There are lots of speed cameras in Canada’s small towns (here in DC too).
I spotted a few on the trip, but had no problem by keeping within 10 kph of the limits.
The fine threshold here in DC is 11 mph over, so I keep it less than 5 mph over and watch out for those who abruptly drop below the limit when they spot a camera.
I left a potentially lucrative job in Oakland in 1975 and returned to Mississippi where I was self employed until recently, @TwinTurbo. It seemed more worthwhile to work 12 hours a day for myself than 8 hours for someone else while spending 4 hours each day fighting rush hour traffic. I visited California last month and was reminded just how much better my life has been for leaving that mad house to those who can deal with it. I somehow supported myself and my family these past years without any government cheese.
Congratulations, you’ve achieved something I think a lot of people would like to do although I suspect your situation is the exception. Not many can make a go of self-employment. That’s the reason the roads are so packed!
I'd have to agree with dagosa in the sense that so many people DO NOT have any comprehension of how to enter an highway from an on-ramp.
Yeah, entering a 65+ road, on a straight entrance ramp, and the person in front of you is puttering along at 40~45 the whole way; Not all traffic moves into the adjoining lanes to allow on-ramp traffic to merge. If it is safe to do so, I get around these people and allow them their 20mph+ climb to road speed while cars zoom past them.
My goal is to be at atleast the posted speed limit by the time I hit the freeway. I know some on-ramps are almost a clover shape and you’re doing 35 around a sharp turn, then you’re dumped onto the freeway before you realize it.
I-71 between Mt. Gilead and Ashland, Ohio has a posted limit of 70, and I seen 4 or 5 people pulled over within a couple of hours; and that was driving to and from Ashland
Having just driven through Indiana I think a truck limit of 65 and a car limit of 70 is nuts. You are continuously changing lanes to pass. I usually drive where it’s comfortable at 70-75.
I think a big problem too with people merging is that a lot of people are intimidated by the speed at which they have to process the input of everything happening and make decisions. A lot of people enter the highway with the same spirit under which they’d endure a colonoscopy. Many people are intimidated by driving, period, which is certainly understandable for new drivers and elderly people that may not be able to react that fast, to name a few. Driving is not everyone’s forte, and the roads have to be designed to “fit all sizes” of driver. If someone hates to drive, is constantly fearing a crash, or thinks everyone is out to get them, they’re not going to do well at it. Someone that’s been in a bad wreck is never going to relax, and I think people often draw to them the things they fear the most.
There are a few highways that are a bit hairy in every city, but usually I enjoy merging onto the highway, as it gives me a chance to flex my car’s muscles after days of stop and go driving. I typically do what bscar does if it’s safe to do so–go around everyone taking 3 days to get up to the speed limit. I like to drive, and hate to be fettered by people going slow in front of me, especially when I can see that if they’d just let me by, that there are miles of open road in front of them, with a better view at least than the back end of their oil-burning hatchback. I have to check myself from being insensitive and make myself not tailgate people. It is a personal failing of mine, and I strive to be courteous and not drive like a jerk. I always feel like a jackass when I’m getting angry with the person in front of me, finally get by, and see that they’re about 1,000 years old or have a death grip on the steering wheel as if they expect to be struck down at any moment.
I try to remember that while driving is second nature to me, that there are likely plenty of things that I fear and hate to do, that the person I’m criticizing for their poor driving habits or zombie-like behavior would breeze through and laugh at me for my fears. But it’s not easy when you’re having one of those days when life seems to be raining $#-- on you, and most everyone else on the planet seems to have been created to specifically be an obstacle in some way…
It’s not just people merging onto the highway, but those already there that think they own the road. I dropped my daughter at the airport last night. While attempting to merge onto a highway, a driver already there shifted from the left lane to the right and sped up to cut me off. And then he had to slow down because the driver now in front of him was at the speed limit. What possesses these people to drive so poorly?
For some drivers all cars ahead of them are winning while they and all those behind are losing, @jtsanders. While accumulating over a million miles driving a parcel delivery truck it became clear that some people were compelled to get ahead of whatever was ahead of them even if they were turning to the left immediately afterward. I have often wondered if their lives were miserable dealing with their obsession. And some let their obsession take them to psychotic road rage. What a miserable way to live.
“some people were compelled to get ahead of whatever was ahead of them”
An old joke:
Two bus drivers are sitting at a rest stop cafe drinking coffee.
One says to the other “Have you seen those new Jaguars?”.
The other says “Yeah, they’re really powerful, had a heck of a time passing one the other day!”.
When the 55 limit was repealed and Texas returned to the old 70 mph speed limit, there was a lot less speeding on the highway. Instead of everybody speeding, only a small percentage of people were now speeding and those people were driving just as fast when the highway was posted at 55.
Few people will drive a speed that they feel is dangerous and most people have the common sense to know when a speed is dangerous. The reason everybody sped when the limit was 55 was because they lost their patience with obeying such an artificially low speed limit.
