On a stretch of the German autobahn heading to Frankfurt recently, I spent the better part of a day doing 180 kilometres an hour on a public highway. I was mostly in the middle lane, cruising past slower vehicles to the right.
To my left, much faster locals flew past at 200, even 235 and 240 km/h. I stayed out of their way, and felt completely safe. I would assume everyone else sharing the highway felt so, too.
And I wasn't in a super Italian sports car or some wonderful, low-slung $100,000 German sedan. No, I was in a Kia Sorento sport-utility vehicle powered by a 2.2-litre turbo-diesel engine – a Kia model likely to come to Canada in 2016.
So I was in a tall truck like the one you might use to take your kids to hockey practice or camping. Like all new models these days, the engineering in this Kia is so good, 180 km/h is a perfectly safe speed as long as the road and traffic conditions allow for it.
Safe, but not countenanced in Canada. If I were to get caught doing 180 down any highway in this country – even in ideal conditions – my car would be impounded and I'd face massive fines. I would almost certainly lose my licence for some time, and my life would generally be torn apart. This for doing something completely legal and safe in Germany, the richest and best-developed country in Europe.
Out on the autobahn, my mind turned to the latest hue and cry about speed limits and left-lane hogs in Canada. British Columbia has increased the maximum speed to 120 km/h on some highways and, as The Globe reported, British Columbia's transportation ministry plans to give police the tools to crack down on left-lane hogs, too. Finally, something resembling common sense from Canadian politicians. Wasn't it odd to see sense make big news across the country?
Surely these moves in British Columbia are not coincidental. About a year ago, sensebc.org tackled absurdly low speed limits, criticizing them in an online video titled Speed Kills Your Pocketbook . It went viral on YouTube. More than 1.5 million people have since been amused by 14 minutes of research and logic intended to shame regulators, the police and lazy members of the news media who, without thinking, parrot the phrase "speed kills."
A key point here is that speed does not kill. Bad driving does, and yes, unsafe speeding does indeed constitute bad driving. But speed alone is just a factor in the physics of motor vehicles in motion.
Which brings us to speed limits. Filmmaker Chris Thompson nails it when he says, "Many speed limits are set far too low for conditions and that seems to be where the majority of the ticketing is." Thompson cited a B.C. Ministry of Transportation report that argued "speed limits should be set so that a majority of motorists observe it voluntarily and enforcement can be directed to the minority of offenders."
Seems reasonable enough, if safe motoring is the priority. What if it's not? Thompson's argument is in part that speed enforcement in Canada is often about revenue generation, not just safety. Well, of course it is. Speeding tickets are worth millions of dollars to governments across the country.
Here's another key point in the speed debate and it, too, is nicely covered by Thompson: The vehicles we drive today and the roads on which we drive them are wonderfully well engineered. The cheapest car sold today has the steering, braking and overall handling of a sports car back in the days when most of today's speed limits were set.
My autobahn Sorento would easily lap, say, a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray Split Window. I've driven both, and I'm surely much safer at 180 in a new Sorento than a vintage 'Vette. More comfortable, too.
You'll never be able to do 180 in a Sorento in Canada, but 120 km/h in British Columbia is now legal on some roadways. That development and the new targeting of left-lane hogs looks to me like democracy in action. The sensebc.org video hit a nerve and reasonable B.C. politicians acted. It's enough to restore your faith in the system, no?
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