Why do people speed?

[IGBT]

careful or you will make yourself sound like an idiot. if speeding was just to be "better" or "ahead," why do people speed on lonely backroads?

Good question...because idiots are purveyors of reckless and foolish behavior. Most of the speeding idiots are on the freeways and interstates where the vast majority of accidents occur. I see very few roadside mem's on country roads.



NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS...

 

[poopaskoopa]

I like to get there faster, sure.... But whatever time I make up, I'll probably lose it again at the next red light. I speed cuz it's seemingly the cheapest way to get my kicks and it has not gotten old.

 

[Braves]

i doubt anyone will ever read my post since there are so many, but i feel like typing

i speed because i'm a good driver, i'm very attentive, i normally drive my parents lexus which is safe, has good power, and great handling. if I think I can drive past the speed limit without endangering the lives of myself, others on the road, or my passengers then I will do it. if a cop stops me because he felt I was endangering the lives of others, ie dangerous driving, then i deserve the fine

if a cop stops me just because he's bored and i'm going over the speed limit on a straight road when everyone else is going the same speed then he shouldn't be a cop. the only thing he's protecting is his job

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Wow, alternate history eh? Not only don't you know the design speed of most highways you don't know what speed limits were 6 years ago. Let me guess, you started driving less than 6 years ago?

You are correct about me. HOWEVER, my information comes from people who went through driver's ed in the late 1960's and the story runs the same from each of them without my mentioning the information I've gotten from others. They all remember being told that the interstates were designed for a safe 80 mph while in driver's ed and that the speed limits would be raised from 65/70 once more modern vehicles arrived on the scene. Nice try. For further verification I can sift back through Peter Egan's Road and Track collums regarding the speed limit, he mentions the 65/70 limit fairly frequently and the 80mph design speed at least once.

ZV

Do you have better information? The speed limit was decreased to 55 because of gas shortage. It never went up to the limits it should be at. And we definitely know most highways are safe at speeds in excess of 70mph. How do we know this? Because politicians are skilled in the art of CYA. To cover their asses, they most likely took the safety reports of the time, lowered the speed by 25-30mph, and said it was final.

Why yes I do have better information. I do know for instance that the speed limit was lowered to 55mph to save energy. It was found in a study of cars at the time that supposidly peak MPG was achieved at 55mph. This of course was done as I understand it using a sample set where data was not collected much beyond 55mph, although I may have misinterpreted my professer on that. I also know that the Federaly mandated 55mph speed limit could only be mandated by the Fed's in situations where congress was providing money to the states. Congress tied Highway Patrol funds to the speed limit. I know that the Federal speed limit restriction on those funds was lifted in 1996 and as a result States assigned speed limits they felt were appropriate on a route by route basis. I'm also aware of a study that was completed a year or two ago that studied the effect of the increased speed limits on the highway system and the numbers pointed to an increase in the number of fatalities and serious injuries.

What I'm not sure some of you consider is that in this country we bury over 50,000 people a year in automobile accidents. For comparison the 9/11 attacks resulted in the deaths of ~3000. I doubt many people are stupid enough to say that increased speeds at the time of an accident won't result in greater likelyhood of fatalities or serious injuries. Most people simply ignore the fact that high speed crashes often result in death. The higher the speed the greater the chance of death. Our highway system is VERY forgiving, extreme engineering is undertaken to ensure that roadside features are impact safe, but a lot can be done by keeping speeds reasonable.

Our highway system may have originally been designed for what they considered 75 or 80mph at the time, this would more than likely be the stretches that were originally part of the national defense highway system. Most additions since the mid/late 60's are more than likely either 65 or 70mph designs. This is considering of course that the current geometic standards account for no design speeds above 70mph (120km/h). That design speed encompasses a 6000lb vehicle on wet pavement with bald tires and a driver perception/reaction time of 2.5secs. In dry sunny conditions these roads often feel like they can be driven much faster and I won't argue that they can't. Because of the design vehicle used the design is fairly conservative. Speed limits on the other hand need to be set based on minimum standards to ensure safety, if there is a cloud burst and a large sedan hits a curve with bald tires exceeding the design speed of the route the driver could lose control of the vehicle and as a result may end up killing not only him/herself but others in the process of wrecking. Speed limits SHOULD and ARE set by your state DOT, this agency alone has the skill and access to information required to evaluate the design characteristics of the facility and apply an appropriate maximum speed to enhance safety. See speed limits aren't there to necessarily protect you, they are there to protect you from everyone else.

