Do People Drive The Speed Limit Where You Live?


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No way, here in Toronto it is a consistant 10 km/h over in the city no matter what the posted speed limit is.

The highway however the limit is 100 km/h and if you're not driving around 120 km/h you're going too slow for even the middle lanes, much less the far left.

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I thought you must be kidding since I've never heard of a place where everyone obeys the speed limit (except small areas where local police have a rep for strict enforcement).

Random thoughts on the subject:

If everyone's going faster than the limit, then the engineers (or more likely, the politicians) set the limit too low. There's a main thoroughfare through my neighborhood, no houses face this street (all are on side-streets). A woman comes to my door and proposes a petition to get the limit dropped on that thoroughfare to 20 mph and, as these types tend to do, she says, "It's for the kids." I tell her if everyone's going faster than the posted limit of 30 then the limit is too low so I should start a petition to raise the limit and, "Tell your kids not to play in the street."

My sister lived in a small town. There was a winding road leading to a man-made lake and park. The limit was set very low, but everyone sped through there causing many accidents. With the limit set TOO low people ignored didn't recognize any danger and drove too fast. The town then posted a MUCH higher speed limit and ... no more accidents. With the limit set too HIGH people recognized the danger and slowed down.

My experience with police, courts and tickets leads me to go between 5 and 9 miles over the posted limit. Fast enough you don't have someone riding your bumper all the time, but slow enough police won't clog the courts with such a minor infraction (and the courts, to clear out such cases, usually wind up levying a fine with no other punishment). I would go the posted limit but other drivers would go batty and I would likely be in danger of being on the receiving end of road rage.

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Around Philly, and the highways, everyone goes over. The limit is 55, and my mom is going 75.

I remember seeing a video where 5 people took cars and drove on the highway at exactly the speed limit, right next to each other. No one could pass, and it was going really slowly.

In florida, I see signs that say "Speed Limit: 60 mph ; Min Speed: 45 mph".

I think that the min speed should be at least 50, and that everyone should try to adopt that.

Danny

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The sound of the bass thumping from the speakers arrives quicker than the cars in my area. The cops will overlook 5 m.p.h. over. Anything higher gets you a ticket. On the 4 & 6 lane highways leading from my city to Syracuse the speed limit is 65, but many drive 75 to 85. When traveling to and through Rochester it seems many believe the speed limit is 90+.

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Around here everyone seems to go at or below the limit. A lot of the highways around here are only two lanes. Traffic on those usually goes 5-15mph lower than the limit. Used to Id pass, but these days I prefer to stick behind the line and conserve gas.

Edited by Bubba Bob
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Whoever made the speed limits here in my town are complete morons. I mean they give a brand new road thats in the countryside with no houses or anything by it a 40 mph speed limit. While the road I live on that is a one lane, bumpy out of shape thing has a speed limit of 45. I'm not saying we follow these speeds, I just say it's stupid. All these stupid parents that are trying to make the world a "perfect little place" for their little bratty children really .. REALLY .. annoy me. i get people knocking on my door all the time, "Will you sign this making it illegal to drive if your under 21" "will you sign this so I can make the speed limit 35 instead of 45 because my kids play in the road" ... Someone actually said that to me. WHY would you let your kids play in the road. If the kid would get hit I would blame the parent not the poor guy who hit them. Anyway, no, I usually go 5 - 10 mph over.

Here's a story:

We had a blow-out and a cop pulled over to help us out. When we were waiting for the towtruck, he told me about a little experiment he did. He pulled over in the right lane and did exactly the speed limit. Everytime someone would try to pass him, he would get on his loudspeaker and tell them not to or he would pull them over. He said he did this for about an hour and he got to a big hill. He looked back and he noticed the traffic was backed up probably two miles.

Doesn't that say something is wrong with the speed limits? :mellow:

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We have the same issue up here; people drive like idiots in our major cities. On our super highways the posted limit is 70 mph, but, most people are going 80 and above.

When I was moving from up north to down south a few months ago I was driving a 24-foot truck between 70-75, sometimes 80 just to keep up with everyone else on the freeways...

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I usually drive about 80 on the highway most traffic goes about 75 80 here in Massachusetts. But every time I go to Connecticut to visit the Apple Store (like I did Sunday) I have to take 91S to 84 by Hartford and they're nuts. 5 or 6 lanes with people in the middle lanes doing 90+ and in the left lane like 60, other cars in the slow lane do about 70. Then there are people cutting lane to lane slamming on there brakes after cutting you off. And then getting back on the highway someone stopped in front of me at the top of the on ramp with there turn signal on, like they had a choice.

OK...I feel better now.

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And then getting back on the highway someone stopped in front of me at the top of the on ramp with there turn signal on, like they had a choice.

Some people seem to have a problem with the whole "on-ramp" theory. Getting up to merging speed just makes too much sense.

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actually there are many roads in my city, particularly a main road with a 45 MPH speed limit, people will poke along at 30 (particularly the elderly that think going any faster is certain doom). First off, here it's illegal to be doing 10MPH less or lower than the posted speed limit and have at least 4 or 5 cars behind you. That happens all the time but there never is a cop around to stop anyone for it.

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And then getting back on the highway someone stopped in front of me at the top of the on ramp with there turn signal on, like they had a choice.

Some people seem to have a problem with the whole "on-ramp" theory. Getting up to merging speed just makes too much sense.

Big difference between northern and southern drivers. Southerners do not know how to merge. It pisses me off so much when people hit their friggen brakes right in front of me on the on ramp!!!!

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And then getting back on the highway someone stopped in front of me at the top of the on ramp with there turn signal on, like they had a choice.

Some people seem to have a problem with the whole "on-ramp" theory. Getting up to merging speed just makes too much sense.

Big difference between northern and southern drivers. Southerners do not know how to merge. It pisses me off so much when people hit their friggen brakes right in front of me on the on ramp!!!!

simple solution.... ram them and say it their fault for slamming on the brake in the last min. and try to make it look like it their fault

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Around here the magic number is 11 over the limit. That's ticket time. Right now we have our interstate torn up for major work. It's gonna be a six year deal with bridges being upgraded to accept two new lanes through three towns.

Now, in Michigan we have a law that doubles fines in work areas. Once the "men working" signs went up, every jurisdiction around has been reaping the rewards.(two cities, county and state) They've been working the area in twos and stopping even two or three cars at a time. Hummm, let's see: 5 mph over the limit is a $105 fine. Sooo, $210 at a pop. Believe me, every single time I drive through there they have a car pulled over.

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have the same thing going on around here. two major state roads and an Interstate all being upgraded along with the double fines leads to lots of cops in those areas. I usually run the back roads to avoid them and can make just as good time most days.

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And then getting back on the highway someone stopped in front of me at the top of the on ramp with there turn signal on, like they had a choice.

Some people seem to have a problem with the whole "on-ramp" theory. Getting up to merging speed just makes too much sense.

Big difference between northern and southern drivers. Southerners do not know how to merge. It pisses me off so much when people hit their friggen brakes right in front of me on the on ramp!!!!

simple solution.... ram them and say it their fault for slamming on the brake in the last min. and try to make it look like it their fault

Impossible at least here in Canada. Whenever you rear end someone it is automatically at least 50% your fault here, usually more no matter how late they slammed on the brakes. The usual argument is that you should have been leaving more space between the car ahead of you.

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