how often do you try to beat people off the line?

Sadly yes

On my commuting route most of it is on two lane roads. A portion of it is on a road that has no shoulder pavement. Between the dear, bicycles, joggers, texters, and speeders crossing the line for better speed - it can be an interesting commute. In the five years or so on this route I have seen two dear hits (could have been three one night when I was feeling my oats in my old Baja), four cars that ran off the road, two "head-ons" when a driver crossed over the line, and good number of skid marks at a bike/hiker crossing. Add to that my personal cost of a wheel alignment, when I sort of missed the roadway in my Baja. Lucky it was not worse.

In the end it is knowing the road you are driving. Yesterday I learned that lesson well, had to ditch the beltway and took the backroad home. Between a long day at work and a late night at the future in-laws, I got cocky in trying to keep up with the flow of traffic behind me on unknown two lane road. Almost hit a corner wide with another car coming a bit wide as well... <yikes> slowed down to a more comfortable level, while trying to be kind to those behind.

 

Well It's not BS. You may not like it, but it is reality. If the flow of traffic on a major highway is 70, and you are doing 55 or 60, you are a potential accident. It may not legally be your fault, but you'd be the cause because the other drivers are not expecting to have to hit the brakes. Just my thoughts here, but slow drivers could have been the inspiration behind dynamic cruise control and crash avoidance.

Doesn't really matter why you're doing it. You may have the best of intentions, but there are always unintended consequences.

You are presuming that most people don't want to go faster but are forced into it. I believe that to be wrong. It's not that they are caving in; it's that they WANT to go +10. I have been driving around the country for some time now, and there are roads (mostly newer ones built in the last 15-20 years) that are built for speeds way higher than those allowed by the signs. New 4-lanes around here are huge banked roads with sweeping curves. They can easily handle 70mph.

Again, you have that right and it may look good on paper, but that doesn't change the reality of the situation. Like I said before, I don't really fault people for doing the speed limit. I'm more concerned with granny blue-hair doing 41 in a 60 zone.

 

Here in MS, every speed limit sign on the freeway clearly states the minimum is 40 MPH, so she is in the clear, same as me at 70 MPH, the upper limit.

 

but do you think that's safe? nevermind if it's legal for a second. is that safe?

 

Not BS, the law is the law... Regardless as to what others think... Folks want to go faster because of limited budgets to enforce the laws out there. They know their chances of being caught are limited. And fines for breaking the law are limited for their crime.

In the end better enforcement of the laws would limit the VERY FEW that I have seen driving way under the speed limit...

 

I think any reasonably good driver can manage to avoid a slower driver who maintains a steady speed in the far right lane, provided they are within the posted min/max limits of the highway. In my opinion, it's the erratic drivers who cause far more problems. Those doing well above the maximum limit or even the "flow" of traffic, frequently changing lanes, passing on the right, tailgating, passing with only inches to spare, sudden sharp braking, etc. It's pretty hard for even an excellent driver to avoid crashes with those on the other end of the spectrum, whether simply those in an extreme hurry or even worse, the impaired/distracted drivers. The person I can see well in advance and prepare to pass because they are actually obeying the posted law is the least of my worries if I feel I need to drive faster.

 

I drive 70, the upper limit for all vehicles. (no separate limit for trucks) I pass over 1/4 of vehicles I meet, (again, farm equipment, trucks and your occasional blue haired lady) and about 3/4 pass me (those going the same speed, I never meet) If you can't move left, I guess that is unsafe, but it is you being unsafe. It may be my good luck that I-55, the major north-south freeway in MS, did not replace US 51, it still runs next to I-55, siphoning off many slower vehicles.

 

Thanks, but I'm not a bad driver, at all. I'm approaching 400k miles now behind the wheel. 1 speeding ticket in 22 years. Never caused an accident of any kind.

I am a safe driver at a wide variety of speeds. I think a lot of people here have bought into the bumper sticker "speed kills."

 

Well, of course it does. The kinetic energy of a vehicle (and its passengers) before it crashes increases with the square of their velocity.

 

Gotta love the irony there.. I'll translate: "other drivers who are currently breaking the law, are not expecting to have to suddenly start obeying the law, and may cause an accident that is perceived as your fault".

 

Guns don't kill people, it is bullets that kill people. In a similar fashion, speed does not kill, it is the drastic deceleration at the end that kills people.

 

Here's some articles about how speed hasn't killed.

This one is from 99, 4 years after the national 55mph limit was abolished.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-346es.html

This one is from 09. I was on the stretch of Utah highway at 80mph last year. It was neat. I also think this relates to what I said earlier about highways being built for higher speeds. An interesting point in the article is that people did not increase their average speed when the speed limit was raised. I think both before and after, people drove at their comfort speed.
http://autos.aol.com/article/utah-speed-limit-tests/

The people who wrote this next article obviously didn't read the Utah article I posted just now. Even though the data supports that the raise in speed limit produced fewer fatalities, they just insert their own bias into the rest of the article with no foundation. Yellow journalism.
Youngstown News, Sometimes speed doesn&#8217;t kill

 

It is possible you may wish to read this article instead of just pasting it. Speeds did not increase in Utah, only the speed limit signs. No one is claiming signs kill people.

"When the maximum allowable speed was 75 mph, it reported most drivers doing between 81 and 85 mph. Given another five miles an hour to legally play with, a year of observation found that most drivers doing between 83 and 85 mph."

So the top speed went from 85 to 85. The bottom speed went from 81 to 83, which may not be measurably different.

 

Indeed! Speed kills MPG....

Some of us are not content with 50mpg or less.

 

I did read it. And I addressed that in my comment. Did you read my comment? the point is that here we are now at 80mph limits, and deaths have not gone up and people haven't freaked out.

 

From the experts on traffic losses:


IIHS-HLDI

 

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
-- Upton Sinclair