then have much less discrepancy in speed between drivers, and law-abiding drivers wouldn’t feel as pressured to speed up or drive faster than they want to in order to roll with the flow and reduce the chances of having tailgating and other risky behaviour and unpleasantness imposed upon them.
Vagueness with something like speed-limit policing is grossly sloppy and irresponsible, IMO. Especially when it would be so simple to eliminate it.