Flutterby™! : NTSB calls for speed limiters

NTSB Calls for Technology to Reduce Speeding in All New Cars. I wrote on Metafilter:

I think that, whatever the privacy issues, we're headed towards a future where we have time and location based mileage taxes, and it makes perfect sense to integrate that with speed limit enforcement, but...

We've been trying to do traffic calming efforts in our neighborhood, and our town's public works department is trying to get out in front of this as well. I've been aware of the fact that "furniture" (sign and light posts, etc) in the "recovery zone" (shoulders and sidewalks) are breakaway, designed to not injure motorists should they swerve into them.

We were recently measuring the geometry of a new roundabout in an other neighborhood to see if it could be applied to our neighborhood, and among the neighbors who stopped to chat and sing the praises was a guy who said "yeah, I got this car cheap because some teenager drove over the roundabout and ripped the oil pan out".

And I am now 1000% behind automated speed enforcement through passive infrastructure. Let's build shit to *seriously* fuck up a car when drivers deviate.

Let's put up bollards to narrow lanes.

The design goal should be that when drivers exhibit unsafe traffic behavior, their cars are destroyed.

So, yes, move forward NTSB, but also work with your local traffic engineers. There's a lot that can be done at the local level in concrete and asphalt as roads are maintained.