Do you regularly break speed limits? (1 Viewer)

[Neil Joseph]

All I can say is Toronto traffic moves along at 120-125kph on average (speed limit is 100 kph). I tend to feel comfortable around 130kph. I got a ticket in NY state though for doing 81mph in a 65mph zone and I find the cops very picky there where they tend to stop you even if you do 5mph over the limit.
orangeman
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Link Removed

 

[Wayne Murphy]

When people get talking about speeding and when was the last time you did more than 20 kph over the limit or more, I just smile and shake my head. There is something wrong with my accelerator pedal in my car and my throttle on my bike. For some reason I can't do the speed limit. I've tried but the defect must be in the car or bike.

I signal every turn or lane change. I stop for every light or stopsign. I am a very easy going driver I let everyone in......if they signal (otherwise I don't see them.

I drive a civic and ride a cruiser and in both of them it is a major effort to keep them down to 30 kph over the limit.
Still trying to find a mechanic to fix these vehicles for me.

 

[Tony G]

I have a V1 and it has saved my butt numerous times. I ususally drive about 80 mph on the interstate.
I find the direction indicators on the v1 useful, but not when it first goes off. If I get a fairly weak warning from behind me that lasts for a few minutes, I'll speed back up and try to pull ahead. Maybe it's just psychological!
Tony

 

[Alex Spindler]

Absolutely. I don't think there has been a single day that I've been in a car that I didn't break the speed limit.
When I am by myself, I generally get 15-25 over, calmed down to 10 over when I'm in a high threat zone (rush hour). I always drive the speed limit in school zones (I totally agree with the posted speeds there).
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Bombardment Society - Member

 

[Scott Strang]

Every once in a while something posted to Usenet warrants archiving. Here is a posting in misc.consumers from 01/29/1999. You'll get a good laugh from this...
quote:
Insurance is a form of sin tax, a way for the government (via its agents) to
discourage behavior which is morally wrong (the private ownership of autos).
The real problem is that this is not enough, insurance is too cheap,
registrations fees are too low, and gas taxes are a joke. Gas should be at
least $4.00 a gallon, it would be better for environment if we could get it to
$4.00 a liter like the Greens have proposed in Germany. Getting a license
should be much more expensive (at least $500 to apply and at least another
$1000 for manditory training courses), and licenses should be much easier to
loose (3 strikes and you walk). We also need to expand the loose your license
laws beyond just drugs to ALL crimes. Anyone who is convicted of any crime
should not be allowed to drive. After all felons can't own weapons, and cars
are weapons.
One thing I thing states should start doing is checking all cars entering and
leaving the state for proof of insurance and wants and warrents, including
unpaid parking tickets, and then impound the vehicles of violators. Impounding
is great since the fees are so high ($100 a day california) many people who get
their cars impounded for unpaid tickets or no insurance can't afford pay
everything off, which equals another patron for mass transit, and one less
toxin spewing car on the road.
[/quote]
This "man" was clearly either a troll or complete idiot, but you'll probably laugh at him. Or your blood may boil.
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We are the citizens of the United States of America. Resistance is futile. We CANNOT be stopped so don't bother trying.
[Edited last by Scott Strang on September 23, 2001 at 07:28 PM]

 

[Patrick Sun]

In the city, I go maybe 5MPH over the speed limit. On the city interstates with speed limits of 55MPH, I do 70MPH if that's the flow of traffic, and if the speed limit is 65MPH, I do 73MPH (cruise control).
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PatCave; HT Pix; Gear; DIY Mains; DIY CC; Sunosub I + II + III; DVDs; Link Removed

 

[Eric Scott]

I doubt that I have ever driven without speeding.

