Devices for controlling speeding

Thomas Søbirk Petersen, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Speeding causes a significant number of avoidable deaths and serious injuries on our roads. These traffic accidents sometimes involve manslaughter or other criminal offences. This chapter begins with a presentation of various situational crime preventive strategies for combating speeding (e.g. police control on the roads, speeding cameras, and speed bumps). Despite many efforts of these kinds, people still speed. Therefore, more direct situational strategies to combat speeding are surely worth looking at. The chapter argues in favour of the view that, for virtually all vehicles (not police cars, ambulances, etc.), it should be legally mandatory to have a Limited Intelligent Speed Assistant (LISA) implemented making it impossible for the vehicle to exceed the speed limit. The obvious reasons in favour of this view are many. For example, a decrease in the number of road injuries and fatalities. However, the chapter offers and defends an alternative reason, based on the Principle of Required Prohibition. This principle, says roughly, that if the state through legal regulation of design X can significantly reduce the harm users of a design X do to others through the illegal use of X, then the state ought to regulate the design and production of P to reduce the harm users of P do others through P's illegal use. This conclusion is defended against objections such as claims that is it too interventionist and anti-libertarian.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEthics and Situational Crime Prevention
Number of pages15
PublisherRoutledge
Publication date1 Jan 2024
Pages127-141
ISBN (Print)9781032623764
ISBN (Electronic)9781040110805
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2024

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