Speed Limits

by Abaddon 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  Abaddon

  I had to drive about 600km (370 miles) to HAmburg and back again yesterday on business.

  For those of you that don't know, large parts of the German network of autobahns (freeways) have no speed limit.

  Of course, those who say German's don't have a sense of humour won't have though in detail about having a network of two-lane dual carriageways with no speed limit. A very funny idea.

  It was still a pretty good average speed (about 135km/h, 83mph) for the part of the journey in Germany, and we , but as I got up to 220km/h (135mph) at various points and cruised over 160km/h (100mph) a lot, if they'd been a third lane it would have been a lot higher. One side effect is once you are back down to normal highway speeds (120km/h) it feels like you're doing 50k/mh

  In Holland we have speed cameras everywhere. On routes I know, obviously I know ehere they are and act accordingly. Everywhere else I tend to travel flat-out (apart from residential areas), although normally that means 160kmh as my car (a Volkswagen Polo) isn't quite as fast as my bosses car which I drove yesterday. Although you can have your license and car taken away from you for driving too fast (i.e. 2x the limit) (as in straight away), I don't have a Dutch driving license and my car's owned by the company, so that means squat all to me.

  My dad was the same. He once did London to Falmouth in 3 1/4 hours - that's about 300 miles at over 90mph... and the speed limit's 70!

  Anyone else a speed freak? Anyone else regard speed limits as 'suggestions'?

  I'm very luck as I have never been done for speeding; stopped a few times but talked my way out of it. Anyone got a collection of tickets?
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  shotgun

  Abaddon with your fantastic reasoning skills I pity the poor cop who pulled you over, probably wrote himself a ticket after you were through with him!
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  Gretchen956

  I grew up in Montana, here in the States. Montana is the 4th largest state and sometimes it seems like it can take days to get across. The majority of the state after you cross the continental divide, is pretty flat with no trees. So we had no speed limit. Yea, I used to drive like a demon. The exception there was, after dark there was a speed limit and it was very much enforced. Then in the 70s I think, during our first "gas crisis" they decided for conservation reasons to enforce a 55 mile an hour speed limit for the whole country. States that did not go along with this "suggestion" would not get any matching federal hiway construction dollars. So Montana decided to enforce it their own way. If you got speeding during daylight hours you would hand the officer a 5 dollar bill, then adios. People used to keep stacks of 5 dollar bills on them if they wanted to drive across the state. A few years ago they repealed the 55 mile an hour speed limit. Montana went right back to the no speed limit. The only problem was, there was too much congestion and so a lot of people died. I heard they now have a speed limit, I think its 75 miles an hour or 80. Still pretty respectable for here in the states.

  Lately I don't drive as fast as I used to. Never ever thought I would say that. The reason, though is I just got tired of the tickets. Of course when I was younger I never got tickets because I could flirt my way out of them. Now that I'm old that ain't gonna happen! Besides, you can't speed that much in Seattle, most of the time during rush hour its pretty gridlocked. On the weekend everyone is headed out of town so its a lucky day when you can go 10 mph over. The highway patrol sit between here and Olympia every few miles. Just isn't worth it to me any more.

  But, I still love to go fast..... My license plate holder says: "get in, sit down, shut up and hold on!"

  Gretchen
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  Abaddon

  shotgun

  My 'luck' is from being observant (so a few times it looked like I'd not been paying attention for a short streach, but when they'd got off the overpass they'd been waiting on I'd seen well in advance and was driving religiously correctly in the three minutes between that and them pulling me over) and very polite indeed.

  I think the 'very polite indeed' is the only explanation of being let off scott-free after being stopped for speeding (a little bit) in a friend's girlfriend's car which she'd not registered in her name yet (only had it two weeks), whose surname I didn't know, which I was not insured to drive, which had a broken rear breaklight, and which (as she was moving) had a back full of worldy effects (VCR, TV, CDs videos, etc.).

  In explaining all of this didn't lie to him once; I told him, truthfully, I was insured to drive another car, but he assumed CDW/3rd party extended to the car I was in. Everything else I had a relaxed natural answer for. The guy I was with couldn't believe it. It was a bit 'these aren't the droids you are looking for' in Star Wars.

  But I'd not have an explanation for doing 160km/h where 120 is the limit...

  ... my dad DID get off speeding in the USA once by pulling the English gentleman 'goodness me officer, 55 miles an hour, however do you get anywhere in this great country of yours at that speed?' routine... he'd been doing 90 down some god-forsaken back road...

