My friend says driving under the speed limit isn’t dangerous and doesn’t warrant a ticket. Hwy speed limit here in California is 65 and he usually drives 55 - 60, hwy traffic out here usually goes about 70-90. His driving scares me.
Well - speed restrictions are limits, not targets. However, I do agree that driving a car at well under the posted limit makes other drivers swerve across lanes and certainly increases the risk of a collision. I would suggest that he stays off highways and takes side roads where he would be happier.
It warrants a ticket if you are obstructing traffic, which is why you don’t want to take a 25MPH farm tractor on the freeway. Doesn’t California have a minimum speed on the freeways, like 45MPH? Some states do.
Most highways do have a minimum speed, which is typically somewhere around 40 to 45 mph. If your friend is doing 55 to 60, he’s well above that. If the argument is that speed alone warrants a ticket, your friend easily wins this argument.
Most states also have laws about obstructing traffic. If your friend is driving in one of the faster lanes and is effectively making himself a roadblock of sorts, then he could be ticketed. As long as he’s not actually obstructing traffic though, your friend is right. There’s no reason for a ticket.
So the question here is whether or not your friend is obstructing traffic. If he stays in the right lane so that people can easily pass him, then he wins your argument. If he is blocking the fast lane, then you are correct.
As much as Californians drive like idiots compared to most of the U.S., there’s no actual requirement in California law that everyone has to drive like an idiot. The speed limit, legally, is the UPPER limit of what you are supposed to be driving at. Just because a large segment of the population treats it as a minimum speed doesn’t mean that there is any legal requirement for everyone to do so.
Is there some particular reason your friend drives significantly slower than traffic? Does he not feel that he has adequate control over the vehicle? Does he have vision issues?
The California speed limit when towing a trailer is 55. As long as the OP’s friend is in the right lane(s) he should be fine.
When was the last time your friend had an accident, or caused one?
It significantly saves fuel to drive in the 50-55 range because of air resistance which increases, IIRC, quadratically with speed. That was the reason for the 55 speed limit during the oil crisis in the 70s. The most efficient speed depends on the car, but I understand that is more like 40-45 for most.
Just to be clear, it is always against the law to drive faster than the speed limit, in every single state. Whatever the minimum speed limit law is for your state, it cannot compel you to exceed the posted speed limit, period.
California is one of the states that has a “basic speed” law. This means that, regardless of what the posted signs say, you can get a ticket for driving too fast if the LEO concludes that your speed was too high for the conditions at the time (e.g. nighttime, rain, or snow) but you can also get a ticket for driving too slow if you are below the posted speed limit and the LEO concludes that your speed was so low as to block or impede normal traffic.
Unfortunately, the words “normal traffic” and “block or impede” are not well-defined. It’s up to the LEO to decide whether your actions warrant a ticket, and then it’s up to you to convince a judge otherwise, or just pay the fine.
Hypothetically, your friend could be driving 58 in a 65 zone and be in danger of getting a ticket for driving too fast OR a ticket for driving too slow, depending on the “conditions” and the “normal traffic”. If it’s raining and most of the other cars are going 75+, one LEO might conclude that 58 is too fast due to the rain, and another LEO might conclude that 58 is too slow because it impedes normal traffic.
Personally, I think the way your friend drives is just fine. He’s only 5-10 mph below the speed limit. There’s nothing wrong with that. But as to whether he might get a ticket… there is no definitive answer. That’s why I hate the Basic Speed Rule.*
According to this web page, if your friend is driving slower than the other traffic and causes an accident, the other cars involved in the accident might have grounds for a lawsuit on the basis of negligence, regardless of whether such behavior was illegal or not and whether any tickets were issued.
- I used to live in Tennessee, and they had a really clear-cut law about minimum and maximum speeds. On a two-lane road (one lane each way), the maximum speed is the posted speed limit and the minimum is ten mph below that. The minimum only applies if there are five or more cars lined up behind you, in which case you must either speed up to the minimum or pull over and let them pass, within one mile. If there are fewer than five cars behind you, you can drive as slow as you damn well please for as long as you like and you aren’t breaking the law. If a fifth car shows up, you have one mile to decide to speed up or pull over, but you can drive that one mile as slow as you damn well please. And yes, that means you can drive a tractor at 25 mph in a 55 zone as long as you pull over when required. On a four-lane road (or more), the maximum is the posted speed limit and the minimum is either 40 or whatever is posted as the minimum on that road. The minimum applies regardless of how many other cars are around you. On Interstates, the posted minimum is usually 45. So, for what it’s worth, your friend would be in zero danger of receiving a ticket for driving too slow in Tennessee, going 55-60 in a 65 zone, either on a two-lane or a four-lane road.
