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Mandatory speed limiters come into force in the EU and Northern Ireland (eandt.theiet.org)

submitted 4 months ago by neme@lemm.ee to c/europe

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[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Nobody is free to do whatever they want. Never had been.

There is a balance between freedom and security. Rules restrict your freedom but provide you with security.

It is childish to expect absolute freedom. When there is a new rule coming up, you have to think to yourself "is it worth it the freedom I'm giving away for the security it provides?". There are some rules 99+% of people can agree on, like "should people be free to murder other people?" The answer is most of the time "no".

For example, in Spain a recent law is introducing a "wankport". So soon we'll have to ask for our government for a key to access porn. With a limited 30 accesses per month. Their reasoning is "porn is bad for children!". Do I think that that is worth it? Absolutely not. It's completely baseless and it punishes adults to restrict the kid's behaviour.

There is an endless list of reasons why cars being too fast is bad though. They emit more noise, the emit more CO2 and other harmful gases, they release more microplastics, and so on. They also increase both the chance of accidents and their lethality. They wear more the roads and a miriad of other reasons.

What is the freedom you give away for cutting off all of those harms? Arriving 5 seconds later than usual to your workplace. Saving 5 minutes on your multi-hour trip. Is it worth it? Yes.