dwerner151@verizon.net
Have you noticed how fast traffic moves when entering our rural villages, where the posted speed limits are normally 30 mph? This is also where enforcement sets up with radar. Measurements show speeds generally in the 40s as vehicles enter our villages. There is a reason for this, and it is called “speed adaptation.”
Tom Vanderbilt, in his book “Traffic — Why We Drive the Way We Do,” explains that the longer we drive at high speeds, the harder it is for us to slow down. The reason is that neurons in the brain that track forward movement begin to become fatigued as a person looking ahead drives at the same speed for a time. The fatigued neurons begin to produce, in essence, a negative “output,” which fools you into thinking you are moving slower than you actually are.