  I think he could see that and decided to let me go

  Gretchen

  I'm faster than I used to be, but now I only really boot it when it's reasonably safe to do so. When I was younger I was far less careful about the use of speed... in both automotive and pharmacutical meanings...

  I do tend to keep up an ironic/scathing commentory on other road users... the 'yeah, sit there you fat bastard. Having a BMW means you don't have to let a VW past even if it's going faster you great twat', or 'yes, that's right, you're meant to drive with the white line in the middle of your car', or 'the gas pedals is on the right!', or 'well done! third gear!'.

  It's not so much road rage as road sarcasm, as it's rarely delivered with any real anger... someone really has to nearly hit me before I get annoyed...
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  Quotes

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  It's not so much road rage as road sarcasm
  ===============================
  
  
  Just glad I'm not the only one!
  
  ~Quotes, of the "Never Ever Speeds Unless He's In a Hurry or The Sun Is Shining" class
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  Dan-O

  Speed limits are a pain int the butt. I always find it interesting how different states enforce their speed limits. In Ohio, just a few miles to my east, drivers are monitored by the Ohio Highway Patrol. They focus almost exclusively on traffic issues, and will therefore take the time to write you a ticket for a 5 mph speed violation. Indiana has no highway patrol, and the Indiana State Police are focused more on other crimes. They won't bother you until you're at least 10 mph over the limit.

  And then there are my trips to Chicago, where I can cruise the expressways at 80 mph (and I still am passed by faster vehicles even though the speed limits are posted at 55 mph). The Illinois State Police and city police usually won't bother you because pulling you over to issue a citation would add to the traffic congestion.
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  truthseeker1

  CHPs (chippies) will get you if you are speeding here too. Most of CA cities is hard to speed in due to traffic, but in Fresno we have pretty good roads and not a lot of traffic.

  Right now they are cracking down on youth drivers, and seat-belt violations. Just trying to get people to drive safer. Most of our speed limits are 65-70, but you usually won't get pulled over for going up to 10 mph over the limit. As long as you are going along with traffic, they don't bother you.
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  outoftheorg

  The state police in Idaho are pretty strict on speed violations. It is an individual choice with most officers as to give a 5 or 10 mph leeway for drivers.

  It is true that a lot of what is done depends on the drivers attitude when stopped.

  I have a very fast car. It will do over 100 mph easily and I love driving fast. However a long time ago I was a Sheriffs deputy in California. After seeing a few crashes and what high speeds can do to the human body, I began to drive the speed limits and practice defensive driving. Unless I was on a divided highway and a straight stretch, I may floor it and enjoy the moment.

  So I have had only two citations" and one was a speed trap in Jordon Valley Oregon (the bastard)" for moving violations and no crashes. I have been driving for 54 yrs. now and hope nothing changes.

  I credit the defensive driving lessons I received from the Sheriffs office for this.

  Outoftheorg
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  franklin J

  On a cross country drive in the USA I was stopped and ticketed in Colorado. I knew that I must have been doing about 80 -85 miles an hour.

  I argued with the police officer about the ticket. Being a college student on a summer spree gave me some HUBRIS,,,,which I would never assume at my current age.

  The police officer ticketed me at 74 miles an hour, and I had to go with him to the post office and cut a money order for the $50 fine. But he consoled me by telling me if I had been clocked at 75 mph by state law I would have to have spent the nite in jail.

  thanks officer, whoever you are, for taking pitty on that over confident ( stupid) college kid all those years ago....
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  Descender

  Ten years ago, my friend and I on a spur of the moment whim decided to drive to Los Angeles, CA to see his girlfriend. It was around a 1600 mile trip and we made it in just under 19 hours straight through. Mind you, ten years ago most of the highway speed limits were 55 to 65 miles per hour because the speeds had not been increased yet. I had a sports car, so it wasn't to hard to go fast. Most of the way I was speeding at between 100 to 110 miles an hour and few places I got up to 135. I did have to slow down to about 70 for awhile when I went through a blizzard in the mountains in Arizona and we did make five gas stops and stopped to eat once, which slowed our time down a bit.

  So I think after it was all said and done, even with stopping six different times along the way, our average speed came out to 85 miles an hour. But amazingly enough, we saw exactly 0 policemen on the road for 1600 miles. The bad thing about going that fast for that long was when we had to slow down to 65, it felt like I could have stepped out of the car and pushed it faster.

  Oh, and we were good witnesses at the time, or as good as can be considering the fact we were going fast enough most of the time to have our license's revoked and thrown in jail if we were caught. I don't normally go that fast anymore though, I go 9 miles over the limit most of the time and I haven't gotten a ticket in years.