Originally Posted By: wallyuwl
Yes, poorly maintained cars are less safe, but this is regardless of speed.
The point was that poorly maintained cars are even less safe at higher speeds.
Originally Posted By: wallyuwl
But on the interstate if you are driving UP on vehicles, and passing them even if you are weaving in and out of traffic, the only way you are a DANGER to other drivers is if you actually hit them. You are not changing THEIR driving behavior.
I addressed this point in my post. It may not necessarily be creating risk per se, but it reduces your safety margin. You are more likely to screw up, others are more likely to misread your moves, and your ability to compensate is compromised.
Originally Posted By: wallyuwl
If you are going very slow for the road, speed limit, conditions, etc., you are changing OTHER driver's behavior. This is a BIG danger for the reasons I and Kestas have pointed out.
No doubt. This in no way means that speeding does not pose its own problems.
Originally Posted By: wallyuwl
Also, with two lane roads (one lane each direction) slow drivers are yet an even bigger hazard. Around here there are many two lane roads that have relatively heavy traffic going into and out of the city (the city is a "hub and spoke" design). People regularly pull out into the roads (often when there is not adequate room to in the first place), then will go 35-40 in a 55. This causes a huge line of cars to back up. When you run up on a huge line of cars like this, it happens exceptionally fast because it isn't until you are nearly up on the last car in the line that you notice just how slow the line of cars is moving. I'd estimate this scenario causes at least a dozen accidents around here every month. Some of them are fatal.
On two lane roads exceptionally fast drivers need to slow down for slower drivers until there isn't traffic coming from the other direction so they can pass. This creates a safety concern if they don't judge oncoming traffic correctly, but it isn't a direct result of going too fast. It is a result of impatience/poor perception in the passing process. With most two lane roads it is unsafe to go much more than 55 or 60 anyway because of the road designs themselves and it is rare to have issues (at least around here) with exceptionally fast drivers on these types of roads.
As long as you agree that speed exacerbates the consequences of judgment issues although it doesn't necessarily cause them, I'm right with you here.
