Would you prefer speed limits for cars to go beyond 125kph and trains, 300kph?

Question

Why not, isn't speed esp thrilling for 18-25yr olds and everyone likes to have a super quick journey? Your serious thoughts are welcomed.

Answer 1

Cars: nobody sticks to the speed limit anyway, so increasing it would just give them a false sense of security and make them go even faster. Perhaps if the licensing requirements were increased so we had some good drivers out there... Even then there'd still be unlicensed drivers to cause problems.

Trains: Go for it! As long as the vehicles and tracks are in good enough condition it's safe for trains to go as fast as you like. Trains don't have the same problems as cars because they are on the tracks, which are all controlled centrally, so it is possible to coordinate the trains so there is no chance of them hitting each other (alright, it happens sometimes, but nowhere near as often as for cars). There are other factors that influence the safe speed for a train (like the terrain) but if this is taken into account, an optimum speed for trains can be reached.

Answer 2

Most accidents in the UK are caused by young, inexperienced drivers (mainly male) driving too fast. Often they kill their friends, especially after a night out which is why it is being suggested just today that the driving age be increased to 18, that there be a zero alcohol level for under 21s and that persons of that age be not alowed to carry passengers under 20 between the hours of 11pm and 5am.

It is also seen now as socially unacceptable for cars to travel too fast as at high speeds particularly they are polluting and use unnecessary amounts of fuel. There is, at present, theoretically no limit to the speed at which trains can travel, especially using new technology such as Maglev.

Answer 3

Cars will keep getting faster cuz speed sells, the world would be much better off if that technology would go into making a reasonably well proforming car and increasing the mileage but tht is not exciting.
As for faster trains. . . . . . that makes economic and ecologic sense, trains use much less fuel for passenger mile than vehicles or airplanes.
If more people were encouraged and enabled to take trains our world would take a large step towards reducing global carbon consumption.

Answer 4

Giving car keys that start an automobile capable of high speed to anyone untrained in high speed driving techniques is like giving a loaded gun to a baby or putting a junkie in charge of a pharmacy.

Fuel efficiency for automobiles can be greatly increased TODAY. Remember when people manually:

adjusted their seats;
opened their doors;
adjusted their view mirrors;
used these same mirrors instead of a built in video camera to protect when backing up;
repositioned the seats in the station wagon/SUV;
rolled down their windows;
looked at a map;
parallel parked their car;
checked the outside temperature;
or any number of other gimmicks?

Try to imagine the tonnage being hauled around our nations roadways right this moment, in the form of all the electric motors and miles of wiring that allow all of the extraneous crap to work?

Meanwhile, we are generally a fat and happily over-weight society ringing our hands about how to get more exercise in our busy lives.

High speed rail, or at least high-ER speed rail is a viable alternative in corridors with high commute volume and for those relatively short distances (200 miles or less). If this were a commute of near one hour, you'd get most everyone to put their car keys in their pocket instead of in the ignition during commute hours.

Answer 5

I don't see "thrill" as any justification for increasing speed limits... 125kph converts to 78mph. As others have pointed out, MOST traffic accidents are a result of the combination of excessive speed and youth.

I can SEE speedlimits of that range for LONG, clear sections of freeway... based on weather and traffic patterns.

Now TRAINS ? Yeppers... build speed-capable tracks and whip them up to 200mph !!

Answer 6

Just the reason they should not be driving that fast.