How Fast Do You Drive?

[Reeve]

Yesterday on the way to work, I witnessed someone driving around 90 MPH in a 60 MPH zone (freeway), so to get around all the other cars they were weaving around like crazy. That in itself isn't so terribly unusual I guess, though I don't see it that often these days, but this particular person was doing this on a spare tire. What kind of moron decides to attempt Grand Theft Auto videogame driving on a car that doesn't even have all 4 normal tires?

[Xirrohon]

So I'm not from the US, but I'm currently here because of University. Where I'm from we don't usually have a "properly" enforced speed limit. (There's a speed limit, but chances of being stopped are like... 0).

Anyways so I was driving along a 35 MPH zone, and me, not wanting to get a ticket, was driving at around 36 or 37. Then there's this other dude next to me that just speeds past me at like 42 or 43. So I'm wondering, how fast do you guys drive? Do you stay close or under the speed limit like me? 10MPH over? etc?

You cant really compare what happens in other countries, esp European countries with US traffic system. Europeans use public transportation a lot more than Americans. There are nearly as many vehicles as people in the US. Its a bit absurd. I lived in Germany for 3 years and whenever I would go out for a drive, I would rarely see any other privately owned vehicles on the road. Therefore there isnt much need for speed limits on the highways. The towns always had enforced limits, also Germany is quick to take a photo of you on the small areas that do have speed limits.

Personally, I would be considered a slow driver since I rarely go more than 10mph over the speed limit.

[Reeve]

Well your speedometer reads 4-5 mph off your actual speed (it will say 70 when you're actually doing 65), they always read over. You'd be surprised the amount of people don't know this.
Anyway speed limit, is a limit and not a target. Seriously, drive safe.

By law, new vehicles have to have a speedometer within 2.5% of the real speed. That means if it says you're doing 65, the fastest you should be going in reality is 66.625 MPH, not 70.

Of course if you get new wheels/tires with different diameters, this will of course change, but there isn't some manufacturer conspiracy to make your car appear to be going faster than it actually is.

[Orlong]

Always 5 MPH under the speed limit. I would prefer not to have a ticket, and Im not a criminal. Just in case my speedometer is miscalibrated I play it safe

[vaeevictiss]

No, I'm not. I'm driving a 1.6 litre. You're still well over 4000 RPM driving at 120MPH.

maybe your car. Every car is geared differently. Many cars are built to run at those RPMs as well.


as far as speed, im normally doing at least 5+. Hell on my commute up 95 north the speed limit is 65-70 and i drive 80 and still have people flying by. doing 80 in the middle lane because the left is still hauling ass is funny. The police dont even bother since there that is just the normal flow of traffic. Ironicly, its when the police do pull someone over you get the two hour long traffic jam because of it.

If people do the speed limit im fine with it, i can deal. its the people that drive under the limit that there is just no reason for. If i was a cop, id probably pull people over for driving 5mph under the speed limit than 5 over. Its impeding the flow of traffic, and it is a ticket-able offence.

[Deleted]

Always 5 MPH under the speed limit. I would prefer not to have a ticket, and Im not a criminal, just in case my speedometer is miscalibrated I play it safe

And you would greatly anger me on my commutes!

[Orlong]

Maximum speed in Australia on roads is 110KM/H

Though I tend to stay 10KM/H above the speed limits in zones. And where I live it tells where there is speed cameras, so I slow down for those area + I know where they all are anyway.

They should have speed cameras every half mile on US Interstate highways. We could lower taxes with all the money we would rake in from the law breakers

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

Out of state, I will stick to speed limits (or very close to them). I have seen people pulled over for just a couple over with out of state plates, but the people with in state plates going 10+ over is no problem. In Ohio, even having Ohio plates, I will stick to about 5 over, weather depending. The only time I go exactly the speed limit here is school zones.

[Reeve]

Always 5 MPH under the speed limit. I would prefer not to have a ticket, and Im not a criminal. Just in case my speedometer is miscalibrated I play it safe

Wasn't it you who started that thread complaining about all the slow bicyclists slowing down your commute?

[Daerio]

Wasn't it you who started that thread complaining about all the slow bicyclists slowing down your commute?

You aren't about to take him seriously, are you?

That's a mistake.

[grimsanta]

Highly depends on the area. In my state, anything less than 5 over is an infraction, which is no points against your lisence and a very, very small fee, so cops generally don't enforce 1-5 over. However, some towns will pull you over right at 5 over.

The city I live in has it's crime problems though, and it's nearly impossible to get pulled over for a traffic violation unless you are in the bad part of town. Pretty much every cop you see in the nice part of town is just on their way to the bad part, ignoring everything that happens on the way.

So I literally drive 15 over everywhere in this city. And everyone else here does too.

