These days, people are barely giving lip service to fuel efficiency, even during a major recession when the money saved could make a significant difference.

Yeah, I know, there’s almost nothing in Texas worth slowing down to look at or stopping to visit. But I’m still not convinced that this would make sense if we hadn’t bred several generations attuned to instant gratification. And I’m not exempting my own.

If your IP tracks correctly…

Creepy…

…well first of all, condolences…

…and mean. 

Have fun with my IP address, since apparently you’re checking up on these things.

We all need to take a break from the hot seat before we can have a cogent conversation about cars and other modes of transportation. 

Interestingly, Montanan’s at that time averaged driving only 78 mph on interstate highways. 

Honestly most speed limits, not in city driving around schools and hosipitals etc… on the main highways have ZERO to do with “safety”. I think you would be hard pressed to actually conclusive data in that regard.

Speed limits of that kind are about fuel economy, and using less fuel as a nation. Which isn’t really a bad thing really.

Accidents are caused by bad drivers, who are not always the same as fast drivers. Of course speeding those bad drivers up, won’t help matters either.

In many cases speeding tickets are now nothing more than a device to generate revenue. Speed cameras are a great example of this. “Training” courses to reduce fine where the money goes locally rather than into public coffers is another great example.

“Would be a shame to give you this large ticket. Sumpthing might happen to your licence. But seein’ as we’re bein’ nice today, if you take this 100$ course and pass (everyone does) then no ones the wiser see… Oh just make the check out to cash…thanks boyo!”

For example, in the US you could as well get your license in a cereal box and be done with it.. in Germany, you actually take theoretical lessons (14 at the time I got mine) and about 30 driving lessons including high speed driving, emergency braking, handling of emergency situations etc..) which costs you about $2.000 for a simple car license. Licenses for bikes are even categorized by CC, so you need to have a much more extensive license to be allowed to drive bigger bikes.

Also, every! car in Germany is forcibly put into a stringent checkup by mechanics (called TÜV in Germany) every 2 years checking the safety, condition of tires, functionality of all parts safety-related (lights, etc).. and if they don’t deem your car fit for the road anymore because your tires are out or your brakes don’t work that well anymore..they just prohibit your car from hitting the road AT ALL until it is fixed.

I personally drive a Ford Mondeo (Fusion in the US) with 2000CC/145HP Engine and my regular highway speed is about 120mph – still I felt more secure driving in Germany to when I was doing 65 in the US, because there the drivers just didn’t look out so much for what everyone else was doing than in Germany – as the OP said, never beats the adrenaline if you do 80mph on the passing lane and a Porche from behind is coming flying in at 180mph..

It occurred to me at the time that it would be much simpler if people would just not run into those barriers edge-on! In fact, why not just remove the barriers entirely? They are entirely unnecessary if people merely pay attention and stay on the road.

Unfortunately human beings are simply not very good at paying attention for sustained periods of time. Automating driving will solve that problem, along with many others.

There is a correlation between student GPA and accident rates; if you want your child to be a safe driver, make him/her do his homework.  Also, the correlation between speed and accident rates is deceptive; the real accident generator is aggressive driving, which for some strange reason also involves high speeds.

One guy got a speeding ticket for doing 130 in the merge lane, got mad and started doing 100 in the fast lane. He got a ticket for obstructing traffic, contested the ticket, and lost.

Off the autobahn,  driving the posted speed limits will guarantee the accumulation of impatient locals behind you. 

cops would hang out in the 50mph zone between Treasure Island and Candlestick Park

Nah. They hang out on Laguna Honda and catch people speeding around the curves.

Apparently in Washington state they do enforce the speed limit more strictly so maybe the quota thing fits that state.

Going 65 in a 50mph zone vs 80 in a 65mph zone is no different. Both are speeding.The people above who think “Everyone else is going 65 in a 50mph zone so I should too” need to slow down and not the other way around.

In the UK its -10%/+0%, so two people can be doing 70mph on the speedo, but one is really doing 63mph.  I do wonder why we cannot fix something this simple.