I've always believed that speed limits are the legal limit at which you can drive. Go faster, and you risk a ticket. Not that it's a black and white thing. My gut feeling is that a) if you're going less than ten percent or so faster than the limit, or b) its the middle of the night on an open road, you're safe. You could get a ticket, but you probably won't. Faster than that, though, or doing it in a noticeable area (its the middle of the day, or its a crowded road), and the odds go up. It works in the other direction, too. If you're doing about 75% or more of the limit, you're fine, unless there are contravening factors (though I'd guess not as many as in the other direction). Do less than 75%, you'd better have a good reason, and the slower you go, the better the reason needs to be.
Now I see an article saying that if you're doing the speed limit -- 55 in a 55, 65 in a 65, whatever -- but you're in the passing lane, you can get a ticket if you're slowing down traffic behind you that wants to get past you. I've had the feeling for a long time that 'go with the flow' was a valid driving strategy -- not leader of the pack, but comfortably in the middle -- but this is the first time that I've seen an article say, in effect, that you'd better be going faster than the limit if most other people (how many?) are doing it, too, or want to.
Things like that bother me, a bit, because they take a black and white situation and introduce variables based on hunch, mood, interpretation. Does that cop understand that I wasn't speeding, I was keeping up with traffic, not blocking it? Can she give me a ticket anyway because I could have pulled into the slower lanes? And where does this 'flow' that I'm keeping up with come from, anyway? If the road's clear and dry, and the speed limit sign says 65, does that mean I could safely and legally do 65 in the right lane, but not necessarily in the left? If I go faster, is there a transition zone where I move from 'legal' to 'not really legal but keeping up with traffic' to 'speeding'? Who decides? (Hint: They drive cars with shiny lights on top, and they're not auto tow truckers.) Am I in a damned if you do/damned if you don't loop here?
Perhaps the sign should say 'Speed Suggestion'.
2 comments:
Lol! I always thought the limit was the limit too.
I've also heard that driving a sporty red car will get you stopped faster than driving a blue SUV. I wonder is that's just because they notice you more or if they're just jealous? :)
I have seen police, in articles, solemnly swear that red cars don't get ticketed more. And I have been told, by someone I believe, that his dark green Porsche 911 got ticketed much less, driving like hell in southern California, than his brother in laws slower, fire-engine-red, Mustang.
I'm with you. I think its jealousy.
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