kgschlueter@violet.waterloo.edu (Kevin Schlueter) (05/10/89)
I was just wondering how much of a problem speed limits are. The police in the areas in which I drive always seem to use a fair bit of discretion -- ie they don't do much as long as you stay with the flow of the traffic. I'd hate to have to prosecute someone on the grounds that they were driving "unreasonably fast". There would probably have to be expert witnesses called in on both sides and the trial would go on for months. In some ways, speed limits are a restriction on our civil liberties in much the same way gun control laws are -- they lump together the irresponsible with the responsible. Canadians seem to have historically favoured these restrictions on civil liberties to protect the common good. Of course, the perfect speed limit system would take into account a driver's skill, his car and the road conditions. This really isn't possible, so we're stuck with the imperfect system that we have. Finally, I'm glad that people are continuing to discuss this "illegality" on the net. Freedom of speech is important too. Kevin Schlueter Dept. of Computer Science / Computer Graphics Lab University of Waterloo