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-@60mph, you can drive 5 miles in 5 minutes
-@45mph, you drive the same 5 miles in 6.5 minutes---you save 1 min 30 seconds of your precious time....and as you point out, if there's any traffic lites involved, the slow guy usually catches up to the fast guy several times along the way.
Most courses in calculus usually have a standard problem about how much a driver should slow down as he approaches a red light with cars waiting so he can give them time to accelerate as the light turns green in order to minimize his own travel time. Smart driving.
OTOH- traffic flows like any other fluid, and any given car is like a canoe in a river--> if you're not going faster than "the current," you're not in control of the vehicle and it's just a cork floating along at the mercy of the current.
-@60mph, you can drive 5 miles in 5 minutes
-@45mph, you drive the same 5 miles in 6.5 minutes---you save 1 min 30 seconds of your precious time....and as you point out, if there's any traffic lites involved, the slow guy usually catches up to the fast guy several times along the way.
Most courses in calculus usually have a standard problem about how much a driver should slow down as he approaches a red light with cars waiting so he can give them time to accelerate as the light turns green in order to minimize his own travel time. Smart driving.
OTOH- traffic flows like any other fluid, and any given car is like a canoe in a river--> if you're not going faster than "the current," you're not in control of the vehicle and it's just a cork floating along at the mercy of the current.
I guess it's best to speed, but not too much.
False logic alert! Traffic is not a 'fluid'. Your control comes via steering wheel, brakes and accelerator.
Traffic actually is much more efficient when all or most drivers are going the same speed and there is minimal weaving in and out of traffic and minimal tapping of brakes.
Some people don’t care about the speed limit laws and could care less about other drivers on the road, they think they are above the law and it doesn’t apply to them. These morons are the most likely ones to have road rage problems. Because it’s all about them and they think they are intitled to drive anyway they want. They is no more courtesy drivers anymore it’s a all about me world we live in and screw everyone else. But if they do get into an type of trouble they always blame someone else because they can’t accept responsibility for their own actions.
I don't know about all the claims that it doesn't get you where you're going faster. It may not get you to the next light or two faster, or even a distance of a few mile, but I do notice the going faster does make a difference.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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On a trip of several hundred miles it can make a significant difference in the time to get there, but on the typical commute or errand not. Of course, our commutes here do not allow for speeding, if anything it's a pleasant surprise to be within 10 mph under the speed limit.
-@60mph, you can drive 5 miles in 5 minutes
-@45mph, you drive the same 5 miles in 6.5 minutes---you save 1 min 30 seconds of your precious time....and as you point out, if there's any traffic lites involved, the slow guy usually catches up to the fast guy several times along the way.
Over 5 minutes yeah, but 10 miles an hour over an HOUR's drive and you're either 10 miles farther or done 10 minutes earlier. Then extend that out to an 8 hour drive, like from my house here in Baltimore to my son's in upstate NY. 10 MPH faster results in over an hour saved making it a mere 7 hour trip. And 10 mph over on the highway isn't an unsafe condition.
Did anyone else actually read the OP's post? He mentioned traffic lights and supermarket. Therefore, we are talking city driving, commute. NOT highway, interstate, or any kind of long term driving.
Now, back to the point, driving fast, cutting other drivers off, does not do anything but actually slow everyone else down. Take for instance, commute driving, lots of traffic, Speedy Gonzales zips in and out of traffic, cutting off others that are leaving a safe distance between themselves and the car in front of them, by cutting that person off, he makes them slow down, to give him that same space, Speedy also causes people to have to brake hard, because he cut them off and thereby making everyone behind him slow down, or causes an accident, that he just drives away from. So, those that do that, are ignorant of really knowing how to drive, how to interact with other people/vehicles on the road. This type of narcissistic, me only behavior is not only the stupidest way to get from point A to point B, it endangers everyone else on the road.
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