I was eastbound on the 10, heading toward the 405. Someone was driving 45 mph and impeding traffic. CHP pulled him/her over.
That’s an excellent point. I understand the speed limit for towing a trailer behind a car in England is 50 mph. That’s one reason that European cars have stated towing capacities but the exact same car sold in the USA will say something like “towing is not recommended”, because they know Americans will drive 65 while towing a trailer even though it’s unsafe.
That reminds me… when you rent a trailer from U-Haul, the trailer has the words “Speed Limit 45 mph” painted on the fenders. I assume that’s a liability thing; if you have an accident going faster than 45, they can say it’s your own fault for driving faster than what is painted on the side of the trailer itself. I wonder if anyone ever actually drives under 45 when towing a U-Haul trailer and, if so, do those people ever get tickets for driving too slow.
The danger come from the variation in speed between different vehicles (and the maneuvers drivers make to pass slow vehicles, or get out of the way of speeders), and the unpredictability that causes. That’s why we have the Slow traffic Keep right and Don’t pass on the right rules of the road – it makes driver behavior more predictable for others.
Your slowpoke friend may not have many accidents, but might cause quite a few.
I’ve always heard that it’s dangerous to have more than a 15mph difference between your speed and the speed of the flow of traffic.
Whenever I’ve seen a minimum speed posted, it’s always been 15mph less than the speed limit.
The speed limit in the UK for towing a trailer on a motorway or dual carriageway is 60mph - 50 on single carriageway roads. This has nothing to do with towing capacities but reflects the legislature’s opinions about the stability of trailers. The limit for cars not towing is 70 mph.
Since fuel became so expensive here - £1.20 per litre ($6.13 per US gallon) today at my local supermarket, it is not uncommon to see cars driving at 50mph on motorways. Trucks are mostly doing 56mph so they have to pull out to overtake and this can cause congestion and some scary moments. The economical car driver is usually unaware of this.
Driving 55-60 in the right lane on a multilane highway where the speed limit is 65 is reasonable and shouldn’t be cause for a ticket.
If it’s a two-lane “highway”, driving up to 10 mph below the speed limit encourages dangerous passing and seems much more likely to gain the slow driver a ticket, or at least many obscene gestures.
Sometimes drivers get the idea that everyone else exists for their convenience, i.e. they all should speed because you want to. Sometimes I think there should be a special law prohibiting geezers in Buicks from driving with agonizing slowness on city streets, but then I get over it.
I’m not following the logic there. Let’s suppose the speed limit on a two-lane road is 55. If I drive 54, someone who wishes to pass me has two options. #1 They can pass me going 55, in which case it takes a VERY long time to pass, or #2 They can exceed the speed limit while passing me. Seems to me either of those options is dangerous. But if I drive 48-50, they can pass me going 55, which seems to me to be safer.
This is probably better suited to IMHO. Thread title edited to indicate subject. Please use descriptive thread titles.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I think the point is that, on a two-lane road, if you’re driving at or very close to the speed limit, you’ll have fewer people who want to pass you (or, at least, those who do want to pass you won’t be as exasperated by you).
OTOH, if you’re driving 5-10 MPH under the speed limit, not only are you going to pretty much have everyone wanting to pass you, but they’ll be getting more frustrated by getting stuck behind you, and become more willing to pass when they probably shouldn’t be.
I don’t want to jack the thread but think this can probably be answered easily. I’ve never understood how the speed limit works in terms of the “fast lane.” The expectation is that you’re going to drive faster than the speed limit. Yet the speed limit is the maximum speed. Here in Washington, I’d tick off a lot of drivers if I went 60 mph in the far-left lane, and for good reason.
Isn’t almost everyone in the fast lane breaking the law? If so, then the speed limit isn’t really the speed limit, is it?
As far as slow speeds, I once had a student whose grandfather got ticketed for driving 7 mph on the interstate. Yikes.
In at least some places, there is a special provision in the law to handle this: essentially that you’re allowed to exceed the limit momentarily in order to pass someone safely and quickly.