They are out there and they are going to get you

[Mr. Schweer]

The kid that rear ended me at 60 mph got a ticket for following too closely.

Inferiorating at first, but in all reality, the ticket or charge he gets will have absolutely no bearing on wether I walk again in two weeks or two years.

In short, the rush from vindication would result in short lived satisfaction.

wow, holy crap. dude, so sorry to hear that. here's to prayin' that it's two weeks!

[Erik the Red]

Sounds great... if you were to drive STRAIGHT into it. 99.9% of the median barrier contact is at a very low angle. They already build crash absorbtion (Crumple zones) into the vehicles. All you need to do is keep vehicles from crossing and entering the other lane. They still can't build them well enough for head-ons. Yes, there will be less g forces for the body to absorb in an enclosed vehicle with the cable barrier. I also worked as an EMT for several years. I never had a serious call from someone hitting the concrete barriers that were in place even though speeds were in excess of 70 mph.. just bumps and bruises.

I should've mentioned that it was at a 20 deg angle too for the example I'd mentioned. That was an AASHTO test. True, vehicle manufacturers do design their vehicles with crumple zones, but with the variety of vehicles out there, and the wide range of ages of them, you can't design road features to encompass that many different vehicles.

That being said though, I do agree with you that at low angle crashes concrete will just guide someone down the road. This does produce a new resultant problem... there is now a vehicle that is potentially inoperable (blown tire, busted axle, etc...) in a driving lane. There might be a shoulder next to the barrier, but if something bounces off of it, any separation between the barrier and vehicle is how much it's probably sticking out into a lane. Now you've got an object out there just waiting for other drivers on their cell phones to not notice and plow into, since you're essentially in a big concrete chute with nowhere to escape.

If you're in a cable barrier section, it will probably just be a one car crash. The overall cost of this scenario is much less than the other, in damage costs, in repair to the barrier, to the car, and to the person. So you're right, it'll come down to money. For the politicians, each biker they have wanting something, they'll have 20 cage drivers wanting something else.

There will be pros and cons associated with any given scenario. With as many variables involved in traffic as there are, it's impossible to accommodate everyone. We just happen to lose out by the numbers. Less safe in the first place, fewer of us out there, and others who are oblivious to our presence on the road (which kind of lends to less safe). All we can do is try to ride aware enough to avoid the situations where we end up hurt. Though, as Ivan demonstrated, you can't always avoid the idiots. Speedy recovery, man.

[MartyA]

Ivan, very sorry to hear of your accident. I hope things work out well for you.

True that whatever penalty that kid gets may have no bearing on your recovery, but if the penalty does not fit the crime there is no preventive aspect to the penalty for others to consider when in similar situations.

Notwithstanding the safety aspects of excessive speeding on the highways, the penalties for breaking laws are intended to prevent people from breaking the laws. With the current ratio of LEO to citizens on the highway the odds are in the citizen's favor that they will not be stopped for speeding at any given time. Most states have escalating penalties for higher and higher speeds, so the speeders are weighing the odds (risk) of being caught with the amount they can comfortably pay (penalty) at whatever speed they might be caught at. Thus there is somewhat of a general "cap" on amount of excessive speed you see on the slab - citizens understand this and generally you see most traveling at +8 to +15 MPH (my observation on routes like I-95 and I-85 and I-80).

Suppose on an imaginary road the law states you can go up to 40 MPH over the posted limit and if you were caught it would be either an escalating fine or a $5 fine. The risk has not changed but the penalty has. What do you think that general "cap" of excessive speed would be on that same slab now? Since the penalty does not fit the crime you would of course expect a higher average speed.

From another perspective, if I were to publish stories that on this road all automobiles are fined at the $5 / 40MPH rate and motorcycles are fined at the escalating rate, imagine the chaos on that road. And everyone sees those stories. In this particular example, there now exists a tangible danger for anyone on a motorcycle. One can predict the outcome. One could even predict an increase of the occurrences of these bad outcomes. (Well, except maybe for legislators...)

The problem as I see it is the varying application of current penalties. It seems that across the country the penalty varies significantly regardless of the outcome depending upon if I turn left into an oncoming Yamaha or I turn left into an oncoming Toyota. There is a different application of penalties even if the cause was the same - "I did not see him." And automobile drivers know this.

This is discrimination, pure and simple. We have many many MANY laws and rules and regulation to prevent that, and penalties for doing it. So who is doing anything about this, and what can we do to help that effort?