First Amendment Is flashing your car’s headlights protected by the First Amendment?

Gee, Dave. What are you doing Dave?....

 

See what i mean?

 

I would say we were both less than precise, and complete. You are wanting to argue the why, and I am discussing the how. These are related, but not really interconnected.
We start with this.:
kellory said:

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"No reason besides what a sign designates as a 'legal" speed limit. " this is true in only one case.( where speeds were lowered for fuel consumption. IE: 65 or 70 dropped to 55.
All other speed limits are determined by two things. Physics ( traction/ pitch/ grade/ speed/ typical weather ( snowbelt/ dry) and then down graded based upon access of foot traffic (likely hood of hitting a pedestrian.)
Highways have the highest speeds due to very low foot traffic.. parking lots are restricted to speeds less than most people can run (15mph)
The less access to foot traffic, the higher the allowed speed.
ONLY AFTER these conditions are met, do regulations about speed such as fuel consumption/emissions play any role.
It is the pedestrian who has priority at every corner, and car drivers who must make sure of their safety. That IS the way it is. Deal with it.​

Even the the brickhouse (Indianapolis motor speedway ) was originally banked for (if I remember correctly) 45mph, as it was a test track and they never thought cars would go any faster. It is I think 9 degrees,12 minutes, and a car running 45mph will neither drift high or low if not steered. The faster you go, the more force sliding you up the wall and into the next neighborhood.​

Now roads are crowned, for drainage, banked for every turn, and every grade change, is calculated. And since tires are not standardized for their ability to hold the road, nor are all tires new, they have to downgrade to the least variable, not the average or top performance, because what ever is posted needs to be "safe" for all legal vehicles. ​

Drivers come in all types as well. and again, to be "safe" for all, means you are dragged down in speed by the worst drivers among you. They are not designed for the best drivers, but for the least qualified. (I am sure I have seen most of them). Reaction times vary from OMG!!! to none at all. again, designed for the least of us, not the best.​

So, after physics, you get regulation. to dumb it down for the least qualified drivers and vehicles. Then you get a safety factor. You will note on your next speeding ticket, a posted speed, and a safety speed.limit (in most parts this is 20mph over the posted speed. This means that the posted speed is less than what older cars, and poor drivers should be able to handle. Above the safety speed, is where the curve starts showing increasing problems.with control.​

Why is simple, we as a nation are sue happy. Everytime we can find a flaw with anything to do with safety, we Litigate. I'm sure that most drivers could quite safely handle higher speeds, but some can not, And the closer you get to your maximum personal ability, the higher chance of failure, and with failure, Litigation. (The driver was moving X, the posted speed was X, and they lost control, so the fault must lie with the signage , not the driver/ theory) ​

The tiered penalty is because the closer you get to your maximum personal best, and the limitation of the roadway, the higher chance you will either have a problem yourself, or cause a distraction/ problem for a less able driver. (and they are clearly out there) (I drive 2-5 hours per day for my job, and I see things that are truly wacko) Rubber-necking at an accident, is a prime example. A less able driver, runs up the rear of a stopped car, because he is distracted by an unrelated accident along the roadway. Same for the driver snaking through traffic at high speed, but within his abilities., but his actions either distract or force other drivers to alter their own driving. Again , this increases accidents. And the more you cheat, the higher the risk, and the higher the penalty.​

As for the raised mandated speeds? All they are really doing, is adjusting the safety margin, it is still well within what any average driver could do easily, and still within the reach of what poor drivers can do, and they are buying good-will. (no one really wants to be held back to the least of us)​

Now, I learned about this stuff more than 30 years ago, while working for a general contractor/Engineer., and we dealt with shopping malls, and traffic flow changes because of new construction. How much as changed in that time, I haven't a clue,( I had two different career paths since then,) but the upshot was that posted traffic speeds are the result of physics, then the least capable drivers. And only after that, do politicians get to play silly games. ​

 

Well now that's a pretty darn detailed post right there. That definitely does clear up a bit of what I was poking at. Thanks!

It's a great start to a treatise on a theory about the nature of speed limits as regards safety, however, it's not nearly the whole picture.

Byte

 

I never claimed it was. But the comment "No reason besides what a sign designates as a 'legal" speed limit." is completely wrong. There are many reasons, long before the sign is ever posted.
While it can be altered some, it is not arbitrary.

 

Uh huh...like 50 mph on an 8 lane Interstate highway, yet 70 mph where it is only 4 lanes...so IMHO, not completely wrong, and your above explanation is not always valid...absolutes just don't work

 

"Now, I learned about this stuff more than 30 years ago, while working for a general contractor/Engineer., and we dealt with shopping malls, and traffic flow changes because of new construction. How much as changed in that time, I haven't a clue,( I had two different career paths since then,) but the upshot was that posted traffic speeds are the result of physics, then the least capable drivers. And only after that, do politicians get to play silly games."
I have no way to know if there are any differences between the two roads you describe, in grade, width, or location, But the speed limit is likely the result of location/ pedestrian access.
If you have two identical roads, (access, size, location,ect.) then i would suspect this to be the cause. " And only after that, do politicians get to play silly games."
I was a grunt on the crew, and we changed out some of the signs in the course of the jobs we did. Speed limits were changed on the same stretches of roads, and changes of access were made, for them. roads were widened, lanes added, traffic flows changed to oneways, turn lanes added, and we had to make sure where each change was made, it was correct. We were given the big picture of what we were doing. Shopping malls change traffic patterns in a big way. The higher the chance of a pedestrian being hit, the slower the speed had to be. Politicians/ bureaucrats do make some small changes, but the basic speeds are not arbitrary, they follow statistics.
I responded to this comment "No reason besides what a sign designates as a 'legal" speed limit" . The sign does designate the "legal" speed. "No reason" is false.
There are reasons, and most of them are pretty well set in stone, as far as I know.
As for absolutes, There a few you can count on in this. Physics, you can count on it to do the same thing over and over again. Lowest common denominator in driver and car quality, and politician will monkey with things when they can, just to put their name to it. But they can't alter it very much.
Now, this crap is boring, as I said, a long time ago "It is the pedestrian who has priority at every corner, and car drivers who must make sure of their safety. That IS the way it is. Deal with it." YMMV (I really don't care)

 

I don't enforce it but in WV alot of these small towns and the traffic Gods charge people with obstruction of justice. The way I look at it we all speed even the traffic god and if it's just a few mile and not putting others at risk no real harm. I always take the location in if it's a school zone or a area where kids play I enforce it but a county road and its 55mph I don't touch anything under 10mph over posted and if they see me Ill flash my bkues and if I see brake light as they pass. I let them go on they showed me the respect and corrected the violation. Alot of small towns use spped traps as a way to fund the town at the citizens cost. I know severl towns that look for out of state because they know the people will mail the money not wanting to miss work.