 

[Rob_J]

Typically, in the city I usually drive 10 kph over the speed limit without worry of getting caught. For instance, last Thursday on the way home from work I thought it was odd seeing a guy standing behind his car pointing a funny looking gun at me--then I realized it was a speed trap About 100 feet down the road another cop held his hand out indicating "stop" and I thought for sure I was nailed, but it turns out he was stopping the guy behind me. I was doing about 58 in a 50 and they let me go.
On the highway it's a different story. I live in the prairies where the speed limit is posted at 100 kph, but the "magic speed" where they will nail you is at 117kph, or so I'm told. I typically set my cruise control at 120 and don't worry too much. On a trip to Vancouver I made a few weeks back (had free tix to the Molson Indy) we were always minimum 10 kph over the limit, unless traffic held us up. We ended up shaving 2 hours off what should have been a 12 hour drive.
In terms of top speeds though, I've had my car up to 170 kph for about 15 minutes on my way out of the city. Also, there is a guy I work with who frequently hits 240 kph on his bike. Neither of us have reached our respective top speeds yet, but don't worry, I'm sure we will.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Gas should be at least $4.00 a gallon, it would be better for environment if we could get it to $4.00 a liter like the Greens have proposed in Germany. Getting a license
should be much more expensive (at least $500 to apply and at least another $1000 for manditory training courses), and licenses should be much easier to loose

Well, that about sums up the official swedish position on cars

Needless to say, it doesn't work, and we still drive, expensively....
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/Mikael
No! Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.

 

[Jin E]

I do not speed around town or in the city, but get me on a back road (on the motorcycle) or on the interstate you can bet I'll be going 10-20mph over the speed limit. Luckily the speed limit is 70mph all the way to work on I85! I have been known to hit the rev limiter on 6th gear on the VFR (~150mph corrected, 165mph indicated)).
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-Jin
My Theater

 

[brentl]

I try to stick to the speed limit, 115-120KPH tops. Any more and my car goes trough gas too quickly ..... 3 peed with overdrive.
UGH
LL cool B

 

[Ryan Wright]

The reason for obeying speed limits is hokey but accurate - I never want to have to explain to a grieving mother that I thought my driving fun was worth more than her child's life.

This is also the reason your local police department uses to justify their revenue generating machine that is speed limits and ticketing. I'm sorry, but the guise of speed limits for safety just doesn't hold water on most public roads. If safety was the primary concern, you would see more cops around school zones and less waiting behind a hill on the freeway to bust people doing 75 in a 70 under the facade that they're endangering others.
The problem I have is I drive a red sports car. Always have, always will. (Well, it might not always be red, but it will always be a sports car) If I get on the freeway and set my cruise at the 70mph speed limit, I get passed by damn near everyone on the road, including semis who are supposed to be doing 60. It's an unsafe condition when everyone else is doing at least 80. So I usually match the speed of those around me. However, the first speed trap I come across usually results in my being singled out and pulled over. Nevermind that there are still a few cars passing me, the sports car gets nailed.
Therefore, I make judicious use of my cruise control. I set it 4mph over the speed limit on the freeway, enough to somewhat keep up with traffic but not enough to get ticketed (though I was once pulled over and harassed for doing 37 in a 35). I still speed on a daily basis, though. The road leading up to my subdivision is marked 35mph halfway and 40mph the other half, even though the vast majority of the area surrounding the road is farmland. I usually do 50mph up and down this road. I need to slow down; I'm going to get a ticket one of these days. (On the other hand, the speed limit needs to be changed. It's absolutely ridiculous. Even at 50mph+, I have people who want to go faster tailgate me on a regular basis.)
As for top speeds: Took my 1985 Pontiac Fiero GT (V6) to 140mph some 7 years ago. My latest Fiero with a 3800SC would do at least 160, maybe 170 if I pushed it. I'm not so sure about the car's ability to stay on the road at that speed, however. The engine & tranny would handle it, and since the stock suspension handled 140 reasonably well I'm guessing my custom suspension would at least handle 150. However, I'm not eager to try it.
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-Ryan (http://www.ryanwright.com )
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you do criticize them, you'll be a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

 

[AaronNWilson]

