Hardly ever below, mostly because I really believe that most (nearly all) speed limits are artificially low. Very rarely more than 10+, and if over that, it’s because I’ve not noticed my speed and will be slowing down as soon as I do.
I’m also of the belief that if you aren’t at the limit, you should yield to the LONG LINE OF CARS behind you if present. If you’re all alone on a country road, go whatever speed you’d like, otherwise you’re holding up others that are trying to get somewhere.
All roads should have passing areas whenever safe to allow them.
If you live on a main road, don’t advocate for an exceptionally artificially low speed limit “For the children.” Teach your children not to go in the road, and keep control of them if they are too young, or unable to be taught some common sense. Remember, your choice to move into a home on a “going places” road, was your choice. If you want super low limits, buy on a side road cul-de-sac.
I drive significantly slower than I used to. A man’s got to know his limitations. And the limitations of the maniacs he’s sharing the road with.
Not necessarily. On California’s I-5, for example, driving 80 mph you may be overtaken and ticketed by a CHP doing 90. But you can maintain a 100 mph speed all the way from Stockton to San Fernando, watching out only for CHP in front of you.
Disclaimer: I did these experiments in the 1980’s. They may be using radar or something by now.
First of all, I refuse to use cruise control. Regulating my own speed by foot never seemed to be a challenge that stymied me, even when I was a beginner.
As I matured, my policy shifted toward using the slow lane and keeping up with traffic in it, overtaking when necessary anyone who was unusually slow (below the limit) or inconsistent.
The best way to avoid tickets is to make sure you can always see somebody going faster than you are. If you wander into a speed trap, somebody else is going faster.
If every car were going at exactly the same speed, there would never be a single accident, because they are all “standing still” relative to each other. Minimize accident exposure by minimizing the differential between your speed and the prevailing speed of other cars around you.
I drive a section of winding country road every day that is posted 45 mph. It is just barely possible to drive it doing 32 mph, but you’d feel like a race car driver. I usually do 20 - 25, constantly on the alert for deer and turkeys.
I’ve always wondered if the 45mph sign was meant as a joke.
I speed 90% of the time in city traffic, but rarely more than 5 mph over the limit. I speed a lot less on the highway, and it seems there are more cops looking out for it, and I can see my mileage decreasing for every couple mph I go.
If by “the government”, you mean your state legislature, then that’s correct. On a recent trip:
Oregon: 65
Idaho: 80
Utah: 75-85
Arizona: 80
Colorado: 75
In many instances, the road was nowhere nearly good enough to warrant those speeds.
There are some roads around here with insanely high posted speed limits-narrow, lots of sharp turns with no shoulder and a long way down if you don’t make the turn, which you can’t do if you’re going at the posted speed limit. And a lot of people drive way too fast through residential areas where you can expect kids, dogs, and cats to be darting out into the roads.
However, on the highways, I think unless the weather is bad most people can safely manage 85 mph, which seems to the be most common speed, in my experience, regardless of the posted speed limit. I’ve driven on a stretch on the east coast that had a posted 65 mph and everyone went at 85. I’ve driven in the west on a similar stretch of road that had a posted 75 mph and everyone went at 85.
I think the majority of people automatically adjust their speed depending on the road and weather conditions in order to drive safely and don’t pay any attention to the posted speed limits. The few people driving dangerously fast are the ones that should be picked off by the cops.
I’m with FairyChatMom: “…I don’t like to go fast. It’s not good for fuel economy of my vehicle, it’s stressful, it can be dangerous, and in the grand scheme of things, it would only save me a few minutes on any given drive.”
I live in an area where heavy traffic is 15 vehicles visible over a half mile stretch of highway. I’m aware that most drivers will be going faster than I am and make an effort to track them and stay out of the way. As I regularly mutter when someone comes up behind me, “Do you know what the fast [passing] lane is for?”
As I recall from the driver’s manual, California law requires any vehicle to pull over if it has a certain number of cars (maybe five) behind it and the roadway does not allow safe or legal passing. How this would ever be enforced is problematic.
I’ve had 3 speeding tickets in about 25 years and I speed all the time. Oddly, freeways are where I’m only a couple MPH over. Unless I’m going along with traffic, 70-75 feels quite fast enough. I generally zip around in town. 15 over is not rare at all, I know the roads and I know where cops can hide. If I have nobody else around me and I have zero chance of getting caught, I zip around at a speed that feels comfy. I don’t really analyze my speed compared to the posted limit, just whatever feels same. BTW, my dad owned a driving school, so all my bad habits come from him.
If I’m not behind a slowpoke and road conditions are good, I usually go 8 or 10 above the speed limit on numbered highways, including two-lane highways in rural areas. On residential streets and congested areas, I usually do the speed limit or only slightly above, because you never know when some idiot will pull into the road or a kid or a pet run into it. On two-lane roads I don’t usually pass a slowpoke unless he’s going under the speed limit.
When I was younger I often went 15 or more mph over the limit. I got my one and only speeding ticket about 15 years ago doing 85 in a 65 zone. Since then I don’t usually go more than 10 mph over.
I drive the speed limit on residential roads, because, hey, people live there and living things are likely to unexpectedly appear in the road.
Major roads and highways, I’ll go with the flow if there’s flow, or five to eight over if there’s not much other traffic.
On the freeway, with traffic if there’s traffic, which is typically about 10 over. If there’s no traffic then I stay paranoid and keep it at five to eight over, except on I-94 in Detroit where I know I won’t get stopped for 75 in a 55.
That’s in the USA.
In Mexico on the toll highways (if I know the road), I’ll just drive as fast as the vehicle lets me. Usually about 100 mph, sometimes faster.
In my car, this is me. I don’t go above 60 or 65 on highways because it kills my bad mileage. 2 fill ups in 600 miles versus 3 is worth an extra 30 to 60 minutes of driving. Especially since I’m usually on vacation when I do it, so time isn’t a big factor.
When I’m working, speed limit is what I aim for. I set the cruise to whatever the limit is and watch everyone pass me. Unless the limit is over 60, our trucks are governed so that is my top speed on a flat surface.
They pull you over and give you a ticket. A Google self driving car got one in Mountain View for driving too slow and holding up traffic a few months ago.
Except for the freeways, which I don’t really live close to, the highways here are 55mph posted speed limit. If you actually drive that slow you will be backing up traffic and likely to get pulled over.
The actual speed as driven by most drivers is in the 62-67mph range. As long as you are driving under 67 the police will not even look at you. over 70 will bring their attention.
In fact one of my sheriff deputy friends says that if you are out at night driving 55mph in light traffic it is a sure sign that you are being too cautious and have probably been drinking. It gets you extra attention.
In my company provided vehicle I drive 1mph over the limit, on cruise control, everywhere I go. The vehicle is GPS monitored for safety by the company. If you asshats from Illinois that come “Up North” here in Wisconsin think that riding my bumper will make me go any faster, guess again.
In my personal vehicles I have driven all over the country 5mph above the posted limits on cruise control, and have never had a copper even look at me.
35 mile commute on the 101 everyday. On the way to work at 1pm, I go with the flow of traffic, which is usually about 50. Today (Sunday) everybody is going to the beach so it was more like 30mph avg. On the way home at 10pm, I hover right around 80mph and still get passed.