speed limits?

[S6Sputnik]

Speeding on residential roads bothers me a lot. You Just cannot stop a 4000lbs car very fast.However, speed limits on Interstates bother me too, there should be none in most areas! Those are limited access one way streets.

So I am the odd one, I love to drive very fast but only where it is safe to do so! And yes I do take my car to tracks like Texas World Speedway

[TexasHorseLady]

My biggest pet peeve is also when people drive under the speed limit in the left lane...and then they don't get out of your WAY! As a rule given to me by a defensive driving instructor, I usually drive 5-10 miles over the speed limit.

I'm frankly amazed that a defensive driving instructor would tell you to drive 5 to 10 miles over the limit as standard practice - that's telling you to deliberately break the law. Or did you mean that they told you to drive no more than 5 to 10 miles over the limit?

So I am the odd one, I love to drive very fast but only where it is safe to do so! And yes I do take my car to tracks like Texas World Speedway

Way back when, I used to hang out with motorcycle and race car drivers (and folks who went to the Bonneville Salt Flats to try to break the world speed record for motorcycles at that time). They were the most conservative drivers you could possibly find, on the public roads (residential or highway) - and in a time when most vehicles didn't have seat belts, theirs did and the key would not be turned in the ignition until everyone in the vehicle was belted in. Why? Because (a) they knew what a wrecked vehicle could do to the human body, and (b) they were terrified of the yahoos on the roads that sped, changed lanes without signaling, and all the other things that those drivers that think they're "good enough that the laws shouldn't apply to them" do, and (c) they didn't have anything to prove - they'd already proved it in areas where the rest of the population wasn't put at risk if something should go wrong. That's pretty much where I got my attitudes towards driving on public roads, I guess. Texas World Speedway is, indeed, the place to do that!

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by purplecow1

My biggest pet peeve is also when people drive under the speed limit in the left lane...and then they don't get out of your WAY! As a rule given to me by a defensive driving instructor, I usually drive 5-10 miles over the speed limit. Anything more than 9 miles over and you are just asking for a cop to pull you over.

The left lane is the passing lane. No one should just 'sit' there, no matter what their speed.

[TexasHorseLady]

The left lane is the passing lane.

Actually, that varies according to area, and if it IS the case in a particular area that the left lane is restricted to passing only, it's posted as so by DOT, per the Transportation Statutes.

[S6Sputnik]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

My biggest pet peeve is also when people drive under the speed limit in the left lane...and then they don't get out of your WAY! As a rule given to me by a defensive driving instructor, I usually drive 5-10 miles over the speed limit.

I'm frankly amazed that a defensive driving instructor would tell you to drive 5 to 10 miles over the limit as standard practice - that's telling you to deliberately break the law. Or did you mean that they told you to drive no more than 5 to 10 miles over the limit?

So I am the odd one, I love to drive very fast but only where it is safe to do so! And yes I do take my car to tracks like Texas World Speedway

Way back when, I used to hang out with motorcycle and race car drivers (and folks who went to the Bonneville Salt Flats to try to break the world speed record for motorcycles at that time). They were the most conservative drivers you could possibly find, on the public roads (residential or highway) - and in a time when most vehicles didn't have seat belts, theirs did and the key would not be turned in the ignition until everyone in the vehicle was belted in. Why? Because (a) they knew what a wrecked vehicle could do to the human body, and (b) they were terrified of the yahoos on the roads that sped, changed lanes without signaling, and all the other things that those drivers that think they're "good enough that the laws shouldn't apply to them" do, and (c) they didn't have anything to prove - they'd already proved it in areas where the rest of the population wasn't put at risk if something should go wrong. That's pretty much where I got my attitudes towards driving on public roads, I guess. Texas World Speedway is, indeed, the place to do that!

Indeed I would wear my helmet on I 35 if I could, but I think I'd get pulled over .

I would also highly recommend that everyone went for at least one weekend of advanced drivers training on a track like Texas World Speedway. The realization of how poor a driver YOU are the first time out is mind blowing.

98% of the people I share the road with have no clue about driving, braking, turning, sliding, apexing.... yet they (you too) think they can do it all like talk, drink, smoke and control a 5 ton SUV with a contact patch to the road of four hands!!! amazing....

So I vote for stricter ENFORCEMENT of speed limits, crossing double lines, running red lights in town and NO LIMIT in the left lane on interstates!

My $0.02

[TexasHorseLady]

I can't agree with the no limit in the left lane, if only because there ARE so many people who haven't a clue what a bad driver they are, and those are almost always the ones who are convinced that they need to drive as fast as possible. (Not that this applies to you, S6Sputnick, just commenting on 40+ years of sharing the road with them.)

Stricter enforcement, absolutely.