[cough]bull****[cough]

 

My truck starts chugging down gas above 70, and I really don't like driving much faster than that with it anyway. The thing isn't built for speed so I don't bother pushing it. It is bad enough hitting a deer at 55, and now thanks to recent conservation efforts we have turkeys (that fly and like to come thru windshields) to dodge as well...

 

Before the 55, Illinois open road speed limit was 70, even on 2 lanes. Now look at them - 55 everywhere except rural Interstates which are 65.

 

If your from Texas..... Give us our damn turkey back! You can have your damn rattlesnakes back as well.

WTF where we thinking trading turkey for rattlesnakes.......
Texas seen us coming on that deal!

 

I drive about 10 over everywhere. On road trips atleast 85 or beyond. Depends on the roads, conditions, time of day, traffic, etc..

 

I could be completely off base on this but for some reason I remember hearing about it. It is clear that states are allowed to set their respective speed limits, but I believe that if you adhere to some guidelines set forth by the government, some money in the form of a highway or DOT grant will be sent your way. The government obviously wanted the speed limit at 55, but the states regained their rights to do as they wish. If the states actually still follow the government guidelines though, I believe they would get some additional grant money.

 

When you are low on gass it is best to speed up and get to the gass station faster before you run out of gass.

 

The interstates were supposedly designed for 70mph speeds - and this was for a highway system designed and laid out in the 1950s!

IIRC, the law is that in each 5 mile section, there is to be a section straight enough and flat enough without overpasses to land and launch a plane, in order to satisfy the national defense criteria for which much of the interstate system was justified.

Fuel economy was the big and pretty much only reason for lowering speeds to 55. Even state highways used to be 65mph before.

Safety, eh, OK - yes, it's true, that if one hits a tree at 70mph vs. 55mph - there will be 62% more energy to be dissipated in the crash - much of this ending up applied to the human body.

Congestion is another consideration as was mentioned previously - the faster one can go, the less time one spends traveling. When this is summed up across many drivers - equates to fewer people on a given section of road.

I traveled in Europe a bit - the standard speed limit was 130kph - which is a little over 80mph. But by golly, when you were going that fast, you were doing nothing but driving - no eating, brushing teeth, piddling with the BlackBerry, yapping on the damn cell phone, etc. And it was a self-limiting speed, considering at the time (mid-90s), gas was $4 - $5 per gallon. People that could only afford a Fiat drove them as such.

Yeah, on the autobahns, there would be the occasional Mercedes that would blow by about sucking the paint off, but most vehicles traveled in the 130 - 160kph range. And there was an informal hierarchy. Little did I know that passing a Mercedes with an Opal station wagon was the same as a thumb-your-nose bitch-slap. Glad I didn't understand German, but the finger was pretty much universal! :-)~

IMO, you should be able to drive as fast as your wallet and tolerance for risk should allow. However, if the cause of the crash is due to loss of control of one's vehicle - the penalties should reflect one's incompetence.

 

When I first moved to Montana in 1971, there was no speed limit on interstate or major highways. It was that way for many years. Then the state was going to get hit financially for not abiding by the Feds, so they set a speed limit. But it sure was nice while it lasted.

 

Omaha Nebraska area, and you can keep your snakes.

 

Nope. If you're running out of gas, slow down to 55. It'll take longer time wise but you'll get the best gas mileage possible and travel further than if you were to speed up. Just a rule of thumb for about all cars, but ultimately depends on gearing etc.


The old rule that driving no faster than 55 mph to save on gas still works. This guy tested a Chevy Malibu, and got an average of 35 mpg. However when he went bit over 70 mph, the mileage dropped sharply -- to 25 mpg.

For every mile per hour faster than 55 mph, fuel economy drops by about 1 percent, the drop-off increases at a greater rate after 65 mph. The faster you go, the faster the fuel goes.

There are costs the slower you go, however. It took 49 minutes longer to make the trip at 55 mph -- three hours and 36 minutes total -- but it seemed like forever. Sitting in the slow lane on the highway, tapping the gas pedal to maintain a steady speed of 55 makes the car felt like it was traveling at 25. Click here to read all about the 55 mph test.

 

Im 18 got 3 tickets and honestly dont want anymore. now i got a raidar but i over drive 5-10 miles over. know the cops where i live, but honestly i think is the the small town police that get everybody. its just another tax we get to pay.

 

and where I got pulled over it was defiently a po dunk town in the middle of no where Texas.

 

is it a problem if I drive comfortably at 100 on a regular basis?

 

Me, I drive at whatever speed I feel comfortable at, be it 5 under or 15 over. Really, it all depends on conditions, traffic, and how I'm feeling. If it's the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, with no traffic on the road, I really don't see why I can't go 15+ over the limit. But if I'm going through a neighborhood street, I'll probably go 5 under, just because a kid could pop out of nowhere at any time. Usually, though I'll go with the flow of traffic, whatever speed that may be.

For example, there's this neighborhood near by here that has a 25-30 mph PSL 4 lane road (two each way), fenced off road (Alafaya Woods Blvd for those of you from around here.) I have no problem going 35 through there (obviously, slower if I see kids on the sidewalk.) Now, the streets that branch off from that road, into the little "subdivisions," those are marked at 25-20 I believe. There, if I'm even going at 15, I feel like I'm going too fast.

As a side note, I find it funny how the LEOs enforce only the 25 mph section of the road mentioned above. The way the road is set up, the 25 mph sections are on each end of the road. The 30 mph sections are in the middle, where you'd think most people would be. But nope, you'll see them there in the 25 mph section at the end of the month (at least that's when I've seen them, though I hear they like to frequent that little spot on a regular basis) enforcing that speed limit.

Speed limits in general I don't exactly know how they are determined. I keep on hearing something about an 85th percentile rule, though I don't know if that's how. I do know counties are supposed to do road surveys every so often to "update" the speed limit. Then there's the "artificial" speed limits that are set at a lower limit than what a road survey would call for. It is speculated that this is done so for revenue generation, but that's something else.

As far as the 55 PSL on interstates, I understand that was done mainly because of the oil crisis "back in the day" (at least for me )

I'm also an advocate of "move the F over" if you are not passing in the left lane (aka the passing lane.)

Of course, it's a little hard to compare America to Germany in the speed limit sense. From what I understand, it's a lot harder to get a driver's license in Germany than it is here. Here, as long as you can do a 3-point turn about, and park between some cones, you're good to g (along with some minor stuff.) Also, common courtesy seems to be lacking here. Of course, I've never been over to Europe, much less driven there, but from what I hear, it's a driver's paradise there.