Speeding in America Essay Example

The Role of Speed Limits in Ensuring Safety on American Roads

It is imperative to understand how speed limits are impacting the safety of drivers and other pedestrians in the streets of America. Setting speed limits has always been the responsibility of the state government since they are most aware o activities in their states. This means that every country has its regulations regarding speeding and they expect the drivers to abide by it. Many drivers do not obey the speed limit as every drivers' speeds and anybody driving below the threshold or going at the boundary is considered to as an obstruction and every driver ends up overtaking from both sides of the highway this makes the drivers find themselves driving at high speeds to march the rate of the other drivers.

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Impact of Modern Cars on Speed Limits and Road Safety

As modern cars have become more aster, the speed limits have to be naturally kept up. The current speed limit signs must be reflective enough as compared to the earlier speed limit where they were not even visible from a distance. The street signs are illuminated making it easy to see. As cars have evolved to high speeds and be even safer when driving at high speed, the drivers have also increased their driving speed on open roads and areas where there are no congestion and the need to make at the low rate. The speed limits have not been designed to dictate the driving speed, but it is supposed to reflect the behavior of the rivers in the roads. The need to slow down the drivers in some environment like a hospital, schools, have motivated the installation of speed bumps or narrowing down the road making the driver very uncomfortable when driving at high speed. The need for high-speed limits comes during certain times of the day for example near school zones the rate should not be more than twenty kilometers per hour, some vehicles have an activation software whereby it will only be activated when the driver is near the school, and it will automatically slow down. Such technology has helped remove requirements for slow down speed limit signs (Lisa Cohen 2013). Near the school, a zone is marked, and the driver has to start slowing down and then drive at a constant speed of around ten kilometers per hour until the point where it is labeled the end of school zone speed limit.

Technological Solutions for Speed Regulation and Safety

The new cars have complex safety features that it will take time for one to effectively understand how they are operational and to what points they should be used. For the case of self-driving cars speed must be regulated through the installation of bumps after a short distance and the formulation of strict regulations for those who over speed or overlap lanes at supernormal speeds. (levik R) Such regulations will keep the driver of the car concentrate in controlling the car so as to ensure that it does not exceed the required speed. The vehicles have codes which are very complex but very effective when correctly applied, the regulations are set to be understood and implemented by human drivers since they can never be trusted on their own. The automatic driving vehicles have to be driving in their own lane as they can the codes can fail and before a human driver takes over damages may have occurred already. The American state regulations have provided tickets for such vehicles whereby when they exceed the speed as per the ticket the traffic police will have a notification and they will track down the vehicle and the driver or the owner of the car. (D hummels,2015)

Higher speeds require greater energy to maintain, and the strength source in most cars is gas or a petrol product, inclusive of diesel. A basic rule of thumb is that, as soon as at a car speeds, the energy required to fight aerodynamic drag will increase exponentially. Positioned clearly, if speed doubles, the energy required to achieve this quadruples. For a vehicle speeding at fifty miles per hour mph in one run and a hundred miles per hour in another is going to have burned two times the gasoline within the half an hour. According to a consumer report on the Toyota stocks, the vehicles consume high amount of energies once they accelerate beyond sixty-five miles per hour. The amount of energy as a result of over speeding is too high that the state must regulate in order to preserve for other sectors of the economy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the American state must formulate their speed limit regulations as the resources and infrastructure are far different from those of the other countries. The enforcement of the high-speed limits will help improve the safety of the public and even reduce pollution as a result of higher energy burning.

References

D, Hummel. 2018, traffic tickets Public safety concerns or budget building tools. Administration and Society http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=4952D87ACE14400A9B8625A3DFE7B435&CID=01E00F8E16E660072E2A0473173861C5&rd=1&h=EDlMRpbvlBZiCIbe2fhngHbmlgZiax28_nIDl9cWvhc&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fjournals.sagepub.com%2fdoi%2fabs%2f10.1177%2f0095399714528178&p=DevEx.LB.1,5165.1. Accessed 28 May 2018.

J. Markoff. 2018, Google's next phase in driverless cars: No steering wheel or brake pedals.http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=EE35D772C9B142DEA569252A18E41AB0&CID=17E5D67660C56C580FBEDD8B61386DF3&rd=1&h=OJ95CKoTgaeqavAKiDzcb2V1kT3dWmqDqspnLssueXI&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fjournals.sagepub.com%2fdoi%2ffull%2f10.1177%2f0734016815614057&p=DevEx.LB.1,5169.1. Accessed 28 May 2018.

Lisa Cohen, CNN. "Traffic Lights On Windshields Could Speed Up Commutes - CNN". CNN, 2018http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/14/tech/virtual-traffic-lights-windshield/index.html. Accessed 28 May 2018

R, Elvik. "Speed Limits, Enforcement, And Health Consequences | Annual Review Of Public Health". Annualreviews.Org, 2018, https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031811-124634. Accessed 28 May 2018.