There is no speed limit in the sky yet very few pilots cruise at full throttle. Doing so increases fuel consumption more than it increases speed and the loss of range more than offsets the benefit of the higher speed. Likewise, very few drivers drive as fast as their cars can go on Germany’s autobahns. Most of them drive at speeds comparable to speeds driven on US interstates, especially when the traffic density is high.
If EVERYBODY is speeding, maybe the speed limit is too low.
Not only that, you occasionally have off ramps three lanes over and a quarter mile of rush hour traffic from the on ramp you just used. It seems New England is short on planning, space or available highway planning funds. It’s, " let’s just add another exit, somewhere, some how, however it fits and to heck with the people who actually use them." It’s more important the every Mall has it’s own off ramp I guess…
@oblivion
Man, you got that right ! I don’t mind the guy who accelerates on the on ramp and blows by me to right and fits right in; I’m tired of near collisions from cell phone using drivers who drift in expecting everyone to give up their " right of passage".
There will be drivers who exceed the speed limit even if it were 90 mph. A few people are determined to be ahead of everyone else in sight and scoff at the meek who allow themselves to be held back by speed limits.
There are really no easy answers to this issue, just as with most issues in modern life.
As Dagosa stated, all too many people think that it is appropriate to merge onto an expressway by driving 45 mph on the entry ramp, but–then again–far too few people on the expressway will execute a, “complimentary lane change”, in order to allow people on the entry ramp to merge.
I pride myself on driving defensively, and as a result, if it is possible for me to safely move over to the center lane, I will do so when I see traffic on an entry ramp. If that move is not possible, due to heavy traffic, then I will slow down in order to accommodate the 45 mph merging cars–even though I resent having to do this. But…in the end, it is not about proving who is right and who is wrong, it is all about avoiding collisions–IMHO. I would rather have an undamaged car than to “prove” that I was in the right.
When I am on an entry ramp, I am usually moving at 65-70 mph by the time that I get to the end of an entry ramp, so once I see a safe space to merge, nobody has to worry about me getting in their way. My object is to avoid an accident, and my strategies must be working somehow because I haven’t had a car accident of any kind since 1971.
As to raising the speed limits, this issue is a complex one, to be sure.
Yes, we could raise speed limits on many expressways, but–because speed differentials, rather than actual vehicle speeds–is actually the cause of huge percentage of accidents…How do we prevent the cars that are going even faster from winding up in more serious collisions with the drivers who don’t know how to enter an expressway, or who insist on driving very slowly on the expressway after merging. Yes, I know that this sounds like we are catering to the less-skilled drivers on the road, of the ultimate goal is to reduce accident fatalities, I don’t think that raising expressway speed limits is the answer.
And, speaking of speed limits…
In my own rural township, there are some straight & level roads which pass through farm country, yet they have a speed limit of 30 mph (dammit!). I have to think that this ridiculously low speed limit exists only for the local police to nab those who are “speeding” at 40 mph on these country roads.
Then again, on US Highway 1, the speed limit of 50 mph is probably realistic. Just yesterday, on Rt. 1 in Linden, NJ, somebody in an Acura “lost control” of his car, hit a curb, knocked down a utility pole, barreled into a gas station at high speed, and wound up demolishing 3 cars and knocking down a gas pump. The speed of the Acura must have been really high, because media reports of the damage stated that the first car that was hit had, “the trunk collapsed into the rear seat area”. Only very quick action by a station attendant to shut down the station’s pumping system avoided a major fire.
In theory, 50 mph is too low a speed limit on that highway, but somebody who was–obviously–driving well above that limit managed to lose control of a car that is normally one that handles very well.
Ultimately, what is necessary is for everyone to actually pay attention to their driving, to try to match their speed as closely as possible to the other traffic on the road, to avoid tailgating, and to not focus on…phone calls or texting…eating in the car…talking to passengers in the back seat…or other distractions.
I mention talking to passengers in the back seat because, many years ago, my very strange boss would turn his head to talk to folks in the back seat while he was driving. The way that he swerved his way along the road as he turned his head back & forth was…really scary. This was just one of the many reasons why I dreaded having to be a passenger in his car.
I go to Fin Feather Fur up there for ammo and look around at their firearm selection. There’s a reference to Ashland Oil in Dublin/Columbus on google
@VDC
"the way that he swerved his head back and forth was…really scary"
Knowing that many drivers not only don’t use their rear view mirrors, but don’t even adjust them when driving or scan around them while driving, all make it scary when sharing the road with them. In the very not too distant future,I predict that a virtual screen on the dash will show all traffic around the car you are in. This, along with estimate distances, should encourage isolated drivers to be more aware. It’s comming, albeit slowly for now with back up cameras and warning buzzers…but soon. As soon as the ICE and all it’s complicated operating systems are eliminated in favor of all electric drive, engineers will have little left to do but to accessorize the interior with these electronic gizmos. Hopefully, it will make driving much safer. If done right, I predict that speed limits can be increased dramatically over what they are today. I could see fairly safe 100 mph speed limits on some stretches of road.