Posted speed limits. Maximum allowed or minimum required?

[jandrok]

Poll question: Posted speed limits. Maximum allowed or minimum required?

Seems to be that posted speed limits are more like suggestions these days. I usually drive about 5 miles above the posted limits, but people just keep passing me like I'm standing still. Driving to Houston over Thanksgiving was horrendous. There were people out there pushing 100.

[bif]

1. How about General Guideline?

I tend to go 5 over.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. I usually go 5-10 over the limit.

Of course, if I'm regularly getting passed as if I'm standing still, I'll start going a little faster. After all, it ain't gonna be me they pull over - it'll be the jackass that blew by me going 100.

[Hobarticus]

3. Five over's pretty reasonable...

Anyone going faster, I get the hell out of the way.

[AngryAmish]

4. I try to drive at a safe speed and that varies

Most accidents happen when there are large differences in speed. Folks going 50 mph on the highway are also dangerous than those speeding a lot.

So with light traffic on an expressway (urban) I go 10-15 mph over. There is a stretch of highway I-43 between Milwaukee and Green Bay that is almost like an autobahn and I think driving safely one can go 85 mph without causing a severe hazard.

On surface street I stick to the speed limit because one never knows when someone is going to dart out.

[ForrestGump]

6. I like your answer

Nothing wrong with speed. I like to go fast. But some idiot weaving in and out of traffic on a city freeway is a disaster waiting to happen, as well as inconsiderate and self-centered to the max. It's the differential in speed, or speed when conditions are not favorable, that provides the danger. Well, that and the inability of many (most?) people to control their vehicle or to at least make a nod toward staying alert.

I've hit 100 mph on a suburban surface street on my motorcycle, but it was about as safe as The Ton ever gets -- three in the morning, on a stretch of a long street closed in for over a mile on both sides by walls of gated housing developments (with absoutely nobody within two miles of me, either direction, no driveways or side streets, and a clear field of view so that even a mouse crossing the road would have been safe...yes, I've found a plus side to proliferation of gated enclaves). I was obviously breaking the law, but what me worry...if a traffic law's broken when nobody is around to hear it break, does it make a sound?

But, usually, I keep it sane around town. Interstates and other major highways were designed for speed, so why not be efficient? :-)

[One_Life_To_Give]

5. Designed for 90, anything less is a waste.

Interstate highways are designed for 90MPH traffic flow. After the engineers and construction people spent all the effort to make a 90MPH roadway. It would be a shame not to use it that way. }(

[RubyDuby in GA]

7. Speed limits are mere suggestions.....

Watch out for that Honda comin' up behind ya....suckahs!!!!!! :)

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. Just keep in mind the 75th percentile rule.

That is the safest speed to travel, regardless of conditions and posted limits is that speed which 75% of traffic is traveling. If 75% of the traffic is traveling 90 in a 70 zone then the safest speed is 90. However, if 75% of traffic is traveling 40 in a 70 zone, then 40 is the safest.