78 MPH Cruising...

What's the speed limit, just curious?

In BC we've got a young and eager transportation minister: he recently raised a lot of the hwy limits. He's working on keep right except to pass legislation right now.

A BC doctors group clucked a bit about crash survivabity, to no avail.

 

I haven't seen any change based off of gas prices. Also most people are completely unaware that their vehicle doesn't get constant mpg. I've had a couple people I have talked to where I have had to explain that when you divide zero by any number, it is still 0. Meaning sitting in a parking lot idling, you are not getting 30mpg. Likewise many people don't understand that the numbers on the car sticker are from test cycles and vary depend on speeds. Many are very sure of themselves that their car gets that mpg if they are going 5mph or 100mph, that's what the sticker said.

Having said that, I drive the Prius on the interstate mostly, Leaf around town. Traffic in the right lane flows around 82mph-88mph (75mph speed limit) and the left lane usually cruises at 95mph to 105mph. The Prius in the left lane netted me 47mpg average this past winter on sticky winter tires and always with 2 people + gear. Yay Prius!

 

105 in 75.... thats +30 mph and would be ~ $1000 ticket here in GA

- Alex

 

The speeding alone would be about $600 here, and I believe over 25mph is automatically reckless driving or something like that too, so the total fine and points would be very high.

However when you have state troopers going with the flow of traffic at those speeds too, it doesn't seem as bad. Here you can be ticketed for holding up traffic if there are 5 cars behind you, even if you are going above the speed limit.

 

If that's happening even in the right lane I'm moving to another planet.

 

If it is one lane in that direction, you are required to move over at the next available opportunity onto the shoulder or pullout and allow all the vehicles you are holding up to pass. On multi-lane roads with a speed limit greater than 55mph (all highways, 65mph-75mph posted limits and most major roads) the left lane is for passing only. So if you are cruising in the left you better move over to the right lane when 5 people pull up behind you. I have seen at least 3 occasions now where a trooper has pulled over the lead car of a pack going the speedlimit. The road normally moves must faster and if you are on a 1-lane each way road going the speedlimit you get a blockage of cars. Police goes down the other lane with lights flashing and pulls over the lead car, no speeding involved. They ran a campaign for a year after the law was announced just telling people of the new law if they were pulled over without punishment. That was about a decade ago and now there is no leniency.

 

55 mph on cc in the far right lane....


If I can do it in Philly w/o getting killed then you can too..



2015 Persona w/ the stock 17's..

My best commute mpg's to date!!

 

I wonder how they'd deal with something like a self-driving Google car, abiding by the speed limit?

 

The overall question is how do you deal with law breaking self driving cars? Is Google at fault, the driver, the firmware engineers?

 

Yikes--I can't believe those speeds! No wonder I try to stay off the road as much as possible. I guess I'm in the land of the slow-speed laws too.

The Prius is my fast car, and I usually do around the speed limit with it (which I guess is too slow), but the other one is an overloaded '85 Toyota 4wd that likes to cruise at 55-60 on the flats, slower on the inclines. I've never experienced or witnessed a traffic stop for slow traffic. I like to find someone slow I can stick behind, but maybe I'm helping someone else into trouble. Oh crumb, why can't it be the 1980s? I love 55 mph (or slower).

I seem to get by when I stay on the county roads during off-peak times.

I may have to pick up a few of those "I'm peddling as fast as I can" stickers.

Hmm...it might be a pretty idyllic time when most or all of the cars on the road are self-driving. That'll sure take a lot of stress out of it. How does one go about a nice Rip Van Winkle slumber for a few decades?