What’s A Safe Highway Speed?

Now that Football is back, I have a few weekly hints!

 

One were you don’t get a ticket

 

That's not a perfect science. I got pulled over in Georgia going 88 in a 70 zone in 2017 or 2018, and got a ticket. Then I got clocked at 98 a few years later and got a warning.

Depending where you are, it generally seems like 10 or 15 over is the threshold.

 

Pretty refreshing to get a safety lecture on thread where pretty much everyone admitting to push that little pedal harder and deeper and they deserve a medal for this incredible achievement, because no one else could!

 

It appears the point is missed again, which also explains why some have difficulty understanding other basic concepts, such as speed limit!

Let me explain again, slowly this time: IDGF how fast everyone else wants to go as long as it doesn't impact me and my safety. But we all share the same road and I use the left lane to pass too, and you simply cannot push me to an unsafe speed or a potential ticket simply because you feel cool!

 

You’re welcome.

Please take it to heart before you and someone else end up getting into a contest where there are only losers.

 

This is what I thought, I just hadn’t had a chance to really get it above 70. I’m really glad I asked the question because all the advice has been right on target with my thinking. (One or two exceptions….lol).

 

You say you don't care how fast anyone goes and yet you also say that when you encounter someone speeding in the left lane you purposeful impede them. Off your meds this week?

 

I understood the OP to mean: If someone is going to be aggressive and ride his bumper within inches and flash their headlights while he is rightfully passing a car, he really doesn’t care.

 

I agree, to an extent. It's fine if you're passing someone at a reasonable rate. But, if you're going 75 trying to pass someone going 74.5 and holding up traffic, give it a little extra gas and get out of the way.

If people are uncomfortable with a little speeding, they should either match the speed of the other traffic in the right lane, or stay off the freeway.

 

This. I'm sorry, but if the person is doing 20 or 30 miles (or even more) over the speed limit, then I am not getting out of THEIR way, they can go around me. I'll keep doing the speed I'm doing.

 

Yeah, I'm referring more to the typical 10-15 over passing speeds. Anyone going 30 over better be looking ahead and prepared to slow down.

Well, anybody traveling on the freeway at all should be looking ahead and prepared to slow down, really.

Anyone going that fast would probably be in the left lane. If there is room for them to go around you in the right lane , then you should be in the right lane. If you are camping out in the left lane and not in the process of passing someone, then you are creating a potentially dangerous situation.

 

Yeah, tailgating in the right lane is absolutely wrong. Passing on the shoulder is a psycho move, although my brother did it once when he was driving me to work and I was late. (this is when we were kids)

I remember dating a girl when I was younger who would tailgate people in the right lane, and I probably would have told her she was an idiot if I wasn't trying to get into her pants.

 

I really like the if you’re holding up traffic passing you are creating a dangerous situation, but yet going over 10 to 15 isn’t creating a dangerous situation.

when I set my cruise and move over to the right to pass, I’m not changing for no one.

 

Limits in CA are only 65 or 70 so I go about 5 or 10 over max in any car I'm driving. In an 80 zone I'd probably go 80. Faster is less efficient and the mileage drops off quickly.

I don't really care what others are doing and just keep it in the slower lanes. However in CA, most are desperate to get home to snort copium and are always hauling ass in any lane.

 

Just an FYI. If they are frantically flashing while going 30 over please move over as soon as you can. It may be someone dealing with a life or death situation and cant get through the middle or right safely, so please move out of the left laine.

 

See, you assumed I would be in the left lane and in the slow lane on the far right. I have had this happen to me when I was in the 2nd to left lane. I was speaking in generalities though. Nine times out of ten, it isn't an emergency, it's just some jerk wanting to go faster then me while staying in the same lane.

However, if it's an emergency VEHICLE...then yeah, I pull over right away and give them all the room they need.

 

Didn't necessarily assume, just wanted to point out because regular people can have emergency's. I clarified left laine to imply highway since you can pass on a 2 laine. But yeah, majority of people are just in a BS hurry. My apologies.

I had an emergency many years ago where i had to get to my daughter-in-law who woke up next to her dead boyfriend and no matter how i flashed this one guy (wasn't even heavy traffic) he wouldn't move out of the left laine, so i had to swing way over to the right shoulder to pass. Such a scary day.

 

There is a fine line between passing and camping in the left lane. If people can pass you on the right, you should not be in the left lane.

 

Why not just move out of the idiot's way? Let traffic flow unimpeded. You'll get a friendly wave instead of The Finger. And another obscure law requires that you move over to the right lane if overtaking traffic signals in some way that they need to pass. (Of course, it is also illegal to flash your lights and honk your horn if you don't have a genuine emergency.) The law doesn't say anything about how fast YOU'RE going; it just says move to the right.

 

On the Autobahn, you can get ticketed for flashing your headlights.

The trick is to keep your left blinker on...but here's the thing: people execute their pass quickly, and then get back over. There's not this tendency to take a mile (or more) to pass someone like we have here.

 

If they can go around you, you are being the problem. You're supposed to keep right except to pass.

 

There’s so much entitlement being expresses here it amazes me.

 

I have to assume you're referring to the folks who have no respect for the flow of traffic.

 

In SoCal, 10 over is pretty much the sweet spot. As long as you are going with the flow of traffic you generally won't get noticed.

I'm generally more concerned with the terrible drivers on the road than CHP

 

I’m no Boy Scout. I speed all the time. But no one is obliged to exceed the speed limit for my convenience. If I come up behind someone in the left lane and want to get by them I might wait for them to get out of the way. If they don’t notice me I might give a quick flash of the lights or a beep-beep of the horn. But if they are slow to react I don’t get upset. Not if they are driving at the speed limit. We all learned the overriding principle that we follow the posted speed limit or whatever is safe. But you guys have turned the intent of that upside down. It’s the slower cars that determine what is safe, not the faster ones. If you are over the speed limit you have lost the moral high ground. If there’s an unsafe condition arising from a disparity in speed, it’s always the faster driver’s fault.

 

Lost track when my wife retired. Now she gets up and tells me: Go to the gym, or Dr's appt, or............

 

Nobody is obligated to exceed the speed limit for my convenience, either. Nor have I ever said they are. I just ask that people use the lanes as they they are intended.

The right (slow) lane is for people who are not in a hurry. I don't go into the slow lane and tailgate people. Anyone who does is an asshole.

The left lane for passing. I also don't hang out in the passing lane when I'm not in a hurry. I will still pass slower traffic, but I'll pick up my speed so as not to slow down others.

In situations where there are extra lanes, those are generally cruising lanes. I also do not tailgate in those lanes.

It's not about morals. It is about courtesy. It is not courteous to hold up traffic just because you believe your chosen speed is the appropriate one. People can drive as slow as they want in the slow lane as long as they are at or above the marked minimum speed, or whatever is appropriate for the conditions.

 

Whenever you make a judgment about another driver aren’t you considering the moral high ground? You do it all the time.

 

This is proving my point about entitlement.