Face it people, we don't live in country where everyone is generally smart and responsible. Nearly half of those yearly 50,000 deaths can be attributed to driving under the influence. An entire city of 23000 people a year could be saved simply by people not drunk driving but it continues regardless of the penalties imposed. As for cars and highways in the 60's, at the time most of the vehicles in production in the 60's included V8 engines and were quite capable of some intense speed, they may not have been able to handle sustained peak speeds but the cars of that era were quite capable of exceeding 100mph. Muscle was king. In fact it could easily be argued that the only thing holding those cars back from driving faster was transporation facilities that weren't smooth enough and forgiving enough to be driven at that speed.

 

[TechnoKid]

I was told in my drivers ed class that there are no such things as car "accidents." There is always a cause to it.

More correctly put, they are car crashes; this, again, is what I learned in drivers ed.

I may "speed" by definition, but only only doing so in keeping up with the flow of traffic. I try never to speed in inclimate (bad) weather conditions.

I also think the usage of 'speed' is somewhat confused. Is it "Oh, do you speed?" or "Do you drive over the speed [limit]?" One of those statements, to me, implies that someone might be speeding (high speed), versus, say, a higher speed conservative that of the posted limit.
Is one 'speeding' when going to pass a slower car? I guess they essentially mean the same thing in words, but it sounds different in the way they are used. I hope someone gets what I am trying to say.

Also, on a more scientific note, there was a dateline or (20/20)? program a while back that showed how 'speeding' cannot be helped by humans. In the dark or in the fog (or any bad weather for that matter in the dark), our perception of speed is impaired because the part of our brains that computes speed isn't working at speed itself. This speed sensor operates on the rate of the pulses of light that your eyes see.

For example, in broad clear daylight, our eyes transmit 'normal' rates of pulses of light to that part of the brain. This is when the brain is at its peak or best to be able to differentiate and percieve speed(s). For now we'll say 60mph.

At night however, or especially in the fog, the pulses and amount of light entering the eye is less than that of clear weather, and thus, it takes a 'faster' speed to make the brain percieve you going at the same speed in clear weather. In this case, it doesn't feel like you are going 60mph untill you are actually going say, 73-82mph.

Thats all I remember from the dateline thing. I forgot which college did the research on this (Anyone remember?). You can even do this test on yourself.

 

[res1bhmg]

I speed quite often.

I don't do it because it gets me to my destination faster, because I'm smart enough to realize that even severely breaking the speed limit would only get me to my destination <5 minutes faster in most short-medium distance trips.

I do it because of the rush I get. When I'm speeding down the highway, I like the roads with light-medium traffic. That's because part of the rush is from passing people at 30-40+ MPH (sparsely populated roads aren't as fun). I also like the rush from weaving through traffic; finding ways around the guy who's holding up traffic in the left lane. The simple truth is, the faster I'm going, the less amount of interaction I have with other cars; I'm passing them like they're standing still, so they don't have to adjust their speed and I don't have to adjust mine. I love double/triple lane changes. I love passing people on the right. I never honk at anyone; even if they cut me off; I'm not an angry driver. Most of the time, I'll either be singing or smiling when I weave through traffic.

I'm a young, somewhat reckless driver with 4 years of experience behind the wheel; close to 50k miles under my belt. I've had 1 car-to-car collision, when I rear-ended an SUV at <5 MPH when my chainless tires hit a patch of black ice before a stoplight, and my brakes locked (no ABS).

My biggest pet-peeve is that most people don't realize the leftmost lane of traffic is used most often as a passing lane. Oregon drivers will often hop into the left lane and try to pass someone going <5 MPH faster. Sorry, but that's not going to cut it. When you pass, please hit the gas.

