A guy I worked with’s father in law set many of the speed limits seen on curves and the like looong ago. Part of the job involved driving around and increasing speed until things got “unsafe” and then recording that in a note book. The car he used? An ancient Oldsmobile 88. Those speed limits were set based on a car that arguably couldn’t be driven safely in a parking lot at a crawl let alone at any speed, with engineering that hasn’t been close to satisfactory for about a century. Many posted speed limits are based off assumption about old technology and not the capabilities of newer vehicles. Of course- drivers still play a role, and whenever you set an operational safety limit you set it for the worst operators, not the best. Still- speed limits carry very little weight when scrutinized beyond needing an upper limit for the lowest denominator.
I had a ‘98 Olds 88 Royale, that thing handled like a dream and topped out over 110. It had a selectable sport or comfort tuned variable air ride suspension. The GM 3800 V6 was just barely big enough, I would have rather it was supercharged or a V8. I honestly cannot remember what happened to it that made me get rid of it.
I don’t have hard numbers here, but there aren’t that many 60’s era vehicles left registered for road use, and most of those that are have become enthusiast vehicles and collectors pieces that aren’t driven as primary transport. It is true that we do have to consider the “worst” cases when setting safety limits, but there’s an argument to be made for personal judgment. Sadly we can’t rely on everyone’s judgment, and it’s simpler to just set rules based on the worst case, and safer as well. However that relies on our current system of treating cars like cell phones instead of complex 3,000lb murder machines carrying more kinetic force than a .50 cal rifle shot. Personally I’d advocate stricter requirements for driver ability. If a base skill of 5 is required to drive instead of 1, we could raise the “low” bar substantially and make roads safer.
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