Do you usually maintain proper speed limits when driving your vehicle?

LadyEmeraude

LadyEmeraude

Senior Member
My driving habits have changed for the better over the years, although
I've most always have been a conservative driver behind the wheel. I
do the speed limit. Don't tend to go over it. Probably if anything, I
might drive 5 miles under the speed limit if out on a country road,
take in the sights..
 

When I am in the city limits then I stay within the limits. The exception is when I am on the freeways and the flow is a few miles above the limit. If I am out of the city and on a wide open highway then I tend to go a few miles above the speed limit. Nothing crazy though and a lot of times I don't even notice that I am over the limit. Most of the vehicles seem to be traveling around 80mph or so under those conditions.
 

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Define "usually"! If we are talking for than 50% of the time, I would say that I do follow the speed limits over 50% of the time...

How much beyond that.....??? Maybe 10 to 15% more than 50% of the time...

But, the last speeding ticket I got was 53 years ago....and that is the only one I have had!
 
I've never had a speeding ticket. But on the highway through my area, when there's extremely little traffic, I'll often drive 10km-per-hour (6mph) over the stated speed limit. And that's on straight stretches, where visibility ahead is superb. On those stretches, I admit to occasionally having gone 20km over, briefly Feeling my oats, I guess.

Still, I'm generally pretty cautious... a deer leaping out across the road is much more likely than a collision with a car. I always slow down and veer a little toward center if I see a cyclist or pedestrian on the right-hand road shoulder.
 
Born_To_Lose said:
I know today people have mainly made their own speed limits. I am going 65 mph and getting past by cars and trucks that make me look like I am sitting almost still.
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My outlook when there's traffic on our highways is pretty my the same as Don M's. Normally, I don't find myself being one of the fast drivers on the highway, even when I'm driving on pretty much an empty road. If I'm going 6mph over the speed limit, I'm often passed by people wanting to go 5-10mph faster than me. Not everybody wants to, but many do.

There are not a lot of highway accidents on our roads, but when one happens frequently inattention, alcohol, or reckless speed is the cause... or some combination of these.
 
We keep up with traffic. If everyone is going 10 kilometres over the speed limit, then we are too. Roads here are very hilly and windy making it difficult to pass. We put our cruise control on and it keeps us a safe distance behind the car in front of us. I hate tailgaters so make sure I am not one of them. Lately I donā€™t drive anyway. Iā€™m on meds that make me drowsy.
 
Ha, believe me, here in the greater Houston area if you drive the speed limit you better be in the right hand lane or you will get run over. It appears to be accepted that 5-7 miles over is the norm. It's rare to see a traffic cop here in the county, but there are more in the city.

Growing up in Chicago, it was a whole different story - wall to wall cops w/quotas.
 
I don't go over the limit even if it means I have a line of angry drivers behind me. I figure I might be saving a life.

After I fell and broke my leg I had to go many times to the orthopedist in a big hospital in Columbus. He had pictures all over his waiting room showing what speed does. One was a little boy with both legs amputated due to a traffic accident.

My local cities are Dayton, scary because of one way streets, Cincinnati with lots of wild traffic particularly when the Reds are playing, and Columbus which is an absolute driving nightmare.
 
Pretty much drive within the limit. I had one ticket decades ago but that was on a stretch of 55 mph with 75 before and after, a remnant from the 1970s "energy speed limits" days. Within 2 weeks that went to 75 as well.

The exception is the occasional "Italian Tune-up." Maybe once a year I'll get the car well warmed up and then wind it out to 90 mph and hold there about 5 minutes. Not quite redlining, but I keep an eye on the engine tach and the turbo speed. But I only do that on a completely clear sunny day with the sun high on a flat and level stretch of 75 mph divided highway with no other traffic in sight at all. Then I fall back to 75 and drive another 20 minutes. Then I turn around and drive the 70 miles or so back normally at 75.

I don't do a lot of highway driving any more, so the hope is that this helps decarbonize things.
 
For the most part yes.
The new electronic Cruise/Speed controls make it easy to sat the speed and forget it.
I will drive in the right lane and do not camp out in the left lane.
A few minutes delay in getting somewhere is not a issue, especially in retirement.
 
I stay off the interstates and toll roads.

My complaint on the country roads is people that refuse to pass me on a dotted line, instead they try to tailgate and push me along until I eventually pull onto the shoulder.
 
As I have grown older I have observed speed limits much better. Admittedly that has not always been true. In Tennessee the interstate speed limit is 70mph but it is generally known that you can drive about 79 and never be bothered by HP. There is a move over law that applies to all roads that requires drivers to reduce speed and if possible move over at least one lane if safely possible. This followed a number of very serious situations involving both injuries as well as deaths. It's a very common sense requirement in my opinion.

The move over law is enforced as diligently as the laws regarding stopping for a school bus. Two situations that I don't think are enforced or observed as much as they should be are yielding for emergency vehicles, and passing on the shoulder when a car is turning left on two lane roads.
 
I wish I could say YES with a straight face, but I can't. I have the soul and lead foot of a Grand Prix driver.

How I've only received one speeding ticket in my life (and to my credit or lack of therefor, I really didn't deserve that one...), I'll put down to Divine Intervention.

I'm pretty law-abiding in the city, but get me on I-10 in Florida and I turn into A.J. Foyt. I do believe Somebody is looking out for me and makes me invisible to State Troopers because I've dodged the bullet more times than I'd like to admit when they've been hiding in the trees and I've blasted by at Mach 10.

So, yeah, if they had Speeders Anonymous meetings, I'd be introducing myself at one.
 
I always stay with the rules. Yesterday driving past a school, the speed limit is 40 during 8.30 - 9.30 school hours and then they you can do 50. Goofy, a young buck with P plates, this is in Australia for the first 12 months of getting a licence, had the audacity to overtake me on double lines and must have been travelling 60 - I only wish a camera had snapped him, the funny thing was, I caught up with him at the next set of lights and he didn't dare look at me. .
 
I generally find that Iā€™m forced to drive 10 mph above speed limits just to keep up with traffic in the alleged ā€œslowā€ lane. Just once, Iā€™d like to be able to drive the speed limit and not feel like Iā€™m in everyoneā€™s wayā€¦šŸ˜«
 

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