Why do people drive SLOW on the freeway, but crazy fast on the surface streets? (Los Angeles: crime)

[mrc136]

I　am originally from Los Angeles，　so this is one thing　Ｉ never understood about Sacramento。 People drive really passive on the freeways up here, but once you get off the freeways people drive like mad-men! I　mean when I am on the freeway I go 65-70 in no traffic, and find myself having to weave around everyone like a crazy person. But once I get off the freeway everyone is passing me like I am a grandma!　 People FLY by me on watt or sunrise blvd going 60 miles an hour through commercial and residential districts! I mean shouldn't it be the other way around?? Shouldn't we drive a little faster on the freeway if there are no stoplights, but drive a tad slower where there are a bunch of stoplights and cross-traffic? Even Wilshire Blvd in LA seems slower paced than Sunrise or Greenback in Sacramento county...

Just my 2 cents.

[NorCal Dude]

Funny I have always found people in Sac drive crazy on the freeway and slower on surface streets

[wburg]

Sunrise and Greenback, like other major suburban boulevards, became de facto freeways long ago, with limited stops--far fewer than on streets like Wilshire--so people tend to treat them like freeways wherever possible. Surface streets downtown, which are a grid system like that in much of Los Angeles proper, feature more reasonable speeds because the streets are narrower and have stoplights every few blocks.

Not sure about the freeway. I don't freeway drive much, but normally when I do I drive 65-70, stick to the slow lane, and feel like Grandma for all the cars passing me at high speed.

[TKramar]

I never drove below 80 on the highway. Sometimes I've done 80 on the surface streets as well--just not the more residential ones.

[cityx]

I find driving on highway 99 from US 50 down to Elk Grove a particularly frightening and stressful experience.
Probably because it cuts through some of the more ghetto, crime ridden parts of town. Most of the worst drivers are in their $1,000 beater cars and are probably uninsured and maybe even unlicensed.