At 01:59 10/31/2001 +0100, Patrick J wrote:
>Fact are that ppl, even kids, die all over the place. Do we stop using
>cars/end hunger/war/ etc etc?

We don't, obviously, but maybe we could think about doing some of this
differently? :)

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>Since this cant be done I prefer the old system that has worked fine so
>far: the driver decided.

>Speed kills period. If we all drove 5 km/h all the time it would be safer.
>If none drove at all, traffic would be safe.

>Also I think I am able to decide when to go slow.

Basically, I agree with all of this. But to me, this sounds as if driving
at a speed higher than 5 km/h would mean that we necessarily and
consciously accept the risk of killing someone (with which I also agree).
If this were anything else besides driving a car, a resulting death of such
a risk would be handled as manslaughter -- but since it happened whie
driving, it's considered an "accident."

I never really understood this difference. To me, personal responsibility
is this... I guess if it were handled as manslaughter, we indeed would not
need any speed limits at all. You've got to look at speed limits in this
way: they protect you from this responsibility. No speed limits means full
responsibility... and full responsibility means that when you cause the
death of someone, you are responsible for it. There are not many drivers
around who actually would accept this responsibility.

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It's funny that mostly drivers of motor vehicles complain about excess of
regulations -- considering the fact that all these regulations are only
necessary in order to provide a relatively free flow of traffic for motor
vehicles. If we had no regulations, everybody could and would pretty much
do on the street what (s)he pleases (after all, it is public ground), as it
mostly used to be before motor vehicles, without much danger and without
disturbing much. After the arrival of motor vehicles, the drivers of such
found it necessary to regulate what happens on the street and what not.
This is the origin of our current traffic laws. (Well, maybe not the origin
-- I'm sure there have been regulations of some sort in some places before
motor vehicles --, but you get the idea... :)

In any case, the point is that the regulations in their totality serve
primarily the goal to keep the vehicle traffic flowing. Imagine no
regulations... you literally could not go more than 5 km/h, if you could go
at all.

ge

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