Have you heard about the new plan – there is always a plan – to ditch the 85th Percentile method for setting speed limits with a new method that is likely going to reduce speed limits rather than post them in according with the observed speed (the 85th Percentile speed) that most drivers naturally drive?
It is called “city limits” and the idea is to downward-adjust speed limits if there is what’s styled “conflict density,” which means side roads, intersections and driveways. A road with a posted 35 MPH limit could have that lowered to 30 or even 25 MPH even if the observed 85th percentile speed is 35 or 40 MPH. “City Limits,” in other words, are a way to get around the 85th percentile method that has been used for decades to post speed limits in correlation with the speed mot drivers are driving.
Underlying the 85th Percentile method is the idea that most people will drive at reasonable speeds for the road/conditions and that it is unreasonable to post speed limits well below the general drift of traffic because it’s not natural and so most people naturally drive faster. When speed limits are set lower, they turn most of the drivers on a given stretch of road into “speeders” even though they are driving reasonably.
Perhaps the best – and worst example – of abusively under-posted speed limits is the 55 MPH National Maximum Speed Limit that was enforced for 20 years, from around 1974 to circa 1994. Overnight, almost every highway driver became a “speeder” for driving the same speed that had been legal the day before the sign changed. Millions were mulcted this way.
Cops enforcing artificially low speed limits know it’s mulcting they’re performing but have to pretend otherwise; also the traffic courts that convict and fine these “speeder.” It’s corrupt – and corrupting. It’s all about punishing drivers for reasonable driving – in order to make driving as unpleasant as possible – so as to push people to give up driving. It works on the same general principle as the TSA, which discourages many people from flying.
That is the point of the thing; or at least a part of the point (the other being to get the population used to being treated like criminals just because they want to fly somewhere). When you get “pulled over” for driving 35 on a road that just had the speed limit reduced to 25, you know you aren’t a criminal, either. And yet you are being treated like one by a government good, probably one who looks like a criminal himself (e.g., sleeve tats and general scroungy-thug appearance).
“City Limits” – the term has that superficially innocuous sound that tyranny loves to hear because it does not arouse alarms among the tyrannized – is part of the much broader Vision Zero movement, as in zero fatalities attributable to cars and driving. It works on the same principle as Zero COVID in that there can never be zero and so there can be no end to the restrictions and impositions leveled in the name of getting to zero.
“City Limits” is put forward by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, which is another bland-sounding, nothing-to-worry-about conclave of urban planning (there is always a plan) bureaucrats whose ultimate plan is to greatly reduce driving by making it progressively more expensive, difficult and unpleasant. These urban planners are the ones who turn two lane roads into one lane roads – i.e., road diets – with the other lane that used to be there for cars given over to bicycles. These latter are not meant to give bicycles their own lane as much as to take away a lane from car drivers. After all, in most parts of the country there is this thing called winter and when it is 20 degrees out and there is snow and ice, bicycling generally ceases. The bicycle lane is thus unused for a third or more of each year.
This is defined as “equitable distribution” by the urban planners.
One of the National Association of City Transportation Officials is Jenny O’Connell and here’s what she says about the 85th Percentile method for setting speed limits: “The problem with this approach is it creates this feedback loop. People speed and then the speed limits will be ratcheted up to match that speed.”
Italics added.
Note the subtle derision. “People speed.” That is, they drive at a speed faster than O’Connell and other urban planners of her stripe want them to drive. The very term “speeder” is suggestive of something wrong-doing. But when you stop to think about it, what is wrong with driving at a speed that is faster than an urban planner type says is the maximum allowed? Nothing, of course. At least, nothing necessarily. Almost every driver “speeds” almost every day; it is odd to think that what almost everyone does every day is wrong. It implies that almost everyone is pathologically indifferent to their own safety and that of others.
What’s actually wrong is pathologizing what almost everyone does every day that usually causes no harm to anyone. And if “speeding” is such a wrongful thing to do, how come the cops do it, too?
“Ratcheted up” – another sort of Bless Your Heart term of derision used by urban planner types. Speed limits aren’t merely raised. They are ratcheted up.
