My submission: I drive plus or minus 5 M.P.H. of the posted speed limits always considering what’s safe for the conditions at the time. I have occasionally violated my own rule on this by occasionally doing a little speeding. The only difference that I have noticed is a decrease in fuel mileage. NO TICKETS in over 30 years! Isn’t that just freaking amazing? 55 to about 62 or so suits me just fine as far as fuel mileage goes. You want to go faster? Help yourself as long as you don’t endanger me or my passengers. Unless I’m passing someone, I stay in the right lane. That happens to also be Colorado law concerning the type of highway and the posted speed limit. “Keep right except to pass”. You got a problem with road rage behind someone who is driving within the law? There are specific laws about that, too. So pick your spot, get into the passing lane, and shut the *%#@ up. And in a previous post, someone mentioned that he/she gets passed by cops when they’re doing the speed limit. Well, duh! How do you think that those cops are going to catch up with the yo-yos who are speeding? Overall, I think that if you keep a reasonable speed, like within about 5 M.P.H., you’ll end up with a whole lot less potential or actual “problems”. Don’t forget that your insurance rates go up with every moving violation. I further think that a nationwide 55 MPH just flat-out won’t work. This time around, we don’t have a fuel supply challenge. Today, for the time being, it’s a cost per gallon issue. I’m a strong believer in “you can’t legislate common sense”.
The +5 mph rule works for me, as long as the speed limit is at least 70 mph.
low speed limits, and they are not practical in open areas. It would simply waste too much time. If I drive 1000 miles at an average of 70 mph, it will take 14 hours; if I drive the same 1000 miles at 55 mph, it will take 18 hours.
Yea. That’s the idea. Not only will it save gas on that trip, but the next time when you are considering that trip, maybe you will find a way of avoid making the trip. In some cases that will not be practical, but as time goes on, it will become more and more practical. We will travel less, find more efficient ways of travel (car pools trains other public transit etc.
Driving 55 versus 70: the lost time is equivalent to killing 3000 people a year.
That is an interesting point. Now add the fact that some people will drive 55 if that is the speed limit, and they will get better mileage, but there will be people who want to drive 70 and will. That difference in speed is very important when it comes to safety.
Many of those people who now are objecting to the idea and reality that some drivers are legally driving 55 mph in 70 mph zones, and they are rightly pointing out that differential issue, what will they do if the speed limit goes to 55? Where will the safety issue go?