The average speed in Rome is 8.3 km/h
So yeah, speeding is almost never the problem.
But people doing something else while driving is.
> If you can't wait behind a slow vehicle, unless you have a dying person on your side, maybe you should not drive in the first place...
If you are driving a car to go really slowly, driving in the middle of the streets, because you are too scared to drive too close to the side of the streets, why are you even driving in the first place?
It's like driving a motorbike with the training wheels because you have no equilibrium.
Would you find that acceptable?
And why not?
People can have many reasons to speed, they are not your concern, if you feel to drive slowly, just get out of the way, as experts of road safety suggest to do (that's exactly what I do on highways all the time)
> If someone behind you clearly wants to go faster, remember that it’s not your job to prevent them from doing so. Staying in front of a driver like this when you have space to move over could lead to even more aggressive driving, so it’s best to steer aside and let them drive the speed they’re going to drive (it’s their problem if they get pulled over, not yours!). If you’re genuinely concerned for the safety of yourself or others on the roadway, pull over and call local authorities to report an erratic or unsafe driver.
EDIT:
Some stats regarding Rome (the city where I was born and live)
- Rome has the highest number of accidents per capita, but the lowest mortality per capita in the whole Lazio region
- 75% of the accidents in the region happen in the cities, 25% outside them
- 52% of the accidents on urban roads and 62% of those on extra-urban roads happen on the straights
- most of them caused by distraction
- 45% of the accidents of the year in Rome happen between June and September due to the higher mobility of holiday season
- the two age groups where mortality is raising are 15-19 and over 70. Younger people number one cause of death is speeding (sometimes under the influence), due to inexperience (and the eventual alteration) they can't handle it. For older people is misjudgement: slower reaction times and impaired senses (vision, hearing) lead to deadly crashes.
- 80% of the accidents happen between 8-20, but most of the deadly one happen between 2 and 7 o'clock. Again, most probable causes are: distractions, sleepiness, driver fatigue, DUI.
Driving is a very complex operation, that requires skills and focus, and engage all the body, especially when using manual gears, it is very similar to playing drums.
If people don't give full attention on what they are doing it is very easy to make mistakes that could lead to very bad consequences or even death.
Hoping that other drivers will compensate for my own lack of focus, it's not the safest of the bets.
So, in my opinion, being a driver concerned of the safety yourself and others, means focusing on what you are doing and preventing potentially dangerous situations.
Blaming other drivers will not help you if you don't look twice before crossing a large street late at night or if you speed up to catch the yellow at the traffic-light.
I started driving when it was the same really bad mentality of people having to make place to the one who wants to go fast. And it wasn't great at all, safety records show it.
When i started to understand that the best thing to do when I had such a "pilot" behind me was to slow down until the situation could be less dangerous, I just found myself in way less dangerous situations.
So no, you can be the best driver of the world, 50 km/h in a city is already way too dangerous for pedestrian, with a high death rate in case of accident. The unconfortable slow driver you hate ? Maybe not as dangerous as you are... Actually maybe making road safer.
You want to drive "fast"? Think about the safety of other people it involves.
There is not.
There is a clear correlation between speed and deadly accidents.
But most of the accidents happen in the cities and most of them happen at low speed.
The most probable cause is disrespect of priority, due to distractions (watching the phone is very common nowadays)
I posted some stats for the city of Rome, taken straight from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)
> I started driving when it was the same really bad mentality of people having to make place to the one who wants to go fa
Those bad mentality people are experts in road safety.
If you are one of them I'd like to know where you work.
My fiancé worked here https://www.fia.com/road-safety
> So no, you can be the best driver of the world, 50 km/h in a city is already way too dangerous for pedestrian
Nobody has ever said the contrary...
> The unconfortable slow driver you hate ? Maybe not as dangerous as you are
Maybe is a no until you prove it.
Meanwhile I can show you that the categories that suffer more deaths per capita are really young and inexperienced people and older people with slow reaction times and impaired vision (the traffic light was red but they didn't see it).
> You want to drive "fast"? Think about the safety of other people it involves.
I never said that.
I've said that if you can't handle to drive fast (fast as in slightly above the speed limits), you are dangerous even at low speed.
If you can't swim in a swimming pool, will you be a better swimmer in the Ocean?
As an example: my dad never liked driving, he never learned to be a good driver and as a result now that he is older his driving skill have lowered so much that he is a danger to himself.
He could drive meh at 50kmh when he was 40, barely when he was 50, now that he is 75 at 30kmh everything looks too fast for his reflexes. He breaks in the middle of the straight because he sees shadows, wait too long at crosses but then he passes in the wrong moment because he gets frustrated that other cars behind him are forming a long line because of him.
He never had to challenge his mediocre driving skills, because they were almost good enough and now he can't drive safely anymore.
Driving is like a muscle, if you don't exercise it and stimulate it, it will atrophy.
Cities like Rome, with the highest number of cars per capita in the West (73 cars every 100 people) need to either remove cars from the streets entirely or deploy large programs of safe driving because the population is getting older and their driving skills are not getting better.
Forcing everyone to go by bike or at 10kmh is not a solution.
At 20kmh a delay in reaction times of just one second means 6 meters.
It is a lot!
And I repeat it to be clear: I don't even drive anymore in Rome, I simply walk, because it's too frustrating as an experience.