I think traffic tickets are a membership fee of sorts. It's inevitable; at least once a year, I'll get a ticket of some sort. And I'll pay it. But that's the price of admission I'm willing to pay for speeding, because I enjoy it. I'm not angry at the officer who tickets me; most of the time, I'm back speeding a few miles from where I got pulled over.

 

[mee987]

lots of well-thought-out posts here, I hope it helps to get across the point that you dont have to be a "reckless idiot" to go over the speed limit.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Jzero
I don't know about your state but here in NJ is was 55 on the highway and 45 on the backroads. In fact, while some roads in NJ were increased to 65, the rule when the speed limit is unposted is STILL 55/45 in NJ.

I'm also pretty certain that the federal recommendation that was lifted a few years ago was 55, not 65. Some states opted to go without the funding incentives granted them by sticking to the 55MPH recommendation, so perhaps your state was one of them and it was raised from 65 to 75.

(The proceding caps are for emphasis only, they are not indicative of shouting.) Yes, the limit lifted a couple years ago was 55. However IN THE SEVENTIES the Federal limit WAS REDUCED FROM 65/70 TO 55/65. PRIOR TO the gas crisis unposted roads were 65. Read what I'm posting, I am NOT talking about recent Federal action, I'm talking about a change in speed limits that HAPPENED 30 YEARS AGO. I'm saying that speeds are currently LOWER than they were 30+ YEARS AGO. I am NOT saying that speeds have recently been at the numbers I mention.

To others, yes, the 80mph design speed is only for limited-access highways as rahvin has pointed out. I am perhaps a trifle spoiled by spending easily 80% of my driving on the Turnpike System. I will freely admit that there are a myriad of Federal highways (US 24 west of Waterville Ohio comes very readily to mind) where even a 65 mph speed limit would be insane. US 223 in Michigan is another good example of a highway that should not be faster than 55-60 mph. In retrospect I should have been much more clear that I was referring to divided highways with limited access and four or more lanes (ie two or more lanes in each direction).

I still believe that the US needs to vastly overhaul its driver training requirements, and I still believe that the best way to do so is to model our requirements after those in place in Germany. Or at least teach people to use their turn signals, that they need to back into a spot when parallel parking, and that the left lane is a PASSING lane and not a FAST lane. There are a LOT of people who just don't know jack about the basic rules of the road.

ZV

 

[Ultima]

rahvin... I just have one thing to say.
Does it really matter if 50,000 die from car accidents every year? Is there really such a shortage of people? These people drive with the knowledge that they may die one day and they accept that by driving. Pretty soon the government may make everyone drive cars with top speeds of 70mph or some crap like that because there are "too many deaths". Please! What do you want, 0 deaths? That's unattainable no matter what mode of transport you use.

Sure, make the roads safer if you want but I think that perhaps the highways could benefit from speed signs that have unlimited speeds when it's dry and set speeds in different sorts of conditions. Like the Autobahn, drivers going very fast may be held at fault for an accident even if it wasn't their fault. Those who want to go slow can go slow and those who want to go fast can go fast. So what if deaths go up by 500 a year? It's their choice, as most deaths from those kinds of speeds on the highway are single-vehicle crashes. (How often are there head-on collisions on a divided highway?)

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: notfred
Because you get there faster. What kind of a stupid question is this?

 

[iamwiz82]

i have learned to control myself. I have gone from a stupid teen always going 85+ mph in 65mph zones, to a 65mph driver in 70mph zones. It saves gas, causes me less stress, and i never have to pass anyone. I enjoy having people tailgate me when i drive like this, because my car's washerjets are aimed high enough that they get a nasty spray of wiper fluid. It usually scares teh bejeezus out of them.

 

[Ultima]

Technokid, I think it's the reverse for night-time. 60mph can feel like 80mph depending on the road.
I remember I was driving on this 45mph country road going 70mph (When the road is empty and I know the road, and I knew this road, I raise my speed until my brain is active enough to keep me really alert). Anyways as soon as I got out of the lighted part of the road I started getting scared, there was this weird perception effect where the road felt like it was more narrow than it really was and where I was going faster than I really was.

