DrCube:
In New York City, at least, a cop can estimate your speed and get a conviction based on his estimation.
In 1979 I was going 66 in a 55 on the Baltimore Beltway and got pulled over by a state trooper I passed. Normally they would not be trolling for people doing 66 but he may have taken it personally. I don’t remember if that was the “flow of traffic” but I have never passed a cop again.
Ah, I love it when people bring up “flow of traffic”. When I see such a thing as traffic moving in a “flow”, rather than moving like a herd of cats, I’ll be sure to drive with it.
But to address the OP, sure, cops probably get very pissed that everyone slows down around them.
As for subjective speed limits, if cops are giving people tickets for going 40 on a 55mph road, or 60 on a 55mph road, it’s for revenue. Cops that are enforcing traffic safety are looking for obvious stupidity, such as someone at the head of a line of traffic because he’s doing 25 while checking his map, or someone who is changing lanes every three seconds to pass someone.
My mother was pulled over with me in the car.
Cop: You know how fast you were going?
Mother: I was just following along with the flow of traffic.
Cop: Don’t follow those people, they’re all speeding!
I laughed.
The ones that really annoy me are the motorcycles (and this seems to be on 90 or 94 most of the time), late Saturday night in the pocket about 5-10 miles north of downtown where traffic is still brisk (like 70-80 or so) that seem to come out of nowhere and whip past you, usually several, at 100 mph+. I’m often checking my mirrors while driving (this habit was instilled to me in driver’s ed, when one of the instructors would cover up your rearview mirror and ask what color the car behind you was) and, even so, those fuckers just sneak up on you. How more of them don’t end up splattered on the highway, I don’t know.
I don’t doubt that plenty of driving instructors say “go with the flow of traffic”. However, I still think it’s bullshit and those instructors are just trying to justify their own speeding habits.
Here’s a typical situation discussed in Driver’s Ed or Driving Safety: “The posted speed limit is 55. All the traffic around you is going 70. You are safer going 70 than going 55.” That’s bullshit for three reasons.
#1 There is no such thing as “all the traffic”. There is only a bell curve distribution of speeds, for which you can estimate the median. If you go slower than 70, you may be in the minority but you will NOT be the only one.
#2 I have yet to see any real-world statistic that says going 55 when other cars are coming up behind you trying to go 70 is more dangerous than you speeding up to 70. I’ve seen statistics showing speeding kills, alcohol kills, distracted driving kills. Has anyone got a cite, other than a bunch of driving instructors’ opinions? The plural of “anecdote” is not “data”.
#3 Why do they only discuss the two options of either going 70 or going 55? This is a false binary choice. Why not 68? Why not 63?
One more thing… when you propose a strategy for anything, it’s a good idea to ask the questions “What would this situation be like if everyone followed my strategy?” and “What would this situation be like if some followed my strategy and some didn’t?”. Keeping this in mind, I humbly suggest the following strategy for situations where the average speed of the cars around you is A and the speed limit is L:
In moderate or heavy traffic: if A>L, adjust your speed to (A+L)/2 otherwise adjust your speed to A. In light traffic which is so sparse that you cannot reliably calculate A, adjust your speed to L.
I submit that the above strategy is superior to “Adjust your speed to A regardless of L”.
A little off subject, but I wish to thank a driver in Plantation Fl… I was driving about 35mph in a 25 mph zone when he flashed his lights at me. Yes a speed trap was ahead and I’ve known them to give tickets for people going 28 mph. You probably saved me from a crappy day.
I’m guessing you have not had a defensive driver course.
It was taken for granted in the UK, among my friends in that were inclined to drive back from the pub after few drinks, that you couldn’t drive too slowly. The rozzers were almost guaranteed think someone driving below the speed limit on a Friday night was a drunk guy trying to drive home. Not that it stopped a large percentage of my friends during in my misspent youth getting DUIs.
Not heard that in the US (for all the puritan anti-drink laws in the US they are actually much less strict about drink driving IMO).
I remember you talking about this: Ohio, right?!
What did it say on the actual citation: “driving too perfectly”?!
It sounds to me like he was pulled over with the hopes of finding something else, not that he got a citation for driving too perfectly. But I’m curious to hear if that interpretation is right.
And my guess is you’ve had the NASCAR Racing Adventure.
The citation was for not having proof of insurance on me. But the words out of his mouth for why he pulled me over was “driving too perfectly”. And yes, it was Ohio.
Thanks guys, interesting discussion, although not too much of it has been relevant to my original question about the attitude/behavior of cops when people around them are NOT speeding.
I’d like to ask a question of pkbites who says that as a deputy he would sometimes (on “rare occasions”) use his siren when there was no emergency, just to get around the people who slowed down when they saw his car. Suppose your superior saw you do this – would you be a lot of trouble? A little trouble? Or would it just be shrugged off?
One always has a justification for ones actions. So there’s nothing to sweat.