GPS Study Shows Drivers Will Slow Down, At A Cost

This does not surprise me. I have long predicted that insurance will inexorably be tied to GPS (granted, after I read of some trials a few years back) and it will become financially untenable to speed.

However, just personally speaking:

This would motivate me not to speed only if the penalty was unlimited. With a maximum "penalty" of $25/week, no I would not watch my speed under these circumstances. There are so many 35 mph speed limits that are patently ludicrous that to always limit myself to 40 on these roads would be almost unfathomable.

Also perhaps paradoxically, if I did have an unlimited penalty whenever I broke the speed limit, I would know that each time I break it I need to keep it broken; i.e. if I just "paid money" when I hit 45 in a 35 I'd be sure not to dip under that 45 until I absolutely had to, so instead of perhaps vaguely moving between 42-46 over and over I'd be sure it didn't drop, thereby avoiding another penalty event.

 

TV commercials for Progressive Insurance are now promoting a plug-in device to help customers save money. I can only think that it is a GPS device and/or coupled with the CAN system on the car showing data that dictates accel/decel rates and other inputs that aer related to safer driving. Personally I wouldn't mind being rewarded for better driving habits no matter what car I was driving. It's better than being lumped into a group of drivers that only have maybe 25% driving somewhat safely.
This is the good side of technology.

I also have personal concerns for GPS from a 'big brother' point of view as I just retired from an industry that recently based all their service vehicles on a GPS schedule. Another story for another day.
This is the bad side of technology.

 

I don't think it uses GPS, just accel/decel and similar type stuff: How It Works: Snapshot Discount, Usage-Based Insurance – Progressive

It will use GPS eventually--somebody will, it is the future of insurance. It will also make claims adjudication much, much easier because rates of speed could be used just prior to the accident, although I think most (all?) new cars have a black box that can give this, too.

 

Skoorbmax - I believe you are right.

 

This is fascinating research. I myself had a related but slightly different idea: Like a taxi meter, the cost of your trip should be displayed continuously somewhere on the dash. This might serve to reduce both speeding and excess driving. I think the Prius c has something like this on its MFD.

Also, do take a look at Daniel Kahneman's fantastic new book "Thinking Fast and Slow" about quirks in our cognition abilities. He is a Nobel laureate who won the Economics prize for his work in behavioral economics. He says that loss aversion is one of the strongest forces that motivates people. Seen in that light, the scheme described by there OP makes a lot of sense.

 

The article left out that it was 3 or 6 cents per 6 second segment.

From the paper (might be behind a paywall)
The Effects of External Motivation and Real-Time Automated Feedback on Speeding Behavior in a Naturalistic Setting

 

... that's ok, many drivers feel that way (who ultimately ended up being responsible for a speed related fatality) ... and sure as anything, they'd tell the responding accident investigator the same ol' thing ... how fast their reaction time is ... how great their driving skills are ... and how if only the victim hadn't done what they did ... it would have never happened. Yes, many think how the dumb the engineers are, who rate what different road speeds ought to be throughout the nation, and that they never seem to know what's best for road speeds. Yes ... at one time ... I was one of the same, thinking just like that. Taking it easy IS liberating ... and yes ... most will never know it.

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ah ha, looks like I was pre-empted!

Many? I dare say 99% of drivers would go 40 in a 35. You know as well as I do that although speed limits attempt to be a one size fits all that we are not all the same size.​

 

I know . . . . just sayin' . . .

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SGH-I717R ? 2

 

You must be the person who flies up behind me at ludicrous speed weaving back and forth and cursing at me as I try to follow the rules. You are probably also the one who screams past the school bus as it stops to pick up my children cursing about the stupid bus driver who made you late to work. Never mind that it was because you left late.

How dare these people slow you down, don't they know your right to break the law surpasses their right to follow it. Who the hell do they think they are!

I hope in the future you will be writing the Driver’s Ed text books to help our young people get off to any early start understanding how important it is to get there before anyone else does.(sic) I just hope you don't take anyone else with you when your recklessness comes to its inevitable end.

 

This must vary with local driving culture and local speed limit practice.

Where I live, in a signed 35 zone, at least 2% of drivers will be moving under 25 even when they aren't dodging bicyclists.

The penalty scheme in the OP seems quite generous. At the moment I can think of only one area road section where I'm at risk of losing anything. Overall, the scheme would allow me to speed up and still pay for my entire Prius fuel bill.

 

This type of incentive system would be terrible for the Baltimore Washington corridor. If you aren't going at least 10 over then you are impeding traffic. I don't like it but I'm going to go the speed of traffic.

 

Depends on the zone. There is a 40 near me that I generally go 40 at and even then I've seen enough close calls I wonder if its speed should be lowered. There is another 35 zone by me that should be at least a 45 and is so ridiculous to be 35 that cops are now posted on it nailing people left right and center because they all go about 50 (it's a comfortable speed for that road).

