Whats up with "speed limits" in the NE?

[Dr_Deathweed]

I have only been driving up here for a couple days, but are traffic laws not enforced whatsoever? I mean, last time I drove 80 in a 55 in Texas I had to drain my savings to pay the ticket. The whole way between St. Louis and Pittsburgh I was getting flipped off for only going 10 over whatever posted limit... In my opinion, it is unsafe to post a limit and not enforce it. One law abiding citizen traveling the speed limit is at the mercy of every other ******* who thinks their time is more important than every one else's. Either change the limits to something more respectable (50 for a highway is ludicrous) or petition your cops to get out there and actually enforce the damn things.....

Well it looks like I am going to be pissing off some more drivers over the next few days 'cause like hell am I going to pay another ticket.....

 

[Evan!]

I notice that too. My uncle, who lives in Cape Cod and came from Stamford, drives like a maniac. I think a whole lot more people have radar detectors up there. They're illegal here in VA

 

[Beerrific]

It is even worse here in Atlanta. Posted 55....deadly to go anything under 70.

EDIT: And the reason I say it is worse here is because in the NE people tend to be OK drivers, here in Georgia people really suck at driving.

 

[JustDave]

Yeah, here in Mass. it seems that if you aren't going at least 10 miles over on the highway, you're driving "too slowly". Even on a side street, if you're going the limit you'll most likely have some ****** on your ass. (Most likely talking on a cell phone as well)

 

[Jester369]

Safest is to follow the flow of traffic. Just go a few mph under the average. It's pretty unlikely that you will get tagged if you are going a few miles an hour less than the fastest car on the road.

 

[nealf]

It is even worse here in Atlanta. Posted 55....deadly to go anything under 70.

EDIT: And the reason I say it is worse here is because in the NE people tend to be OK drivers, here in Georgia people really suck at driving.

I drive 80+ on my way into work everyday and I'm not passing people at all, just keeping up.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

Safest is to follow the flow of traffic. Just go a few mph under the average. It's pretty unlikely that you will get tagged if you are going a few miles an hour less than the fastest car on the road.

I am that guy who gets pulled over if I happen to touch the white line while driving and get cited with failure to control your vehicle (true story). I would rather piss a few people off and not risk another ticket. Besides, if some ******* on a cell phone plows into me I can sue the **** out of them, and possibly the city/state as well for not enforcing traffic laws....

Well, probably not, but I am kinda pissed after a semi doing close to 85 in a 55 almost ran my wife off the road a couple hours ago. In my experience truckers are usually the better drivers and not the ***holes on the road....

 

[Evan!]

Safest is to follow the flow of traffic. Just go a few mph under the average. It's pretty unlikely that you will get tagged if you are going a few miles an hour less than the fastest car on the road.

+1000. I know it sucks that the majority of the automobiles are going nearly reckless, but I tend to care more about safety than I do some arbitrary number. All studies on the subject have concluded that, at least to a certain point, it's safer to travel along with the flow than it is to stay slower or go faster. And like Jester notes, the probability of you getting pulled if you're in a pack of people going 80 is minuscule. If everyone's doing 80, then they're looking out for the guy going 95.

Nothing's worse, to me, than rolling along with the flow of traffic, usually around 10 over, and some douchie is going the speed limit exactly, and so there ends up being this big, unsafe logjam while the rest of traffic moves around them. Idiots. Oh, yeah, you're just obeying the law...SHUT UP!

 

[Evan!]

I am that guy who gets pulled over if I happen to touch the white line while driving and get cited with failure to control your vehicle (true story). I would rather piss a few people off and not risk another ticket. Besides, if some ******* on a cell phone plows into me I can sue the **** out of them, and possibly the city/state as well for not enforcing traffic laws....

Well, probably not, but I am kinda pissed after a semi doing close to 85 in a 55 almost ran my wife off the road a couple hours ago. In my experience truckers are usually the better drivers and not the ***holes on the road....

It's not as much about pissing people off as it is just trying to stay alive. I know it sucks that they're going too fast, but that doesn't change the fact that it's safer to go their speed than slower. If you really WANT to risk your life and then sue them, fine. Me, I prefer to just stay out of it altogether.

And if you're 'that guy' who gets pulled from a pack, then, I suggest you remove all those "I hate cops" and "suck my balls, piggy!" bumper stickers from your car. Probably doesn't help.

 

[shecky]

There's a reason we drive fast in the Northeast: we spend months crawling along because of snow that we're trying to make up for lost time.

Speed is a way of life here. We wonder why people in other places actually look at the posted speed limit.