[Orlong]

And you would greatly anger me on my commutes!

Why are you in such a hurry? You should leave plenty early when you go somewhere

- - - Updated - - -

Wasn't it you who started that thread complaining about all the slow bicyclists slowing down your commute?

Yes, and bicyclists are much slower than the speed limit. Usually 30 to 40 MPH slower

[Deleted]

Why are you in such a hurry? You should leave plenty early when you go somewhere

Or we're locked to timescales due to work and only commute at certain times.

When i'm going home, and conditions are fine and the road lacks visibility to overtake, and you needlessly increase the time it takes for me to get home, then i feel frustrated.

[Deleted]

I normally go faster than light and sound, so I left this reply to be posted today 6 years ago.

[Ave07]

You can drive 60 MPH in 45 MPH zone as cops do not care unless if its a school zone.

You can also do 80 MPH on the highway as the speed limit is 65 MPH and cops still won't care.

Driven from Miami back to West Palm 80-90 MPH for the last 3 years since I started working and I have yet to be pulled over.

This is South Florida so other parts of Florida could be different.

[Blueobelisk]

New York has the highest cop-per-citizen ratio in the country. It's 4x the average. LA is 2x the average.

There's a LOT of cops in New York.

Oh sorry. I meant like. Less cops just staking out to give speeding tickets.

[Reeve]

Yes, and bicyclists are much slower than the speed limit. Usually 30 to 40 MPH slower

So it's OK to slow down the guys who want to go 15 MPH faster than you, because you have a legal right to go that speed, but it's not OK for bicyclists who have a legal right to be there to slow you down?

[Ghostpanther]

And you would greatly anger me on my commutes!

Road rage is not a good thing. Ever. But that being said, a person can drive too slow in some situations and be the cause of accidents even. One reason on the Interstates there are min speeds too in a lot of cases. Not saying 5 mph under should be a issue. In most cases it is fine.

[Tradu]

Don't drive much, but when I do I just stay at the speed limit as much as possible(I generally try to avoid running people over, even if it means slowing down a bit). Mostly out of habit from driving lessons(only had my license for just over a year), and because I have no reason to drive any faster, it only shaves off a couple of seconds up to maybe 1 minute in the end anyway when going the places I usually go around town, and if I'm driving further than that... it's multiple hours anyway, I don't care about shaving off 10 minutes or whatever.
Sure, I could go up to 30% over the limit without having to really worry about the police, but why bother?(yeah, I don't get why there's a speed limit and then you still get to go 30% faster than that here in Denmark)

[Deleted]

if I'm on a lonely highway in the middle of nowhere? fuck the speed limit
but generally I don't speed

- - - Updated - - -

I assume this sort of thing differs from state to state and country to country, but I read about this a bit once where it was saying that like...

So there's the speed limit, which is what's on the signs. Simple enough.
Then there is another thing where like, if you're over the speed limit but not by much, and on a long, straight, wide and empty road in broad daylight with nothing in sight then it's like safe or whatever so you might not get pulled over and even if you do you can probably get out of it by arguing it was safe or something I think.
Then some other thing where like, if you're in, say, a 50mph zone but it's in the middle of the night so it's really dark, and it's also foggy, and it's freezing cold and raining / snowing so it's icy, then even if you're going under the stated speed limit, it's still considered an unsafe speed and you could get ticketed for it apparently.

For me, in residential areas I tend to try to stick to the speed limit. Some people are gonna break it for sure, and some will even get pissy with you if they think you should be going faster but there's not a whole lot they can do. If it's on like, a motorway or something that's pretty empty and it's in good conditions then I'll break the speed limit by up to 30 mph if I'm in a hurry. Like if I could crash and kill no one other than myself kinda thing.

If there are lots of other cars or any infantry around though, speed limit always. Though, it's pretty easy to feel out whether or not you are in control of the vehicle. If it feels like you're not, slow down, regardless of speed limit.

I've been pulled over for speeding once, was going at 35 in a 30 (though it was on the fast lane of a two lane road with no central reservation) but it was late at night on a saturday. I didn't get a ticket, the officer just wanted to check if I'd been drinking, so I guess it wasn't unsafe or anything. He asked if I knew how fast I was going, I said yes, he asked if I had been drinking, I said no. He asked if I'd ever been breathalised before, I said no. He passed me the thing, and said "well, if you pass this i'll let you go with a warning" and I said "Do I suck or blow?" (IT WAS THE ONLY THING I COULD THINK TO SAY - WAS WATCHING MISFITS AROUND THAT TIME) but he played it cool. Let me go in the end as I was sober.

It was an unmarked car too, which I was a bit bummed about.

hahaha he should have said why not both pretty girl