Ryan that is an excellent post. I totally agree with speeding tickets being a revenue generating machine. If they were really worried about car safety we would all be driving hummers with 4 cyclinder engines.
I hope that the ticket revenue eventually gets poured into some slush fund, because that is a serious conflict of interest. The thought of giving a car a ticket for being 10 mph over the limit is extremely retarded. If you went and compared stopping distances for a F350 superduty compared to a corvette doing 70mph, try using that reasoning. It just doesn't make sense to have these blanket speed limits whenever we have such huge variances on the stopping abilities of vechiles.
Speeding should be a right. Whenever you have to drive a car that weighs 3000lbs, you have just gotta accept that there is gonna be some fatalities. Its just a fact of life, that shit happens, but driving your car in fear is not worth it.
I used to live in Ireland where people regularly drive faster on smaller roads, but I really do think it makes people better drivers, because they are more focused. Whenever I see people not using their indicators, or pulling out in front of people, that is the people who should be getting HUGE fines, but it never happens.
Aaron

 

[Aaron Copeland]

Yes...the only places I do not speed are neighborhoods and school zones.
But pretty much every where else I will speed.
Aaron

 

[andrew markworthy]

My posting had nothing to do with listening to police propaganda, but everything to do with common sense. I entirely agree that some speed limits are set too low for the roads and that speed tickets are a lazy cop's way of raising revenue. *However*, if you get into the mindset that speeding 'except outside schools and in built-up areas' or that it's okay to drive 'just above the speed limit' is a synonym of advanced driving skills, then sorry guys, but you are sadly deluding yourselves. The simple fact is that a high proportion of auto fatalities involve speeding, and that doesn't just mean high speed driving. There's an excellent advert on British TV at the moment showing the difference between driving at 30 mph and 35 mph in a built up area. Most people think that 35 mph isn't speeding too much; it is when you see the difference in stopping distance - and the death of a child crossing the road because the driver thought it was okay to drive just above the speed limit.
As I stated in my first post, I'm no angel. I speed on motorways (i.e. equivalent of freeways) because to do otherwise invites being carved up. However, on other roads I stick rigidly to the speed limit, and to do otherwise is, IMHO, insane (and before anyone accuses me of slow driving, I should add that I believe in driving to the speed limit - people who drive seriously under it annoy me, and in fact are breaking the law, at least in the UK). The cold hard *facts* are against speeding as a safe way of driving. To argue otherwise goes along with that great 'advanced driver's' excuse that not wearing a safety belt gives greater manouverability and means you don't get trapped after a crash.

 

[AaronNWilson]

Andrew while it may seem like common sense to drive your car slower, it also seems like common sense to me to give up driving cars and start using public transit instead. However I doubt that you are going to start doing that. Driving faster than the speed limit doesn't mean that you are automatically going to crash your car into a kid.
If people were really as concerned as you are about public safety Andrew then we would all be driving volvos and the US would have much stricter gun laws. (I actually agree about the tighter gun laws part ). However whenever you drive faster you are increasing your chances of having an accident but it doesn't mean you should stop speeding. Stopping speeding in school zones is a good idea, but feeling guilty about driving cars fast, well that is just stupid. If public safety was such a big concern, then cars wouldn't have over 60hp and they wouldn't go any faster than 70mph. However the reality is that 20 year old guys can go out and buy a used camaro with over 300hp, so maybe there was some HUGE slipup on the side of the US government that would allow that to happen.
I think that driver experience is huge part of what the chances are of being involved in a accident. Accidents happen in parts of roads which are conducive to crashs, ie corners, hills etc. Driving fast on straight roads just isn't that dangerous.
I'm not saying that speeding isn't a factor in crashes, I'm just saying driving experience is also a factor. I for one am glad I didn't have a car with 300hp when I was 18 because I know for sure it would be airborne. However I don't want to have to drive my car at a leisurely pace just because it makes sense to do so. That's the whole reason why people speed, because it doesn't make sense, it's just fun.
Aaron
[Edited last by AaronNWilson on September 25, 2001 at 02:10 AM]

 

[Tommy G]

My father was a police officer for 27 years and to answer any of the questions with regards to "Are there quotas?" the answer is "yes". I was coming home from NYC a month ago with out of state plates and a CT Trooper pulled me over for going 71 in a 65. My ticket was for a total of $60. I never go more than 10 over the speed limit and didn't even try to slow down when I saw the cop because I thought he would give me 10 and I was being passed just as much as I was passing. Upon speaking to my father, he said that it was definitely because it was the end of the month and didn't want to hit the in-state motorists.