Summary of Chapter

Section 1

The first part of the chapter is titled the Speed Ethos. Ethos means the behaviors or tendencies of people. In this section Roth talks about how speed identifies our society and how we live our life by the activities we engage in. We have gone as a society from foot, to horse, to buggy, to car, to speed trains to planes, to jets and even to rocket ships. We use speed to define our lives, and this has changed progressively due to the need for convenience. He says "speed as technologically Induced Social speed. Speed is relative to social settings."

Reaction

I feel this is all true. Our technological speed over the years and decades has either followed or initiated changes in our social speed. Due to automobiles we can live in one community and commute to another community to work everyday. This is often done in excesses of sixty miles for many people.

Section 2

In our society we expect to witness events as occurring rather than as occurred. There are services available that can get a package delivered overnight across the nation while we sleep. Letters can be faxed. Remote controls eliminate having to spend time moving to change channels. Words you will often find to represent services offered by business are Speedy Muffler, Minute lube, fast fare, Priority Mail, Rapid air. They advertise speed to the present day consumer.

Escape of our social speed has become a problem of its own. The terms rat race and the daily grind have been used to describe our out of control social speed for many people. People take leisurely drives out into the country to get away from it all. In every aspect of life we are trying to maximize speed. Car races, boat races, even the Olympics is a symbol of speed. Movies illustrate speed and its thrills. Restaurants are a great illustration of social speed today. You don?t even leave your car or park, you just drive through. Pizza is make quickly and delivered in under thirty minutes or your money back.

Vehicles are even advertised with their speed in mind. Having a higher rate of speed for a vehicle is a merit for a vehicle. The ability for an automobile to be able to handle at a great rate of speed is advertised. Highlight features include speed, acceleration and power.

Reaction

I fell that all this is true today that speed is advertised as something desirable. We now use the Internet to converse across the planet as fast as the phone allows us to. American enjoy watching sporting events live on the television like the Superbowl. The idea of cars being valued for their speed and power is still important, yet I feel that the trend is trying to focus away from that aspect and focus more on advertising for safety features like antilock brake system, airbags and the security of driving larger heavier vehicles like sports utility vehicles.

Section 3

Deciding personal speed limit. He argues that drivers take into account their personal rates of comfortable speed. They take into account, the car, the conditions, personal comfort driving at a certain speed and efficiency in getting where they are going. With the waves of fast flowing society pushing them along. "It should come as no surprise that most motorists select speeds with which they feel comfortable, meaning they break the speed limits. Drivers themselves are often not convinced of a causal relationship between speed and crash involvement, they tend to show little respect for, or rarely obey, what they consider to be unreasonable, irrelevant, or troublesome speed limits.

He then goes on to argue about driving speed. He states that it is obvious that a fast moving vehicle will result in more damage or death than a slow moving vehicle. You cannot however prove that faster moving vehicles will get into a greater number of accidents. He has a statistic from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Public Roads. "The agency reported that cars traveling at 35 MPH were involved in 600 accidents per 100 miles driven, compared with those traveling at 65 MPH which sustained fewer than 100".

Reaction

I feel it is true that drivers often disregard the speed limits on road often traveled and accept their own idea of what is a safe speed for them to travel at. On some open roads I feel that the limit should be higher and I tend to go what I feel is a safe speed for the environment. The road leading out to Aina Haina, Hawaii Kai, and Koko Marina I feel is meant for a 45 mph speed limit instead of 35 and I and other drivers around me tend to travel at 45mph or higher.

Section 4

Setting Speed limits. There are two questions Roth asks concerning speed limits. What is a safe speed? And how does a safe speed relate to the limit. He argues that the only way to prevent any Highway fatalities is to reduce all freeway traffic to 5 miles an hour. This however would not be realistic or conventionally efficient at all. It would be faster to ride a bicycle.

What is a safe speed is a question that lawmaker, engineers and politicians have all tried to figure out. "From an engineering perspective sagely effect of speed limits is largely unknown." Design speed is what engineers refer to. " Speed at which on a good day with good weather and low traffic density, a driver with average ability is able to drive safely without losing control. The idea is to set the speed limit at the 85 percentile of the design speed. Accident risk greatly increases at speeds above and below this percentile rank. Roth argues that they have no proof of this 85t^h percentile being the safest and that this speed is no longer relevant with the greater technology in car manufacturing.

Speed variance and safety also seem to be an issue. The cars traveling at higher or lower than the mean speed on a freeway are the ones that create the risk for other drivers and vehicle. Roth argues that most accidents occur when vehicles have to speed up or slow down. If everyone goes the same speed especially in the left lanes the likelihood of accidents will decrease.

Reaction

I feel that today our vehicles are meant to be able to handle speeds much higher than those in the past. Vehicles are meant to crunch and take the impact. Antilock brakes make breaking hard safer and more efficient, and air bags and seatbelts help protect drivers and passengers.

Conclusion

Roth feels that driving speed of individuals is a learned response. We learn it as we grow up being passengers in cars.

Reaction

I feel this is true, that we learn the social speed of our parents and then maybe even increase it as we get older.

 Questions and answers about chapter

I do agree with Roth?s idea that speeding on roadways is correlated to the increased social speed. I can argue this by stating that things happen faster in every aspect of life and that driving is just one of them. We transmit information faster, we fly faster and we do more tasks in a day, therefore we would need or rather want to go to more places in a shorter amount of time.

I do feel that speed is learned. Speed as social speed or as the fact of actually going fast in an automobile is partly learned and partly innate. Humans have a need for speed that has driven us to bring technology to this level, yet we as the next generation have learned that it is alright to push this need for speed from our parents/society.

I don?t feel that the 85^th percentile makes sense. It is impractical to actually find the 85^th percentile from an engineering perspective or any other for that matter.

I think that practically this would be a great idea. It would greatly reduce the risk of regular people speeding. However others would find a way to make their cars go faster or they would make their own cars. Also I would not like to give the government too many rights. Limiting more things concerning the automobile will control society even more. Since the automobile is such a part of our society.

 This is true, fine itself is not always important to all, especially those who can afford it. The social indignification can be a strong motivator as well.

Yes I think that phone and Internet is inferior to face to face interaction. I often enjoy talking in person with people while eating, or drinking, but I rarely talk and chat on the phone with people who are closer in proximity to myself. I would rather interact with these people in person.

 My reaction and those of my classmates 

My reaction during the presentation was great, I felt that everyone in the class was interested in what was being said. For one thing I know everyone in the class drives on occasion. Everyone also has to deal with the issue of following speed limits. I felt it was interesting how the speed limits are decided and I think many others thought so also in class.

From the other students questions I can see that they were paying good attention to what was being discussed by me. During the presentation Dr. James had a few questions about what was being discussed concerning the 85^th percentile. It was a little confusing in the book. Roth did not explain the idea straight out but rather jumped around and on top of the idea. This made it hard for me to present it to the class.

How do I compare to my class mates 

Suggestions to future generations