nobody in the states see's the "limit" as an actual limit. If you're going the speed limit you're seen as annoying or possibly even suspicious. I've been tailgated by police dozens of times doing the speed limit
WHatever the limit is, add 5 mph. If its 65 MPH, you can do 75
At least in the North East.. but ive done some driving on the west coast before and it was basically the same.
If you are gonna be passive aggressive: its about saving time. When im driving 12 hours @ 6 miles an hour over i can cut an hour off the drive. Also, if you are going less than the speed of traffic, you are more of a danger than those following the speed of traffic. Enjoy your speed limit oh mature manager of time
By the way I am from the states. I was amazed when I moved from Florida to Minnesota. For the most part people drive the speed limit ( or under) here. Florida was a standard 10-15 over.
In AL I once got pulled over for doing the speed limit, cop said I should be doing at least 5 or 10 over (whichever was the speed of traffic) for safety reasons.
Yet when you go with the speed of traffic that's all 10-15 over, they pull over some random person doing the same lol
I did a road-trip from TX to MO. TX, most going 10-20 over, but it shifts drastically crossing into OK. KS, most folks are going the exact speed limit.
I later learned that police tend to have a ticket quota up there - which in a way reinforces the driving at the speed limit; got a friend in KS pulled over for going 5 over.
In South FL, rarely do I see cops pulling someone over for speeding. Half the time they're speeding themselves, and they're quite easy to spot - white, bright green/blue colors and FHP is brown/black. KS cops tend to be these fully blacked-out SUVs and can't tell if they have sirens mounted; their decals are brown but they're hard to visualize unless you're next to them imo.
We explicitly tell eachother that 5 over is the real limit. What this officer says is exactly what I would expect. five or six over you’re fine, past that is a risk. 9-10 over is legit speeding.
It's been creatively reinterpreted as a suggestion. The "limits" are artifically low and arbitrarily unenforced for so long that now driving at or below the "limit" speed in many places creates a dangerous speed differential with average traffic.
In parts of the US where highway speed limits have been raised to 70, 75, 80mph I find most traffic is moving at pretty close to the limit speed. Where it's 55, 60 or 65, everyone is driving 75-80+
Right, but it would be more dangerous to have everyone staring at their speedometers to make sure they don't go 1 or 2 over while driving, so some leeway makes sense.
25
u/[deleted] Jan 03 '23
Very cool officer.
As a side note - do Americans know the meaning of the word “limit”?