I’ve lived in the DC area since 1986, and had only driven under the law of 55 mph. Then when that was lifted a few years ago, only the rural interstates around here raised their speed limits, and only to 65.
Then last month I went home to Colorado. After getting my rental car and heading west on I-70, my wife says that I can go faster. I’ve got the speed steady on 65 like usual, but then I look up and see “SPEED LIMIT 75”. Man, was that a weird feeling edging up to that. I would’ve felt more at ease had I had a can of Coors in one hand and a trunkful of MJ.
Throughout my whole stay, I found it difficult to make my foot bring us up to 75. (It was also strange to see curve signs advise speeds of 65; when the speed limit was 55, these signs had said 50. But they hadn’t re-engineered them to be safer. Hmmm…)
If I am on an expressway, I tend to drive the same speeds regardless of posted limits: generally 65 in big cities, 75-80 in the open country.* If you asked me what posted speed limits were in any state I drive through, I would probably have a hard time telling you.
*These are based on the general “speed of traffic.” From what I can tell, few people really pay attention to speed limits, and everyone just drives around this speed.
There are some curves on highways which are engineered to be taken at a certain speed. Overall, the speed on any road is marked down by 10-15%, at least it is here locally.
What gets me is there are some curves which have no logical explination. Like, say, the on ramp for I20/59 from 65North in Birmingham. It’s flat, and uphill. Must be a barrel of laughs in the rain, what with that 35foot drop into a gully on the side. With no retaining wall.
Or onramps that force you to slow down before entering busy highways. Wonderful, eh?
On behalf of Coloradans let me be the first to ask you to stay out of the left lane if your not going to go at least 85. Any failure to comply will be dealt with by a firing squad
Believe me, I stayed to the right when I wasn’t passing.
What pissed both my wife and I was when we took US-40 east from Steamboat Spgs to I-70. When we got to I-70 there was a 10-mile backup, with the cars only going 5-15 MPH. Just east of Idaho Spgs, traffic went back up to speed. But there was no @!#?@! reason for it to have slowed - no construction, no reduction of lanes (2 lanes all the way) - except that there was now a hill. And it was on the hill where the speed of the traffic went back to normal!
I usually go about 80 on the interstate around here, have had it around 100 (very scary in a Jeep Grand Wagoneer with a 20-mph crosswind :eek: ). Speed limit’s 70 or 75…Big V8 on dual glasspacks sounds like a DC-3 taking off at that speed ;). And you can watch the gas gauge going down.