The urban planners intend to ratchet them down. The Federal Highway Administration recently (in 2023) began walking away from the 85th Percentile method. In the latest issue of its Speed Limit Setting Handbook, the FHA says “Depending on the roadway context and conditions, setting speed limits based on the 85th-percentile may not represent an appropriate speed considering all road users and may perpetuate high-speed travel for the majority of drivers.”
Italics added.
Apparently, “perpetuat(ing) high-speed travel for the majority of drivers” is a wrong thing. People might be able to get where they’re going in good time and enjoy the drive. Speeds must be ever-reduced for the sake of the minority that despise good times – and driving. “Vision Zero might never achieve its goal of reducing traffic deaths to zero, but the communities that prioritize road safety are reaping the benefits,” says one of these people.
Italics added.
“Communities”? As if everyone were sitting in a circle around a campfire, holding hands and singing Kumbaya. In fact, “communities” means minorities. Not the racial/ethnic kind. The master-to-our-serf kind.
“Reaping the benefits”? According to whom? The question is never asked, but the answer is always assumed to be us – in the manner of that greasy gyp styled the “public good.” Whenever you hear such terms, rest assured it’s not your good they have in mind.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $25 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you’d like a Baaaaa hat or other EPautos gear, see here!
If you live in SE MI you”ll recognize Ann Arbor implementing these tactics. To discourage driving..It’s quite insane. Its too bad as they’re is some cool things to do there but now I despise going there because of it.
They’ve been doing this kind of thing in the SF Bay Area for the last few years. The also call it “road diets” or “goal zero” (meaning zero traffic or pedestrian fatalities).
There were multiple roads in my city which were 35 mph, 2 lanes in each direction, with stop lights. The “road diet” removes one lane in each direction, makes a center turn lane, and puts bike lanes up next to the curb, then some barriers, then street parking. They also drop the speed limit to 25 mph and re-work the traffic lights so that the pedestrian crosswalks go green before the cars. Most right on reds are banned.
The justification is that this will increase traffic throughput (ha!, right), make it safer for pedestrians, and encourage “alternate modes of transport”. Unfortunately, we don’t have alternate modes of transport other than feet or bikes, as the public transit stinks.
After a few years, the predictable has happened. The roads have worse traffic, it takes more time to drive anywhere, there are no additional cyclists, and it now takes a lot more time to drive anywhere.
I went to a few public feedback meetings on this – everyone was against these changes, however, despite not a single positive word of support from the locals, these projects get passed, due to “overwhelming public support”. It’s clear to me that local politics is broken, and when they create public feedback meetings, the decision has already been made, these meetings are PR.
I honestly don’t understand how people can vote for these authoritarians who act on their own agenda, rather than representing the people, which is what they claim to do. As long as they’re a Democrat, they’re getting elected here, no matter how insane.
The fuckheads here have already started the insanity. Numerous roads around Halifax have “new “ speed limits. Orwellian for lower. The Bedford highway has been reduced from70/80 kph to 50, this is verrrry calming at quitting time. Cucks are going to cuck.
Ps Fuck Loser Fink.
A little off topic, but on the other hand, the sociopaths pushing this absolutely insane stuff such as Net Zero & insanely LOW speed limits may eventually push to KILL ALL DOGS as well, under guise of “Stopping cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimate change”. Now there are those claiming that owning a dog is HARMFUL to the climate. Will there eventually be efforts to BAN having a dog as a pet or even diktats from government that people who have a dog as a pet KILL them?
https://www.kxan.com/news/science/dog-ownerships-role-in-extreme-weather-is-vastly-underestimated-new-study-finds/
Hi John,
So Kristi Noem was ahead of time I guess. Seriously I have cats and they are equal in status to my children; anyone who harms them will meet my friend Mr. Mossberg.
Hi Mike,
Cats might be the next thing that these b******* target disguised as “Stopping climate change”. It’s astounding how there are people who STILL belieeeeeeeeeeeeve the narratives around “man made climate change”; they’re probably the small percentage of people who still get COVID booster jabs and wear face diapers everywhere.
