basingwerk wrote:
I don't think there is anybody who could deny that driving in excess of 70 on a motorway is dangerous.
All travel is dangerous. At least it is compared with staying in bed.
The point here, of course, is to try to determine if 71mph is more dangerous than 69mph. If one takes a purely mechanistic view of the world, it is obvious that 71mph is more dangerous than 69mph simply because there is more kinetic energy in the system.
But road safety is not even remotely a mechanical system. We don't get crashes when the system breaks mechanically. We do get crashes when people make mistakes. If we give people good information and good training, if we give them responsibility for their own safety then they will perform better and make fewer mistakes.
If we take away responsibility and give them false and distorted messages we should expect them to make more mistakes.
The difference between 69mph and 71mph becomes completely irrelevant - instead we should be concerned with attitudes and responsibilities.