The Next Big Paradigm Shift in the Automotive Landscape...

With all the interest in self-driving and electric cars, one specific area in the transportation landscape does not yield much glamour, but upon further inspection, could see a real revolution. That area of transportation which has substantial room for improvement, and could be fixed as soon as the laws allow, happens to be speed limits and the resulting traffic management. We live in an age where Youtube has a self-learning algorithm behind it that, despite its foibles, manages to function at a level that would be unthinkable just 5 years ago. So wouldn’t it only make sense then, to have the computers help create a speed limit that actually makes sense for a given level of congestion and weather and road conditions? I also have a radical idea which I call the “blue chip policy” which would allow certain vehicles to travel faster during certain periods of low congestion and fair weather conditions. It might not have the allure of Tesla, but revolutionizing our speed limits could be the radical change we need in the transportation sphere.

How Variable Speed Limits Could Revolutionize the Driving Experience

Regularly, speed limits have to be set once and then not changed for quite some time, and this is whether they are set by bureaucrats, elected officials, or by qualified traffic engineers who actually kind of know what they are doing. With the right algorithm and reasonable parameters set by generous traffic engineers, we could have a speed limit that’s accurate in real time. These speed limits could also be visible to both drivers and law enforcement electronically. The greatest positive side effect of this system would be allowing for the optimization of traffic flow. We all know that feeling when the speed limits feel less accurate because the roads are empty and conditions are perfect. Who is to say that it isn’t safe to drive 90 mph on a clear open straight road? What a variable speed limit system could do is make this practice legal to an extent. It can also make it easier to know what the law considers to be a “safe speed for the conditions”. This system would drastically decrease the number of arrests and could inspire trust in speed limits, which is currently quite low. Variable speed limits would also be a good compromise between libertarian and institutionalist views on the subject. If we are arresting fewer people who don’t put the public at risk, aren’t we succeeding? You would also be able to get places faster in certain circumstances, and there would also be fewer accidents during congested traffic. Now that I set out some reasons (by no means conclusive) why a basic Variable Speed Limits using an algorithm and traffic engineers would be a positive change, let’s take a look at that “blue chip program” I proposed earlier.

Take the Blue Chip

What I have so dubbed the “Blue Chip” program would allow certain vehicles with superior capability to travel closer to autobahn speeds on select highways under uncongested traffic during fair weather conditions. Such a practice has been in practice in a sense in places like Germany, even though not in law. However, the practice could be enhanced when paired with the aforementioned algorithm based variable speed limit. If you want to go the self-driving car route, which is not what I want personally, this could even allow for speed limits to be tailor-made for individual cars and their capability. This could also be a tiered system which would allow for levels for slower classic cars, 4x4s, ‘regular cars’, sports cars, luxury saloons, and super sports cars (approximately an Audi S4 up to the hypercars). The limits would be more based on handling and braking distance than the actual top speed of the vehicle if we were to do this logically. Some might call this elitism, but I’d say this could go someplace interesting.

Possible Drawbacks, Flaws, and Conclusion

While this system sounds great, and it would be, I will admit there is much room for this system to break down or be difficult to implement. The first problem is that government probably wouldn’t relish relinquishing power to citizens and computers who know what they are doing. Some politicians would rather play off of speed kills advocates than create a workable system. Second of all, police forces would lobby against this plan because this would inevitably take away some of their revenue from tickets (which at the moment are tantamount to government-sponsored theft). Then you have to consider how much money this system would cost to implement and upkeep. Inevitably this is something I would like to see on all roads that are currently 35 mph and above (about 55 kph). That would require a massive network and a lot of power depending on whether we go for lots of physical digital signs or not. One solution for the power could be powering signs partially by wind and solar, though that would only be able to power the LEDs on the sign at most. If we sprang for a solely wireless speed limit distribution, aftermarket devices would probably be necessary for some cars. Also, the algorithm necessary would have to be one of the most impressive to date and would have to run on upper echelon equipment. Still, I have hope that the recent push for infrastructure spending could be a step in the right direction. This project could potentially employ thousands of workers and lead to greater economic efficiency in the long term. This is something I see proliferating within the next 10 years and possibly becoming a serious proposal 10-20 years from now. I think variable speed limits are just too good an idea to pass up. As much as I loathe self-driving cars, they would also work better within this system. There’s a lot stacked against variable speed limits, but I hope this could one day become a reality. For a rebellious petrolhead like me, it’s the next best thing to having no speed limit at all and could restore justice to our streets.