Going 80 in a 70 is speeding, it needs to stop. Weaving through traffic is reckless driving, it needs to stop. And our enthusiast community should be setting the standard of good behavior. An example for others to separate street driving from performance driving. (Or maybe I should start wearing my helmet on the street too.) Opine.
Years ago I used to autocross 35-40 times a year, and I would travel to most events going 70 in the right lane in a 70 zone. If someone blew my doors off that early on a Sunday it was likely they were traveling to the same event. I'd note the car and make it a point to try to best them at the event ... my own little personal goal. It was often a very easy goal. :)
Good luck with that. The weaving bothers me as much as the speeding.
Eh.. Depends on the situation. 80 in a 70 with heavy traffic? yeah. Slowdown.
80 on some of the desolate highways through Northern / Upper Lower Michigan? I see no issue.
I would say the State doesn't either as they keep raising the speed limits. Quite a few Michigan expressways are 75mph now.
More so? People need to turn on headlights when it's snowing/raining. That is more of safety factor the speeding.
Opinion: Law enforcement is typically OK with up to 10mph over. Why aren't you? I personally feel most of the issues can be helped by people learning to merge. The right lane is miserable because people are constantly merging way below the speed of people in that lane. That drives people over a lane and creates a conflict between people wanting to travel various speeds in the left or left two lanes. The lane that often has space is the far right-which leads to weaving to get around people who should be in the middle or far right lane but are cruising in the left instead.
Suprf1y
PowerDork
1/17/18 7:00 a.m.
People moving too slowly is a far bigger problem than people doing 80 in a 70.
STAY RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS. It's 50 miles down to Atlanta from here, Most drivers are at a bit over 70 but when Someone doing 60 Pulls into the left lane and then Sit's there...... that messes my head up. But people going over 70 and just SITTING in the left lane, well that is the Same thing. STAY RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS.
Cool story.
Do 70 in a 70 here and you're either getting run over or having the police tailgate you to speed up.
Going to slow is a far larger impediment and danger to traffic.
I came down I95 yesterday at 82. I was passing 30% of the traffic, the other 70% was passing me.
Speed limit signs are mostly ignored on my part. I base my speed on the speed of other cars. That's far safer than breaking the flow of traffic because you want to obey the limits.
Regardless of your speed and the speed limit, if you are in the left lane and someone is behind you, clearly wanting to pass, you're going too slow. Get in the right lane. That fixes the weaving. If speeding bothers you, drive the speed limit and stay in the right lane. Let the police police.
Say that in Montana and you'll be laughed out of the state.
Weaving, however, has no place on the highway.
I am a criminal , I shall not reform
NOHOME
UltimaDork
1/17/18 7:52 a.m.
The speedometer has to be one of the dumbest instruments put in a car. Seriously, what useful purpose does it serve other than as a part of the predator/prey relationship that we have established with the cops and insurance companies? I have been blesses to have been driving MGs for most of my formative driving years. The speedometer on an MG will fail shortly after it leaves the dealers lot, and hence I never really got used to looking at the damn thing. Situational awareness or driving according to conditions and traffic flow has served me well for 45 years.
"Driving like a berkeleying idiot" should be a legal violation. And with today's artificial intelligence and GPS technology, your in car technology should be able to tell you to "Smarten up cause you are nearing violation territory".
The reality is that cars could all easily be relegated to a fixed speed by simple in car speed-control devices that read the local speed limit. I note already that my GPS issues an alert when I am exceeding the limit; imagine if all cars were made to travel at that legal pace. Cops would not be able to make payroll and insurance rates would skyrocket.
Years ago in Toronto, a young man was issued a speeding ticket for going like 15 miles/hour over the limit on the 401. In protest, he gatherered a few friends and proceeded to drive three-abreast down the same hwy using all the available lanes, only this time at the exact speed limit. The traffic backup was huge and the judge threw the book at them. Inciting a riot was the charge if I recall.
Pete
Robbie
PowerDork
1/17/18 7:52 a.m.
As has been mentioned, it's all situational. Speed limit signs don't change for traffic, weather, visibility, gravel, etc.
It's up to the driver to figure out the real safe speed at any given time.
Suprf1y
PowerDork
1/17/18 8:00 a.m.
Apis Mellifera said:
Regardless of your speed and the speed limit, if you are in the left lane and someone is behind you, clearly wanting to pass, you're going too slow. Get in the right lane. That fixes the weaving. If speeding bothers you, drive the speed limit and stay in the right lane. Let the police police.
I've said that here many times and been shot down for it every time.
The problem is always the other guy. Don't forget that.
Anyone driving faster than you is a maniac, anyone slower is a moron.
