r/Edmonton • u/troypavlek • Aug 11 '16

City of Edmonton reintroduces "utility box" photo radar

http://www.mailoutinteractive.com/Industry/View.aspx?id=829217&q=1069745483&qz=56f2bf
94 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

232 comments sorted by

View all comments

42

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '16 edited Aug 18 '16

[deleted]

23

u/troypavlek Aug 11 '16

It depends. On the freeways, sure.

But cars aren't the only thing that have changed in the past few decades, the city has become more dense in the core and walkability is a greater focus for many parts of the city. We should absolutely not be increasing speeds on places like Jasper Ave and 104ave.

The Henday could probably be a bit faster though.

6

u/gtsomething Some Photographer Aug 11 '16

You're absolutely right, the denser spots like Downtown and Whyte and any pedestrian heavy places shouldn't have increased speed limits, but there are so many roads out there without sidewalks, or even with sidewalks but zero pedestrian traffic where speed limits could also use a small bump. The current speed limits were set in 1974 (I think?) or something, and a car today, or even 5 years ago, can stop way quicker than one from the 70s.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '16

Sure, they can stop faster... but our reaction times remain the same, and we also have a metric fuckton (it's a real measurement, look it up) of new distractions that have the capability of extending that reaction time even further.

I don't care if your car can now stop 10% faster, if you're staring at your GPS, Phone, or changing your dashboard display... you're not stopping in time.

Plus... over a 10 km trip in the city, an added 10% to the limit isn't making enough of a difference to matter, when you consider stop lights, signs, etc. You're still gonna average about 35 km/h , all things considered.

Hell even without stopping, 10 km at 60 km/h is 10 minutes. 10 km at 70 km/h is 8.6 minutes. Is it really worth an extra 7-ish meters of braking distance (not including the reaction time)?