They must have been doing more than 57 since that's what I was doing while being passed.. It's like "Hey look a Prius, lets pass it!"
So you were only 17 mph over the max speed allowed, and they were worse. George Carlin had something to say on the subject.
PriusTech is right in that a number shown on a yellow sign is a suggestion. A number shown on a white upright rectangular sign is a legal speed limit. That said ... I find, in my Prius, in good weather on a dry road, adding about fifty percent is stretching my limit of comfort. That could be 20 mph more if the yellow sign says 40. Adding 20 mph if the yellow sign says 20, or 15, is not as likely to end well. And I wouldn't go near that percentage with the road wet. (And that calculation is mostly about the risk of losing traction. It may not say much about how well you can react to something you abruptly see around that curve.) I've also noticed different states seem to use different safety factors in setting those suggested speeds. When first driving in California, I tried to treat their yellow speed suggestions the same way I was used to in the midwest. I managed to stay on the road, and learned to treat those California signs a little differently.
I don't think it's because you own a Prius. You are just now noticing that sweet Southern hospitality.
Pro tip: do not apply an "I can always go 20 mph faster" rule when the advisory speed is 20 mph. That would be 100 percent faster.
dang! i must have forgotten this from the drivers test manual 55 years ago, it is confusing though. download now i can picture them in several places, i always slow down at those signs. we have a quarter mile street with a white 25mph sign at the beginning of one end, and 30mph at the other.
In certain parts of rural Montana with very sparse signage, I noticed no yellow signs at all, and numerous corners that I wouldn't dare take at the white sign speed in even the very best conditions. It seemed that the speed limit signs applied only to the straighter sections, while the corners served as Darwin exams.
One of the few things I'm sure of, in this time on earth... is that this isn't the first time this subject's been broached on a Prius forum Look, I drove a 150K-mi Paseo in the 3rd-gen era... and disliked them then, with my 80-odd brake horsepower remaining. So when the math was done and it turned out a flavour of the XW6#, 5th-gen Prius was going to be my return to Toyota ownership since 2 decades w/ that Paseo... had to pause and consider what that meant. At least, until I test drove it. I mean, given my rather spirited style of driving (and many, many years on sportbikes)...there wasn't going to be much envelope to push with a sale droid sitting next to you. But didn't have to -- compared to my highly-underwhelming test with a facelift 4th-gen in 2019, this new car was nothing like it. In fact, test drove an HEV Camry LE (XV80) in the same week -- and whilst thet milquetoast camouflage and greater interior room + V6-like, Q-ship shove was easily more my speed being over 50 now... there's a friskiness in the XW60, even with the moto-sized tires... that was immediately engaging, and missing on that Camry LE (SE, now we're talking... but the model full-stop's just too big for my parking space). I was actually going to enjoy owning one of these... However for the seething masses of ignorant, sociopathic, and/or just plain hayseed ICE owners out there, who eat nothing but low-hanging fruit and stress the healthcare system with their free-dumbs of super-sized choice... if it says PRIUS on the back (and 5th-gens have it the most prominent it's ever been, tbh)... they have to be in front of it, in levels of stratified douchery. Here's how I've seen it play out here, in HI: -- see PRIUS on the back, try to get around me, at a perfectly reasonable, pace-of-traffic speed + 10 mph where it's appropriate. Including of course, all the clapped-out imported penalty boxes from 10 yrs ago. Or same from 5 yrs ago, if it's a domestic compact, or a Nissan (man, how far that company's fallen). Now that I wield nearly 200 bhp rather than 140 for similar weight... few of them bother anymore, since the shove in the XW60's pure 3rd-gen Supra, and not something they want to challenge with 150K miles, four different brands of tire, and fraying rubber cam belts -- see PRIUS, and get in front of me, then slow down to what their ICEs can eke out even close to your mpg in Sport mode, in spite. Tend to be newer Tacomas, VW anything, or K-hybrids, for some reason. "Oh, I'm just slowing to what gives me max mpg, just like you would to slow me down". Well, my XW60's speed of best h/w mpg's betw. 45 - 60 mph (very similar to speed of traffic here)... so if slowing below that, it's lo-key but intentionally provocative. So I pull around. If they speed up then, you know you're being punked. -- but since I've been on the other side of the Prius exp on-road... when I make my passing maneuvers, always make sure to 1) slow the eff down to the pace of traffic reentering the R lane, and not make this about them at all, and 2) wave by those that approach to pass in the L lane, with a simple two-fingered wave, and a slight move to the R in my own lane (even if it's someone who's just re-passing you for spite). This lets them know, I'm not going to douche them w/ a cutoff as many knee-jerk, just to be ahead. I know I can repass them (even the new turbocharged Tacomas w/ their glass transmissions are a doddle in Sport mode).. and they now know it too, otherwise they wouldn't resort to reacting w/ try-hard. Think about that... and how each scenario looks to everyone else in eyeshot. Gotta remember... as many of these douchenozzles wasting oxygen there are on-road... there're even more reasonable people + edge-of-reason stressed chaotic-neutral people, that'll have an excuse to make your day harder, if you yourself act a douche, esp on the daily commute. Or more pertinently, react with douchery. Sure, do what you have to if you feel your property's going to be wrecked w/ inaction... but esp in a Prius, try not to pick fights. In martial arts as in life... try to avoid being the reason people hate Prius drivers, by doing the not-so-extra effort to avoid these conflicts. Priuses are not sports cars, even the XW6#... and you like yours enough not to wear it out, driving like an emo teenager. For the first time in the model's history, tho... you now have a proper big stick to walk softly with. And that's worth price of admission
Regardless of the speed, If somebody passes you on the right most of the time YOU were the wrong. If it's happened to you more than a few times? It's not "Prius Hate." I've got over 200k in G3s and I can probably count the number of times I've been passed on the right with one hand that looks like it belongs to a 1960's wood shop teacher. - and the G2-G4s LOOK like Priuses. As far as the G5's are concerned, they look too much like the new Corollas for 'Prius Hate" to be much of a factor. You were probably in the wrong lane.