Here’s a list of stuff that I’m aware of being targeted by the b******* disguised as STOPPING CLIMATE CHANGE……
Drinking Coffee
Cows
Carbon dioxide
Air conditioning
Gas vehicles
Gas stoves
Dogs
REAL MEAT
REAL BUTTER
Farms
The list of stuff being targeted under guise of stopping climate change is likely to expand.
I am surprised that eating chocolate is not on the list. Or having sex. Or drinking beer. God forbid a human have a few things to enjoy in life. Being able to go out for a drive in your vehicle without being tracked everywhere, and then nannied to death is not one of them anymore, sad to say.
They’re after the cats for killing birds. I have seven cats, in 5 years not one bird. There are birds everywhere out here on my “shrub steppe” spread.
I recall reading during the height of the Covidian reign of terror that the UK planned to kill all cats. They didn’t go through with it, probably because of the expected public opposition. (Supposedly the cats were carrying Covid.) Are the Brits allowed to have shotguns? Thankfully the 2A allows them, and other firearms, here.
I’m sure many smarter than me will dispute it, but, I’m quite convinced the reason TPTB backed off, as regards the mandatory, door to door vexing was simple. The Spyware was overwhelmed with conversations and sounds of a disturbing nature from within tens of millions of homes. Double ought buck being racked from the tube into the chamber, and said shotguns being placed behind front doors made a helluva statement.
Yah, the empty shelves on the hardware/farm/sporting goods back then, were, what we call, a clue.
These people don’t just hate human life. They hate all life. They are death worshippers. What kind of sick degenerates want to kill all dogs and cats?
I am teaching my dogs to eat lying scum. Gotta save the planet.
Slightly off topic, but have you seen this one:
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen/367566/forget-netflix-volkswagen-locks-horsepower-behind-paid-subscription
The subscription to access anything (and to stuff already paid for) is getting absurd. Along with the extra “tips”, as well. And just because one would willing buy the “Life Time” access for the horse power to ones engine, as Eric has stated before, you do not actually access the power of your vehicle via the pedal anymore. Not like you did with older vehicles. You are merely allowed the “privilege” of believing you are able to go as fast as you want to in your own vehicle you had to pay for. Which can still be taken from you even after paying. I am sure Volkswagen is seeing how many suckers they can lure in with such “fees”. “Follow The Money” has never been a sure way to track those with nefarious intentions for the rest of us.
HA! You made me think, if this trend continues, ‘they’ will charge us $ every time we press down upon the accelerator pedal.
…I imagine, that’s what, ‘drive-by-wire’ is being setup for.
…Monsters.
I’ll bet these “planners” are the ones zipping thru store parking lots with cell phone in hand. Like to hear their excuse when they paste someone’s little kid that steps out.
Common sense not very common.
For no apparent reason a 50 zone was dropped to 35, well past the lake park entrance where yes, maybe 50 near the park entrance was a bit high. Course the city won’t do anything in a crowded residential street to control the 40 mphers zooming up my daughters street to beat the lights two blocks over in the main drag.
Most places already have disposed of the 85 percentile rule to be honest.
The town I live in Northwest Indiana, has no legal speed over 35mph. That includes the highway (part of the famed US 41) which is 35mph. The traffic flows (when not backed up) at 45-55mph. So 35mph is mind numbingly too low. Very few drive 35 or less.
I have written about the highway “improvements” made a number of years ago. The ones that the “planners” decided what was going to happen, even before the public meetings. Even with the “improvements” (middle turn lane, reduced driveways etc) the speed limit was not raised (even though it could have, even by their “rules”).
Interestedly, the town actually raised the speed limit from 20mph to 25mph on residential side streets. Of course it triggered some on social media when that happened. Never mind that few are driving 25 let alone 20 on those streets… Think of the children (who are not there….)
I noticed an article on a study about slow drivers being more of hazard than “speeders”. Now of course I can’t find it. Will post it if I find it again.
If you are traveling more than about 10mph different (either on the high side or the low side) from the rest of the traffic, you are a hazard.
