Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 April 21

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April 21

Incidence rate of car crash for new drivers on the highway

Given that the highway requires vehicles to travel at or above 55 miles per hour, what is the incidence rate for new drivers to get a car accident? 140.254.229.116 (talk) 13:40, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

Do you mean for Ohio, the whole of the USA, or world-wide? According to [1], 16-20 year-olds in the USA are four times as likely to cause an accident by their driving, compared to other groups, per mile driven. LongHairedFop (talk) 14:57, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

I think you are misinformed. Here [2] is a summary of all 50 state's speed laws. Most of them have language like "the state may establish a minimum speed limit on a public way" and "No person shall drive in such a manner as to obstruct unnecessarily the normal movement of traffic upon a highway." There may be a few places in the USA with a 55 minimum, but that is not a the general law anywhere in the USA. Most places I've seen a posted minimum speed limit (WP:OR) it is listed as 40 mph. SemanticMantis (talk) 21:01, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

It is more dangerous to drive at 40 mph on a freeway than with traffic. Unless there's no traffic at all. Then 40 is safer. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:26, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

Do you have a reference for that claim, or do you just "feel" it's more dangerous to drive at 40mph on a freeway? Does driving at 40mph on the freeway actually causes more accidents? Or is it just annoying and inconvenient? I'm not claiming it IS safe, I'm just saying I wouldn't take it for granted without seeing some reference to back it up. Vespine (talk) 23:31, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

[3]. [4]. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 00:25, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

In my city, I can hardly get up to 40 mph on the freeway, and traffic often moves in the 25-35 mph range (bad planning, growing city, etc.). Context is important, and this is why most state laws talk only about impeding traffic and don't post absolute minimum speeds. SemanticMantis (talk) 13:56, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Then you're moving at the same speed as the 0-40 mph traffic (slower would be too annoying to even consider!) so that can't be a problem. So it's a good thing there's usually no 40 mph minimum then. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:50, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Presumably any min speed limits have exceptions for where weather or traffic or other hazards preclude travelling safely at that speed. StuRat (talk) 22:53, 23 April 2016 (UTC)