What’s the deal with those news articles? 100mph (160km/h) is just a little over cruising speed in most European countries. In Germany, if you want to do 100mph you’d better stick to the rightmost lane along with the trucks because drivers on the other lanes are doing over 160mph.
I’ve noticed lately that this has become a running joke in Fark. Are people in the US really driving so slowly that 100 sounds like a high speed?
The normal highway speeds in the US are 55-65mph. I don’t think there’s anywhere in the country where you can legally drive over 75mph on public roads.
Yes. The speed limit on most American Highways is 75mph or under (I think 65 mph is the most common nationwide). On highways inside city centers, it is usually no more than 55mph. On city streets, no more than 45mph. Driving 100 mph (25 over for a suburban highway, more than twice the legal speed in street traffic) is a crime for which in many states, you would have to answer in court. In about 40 states, the fact that your speed was not objectively dangerous would be no defense.
But a 100 mph high speed chase through street traffic is very, very dangerous.
I’ve yet to find a highway/beltway/parkway/interstate with a posted limit above 75 mph, and apparantly, 80 is the highest posted limit in the United States*. Common rule of thumb is between 5-10 mph over the posted limit without police harassing you. So a cool cop on one of the few 80 mph roads to be found would probably not let you get above 90 mph. Well below your 100 mph “cruising speed.”
Alas for us.
*Certain areas of Montana do not have a posted limit at all, just a general “don’t be a dumbass” guidance.
ETA: one more click on the wikipedia page gives a nice chart
Yes. You see, in most parts of the US there is no inter-city passenger rail service, and bus service is of very low quality. So pretty much everyone is forced to drive, including teenagers, 80-year olds, people who had their licenses suspended for drunk driving, and anyone else who isn’t confident about - competent at - driving (like myself). It would be total chaos if all those people were allowed to drive at 100 mph. And those people would be terrified if others were driving at 100 mph.
I lived in Europe (specifically France) for many years and I believe you are overstating the case somewhat. In that country, max. legal speed (on rural autoroutes only) is 130 kph (around 80MPH), and in built-up areas is more like 90-110 even on superhighways. In any event, traffic conditions there are such that anyone attempting to do 160 MPH in an urban setting would likely kill themselves and several innocent parties in short order, regardless of their driving skills. They certainly would be quick to draw the attention of the police, although I believe the cops there would be less inclined to initiate a high-speed pursuit than in the US, as they seem to better understand the public dangers involved.
In addition, for a majority of vehicles in both the US and Europe, somewhere around 100 MPH is a practical limit for sustained hgh-speed driving, either because the engine runs out of puff or the chassis and tires are unsafe for higher sustained speeds. Wishes won’t get, say, a Renault Twingo 1.2 up to 160 MPH no matter how hard one tries.
To sum up, for the US, 100 MPH in an urban setting with heavy traffic is more than enough to cause great havoc due to the relatively large departure from average local road speed and the need to weave in and out of traffic to maintain that speed. Not to mention fairly frequently the vehicle being pursued is being driven by someone who is unskilled or impaired, and/or the vehicle itself is being stressed beyond its safe limits.
The OP is overstating the case. It is unusual to see people driving here at 100mph, and normally you see them again a few minutes later, at the side of the road talking to a policeman. 160mph is beyond the capability of most cars.
I was fined $200 (down from an initial $500) and spent a week in jail (I was sentenced to 12 days) for driving 105 MPH in Virginia two years ago.
The posted limit was, I think, 55 MPH.
Nah, not really. At any given time about half of our freeways are stuck with congestion anyway (im exaggerating. a little.). There are some who drive faster, but with the insane gas prices the speed is more on the area of 140, 150km/h or so. Some do drive faster, though, and this high relative speeds are a concern - a general speed limit of about 130 or 120km/h is discussed every few month.
There was a story about a 100MPH chase across the San Francisco Bay Bridge just last weekend. Somehow, the authorities couldn’t figure out how to catch them at the other end of the bridge, and they got away. The Mercedes SUV was discovered–on fire-- in Oakland the next day.
I’ve only driven over 100MPH once. I was on a date, borrowing my dad’s '72 Malibu, and got it up to 107. Years later, I found out that my brother did the same thing, in the same car, on the same stretch of road…go figure.
