This is not automatically true. It may be the case if it makes the difference between being able to stop before colliding with something and not being able to stop in time. If it doesn't both speeds are equally safe.
In fact you should know from your gliding that higher speeds are not automatically more dangerous, in fact flying too slowly near the ground increases the probability of stalling and crashing.
But I don't think you are claiming that!
This depends on circumstances. There are situations where this can be true.
One for Peter 1199like they were saying : I didn't say it did. I said it was the same *line* of logic. Speed limits are there for safety, allegedly. To exceed speed limits is...
Safety is a relative concept. There is no such thing as absolute safety or absolute danger.
In engineering for safety we caculate the probability of some dangerous incident happening. the result is never zero, and the best that we can do is to make it adequately low given the likely consequences. But here we are usually dealing with something over which we have a good deal of control, and will often specify backup systems to maintain safety in the event of a failure of the primary system.
So before we can talk about a given speed in a given situation being "safe" or "dangerous", we need to define what probability of a dangerous incident is acceptable.
One for Peter 1201I really want to see an example. Just did. Couldn't see anything relevant on the 2 hits for "61mph is always unsafe", the 16 hits for "mph is always unsafe" or the...
For example, if we can show that in a given situation an incident will occur once in 100,000 years, we might consider that to be adequately safe. If an incident with the potential to cause bane injury is likely to occur every 10 minutes, we would probably consider that unacceptable.
One for Peter 1202Why? No. It depends on where and when it is being used. 2mm in torrential rain is less safe than 0mm in the dry. No. Again, it depends on the where, when and in...
On the road we don't have the time to do the calculations even if we knew how. So it is up to each road user to estimate how safe they are and adjust the factors within their control if needed to ensure an acceptable (to them) level of safety.
Placing artificial constraints an the degree to which one of the more important factors that affects safety can be adjusted by drivers is unhelpful. If simply restricts the scope of the driver to adjust things to achieve adequate safety.
It is not always true that faster is more dangerous, faster can sometimes be safer. For example, when overtaking on a single carriageway road.
The only real purpose served by speed limits is therefore as a guide for novice drivers whao have not yet learned to manage their safety, and as a means to prosecute the reckless. And of course, these days, for raising revenue.
Martin
-- Created on the Iyonix PC - the world's fastest RISC OS computer.
