Motors Speeding

Police who give people speeding tickets irratate me to no end. If you're going 80 on the 65 highway, they ahve to do at least 90 to catch you. So it's ok for them to speed but not for you to speed. If everyone is goign at 80mph then they shouldn't bother pulling people over. In general it is safe to go up to about 85mph. we pay policemen to sit in their cars and pull people over, when they could be out helping people. I think if someone is going above 85 and driving very recklessly (e.g. nearly hitting people) they should pull them over, but not someone who is going 80 when everyone else is too. If they took police off traffic duty they could have more to do stuff liek catch bad guys. Not to mention that they break the law. I think police should have a few exceptions to the law, but they should never break a law to enforce it. It's kind of like if I went aroudn robbing banks would the police go around robbing banks to catch me? No. Then why can they go above the speed limit to catch me?

 

If there is a limit of 65 there is a reason for that - they don't choose numbers at random.
People like you irritate me to no end.. you speed, get pulled over and waste police time. If you followed the rules of the land and didn't speed they wouldnt have to wait in thier cars to catch you would they?
So you believe that they should only pull people over when they are going "like 85 and recklessly, nearly hitting people" then you go on to contradict yourself by saying "why can they speed to catch me"... They are going to have to speed to catch the '85 and reckless' person aren't they?

 

What world do you live in? Not everyone ownes a car which is safe at those speeds. In addition, because of the increased speed, reaction times are drastically increased and deadly accidents are far more likely. Imagine going 85 and having a deer run out in the road or some old lady pulling out in front of you. In addition to all this, you will use far more gas at 85 than you do at 55. That's the biggest reason that the speed limits were dropped from 75 to 55 in the US back in the 70's.

 

i'm not saying everyone should go 85. But those people who can go 85 should be allowed to without getting a ticket.

It would be safer. The people who cand rive at 85 already do drive at 85. If it was legal to drive at 85, then the policemen wouldn't have to go at 95 to catch them.

And although going 85 uses more gas, you get there faster, which ends up saving gas.

And getting pulled over by the police is not wasting police time. Having a bunch of policemen on a highway to pull over people is a waste of time.

And why is the policeman allowed to speed while I am not?

 

I found a Texdot document once that said basically people will drive at what ever speed they are comfortable driving at. In Austin right now the speed limit on most of the freeways is 60. a lot of people drive at 70 because of this. If the speed limit were 70 people would be driving at 80 or so. If your speed limit was set at 85 people would be driving at 90 or so.
I do agree that speeding can save some time but only on long trips. You don’t see too many timesavings on short distances, unless you cache lights at the right time.

 

People going 85 on a highway with a "limit" of 55 is very unsafe as you will be driving 30mph faster than the others. My cousin is a cop and has told me of the training that they go through before they are given a cruiser. There's serious and difficult drivers training in order to be able to drive like that.

That's wrong. The faster you go, the more gas you use in an exponential manner. In other words, if you drive 100, you are using more than twice the amount of gas than you do at 50 to maintain that speed.

Not if they are keeping me and my kids safe they aren't.

They aren't. If they get caught speeding without their lights and sirens on, they can be disciplined by their superiors along with given a speeding ticket.

 

But does anyone under the age of 60 not go over 55mph? Usually it's around 75mph.

The gas saving topic, it depends on your car. Different cars have different optimum speeds. One car might get the best gas mileage at 50mph, others might get the best mileage at 100mph.

So if I decide to rob a bank, it's ok for a policeman to rob a bank to catch me as long as he has his siren on?

Not everyone is able to drive safely at 85mph. But those who can should be allowed to.

Pull someone over if they are driving recklessly, but don't pull them over if they are driving fast.

 

It doesn't matter what people do, it's still illegal to drive in excess of the posted limit. There are reasons for that.

As far as gas savings go, if you drive faster, you exponentially use more gas. It's that simple. I don't car what kind of engine you have.

There are rules for persuits. If you rob a bank, no a cop can't rob a bank, but he can chase you, and justifiably so.

I don't care what anyone says, you drive 85mph, that's a lot more dangerous than drive at 55. I don't care if you have a rust-bucket, a Volvo, a BMW or a Jag. Your response time is increased, you have less peripheral vision and are far more likely to cause a deadly accident. All you need to do is to look at the statistics.

 

That's what I was thinking. I can usually go about 250 miles on a tank of gas driving around back and forth to work, but I can go about 270-275 miles when going 75 instead of 55.

 

I'm not a physics or math guy, but doesn't that go against the laws of motion or something like that? You use less gas when you go faster?

 

Your gas milage is better for "highway" meaning your car stays at a near constant RPM level, and doesn't have to shift a lot.

When you drive "city" your are pushing your car to high RPMs, then stopping, then accellerating again, eating up gas.