I got a $415 for driving that fast in California. Knowing how fast I was going, I wasn’t too upset when the cop gave me a ticket.
I was in Germany a few years ago and rented a car for a weekend. For an American, cruising at 100mph really gets your attention at first. Not everyone was going that fast, and you catch up to the trucks very quickly. I managed 130 very briefly, and never saw anyone going much faster than that.
The speed limits here at home are as the other posters have said. Compared to Europe, I’d say we’re much slower, but also more consistent. From the fastest traffic to the slowest, I’d say there’s not much more than 15mph difference. Much more traffic, too. It’s not unusual to have four lanes on the highway, all at 55-65mph, and about as close as safely possible. To get away from that, you need to be well away from any cities.
Driving is almost considered a birthright here. It’s unusual to find someone of legal age who doesn’t have a driver’s license. And so the standards (licensing and enforcement) aren’t high enough to demand the kind of discipline that makes the European model work.
Unless CSI has lied to me, that’s not the case in New York. One kid described himself as a ‘third-generation New Yorker without a driver’s license’ [not actually verbatim, but close]. I guess it’s as cheap to take taxis, the subway, or walk as it would be to maintain a car, especially given how New York is built.
NYC is the exception. Outside of a few big cities it is rare to find people without drivers licenses unless they are unable to drive. Not unheard of, but certainly rare.
When it comes to driving, New York City is an anomaly, because it’s one of the few cities in the US with a phenomenal public transportation infrastructure, and where owning a car is prohibitively expensive.
Taxis are not cheap. Take the subway, you mook. 
Quoth Only Mostly Dead:
Not true. The state did experiment with this for a few years just before I got here, but quickly discovered that too many folks need a sign with a number on it to tell them what constitutes dumbassery. Currently, the speed limit on the interstates is 75, and on roads without a posted speed, the default speed limit is 70.
Upon further reading of my own link, I saw that the “reasonable” rule was revoked in 1999. But I was outside the edit window and didn’t consider it important enough for a new comment. And I knew it would give somebody else a chance to chime in and correct me. 
160MPH in Germany? I doubt that. I really do. Someone might have a car that can do that but it would be pretty rare. I’ve lived and driven there and you see some insane speeds on the autobahn, but 160 would be really extreme. 80, 90, is normal. Maybe 100 sometimes, on an open stretch of clean freeway. Some probably go over, to 110, or maybe 120. Maybe. But the autobahn is designed for it.
US highways aren’t built for that speed. Nor are our tires and engines.
I got busted in Utah for doing 98. The cop was nice, as I was VERY nice. He informed me if he had clocked me @ 100, it’s automatic arrest and jail time. He and I both knew damn well I was doing 100+ to get through that boring ass state.
I’ve driven on the motorways in England, and speeds weren’t significantly different than those here in the US. I don’t recall the speed limit, but it was well under 100 mph. 70 or 75, I suspect.
I’ve ridden as a passenger on a German autobahn, as well, and I’m highly skeptical of these 160 mph claims. We were in a rented Ford Escort wagon, with my father driving; he said that the car began to feel like it was really having to work above some speed between 75 and 80 mph, so that’s where we cruised. We blended right in with the vast bulk of the traffic.
Much is made of the Porsches, BMW’s, and Mercedes on the highways in Europe - yeah, there are a number of them. There are also a lot of Nissan Micras, Ford Focuses, and cars like that that aren’t any more powerful - if not less powerful - than the grocery-getters that populate US highways (among the Porsches, BMW’s, and Mercedes here).
100 mph is a high speed for the roads in the US. It’s 33% above the highest speed limit you’re going to find anywhere here.
Based on my experience, it’s also a high speed in England. 100 mph is also (IME) well above the average speed on the freeways in Germany.Here is an article I found in an Australian paper making a big deal of Prince Harry’s “convoy” doing 160 kph (about 100 mph). Doesn’t sound that different from here.
I am very skeptical of the picture painted in the OP of European freeway speeds, but I must admit I’ve never been to Greece.
If 100mph is slow for you, you’re desensitized.
Ride a motorcycle or snowmobile at 100mph, and look left or right and let me know how slow that is for you.
100mph is extremely fast.