Don't even think of driving through Wisconsin. I had to caution my wife before switching drivers, beware there will be cars in both lanes next to each other for 50 miles at a time going 54 mph, you will want to push them or shoot your self. She was swearing within five minutes.
I think they see a car without a front plate and block it!!? Does Wisconsin even have front plates? A good rant anyway.
Duke
MegaDork
1/17/18 8:28 a.m.
NOHOME said:
The speedometer has to be one of the dumbest instruments put in a car. Seriously, what useful purpose does it serve other than as a part of the predator/prey relationship that we have established with the cops and insurance companies?
Because some people have absolutely ZERO idea how fast they're going without it.
Years ago I took a business trip with my boss, who was a terrible driver. The speedo in the rental car was intermittent, and we didn't really have time to go back and get a different car. After an hour of him wailing deep into turns, braking way too late and hard, and generally making me E36 M3 my pants on company time, I made him let me drive.
Two sides to every issue. I don't have a problem with someone going 10 over the speed limit, but I don't think you should be driving like an asshat because you feel it's your God-given right to get around slower traffic in front of you. It may be that grandma, with bifocals on her nose, in her 20-year old Crown Vic doesn't share your enthusiasm for speeding. Yes, slower traffic should keep right. Yes, impatient drivers should chill out and slow down. A little courtesy and respect for others goes a long way.
Down here it just seems like 50% of the people are scared to do 55 & the other 50% are scared to do less than 90. It gets a bit sketchy sometimes
It's strange around here, in the summer it's a fight just to get to 60 in the 55 zone. During rain or winter though, it's a struggle to not get run over at 70.
If police would consistently enforce the actual speed limit, the national conscious would know, "hey, that's the fastest I should go on this road." They don't so we drive 7 over. Within the context of driving, the US govt is seen as a hindrance more than a help and almost every American driver is thinking of ways to grab back as much freedom behind the wheel as we can get. Driving 10 over is our silent, peaceful protest.
Buy this book. https://www.amazon.com/Cannonball-Americas-Greatest-Outlaw-Road/dp/0760310904/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1516200431&sr=8-3&keywords=cannonball
Weaving does need to stop. We could really use a refresh of our drivers' ed system and adopt a more German view of highway lane discipline.
In reply to Crxpilot :
I agree that law enforcement on the matter of speeding is totally capricious and arbitrary.
You should get stuck in a Minnesota moron train some afternoon. See in Minnesota the only thing they teach in drivers ed is how to tailgate. At no point is a Minnesota driver ever taught how to pass. So eventually someone driving 53 pulls out in front of someone who wants to go 65, and the driver who wants to go faster begins his rolling emissions check of the slower driver. Moments later drivers 3 and 4 overtake the smog flog in progress and proceed to park their cars about 0.8 car lengths apart also at 53 mph, but now with extra hipster checking and weaving.
You, the out of state driver, come up on the back of the moron train and would like to pass like a civilized person. Unfortunately because of the spacing of cars in the train there isn't enough room between them to pass one car at a time, and there is never enough open road to pass the whole train. Your only two choices are to settle in to your position in the train and be punished by a tailgater who will get closer and closer to your rear bumper according to some weird formula based on how much following distance you have in front of you or to start passing cars and cutting them off every time you pull back in like a savage. Break checking when you pull back in is optional, but you will find yourself more likely to do it the closer you get to the front of the train.
However you decide there are two truths you will discover as you get to the front of the moron train: First, as you finally get to the front the rolling roadblock will invariably decide it's finally time to turn off your road and if they can't stop dead in the middle of the road for a left hand turn they will coast down over the course of a mile and a half to 0.023mph to make a right hand turn, solidly hugging the left half of the lane until the very last second. Second, if you do manage to pass the obstruction and reach the open road one of the train members, emboldened by your example, will pass the roadblock and end up behind you, whereby he will begin your rolling emissions check and according to the tailgating formula the open road in front of you will force your new tailgater to follow at about 6' of following distance.
Nugi
New Reader
1/17/18 8:59 a.m.
Crxpilot said:
Driving 10 over is our silent, peaceful protest.
Speak for yourself, my protests are seldom silent!
Well spoken. I think everyone here agrees on some basic points.
1. Ride your own ride, go at the pace you feel safe, based on car, conditions, and experience.
2. Don't put others in danger with your shenannigans. Most people just want to get home to their family.
3. Enforcement is not strict. This is both good and bad, but it is the situation in the USA. Disgression still seems better than zero tolerance.
4. Driving cars fast is fun.
How we choose to steer between those cones is our personal, and civic responsibility. Most of us try to 'speed responsibly' on the street, and take our real aggression out at the track. Seems to be a good compromise to me.