Quote:
Originally Posted by Tvisforme
Yes, there are a lot of drivers who regularly exceed the speed limit by 5, 10, 20 km/h or more. However, that's not what the aforementioned top-speed limiter would address. If cars were limited to a maximum speed of 150 km/h on public roads - with no restrictions on other performance factors such as acceleration - how exactly would that limit our "freedom"? There's nowhere in Canada (as best I can tell) where you can legally drive more than 120 km/h so a 150 km/h restriction would still give you 25% room above that limit.
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I have to agree. There's really no place for high speeds on our public roadways nowadays. With the mass that vehicles have grown to, the momentum that a vehicle travelling at 200 km/h carries is crazy. It can do a lot of damage, and not just to the occupants of the speeding vehicle.
It's often said that it isn't speed that kills, but difference in speeds. Highways in Canada will always have speed limits on them, that the majority of vehicles will be moving at (well, 10 or 20 above, mostly), so it makes sense to try to keep all vehicles moving around that speed range.
On top of that, at high speeds like that, things happen so much more quickly. I highly doubt that most people who like to drive at 160+ km/h have the skills to handle things properly when something goes wrong - and sometimes there is no human who can react quickly enough, or no vehicle that can do what would be required to prevent a collision. If you watch any form of organized motor racing, you have purpose-built vehicles driven by highly skilled and experienced drivers in a controlled environment, and they still crash regularly.
Imagine Joe Average motoring along on a testosterone-fueled tear, and some dude half a km up the road does a lane change in front of him, not expecting somebody to be coming up on him that fast, or pulls out of a side road, etc. It does happen regularly as it is, and the results are never good.
As far as "freedom" goes, the only freedom this type of speed gives you is the freedom to have your car impounded and to pay a large fine. In NS, anyhow, we have the "stunting" charge, which gives the officers power to impound your vehicle (with an approx $2500 fine) if you are clocked at 50 km/h over the posted speed limit. There is also a judgement call that allows them to do the same if you are participating in any kind of 'dangerous' activity, like squealing your tires, racing (their perception), etc. The local news media likes to cover such events as well.
Also, my information may be old, but I believe there was once a requirement where new vehicles' speed had to be limited to the tire speed rating that the vehicles were equipped with from the OEM. Not sure if that went away or not, but it was a thing.
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