 

[nealf]

They're more like speed suggestions... at least 'round these parts

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Safest is to follow the flow of traffic. Just go a few mph under the average. It's pretty unlikely that you will get tagged if you are going a few miles an hour less than the fastest car on the road.

That's always been my MO...just make sure SOMEBODY is going faster than you are. Somebody always will be. I've never had a ticket in 28 years of driving.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Actually, the sad part is even if you were driving over 10 miles over the posted speed limit and all the other drivers were passing you like you were parked you could still get a ticket for driving TOO SLOW and endangering other motorists. So true...


There's a reason truckers call the right-hand lane the "Granny Lane"...

 

[TheJadedDog]

What makes it really interesting is that different highways have different amounts over the limit that you can go. For example, I-95 between Boston and Providence you can pretty much go 80 with no problem. Meanwhile on 128 the norm is about 75. The Expressway is 70-80. 146 in RI is 70. And so on.

I think at this point the fear is that drivers are so used to exceeding the speed limit that if you raised them to what people are driving now we would all just go even faster.

 

[Donasay]

It is even worse here in Atlanta. Posted 55....deadly to go anything under 70.

EDIT: And the reason I say it is worse here is because in the NE people tend to be OK drivers, here in Georgia people really suck at driving.

I live in Boston, and driving in snow to me is like driving on normal ground, we get so much of it it hardly even registers anymore. About 2 years ago I was driving in DC just after a "freak snowstorm" apparently it doesn't snow that much down there, and half an inch of snow throws people off. I have to say the idiots on the road could not deal with 1/2 an inch of snow I mean come on southerners, it is bad enough that you don't speed, but to do 30 in a 50 because there is a half inch of snow.... and on top of it to have accidents every quarter mile....

 

[EdWort]

I hate cops" and "suck my balls, piggy!

Tell us how you really feel.

I hate when quoted out of context, but this has to go in the Evan! quote book.

 

[Special Hops]

I don't know but I don't think Pittsburg is in New England.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

I think at this point the fear is that drivers are so used to exceeding the speed limit that if you raised them to what people are driving now we would all just go even faster.

I hate when people play the "everybody's stupid and clueless (except for me)" card. Sure, we all like to think we're special and that we're the only smart ones on the planet, but of course that's just an absurd thing to think. Everybody has a survival instinct- even soccer moms. If we raised the speed limits, people who tried to tack on an extra 10mph again would be feeling their tires do things that they really are not accustomed to and they would slow down.

The real reason, IMHO, for retaining slow speed limits is that it gives police probable cause to pull over anybody on the interstate because everybody is breaking the law. In other words, by making us all criminals, we now don't have the right to say, "I wasn't doing anything!". And to add insult to injury, how many of the people doing the speed limit do you think are legally drunk on a saturday morning?

The scary thing is, you're either a law breaker and the cops have an automatic right to pull you over, or else you're driving suspiciously and should probably be followed until probable cause can be attained for a stop.

 

[FlyingHorse]

I don't know but I don't think Pittsburg is in New England.

I think the "NE" in the thread title is for "Northeast", not "New England". Though a lot of New Englanders seem to think otherwise.

The 'burgh doesn't really qualify as Northeast, either, though. It's the eastern boundary of the Midwest, at least sociologically.

 

[bethlehembrewer]

I live in Boston, and driving in snow to me is like driving on normal ground, we get so much of it it hardly even registers anymore. About 2 years ago I was driving in DC just after a "freak snowstorm" apparently it doesn't snow that much down there, and half an inch of snow throws people off. I have to say the idiots on the road could not deal with 1/2 an inch of snow I mean come on southerners, it is bad enough that you don't speed, but to do 30 in a 50 because there is a half inch of snow.... and on top of it to have accidents every quarter mile....

Yeah, here in NH it can be funny. I have to admit, I am one of the many drivers who the OP is reffering to. When we get snow, unless its a monster storm of 3'' I will drop maybe 10-15mph on the highway. Once you get used to it its normal and the more you try to prevent something the more likley something will happen.

Jeff Foxworthy had a great skit about, you know your from New England when: and one was you like the snow because it fills the pot holes in.

 

[dirtymike1]

Thats how it is here in DC. You have a very small number of motorist that actully try to drive safely. Then you have everyone else...There was an accident on I-95 right outside of my office. I guy slammed into a women that was doing no more the 40 in a 55. They other guy was going about 85+...killed them both. Every time I get on the highway here it's a white knuckle ride, more like playing Russian roulette with my life on the highways

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

I think the "NE" in the thread title is for "Northeast", not "New England". Though a lot of New Englanders seem to think otherwise.

