Got caught! Passing Black Mustang @ 93Mph

i swear by valentine 1's arrows, you can buy a used one on ebay for under $300, just make sure the auction lists the serial # so you can check on the valentine 1 website to see what features it has and if its stolen (yes, its the world's only carfax report for radar detectors)

 

requirements to get drivers license in Germany:

two years of school.

cost:

about $3000....license is for life. provided you earn the right to keep the license

why one can reasonably expect to drive 100 mph in relative safety while in Germany:

1)traffic laws designed to accommodate high speed drivers (how many times do you see someone driving exactly the speed limit in the far left lane? over there, that s a ticket, here...just a nuisance. for the very small handful of states where this is not true, exclude yourself from this rule)

2)courtesy AND training of the drivers on the road (probably the most important difference and by far the biggest reason why we can not drive 100 mph here)

3) roads designed for higher speeds and maintained...

 

Going 55 mph in the right lane in the slip stream behind a large truck, even my Peugeot goes 45 mpg. If I were to do 93 mph in the left lane, it would give me half the mileage. An that's only the first reason why I don't.
Second reason, spending 100% more gas would cut only 40% off the travel time. In theory. In reality less. Third reason, it would produce twice the amount of CO2. 4th reason, it's just so much more relaxing to cruise behind a truck than to fight with the other people in the left lane. 5th reason, life is often quite dangerous in the left lane.

I'm still waiting 3 more weeks before I get my Prius. I expect it would do about 50% better. I'm not going to spend the advantage by going faster, the Prius doesn't exactly encourage you to; which I think is another quality. Not to mention the CD changer.

Should I ever get a speeding ticket in the Prius (I've had one in 22 years of driving), at least I'll have a new set of excuses: "Computer error", "Well, you see, officer, I don't actually control the throttle, the Prius does." Etc.
It's not as silly as it sounds, the GPS should allow the car to know the speed limit and not let you exceed it.

If you read danish, read KarstenFilsoe.dk - Naaede de færgen?

 

You'll have to find me some data on that because its absolutely untrue. There are some highways in the US you could do those speeds on, but not the vast majority of them.

 

I'll take it back. You are right: it is probably about 90mph. (75 mph is minimum according to Interstate Highway standards - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

However, the number is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is that limits are random and blanket which does not make sense. For example, "advised speed limit", which in Germany is 80mph makes much more sense. If you get into an accident at higher speed, you may have to pay since insurance won't necessarily cover the damage. Correctly sent incensitive without imposing blanket limits. As is price of gas vs. blanket limit on consumption.

Some other reading for your enjoyment

Speed limit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Previous versions of the Green Book referred to design speed as the "maximum safe speed that can be maintained over a specific section of highway when conditions are so favorable that the design features of the highway govern"; however the 2001 edition removed the term "safe" in order to avoid the implication that speeds greater than the design speed were necessarily "unsafe."

A design speed is not a representative speed of an entire roadway. Rather, the road's design speed is limited by its most restrictive feature, such as a curve, bottleneck, or hill.
Actual roadway design may exceed the design specifications.
Current parameters for determining the design speed assumes the capacity of outdated automotive technology.
The stated design speed for a given road is usually not changed. Therefore, the design speed on older roads, which were calculated with older methodologies, may not factor in improved automotive technology which can maintain designed safety at higher travel speeds.

85th percentile rule
In the United States, traffic engineers may rely on the 85th percentile rule[3] to establish speed limits. The speed limit should be set to the speed that separates the bottom 85% of vehicle speeds from the top 15%. The 85th percentile is slightly greater than a speed that is one standard deviation above the mean of a normal distribution.
The theory is that traffic laws that reflect the behavior of the majority of motorists may have better compliance than laws that arbitrarily criminalize the majority of motorists and encourage violations. Most U.S. jurisdictions report using the 85th percentile speed as the basis for their speed limits, so the 85th-percentile speed and speed limits should be closely matched. However, a review of available speed studies demonstrates that the posted speed limit is almost always set well below the 85th-percentile speed by as much as 8 to 12 mph (see p.88) (13 to 19 km/h). Some reasons for this include:
Political or bureaucratic resistance to higher limits.
Statutes that restrict jurisdictions from posting limits higher than an arbitrary number.


German Autobahns - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The overall safety record of autobahns is comparable to other European motorways and motorways are safer than other road types. A 2005 study by the Federal Minister of the Interior indicated there were an equal number of accidents per mile on the autobahn in sections without any speed limits.

Getting Around Germany -- The Autobahn

Accident rates
Despite the prevailing high speeds, the accident, injury and death rates on the Autobahn are remarkably low. The Autobahn carries about a third of all Germany's traffic, but injury accidents on the Autobahn account for only 6% of such accidents nationwide and less than 12% of all traffic fatalities were the result of Autobahn crashes (2004). In fact, the annual fatality rate (3.2 per billion km in 2004) is consistently lower than that of most other superhighway systems, including the US Interstates (5.0 in 2003).

 

You'll get absolutely no argument from me. I know all that information already. I'm not saying speed limits are set properly (far from it). I'm just saying the Autobahn is not a good comparison because its designed for much higher speeds and its generally much better cared for.

Drivers in Germany are much better trained too.

 

If you drive just a bit faster next time you can skip the Mass and take the shortcut straight to Heaven

Z.

 

hahahahahahaha true. true.