Minimum speed on the interstate is usually posted 40-45 but that’s really too low, minimum should be at least 55 & even that’s pretty low given that the PSL is usually ~70 and everyone is going ~75-80
People (in the USA) mostly top out around 80-85, and it doesn’t matter what the PSL says all that much.
You won’t find many speeders in South Dakota.
Odd thing is I drive an old car around town, a 1981 Corolla with 95 HP and a 4 speed, and test that lower speed limit sometimes.
The speedometer on the poor thing so very optimistically goes to 80 MPH but lacking overdrive it’s yelling for mercy at 70 spinning that little 1.8L engine at 4,000 RPM.
So which is it, we should all be giving TPTB the middle finger by driving simple, often slow, old cars or new fancy, usually very fast, ones?
That’s not a horsepower problem, it’s a gear ratio problem.
Most ‘80s cars were geared for highway speeds of around 55mph for legal and gas mileage reasons.
Most modern cars are geared higher. My (much heavier) 6-speed ‘16 Civic cruises along at 70 at about 3kRPM, which is similar to what my old ‘03 Corolla did with a 4-speed slushbox. Yes the engines have a few more hp but not that much, and the err y are way heavier at the kerb.
‘People speed, and then the speed limits will be ratcheted up to match that speed.’ — Jenny O’Clownell, quoted by eric
My version:
‘Governments spend, and then the tax rates will be ratcheted up to match that spending.’
It’s been this way since ‘an elastic currency’ removed the guardrails imposed by gold.
Ever participated in a demo of crowd-sourced wisdom? A group is asked to estimate the count of thousands of items, or the weight of a large object. Although some individual guesses will be wildly off, the group mean often is surprisingly accurate.
The National Association of City Transportation Oafs — most of whom are Democrats, since cities are where leftists live — doesn’t believe in popular wisdom. They regard us as feral children, who require an occasional hard rap on the knuckles to toe the line.
But isn’t it reasonable to be ruled by zeros having visions?
Slow speeds, like seat belts, kill. They just do so in different ways.
I had a hell of a scare last week, I was approaching an intersection on the outskirts of a small city, when the light changed yellow. For no apparent reason, the car ahead on my left fender slammed on his brakes, I had already decided to proceed through the yellow as I didn’t want to panic stop. Lo and behold, an adult foreigner on a bike rode out in front of me from the blind spot created by the car on my left.
Apparently colored boy pushed the button and rode his bike across active traffic. He looked puzzled by the sound of my tires sliding on the loose gravel on the street, then stopped, the only reason I avoided hitting him.
How are you going to stop that with a damned speed cop?
There other term these Marxist city planners are using is *Traffic Calming*. As if traffic needs to be medicated and they are the doctors.
We have that “traffic calming” BS here too. That term is an oxymoron because rather than calming it sends me into a rage. The communists running this state absolutely hate cars, perfectly good roads are ruined with speed bumps, lights timed for frequent stops, bike lanes taking up half the road, etc. No wonder there are so many incidents of road rage these days.
“it sends me into a rage” MiB
That’s because you have a low tolerance for passive-aggressive pricks that need to be slapped.
Hi Rik,
I learned from watching Jimmy Dore that Larry Fink is one of the biggest pushers of DEI. And yet, there are people who’ve been propagandized to think that DEI is a GOOD THING. They’re probably the same people who constantly shriek how they hate billionaires, and yet, I read a ZeroHedge article the other day how the new darling of the political left, Zohran Mamdani, who is currently running to be New York City Mayor, is funded by……..BILLIONAIRES posing as “Grassroots” or “Working Families”.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/billionaires-socialism-2-billion-grassroots-operation-behind-zohran-mamdani
Don’t forget that the biggest complainer about the billionaires is also the biggest shill for Big Pharma in the Senate – Bernie “Brought to you by Pfizer” Sanders.
That’s right Horst! What’s also ironic is that Bernie Sanders, along with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, is on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, given that the Democrat Party has their own oligarchs. But someone who’s been thoroughly propagandized by corporate media would think that it’s ONLY the Republican Party that has oligarchs.
