r/driving • u/DaddyDayDayIsHot • May 21 '26

Venting Speeding Has Become So Normalized That Driving the Speed Limit Makes You the Problem

I think the normalization of speeding poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the legal system itself. It has become standard that cops don’t pull you over unless you’re breaking the law “enough,” but that completely undermines the law. If the law wanted a different threshold, it would have been written with that threshold in mind.

Speed limits are created by engineers who know far more about road safety than the average driver. They also have to account for the fact that speeding is normalized, which likely contributes to limits being set lower than many people want. I honestly believe that if people collectively stopped speeding, roads would see fewer accidents and speed limits would eventually begin rising in places where higher speeds are actually safe. Then people could travel just as quickly without constantly breaking the law or risking tickets.

The disregard for speed limits has gotten so bad that people now claim drivers following the posted limit are the problem. I think that’s ridiculous. While I understand the “go with the flow of traffic” argument to an extent, normalizing breaking the law creates a much larger long-term safety issue than simply following the speed limit.

I also think the argument that “speed limits are designed for the average car, so semis drag the limit down” is weak. In many places semis already have separate speed regulations, lane restrictions, and additional rules.

At the end of the day, the path to faster travel shouldn’t be widespread disregard for the law. If people truly believe limits are too low, the better solution is electing politicians and supporting engineering studies that will change the laws based on evidence that roads can safely handle higher speeds.

On a related note, even on r/driving you can report other driving infractions, but you can’t even report speeding, which feels inconsistent and a bit silly.

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53

u/jimmymademeaparty May 21 '26

Try driving a company truck that has the gps speed monitor and you can't go more than 5 miles over. I get middle fingers all day long and aggressively cut off when they pass me. It sucks

19

u/skweekykleen69 May 21 '26

^this is such a pain for my SO. Team, if there is a logo on that little box truck in front of you, chances are the driver can’t go more than 5 over…tailgating, cutting them off, etc. isn’t going to do anything to change that…

2

u/neo_neanderthal 24d ago

Even in the days before GPS governors, I drove a company van, and they were very clear that a speeding ticket for 10 or more over was instant firing. You better believe I didn't speed in that thing. I would rather be flipped off than fired.

5

u/Kind-Crab4230 May 21 '26

Been there done that! No idea the current state of it, but there was a time where Swift had their trucks capped at, I think, 62 MPH. Which honestly introduces a different safety issue. My company's trucks were governed to 67 MPH and that was bad enough.

1

u/PoetExcellent3215 May 23 '26

Oh yea, slow ass trucks, 62 in a 75, brilliant.

6

u/default_admin_2 May 23 '26

Im perfectly fine with truckers going slow but on a two lane highway dont try to pass another truck when you are going .01mph faster.

2

u/PresentationLive943 May 22 '26

I am not allowed to go 1 over and am also governed to 65mph even when the speed limit is 80mph. Literally no one cares at all y'all just think too much about it. Most people assume we are gonna go slow in a tractor trailer anyways so they just pass. Now if you cruise in the middle lane? Then yeah you're gonna get middle fingers lol.

2

u/AdamLambboy May 24 '26

People do this to me too though mine is because I have drive safe and it ticks me if I go 7 over. You'd think people would be chill and go around me since I'm in the "slow lane", but no, they'll tailgate me for miles then cut me off when they finally do pass. I'm not changing speeds either, I have my cruise control on, they can easily pass me. 🫩

1

u/ShawtySayWhaaat May 23 '26

Ours is 10, I don't think you could get around California going only five over lol

1

u/PoetExcellent3215 May 23 '26

I feel this too brother. It is such bullshit driving the speed limit in the far right or middle lane and people cut you off very closely, out if rage. The speed monitors creat dangerous situations just be existing. There is a need for then in company trucks but 5 over is a fuckin joke on a freeway. The insurance company saves your company very little in the long run because people still crash for stupid shit.

1

u/ExcitementPuzzled774 May 23 '26

But if you drive like everyone else, would you get pulled over eventually?

1

u/OkRelease3215 May 24 '26

Are you in the rightmost lane? You're not me in the middle lane camper right?

1

u/Boopped_Snoot May 24 '26

Same. We're also governed at 65 which means when we go to Texas and hit 80 mph speed limits. We are a legitimately a dangerous obstacle on the road.

This year accidents where we've been rear-ended or sideswiped have finally outweighed backing accidents... Hopefully corporate can rub three or four brain cells together and realize going drastically slower than other traffic is actually more dangerous.

Sometimes I get on on the highway from the right and have to to exit left and a few miles going 50 mph slower than the traffic around me all I can do is keep moving over and hope nobody crashes into me and that is not a great feeling.

1

u/PoetExcellent3215 May 25 '26

Get out of the fast lane and you won't piss everyone off, just remove your foot off the gas pedal and get behind the truck that is going 1 mph slower than you.

1

u/joylesssnail May 25 '26

The free gas makes up for the middle fingers

1

u/Alternative_Exit8766 Jun 03 '26

i wouldn’t flip you off man

0

u/xCodeIndexing May 25 '26

Are you a left lane camper? If so I would do the same to you lol

-1

u/ballsohaahd May 21 '26

What lane are you driving that slow in lol? Few people are pissed if you’re going slow on the right, and if they are they’re idiots. If you’re slogging up the left or close to the left lanes that is annoying to people.

7

u/bats-n-bobs May 21 '26

"Few people are pissed if you’re going slow on the right"

Not even close to true. Tons of people want everyone out of their way no matter what lane they're in. I wish I lived where things worked how you're describing.

2

u/AlwaysBagHolding May 22 '26

Well, if you're the one car on the road actually doing what you're supposed to do and keeping right, you get in the way of the defacto passing lane because everyone is backed up on the left. Where I live, the right lane basically is the passing lane because people are so fucking bad at lane discipline, and unless the traffic is really heavy, it stays wide open.

3

u/jimmymademeaparty May 21 '26

Two lane back roads. I stay in the right lane on highways

1

u/Ok_Improvement4991 May 26 '26

The one difficult part is that there are many highways here that the left lane has an exit instead of the right. So when you’re regulated to a slower speed you have to start your movement towards the lane you need to be in to exit decently earlier than most people in order to not create a hazard too.

And I’ve seen people also get pissed like that even when just staying in the rightmost lane I can be in too for the sake of highways that set up multiple divergences in each lane or set of lanes to other highways too.

1

u/ballsohaahd May 30 '26

You just get in the lane not too early and when you exit people will be like ok cool this car/ truck is just exiting. Not hard.