It felt like I was going 100mph when I was really only doing 70mph. I thought maybe it was cause the brights weren't on but this was my friend's car and his brights were burnt out. So when I tried to put them on, I was driving for about 30 secs with NO headlights. lmao.. I reduced my speed of course but that was fun driving by the light of the moon and stars alone.

Anyways I don't know what that effect was but I've never gone fast enough during the day to experience the same thing.

 

[jlee]

if a cop stops me just because he's bored and i'm going over the speed limit on a straight road when everyone else is going the same speed then he shouldn't be a cop. the only thing he's protecting is his job

Over the speed limit is over the speed limit. A law is a law. Whether you like it or not, that's the way it is.

Police officers enforce (well, they're supposed to, anyways) laws, correct? Do you think that you're more important than anyone else, and as such should be exempt from any speeding fines?

I would rephrase it...if everybody is going over (by a reasonable amount..not just 3-5 over) the speed limit and he *doesn't* stop anyone, he shouldn't be a cop.

If you ask why s/he should pull several people over if you can't pull them all over (maybe it's not "fair"?), let me ask you this.
Have you ever gone fishing, and if so..did you catch *all* the fish?

 

[B00ne]

Originally posted by: yobarman

Originally posted by: LostHiWay
So your the guy that always goes 65 when everyone else is going 80!! I hate you!!





Just kidding

I'm not. Everyone who keeps the speed limit should be in the right lane!! Leave the left lane for law-breakers such as myself.

I thaught it is allowed to pass on the right lane too in the states? Is it not?

GTI, the Autobahn aint salvation either. A) the right lane is usually quite clogged with trucks, if there is more than two lanes, ppl usually disregard the right lane (its for trucks u know - dumbasses) and only use the middle and left. And u always have the dreadful left lane drivers (especially the big cars - MB, BMW, AUDI... - they seem to think the sticker price for their car includes buying the left lane) But the even worse can be thedrivers of this type: Oh there is a truck ahead about 1 km away - I gotta move over to the left - then they keep driving there until they are 1 km past the truck and move over only because they could count the pores on the following guys angry nose. And if there is more than 3 lanes things get totally crazy 1st and 2nd lane are almost empty (if there are no trucks) and 3 and 4 there is like traffic jam. Man Ive seen it that the road (5 lanes) seemed totally blocked (ppl were going kinda like stop and go just between 20 and 50) yet I could pass all of them at full throttle on the most right which was empty as well as the 2nd. Luckily no police saw me or I would have had my license for the longst time (passing on the right is not only prohibited but also extremely dangerous especilly at a speed delta of some 30-50mph - so I am not advocating it - but sometimes there is no choice

anyway police should just enforce higher fines for left lane driving maybe ppl would learn how to drive. Sometimes I feel this left lane driving is some social jealousy ala: I cant go faster than 90mph - neither shall u....

So u see driving on the autopbahn is really fun ....

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Admittedly I haven't ready every post on this thread...


But going 65MPH when you can see down the road for three+ miles makes my mind wander. And you can only stare at the rear end of the same car so long before you start wanting to look at other stuff. I got a ticket for doing 82 in a 65 and have since slowed down, I don't feel like I'm a safer driver at all. I was a better driver when I was going 10MPH faster. I payed attention to traffic that was further ahead and could see things coming, I could SEE what traffic was doing. When you're behind the same vehicle for 20 miles at a pop you don't get a feel for traffic. Does anyone have any figures on how many accidents are caused by inattentiveness? My guess is that it's alot. "I didn't see them" is a sign that someone wasn't paying attention. When my dad got rear ended by a soccer mom, she wasn't speeding, she just wasn't paying attention. When I got smacked by some old guy, he didn't see me either. When my car got nailed TWICE in my driveway, the drivers weren't paying attention. (my car was parked mind you). Speed is safe if people pay attention. I'd estimate that speed limits are derated by 50% from thier actual safe speed.

Some people take a proactive approach to driving, the current state of speed limits makes it quite difficult to do that since the mentality is that traffic should be a single moving mass like a log moving down a river and not mix and move around like a river itself. I'm not forcing anyone to go fast, provided they get out of the left lane.