Zohrani is also a Socialist prick, who, if he is anything like Bernie Sanders, never worked a day in his life, and does not know what real starvation is. If New Yorkers elect this evil bastard, it is going to be difficult having compassion on the people when they start starving to death even when the food is “free”. The mouse did not know why the cheese was free, and neither do voters of Socialism, either. One would be wise to remember Karl Marx (also a lazy fool) who said that the ultimate goal of Socialism is Communism, and neither are compatible with life. At least for the 99%
I’ve slowed down with age as I don’t trust my eyesight & reflexes as they were even 5 years ago.
That said, I don’t begrudge anyone who wishes to zip on by. I do begrudge the traffic hazard known as the state/county/local po po who sit waiting to entrap “speeders” and thereby becomes the catalyst for rather than the solution to accidents.
This is the epitome of the Nanny State mentality of these mini-Mussolinis. Smarmy, authoritarian, passive-aggressive pricks. It once again merges the appeal to authority fallacy with the Safety Cult.
As you point out, Eric, cops are allowed to “speed”. Why? Well, “they’ve been highly trained”, is the response. The immediate reaction to that should be, then why aren’t all people given the same training? Wouldn’t that make the highways safer? It lays bare the fact that driver “education” and certification in this country is a sick joke. Most people are trained by the GovCo schools. My Drivers Ed teacher was the football coach. In the case of my kids they were supposed to have so many hours behind the wheel with the teacher. But, he would load the kids in the car and the student that lived closest drove first to their home. Then the next student did the same and so on. What it meant was they got about a tenth of the road time they were supposed to, yet they “passed” the course. Then it was on to the DMV who made sure they could drive 25 mph on side streets. After that if you can fog a mirror and write a check you get you “license”. The fact that half of new drivers crash in the first year says the current system is BS.
GovCo doesn’t teach people how to drive. GovCo certifies they can drive. So many wrecks happen that speed limits must be lowered by GovCo “planners”. Planners that have designs for eternal employment by setting up programs like Vision Zero. Which, in a way, is a perfect name for the project. Why? Because they have zero vision because they are blinded by their own hubris.
If I had my way they’d all be sent to Africa to mine cobalt with their bare hands to power the EVs they so love.
Eric, Larry Fink just took over the WEF and they issued new guidelines, no private vehicles and no single family homes. So, expect more pressure in these areas.
Hi Rik,
Yup. Fink is Satanic. He was among the architects of “DEI guidance.”
RE: “Yup. Fink is Satanic.”
You see, ‘that side’.
…The Truth, is within you.
The Pharisees still rule the roost. They are those of whom The Prince of Peace spoke:
John 8:44
44 “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” – Jesus Christ
Hi Rik,
Larry Fink as the new head of the WEF could well be worse than the now former interim head of the WEF. The interim chairman was once CEO of Nestlé and thought WATER should be made a commodity.
Fink is such an appropriate name for this asshole.
fink /fĭngk/
noun
A contemptible person.
An informer.
A hired strikebreaker.
Fink > Rat-fink > Larry Fink (the worst kind of fink)
The original Vermin-kin.
You won’t be able to own a single family home because Larry Fink’s Blackrock is buying all of them so that you will have to pay rent forever (just like property taxes) to Blackrock. Their goal of “you will own nothing”….but I sure as hell won’t “be happy”.
OTOH if you ain’t got nuthin you got nuthin to lose, so these control freaks should be careful what they wish for.
Won’t I?
When people have nothing left to lose, and they’ve lost everything, they lose it.” — Quote by Gerald Celente.
I remember this quote from Celente, and it is very true. The problem with people losing it today, Mark, is that those who lose it turn on those who tried to warn them, rather than turning on the people who screwed them over in the first place.
Smells like B.S.: “those who lose it turn on those who tried to warn them, rather than turning on the people who screwed them over in the first place.”
Total, B.S..
…Show an example.
I have had it happen in my own life so piss off Helot. I got more ass than you have teeth. It did not happen to you, so it does not exist? Just shoo fly, go away already.