The 'burgh doesn't really qualify as Northeast, either, though. It's the eastern boundary of the Midwest, at least sociologically.

Yeah, I meant Northeast. Sorry if I am outside my "sociological boundaries"

 

[homebrewer_99]

I'm from NJ and I never could understand why NY, NJ and PA are not part of New England. Especially since New Jersey is named after the English island of Jersey, New York after York and well, Billy Penn was from England also...

In my mind all the original 13 colonies should have been labeled "New England"...

 

[Aubie Stout]

Anything north of Virginia qualifies as Northeast.


Atlanta has the worst drivers and traffic of any place I have ever been. Bumper to bumper traffic 6 lanes wide going 80 mph+. And they wonder why it takes them hours to get anywhere......

 

[TheJadedDog]

I hate when people play the "everybody's stupid and clueless (except for me)" card. Sure, we all like to think we're special and that we're the only smart ones on the planet, but of course that's just an absurd thing to think.

I'm not really sure how this relates to my original post. I wasn't implying that anyone was stupid or clueless or that I was special. I was just pointing out that if you raised the speed limit 10 mph to the speed people are going know, everyone would go 10mph faster than what they are going now rather than suddenly obeying the speed limit.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

I'm not really sure how this relates to my original post. I wasn't implying that anyone was stupid or clueless or that I was special. I was just pointing out that if you raised the speed limit 10 mph to the speed people are going know, everyone would go 10mph faster than what they are going now rather than suddenly obeying the speed limit.

Is that what you would do? Would you assume that your car that is safe at 80 is suddenly safe at 90 because the speed limits were increased? If not, then why do you think others would think this?

As far as I can tell, the whole argument is based on the premise that people are too dumb to realize that an increase in the speed limit doesn't make their cars any safer at higher speed.

My apologies for jumping the gun on this. I just find it to be a poorly thought out argument (and one that I probably hear at least once a week). I don't believe people choose their speed based on the speed limit. They choose it based upon what feels safe to them under the circumstances. Altering a sign on the side of the road should have no effect on that except, perhaps, a slight bump in speed given that slower traffic should now be moving faster, so there may be a slight tolerance for an extra mph or two given that there is less of a dangerous discrepancy between the faster and slower traffic.

Traffic is safest when all vehicles are traveling at the same speed. Speed limits should be set at the 80th percentile, they should be determined by engineers, not politicians.

 

[shecky]

I'm from NJ and I never could understand why NY, NJ and PA are not part of New England. Especially since New Jersey is named after the English island of Jersey, New York after York and well, Billy Penn was from England also...

In my mind all the original 13 colonies should have been labeled "New England"...

As a native New Englander married to a Jersey girl, might I say that we New Englanders do not want New Jersey associated with us. New York, either. Pennsylvania, maybe.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I think it might be best to drive 55 absolutely everywhere!! In cities you are going too fast, on highways you are going to slow.....Piss off everyone in one fell swoop IMO!

My biggest gripe is with all the stop signs. Why do we have to stop absolutely EVERYWHERE? Especially when there is no other car in sight, but one police car hidden behind a bush.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

Is that what you would do? Would you assume that your car that is safe at 80 is suddenly safe at 90 because the speed limits were increased? If not, then why do you think others would think this?

As far as I can tell, the whole argument is based on the premise that people are too dumb to realize that an increase in the speed limit doesn't make their cars any safer at higher speed.

My apologies for jumping the gun on this. I just find it to be a poorly thought out argument (and one that I probably hear at least once a week). I don't believe people choose their speed based on the speed limit. They choose it based upon what feels safe to them under the circumstances. Altering a sign on the side of the road should have no effect on that except, perhaps, a slight bump in speed given that slower traffic should now be moving faster, so there may be a slight tolerance for an extra mph or two given that there is less of a dangerous discrepancy between the faster and slower traffic.

Traffic is safest when all vehicles are traveling at the same speed. Speed limits should be set at the 80th percentile, they should be determined by engineers, not politicians.

Ok, but why even post a limit if it is not enforced? You are correct, traffic is safest when all vehicles are traveling at the same speed, but unless you enforce this somehow, everyone is going to try to get wherever they are going as fast as they can get away with.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I am particularly fond of the drivers who think that by flashing their highbeams at you, you are required to open the lane for them so they may continue to speed through.

I drive a 3/4 ton truck and don't give a flip so I slow down nd force the douchy to go around.

Once, I was fortunate enough to have a cop in front so when the DB sped around me........Busted! I was more than happy to point my finger at the guy and give him a big grin and a laugh.