London traffic: Don't go too fast!
With all the things that are controlled in our lives, sometimes it’s great to know we can just get in our cars, hit the open road, and go as fast as we want.
Maybe we just want to hear the growl of an engine or feel the wind blow through our hair. Maybe it’s the freedom that comes with being in control of a machine that speeds up the faster our right foot pushes down.
It’s a great feeling, because no one can take it away from us. Right?
We’ll see. A test program in London uses a GPS device to limit cars’ speed to the posted maximum. For now, the device is being used only on Transport for London’s own fleet of 12 Toyota Priuses, but the test could be extended.
Can you imagine driving your own car and having the government, through a satellite, control your speed?
Man oh man, it would be the end of car culture. The end of freedom as we know it.
Transport for London is conducting the test to see if accident rates decline. And they might, while drivers in cars equipped with the devices would also guarantee they’d never get another speeding ticket.
Chris Lines, Transport for London’s road safety chief, defends the program by saying,
There are 200 people killed and 2,500 seriously injured on London’s roads each year, and it costs £1.2 billion [about $1.9 billion].
Well… yeah. People die running marathons, too, but are you going to limit them to a safe walking pace so they don’t inconvenience you by dying on your streets?
Driver safety is a serious issue, but one that should be dealt with through education, not control.
Would you be in favor of a government program limiting how fast your car goes?
-tgriffith
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