Should we have higher speed limits

Ancalagon said:
Car weight has been reduced dramatically since the 60's - think of all the new modern materials being used, as well as computer aided design. Everything used to be made with steel - these days, they use aluminium as much as possible, as well as plastic and high strength steel.

A car in an equivalent class will likely be lighter and safer than they were 50 years ago.
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I feel much safer in my 20 year old hilux with all its steel and rigid chassis and axles than in any modern vehicle. Any clown driving into me in his ultra modern, high-spec vehicle is going to come second.

As has been mentioned, most SA drivers have absolutely no concept of stopping distances - and that is not of their own vehicle, but the eighteen-wheeler they cut in front of 15m from a traffic light.

Driver arrogance has to be addressed before one can think of increasing speed limits.
 
BigAl-sa said:
I feel much safer in my 20 year old hilux with all its steel and rigid chassis and axles than in any modern vehicle. Any clown driving into me in his ultra modern, high-spec vehicle is going to come second.

As has been mentioned, most SA drivers have absolutely no concept of stopping distances - and that is not of their own vehicle, but the eighteen-wheeler they cut in front of 15m from a traffic light.

Driver arrogance has to be addressed before one can think of increasing speed limits.
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There was a top-gear episode that showed how flawed this false sense of security is in older cars. You are not safer in your 20 year old hilux - almost any modern car will protect it's occupants better.
 
My grandma had a Cortina and she and another lady managed to reverse into each other (I know right how does that happen). Other car was a Daewoo hatchback, it looked far worse than my grannies car, rear tail light were broken and the bumper was bent and there was a dent. My granny just had a scratch that became rust and the metal lining was bent of the boot.


Then again I'm not sure the Daewoo was a modern car and this is anecdotal evidence.
And a low speed crash.


But this does prove how ****ing sore a Cortina will make you if it hits you as a pedestrian even at a low speed.
 
Brenden_E said:
There was a top-gear episode that showed how flawed this false sense of security is in older cars. You are not safer in your 20 year old hilux - almost any modern car will protect it's occupants better.
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This. Real crash test data does not support this hypothesis. The only case where it will be true is if you crash into a Tata Indica in your Hilux. Purely because of the mass difference, you will be safer.

But for cars in the same class, ie Hilux vs Hilux, a new vehicle will be dramatically safer.
 
I would certainly like some higher speed limits... I don't know about in and around town, I don't really think it's warranted there, or it wouldn't make much difference to average traveling times anyway. But on the open road there's plenty of long, flat, boring stretches where it's easily safe to go significantly over 120 (well safe if your vehicle is designed for that).

UsernameLadiesMan217 said:
My grandma had a Cortina and she and another lady managed to reverse into each other (I know right how does that happen). Other car was a Daewoo hatchback, it looked far worse than my grannies car, rear tail light were broken and the bumper was bent and there was a dent. My granny just had a scratch that became rust and the metal lining was bent of the boot.
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Many old cars certainly have a much more "solid" construction, which has it's usefulness when you're involved in a minor bump in the parking lot and it hardly takes a scratch, it's not as nice though at a higher speed when the rigid body absorbs as little of the collusion as possible and you get turned into a pancake inside.. :p
What I'm saying is, you don't judge a vehicle's safety by how well it survives an accident but by how well it's occupants do.
 
Brenden_E said:
There was a top-gear episode that showed how flawed this false sense of security is in older cars. You are not safer in your 20 year old hilux - almost any modern car will protect it's occupants better.
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I rest my case. You actually believe the rubbish on top gear?
 
supersunbird said:
Top Gear is more believable than someone saying a 1994 Hilux would be being safer in a crash than 2014 Hilux.
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Ja boet... Like trying to fly a homemade dirigible to a campsite in the boonies.

I never said anything about it being safer, I said I'd rather be in it if one of you drove into me.
 
Weight has nothing to do with braking distance in an ideal world; it's all speed. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/crstp.html

If you are driving a Ferarri your friction coefficient is likely higher as is your road-holding. Otherwise it's indistinguishable from a five ton truck.

In addition every doubling of speed requires four times as much braking distance.
 
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Shaun108 said:
A helluva lot of more time. At 60km/h you will need approximately 25 meters to come to a dead stop. At 120km/h the distance is around 61 meters. This is for a car with ABS so an older car will need a bit more length of open road to stop.
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Everyone needs to do a emergency stop (on a open road with no traffic) to see how long it actually takes to stop your car dead. Quite a sobering experience.
Also remember that the guy with the 2.5T vehicle you just cut in front of, cannot stop on a dime. That amount of weight needs space to stop. That or, it'll use your car as a crumple zone to help it stop.

I've got no problem with higher speed limits. If you are driving slow, keep left (all the way left!!), make sure your car is roadworthy and know what it is capable of.
 
spiderz said:
Everyone needs to do a emergency stop (on a open road with no traffic) to see how long it actually takes to stop your car dead. Quite a sobering experience.
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Happens every few months on the N1. Actual emergency stops.
 
UsernameLadiesMan217 said:
My grandma had a Cortina and she and another lady managed to reverse into each other (I know right how does that happen). Other car was a Daewoo hatchback, it looked far worse than my grannies car, rear tail light were broken and the bumper was bent and there was a dent. My granny just had a scratch that became rust and the metal lining was bent of the boot.


Then again I'm not sure the Daewoo was a modern car and this is anecdotal evidence.
And a low speed crash.


But this does prove how ****ing sore a Cortina will make you if it hits you as a pedestrian even at a low speed.
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That's the mistake you are making, taking the "good looks" of the car after the crash as a good thing.

In fact the car that looks worse means it did a better job of absorbing the crash energy and therefore protecting its occupants.
 
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