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Are people who drive the speed limit on the highway driving too slowly?
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If I am just driving the speed limit, I try to stay to the right. Since teaching my daughter to drive, I have been MUCH more law abiding. She is always telling me "mom, it is a suggested speed limit" and I say "let me know how that goes when you explain it to the law." I hate those speed traps they set up on the highways right where the speed limit decreases ten miles.
I hate slow drivers, especially in town where the speed limit is 25, but no one goes 25 except that one person I get stuck behind when I'm running late.
If they are in the left lane, they drive me nuts.
I took two trips within a few weeks of each other this winter, one to the west coast of Florida, the other to central Minnesota. Driving from Naples, Florida, to Sarasota one day, I was surprised to discover that there is essentially no speed limit. I believe it is posted at 70mph, but traffic moves along at 90, and these are not empty roads--lots and lots of cars, moving at crazy speeds. It made for a quick trip, but it was unsettling because I'm not accustomed to it.
On the broad, straight highways of Minnesota, cruise control reigns, or at least that was my impression. People seem to set the cruise control for about 5mph above the speed limit and are content to move along at that rate. I found that this also took some getting used to, and it left me worried about dozing off: it was like I was driving on autopilot because of the set speed and the smooth terrain.
Since I was tired, I cranked up the radio and tried to sing along in order to focus and stay awake. Unfortunately the only station I could get was playing Tom Jones singing "Sex Bomb," and similar tunes to which I'm a little vague on the words.
Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that styles of driving vary a good deal across the country (and not just state by state, but sometimes county by county) and I try to follow the local standards wherever I go.
Where I live, here in NYC, driving is really just a game of bumper cars. You move in short bursts from traffic light to traffic light, and although there is technically a 30mph speed limit on our streets, it isn't posted because you seldom have time to accelerate to that level.
Hey Jonathan, where do you live? (I'm from NYC)
O! I used to live on 83 between CPW and Columbus. Then I lived in Soho. The place is totally different now, this was in the 80s. I watched gentrification slowly move further uptown from 72, when I lived there Amsterdam was shaky, but lots of bodegas, and Columbus was still neighborhood with a great small market and other local errand places. And W Broadway was tres la la with art galleries, much of Soho was still arty, where an artist-in-residence certification was required. I loved UPW. Riverside Park was my escape, and I loved the boats, imagining a completely different life.
But it's been 20 years, Times Sq is unrecognizable, and last year I heard the Convention Center was gone, which blew my mind. I have memories as a kid going there.
I've lived here my entire life, except for college. A lot has changed--sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Growing up in New York in the 70s and 80s was certainly interesting, a very different vibe from today. It was freer, at times even anarchic, but it was also physically dangerous, which I honestly don't miss at all.
You're right about Times Square: it's our own little piece of Disneyland at this point. Could you imagine the characters from Midnight Cowboy wondering around 42nd Street today? It would make a nice comedy.
That said, we need the tourist dollars like everyone else, so a functioning theater district is a good thing, even if it's pretty kitschy.
my driving instructor taught me to always drive a little faster than the speed limit, and of course i do what my teacher has told me. when the speed ,limit's 80 kmph (50 mph) i drive 85 (53 mph), when it's 120 kmph (75 mph) i drive between 130 and 140 (81 and 87). when i go any faster the steering wheel starts to shake, which is annoying and probably not a good sign.
Barb wrote: "I drive a good 10 over the limit in town, and 20 over on the highway "
Holy shit, Penelope Pitstop. Is that mph or kmph?
Holy shit, Penelope Pitstop. Is that mph or kmph?
I always go approximately the speed limit, having received a multitude of speeding tickets during my driving career. I try to stick to the middle lane so as not to piss off the Speedracers.
We go by km/H up hereWell, stop that. Do it right!
At least you drive on the right side of the road, not like those crazy Brits. And Japanese, too, I think.
i try to drive close to the speed limit. my driving record cannot take any more violations
Jackie "the Librarian" wrote: "At least you drive on the right side of the road, not like those crazy Brits. And Japanese, too, I think."And India Jackie.
Oh, can I add that when I used to tour with the big artist from my first label, I sometimes got pressed into driving the van. I was told by the label manager "If you decide to speed and get caught, you're paying the ticket. If I tell you to speed, I'm paying the ticket, so you drive like a bat outta hell." That's what I tell my band too, but I don't want to pay the ticket, so I just make them leave really early so they can drive however they want. If I let them drive.
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Around here, I'm happy if we just get to go as fast as the speed limit.
I realized he was driving the speed limit. 65. Exactly.
I went around him and went on my way. But no one around here drives the speed limit. Everyone goes a little faster. What do you think? Are people who drive the speed limit (or slower!) on the highway just getting in the way? I'm talking highway-specific here, I guess, as streets are a little different.