486Hawk will probably disagree with me, but I don't normaly speed.
With that said I drive with traffic, to a point.
If the limit is 60 and everyone is going 80, there should be cars that are still going faster then you.
(You may have been at 80 when the cop read your speeed, but everyone else was going 79...)

There is always someone that will want to go faster then you, it is a habit of many people to be "constantly passing" meaning if they feel confortable going, just faster then everyone else, only slowly passing them, but still making progress in passing them.

I usualy try to stick in-between two packs of cars, with people about 1/4 a mile in front and behind.
I don't make an effort to catch up to the people in front, but I try to stay ahead of the people behind me.
Of course eventualy both groups merge, and I have to filter myself out, but I don't mind if someone speeds by me, they will just catch the cops before I get to them.

 

If someone is driving 85 mph in a 55 mph zone, and everyone is driving 55 mph except that person...not even everyone...lets say a lot of people, then the person doing 85 IS driving recklessly.

I've done my share of speeding and gotten a couple of nice trophy tickets (and almost 1 trip to jail) to show for it. Truth is, when I was speeding all the time...I had to constantly look out for the man so I wouldn't get a ticket. If I don't speed I find that my trip is so much more relaxed. Everything moves fast enough in this world. Slow done and enjoy life some.

 

Speed should be determined by the driver, who knows how fast he/she can safely go, not by the police.

 

K...but here's the thing. You as a driver are responsible for being safe, otherwise you are reckless. Agreed?

So if you are doing 85 while most everyone else is doing 55, you have less time to react as a defensive driver if someone else makes a mistake. If you have less time to react, you are being less safe...therefore more reckless. Now regardless of the fact that someone going slower makes a reckless decision and pulls into your lane (maybe they didn't realize you were coming up on them so fast), you are still responsible for your own recklessness caused by speed when you run into them.

BTW...how much was your ticket?

 

I'm not old enough to drive. I just like to complain.

 

Explains so much...

 

So you start a rant about speeding despite the fact that you aren't old enough to drive, and also one about how overrated surround sound is, even though you haven't ever setup (or presumably heard) a decent system

 

All the interstates around me have limits of 65. I've passed cops at 80 (twice) before and not gotten pulled over. i've also seen people pulled over at 73. its a choice of the cop, usually pertaining to how young you are and what you are driving. younger + faster car = instant ticket. actually i was riding in a neon orange (the Fast & the Furious supra color) eclipse. Roughly 400hp and looked/sounded like it. Body kit, exhaust, racing seats, everything. cop followed us for 40 miles on the interstate with his hand on the switch for the lights the whole time. our speed: 66 in a 65. he wanted to pull us over cause we were younger and in a nicer car, but the ticket would have been dropped if brought in front of a judge so he didnt even try.

but about the gas thingy, i have a civic. at best averaging 32 mpg on the highway (70mph), rpm steady just under 3000. At 60mph i get closer to 40mpg around 2500rpm. city driving im guessing about 15-22 depending on my mood. but gas milege has everything to do with how your car is geared. so i spend $14 to fill up my tank from nearly E once a week. I used to fill it up almost twice as often when i drove like a ****-head.

Now right after i got my license, for maybe the 1st year of driving i drove like an idiot. ill be the first to admit it. but after that i calmed down and realized how unsafe i was being. 85 is too fast to react to anything. 70 is too in an emergency. but there is nothing more dangerous than going over 15mph higher than everyone else. you cant slow down in time if someone goes to pass, and it happens alot. take it from a has-been-idiot-driver, dont speed too much, it will catch up to you some day.

 

Speed isn't the danger, inappropiate speed is, of the limits 55 and everyones doing 65-70 then fair enough thats the average speed and you are probably more dangerous doing the posted limit ,however if you're doing 85 in a 55 then you deserve to get a tug by the old bill its nearly twice the posted limit and its damn irresponsible, here in the uk the highway(read motorway) limit is 70 and 85 is guarenteed to get a ticket if you're driving agressivly and like a **** , if your driving at 85 and not taking the piss the the police have it at their discretion whether or not to give you a pull.

what i hate (and yes i do speed on a regular basis but only if the flow of traffic is moving faster than i am or the road is clear) is people who sit in the middle lane of the motorway which is actually an overtaking lane according to the highway code)doing exactly the posted limit thus making it difficult to get past them (overtaking on the inside is illegal in the uk btw) and we dont have big motorways like the americans we're lucky to get 3 lanes (ones normally closed @ random)

 

Just because I don't own a car doesn't mean i've never ridden in one.

Again, for more philisophy, upbringing has a lot to do with driving. If your family never speeded, chances are you don't. If your family drives at 85 (as mine does), chances are that you do too. The people who go at 55 think going 85 is dumb, the people who go 85 think going 55 is dumb. And neither will be convinced otherwise. I was a bit surprised at the results of this thread, I expected most of you to share my point of view.