I know you're angry, but if you think that raging at me is going to make up for all of the dozens or hundreds or thousands of idiots you've seen in your life on the road, it won't. Care to tell me also how many moving violations you've ever had? I've received zero.​

It's always interesting to me how the only people who ever seem to be diligent adherents to speed limits exist online. I think it's just because they like to argue as pedants. In real life it is absolutely once in a blue moon I ever see a person truly at or below the posted speed limit. The one exception to this is on the highway where it's 65 and I do often see people at that speed (particularly 18 wheelers, who cannot afford to get moving infractions, as their livelihood depends on it).​

Don't forget, people, as you seem to be, that nobody expects people to go at the speed limit, not the engineers who identify appropriate speeds nor police who enforce them. There is in our culture an expectation of leeway. Although a person can get a 36 in a 35 ticket, generally police will give at least 5 mph leeway, if not more. It is like this on almost all roads. If the safe speed is gauged as generally 50, a speed limit of 40 or 45 will be put there, because everybody speeds, so the posted signs are lower.

I used to live near a road with a 20 mph speed limit. And trust me, that was ridiculous. As such, nobody ever, ever, ever followed it. We all went 35-40. Then the police started sitting there, so we'd keep an eye out for them. Eventually somebody wizened up and had the limited changed to 30. This way we could continue as we were before (we are all independent adults and a 20 mph speed limit in this situation was insane) and yet not have to double the speed limit.

 

I find that hard to believe; but since you asked I have had two, both received in my late teens and early twenties when I drove like you, stupidly.

Maybe I don't want tickets either. I am not just a diligent adherent online, but on the road where it actually matters.

So have you spoken with all the traffic engineers and police officers to come up with this information? I have spoken to police officers who vehemently disagree with you.

Of course there will always be a few speed traps, but if you don't want a ticket just follow the rules; if they are truly egregious point it out to your representatives and have the limit changed. Perhaps it is not as insane as you suggest. Suppose they simply want to reduce the traffic through that area. Why not choose a different route?

By the way I wasn’t angry until I read your attitude towards the rules of the road and it reminded me of the times I have seen that attitude almost end in tragedy. How would you feel if you were watching your child crossing the road to get on the school bus only to see someone travelling at a high rate of speed almost hit them because they were “in a hurry”? Well that happened to my wife and I one morning. I watched a horrific accident unfold in my rear view not long ago, when a speeding tractor trailer collided with a pickup truck trying to make a left turn into the same lane as the oncoming tractor trailer. Before you blame the pickup driver this happened on a very hilly road and the driver of the pickup couldn’t see the oncoming tractor trailer. The tractor trailer driver was going so fast there was no way he could stop. He knocked the pickup into an oncoming open jeep. The jeep rolled over 3 times before coming to a stop upside down in the middle of the road. Thankfully the jeep passengers and the pickup driver were obeying the law and wearing their seatbelts; if they hadn’t there most certainly would have been a fatality. I have seen and been effected by others like this that I won’t go into here.

You can drive any way you want. I can’t stop you. But remember it’s not all about you. We share the road with a lot of other people and we also share our lives with friends and family who I’m sure would rather not attend your funeral or visit you in a hospital. Just think about it.

 

Now a post about the actual article: There was a fuel economy meter in the car I had before the Prius and it was very sobering to watch your mileage go to crap as you stomped on the gas pedal. This was especially true when gas here in NY was over $4.00 a gallon. I believe that we should be harnessing our domestic sources of energy to help reduce our dependence on oil from countries that hate us. At least while we continue to search for and develop better and cleaner energy technologies. As part of that strategy we should be working to be more efficient with our energy use. To go along with that idea I think that fuel economy meters should be standard on all cars; if they were more people would slow down as they watched their hard earned money bleed from their wallets on the dashboard. Part of the reason I purchased the Prius was what I learned from watching that mpg meter. But people don't need a Prius to save fuel. If we all just slowed down to the speed limits we would be saving massive amounts of gas as a nation. This would reduce demand and create market forces that would lower our gas price. This would help everyone’s budgets, especially for those who need a large truck or utility vehicle to make a living. Farmers, construction workers, and contractors are the big victims of these high gas prices. They need the fuel to do what they do, and we can all help by using less and bringing the price down for all of us; Prius not required, but helpful.

 

Like the idea of charging drivers that like to drive posted more on their insurance... Forget rewarding those of us that are responsible....

 

Speak for your own culture, not mine.

There are major regional differences in driving culture. This is why certain license plates have bad reputations in other areas.

I don't claim that everyone here obeys the limits. A huge number don't, and that fraction is gradually increasing as more people move in from other areas and enforcement budgets decline. But many folks still do obey.

That fact you hardly ever see anyone obey a sub-highway speed limit speaks volumes about your local driving culture.