Darn good ideas, yeah...

This morning in the news I heard the latest "big idea" behind the attempt at controlling the traffic problems: to reduce the maximum speed limit in city circular highways down to 70KPH with the intention of reducing fuel consumption and therefore costs and also to reduce the number of accidents on the road and therefore the number of dead people.

Let's go through "the big idea" a little deeper..

To reduce the (maximum) speed from 90 KPH to 70 KPH in order to reduce consumption and cost. Well... that really depends on the vehicle, doesn't it? In some small cars, the best
performance is low and therefore the best effort/consumption point is optimal at low speeds. However, logically (and this is where the logic failure resides) in bigger/more powerful engines (ever more common), that nexus is found at higher speeds. In my experience, to be precise, on my bike that point is between 110KPH and 140KPH. In the Peugeot 307 I had that point was at 90 to 110 KPH. In both cases, the point was well above 70KPH.

When this happens, not only there is no "improvement" in the consumption, but whatever you save in fuel is redirected as a cost in other mechanical elements due to engine effort, breaks, etc.

Also, supposedly, the number of accidents are reduced since going slower there are less accidents. You only have to look out of your window when you drive and not the numbers written in some of those "studies", to see that indeed the accidents are less deadly, logically, though it depends on the vehicle involved, the situation, the elements involved, etc. But all in all, true, they are less deadly. But it is not true that there are less accidents. There are more! People, since they're going slower, pay less attention to the road, they switch lanes without looking, they don't keep their distance, they loose concentration, talk on their cellphones, fiddle with the radio, GPS, ... You don't need much speed in order to suffer cervical damage; it can happen from about 50KPH onwards. The real problem is the relativistic speed of the crash. It's not the same to crash against a fixed element at 70KPH than to crash agains a moving object 5, 10 or 15KPH faster or slower than ourselves at whatever speed we are doing

Therefore, it does not reduce the number of accidents, it increases them. But yes, the danger on those accidents is reduced.

But an accident (any accident) causes a traffic jam. And any vehicle multiplies its fuel consumption when stuck in a traffic jam. I've seen figures of up to 25L/100Km when stuck on a traffic jam. If you multiply that consumption over the amount of cars stuck with yours, all savings that day are out of the window... if not more depending on the size of the jam...

Also, they're not taking into account the human factor. Making people drive "so slowly" (I'm merely stating other's opinion there, too) they get stressed and therefore it affects their way of driving, which, again, increases chances of an accident. Less deadly, yes, but an accident nonetheless. There are some people out there with some some pretty strange ideas(Sorry, spanish only) to save the world by themselves... They're the ones getting themselves into risks... The best part are the numbers and figures they flaunt which have some dark origins...

Of course, the more accidents on the road, the less cars there will be around. It is a way to solve the traffic problem...

But if we apply a little logic, some respect and discipline we can accomplish at least the same goals without changing the rules. i.e.:

- Drive on your right (Spain, remember). Besides being in the highway code and the fact that it's mandatory except when overtaking (you can get fined for obstruction if you drive on the middle lane at 2am), it enables those who want to go faster to just go, without hard breakings nor overtaking on your right (remember no-one has the right to take justice into their hands nor to make anyone respect the law, only the law enforcement agents).

- RESPECT. Specially towards your peers. To jump the queue, to butt in, overtake carelessly, cut in front, to teach lessons by breaking in front of someone or to push them from behind, disconsideration using long beams at night, etc. They are all perfect recipies to cause accidents. Treat others as you want to be treated.

- Pay attention to the road. On the road, on the streets, driving. If you pay attention to your surroundings it greatly decreases the chances of an accident more than anything. Included are the subjects to do with cellphones, drinking, drugs, tiredness and other distractions such as GPSs, etc. PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING!

- Car maintenance. A well mantained car, with the tyres properly inflated, an engine in optimal state and well cared for, making the propper use of it (no hard accelerations and so on) will all help to reduce fuel consumption. Of course, also keeping your speed down whilst taking into account the road and traffic conditions and traffic regulations.

- Adecuate use of transportation. What's the use of private transportation "to get there and back quicker" if you are going to be stuck in a traffic jam? Sometimes there's no other way, but we are generally addicted to the commodities, the luxury (remember the VAT type applied to cars corresponds to luxury items, not necessities), which is all well and good but then "don't complain about it!". Wanna reduce costs? Use public transports or share the car. You can't have your cake and eat it. And if you so care about the environment, there are hybrid cars. Expensive, yes, but they are less damaging to the environment. It's expensive to be environmentally friendly sometimes.

... But good ol' Daddy Country is always attentive to "our interests" and our lack of intelligence. We are all so stupid in the end...

The truth is that there is a surprising amount of idiots out there but, as I heard somewhere recently, putting people restrictions increases their rebeliousness. You can't have a completely open hand on things because (specially in thes country) we take advantage of that. But I would ask the authorities to make a better use of context and circumstances. The "cutting line" is usually, by definition, unjust.