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Why does everyone drive 10-15 miles above the speed limit?
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Why don’t we raise the speed limit if that’s how fast everyone wants to go?
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Why is traffic enforcement given to very expensive and ineffective police instead of cheaper and more automated traffic cameras?
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Why do we refuse to ever use ANY traffic calming measures? Yes, than you flashing digital sign for telling me I’m going 10 miles above the limit on this incredibly wide and straight and flat road with high curbs and perfect visibility.
It’s a serious confusion I have about how society is supposed to operate because it seems like a complete and total breakdown of logic and sense.
And, yes, I know there’s some thing people did long ago to set the speed limit at some percentile of what people were already traveling at, but that’s obviously a stupid way to do it and we did it anyway. So why?
Ignoring largely empty stretches or highways where there’s practically no signs, have you seen how many signs are out there on heavily occupied highways?
We’re just coming out of Gulfport Mississippi, Highway 49 (don’t worry I’m riding passenger, not driving), and it’s pure information overload. When you’re surrounded by like 500 signs, McDonald’s, Circle K, RaceTrac, Shell, Chevron, this and that doctor’s office, etc, and you’re only looking for the BIG signs to see what exit to take, well its all too easy to miss the random speed limit sign that they don’t even post but once every 3 miles or so.
When surrounded by signage information overload, while you’re supposed to be keeping your eyes on the road, you simply cannot read every damn sign. You mostly keep your eyes on the road and follow whatever the pace of traffic is, only glancing up and around for the green signs with road names and highway/interstate directions.
The rule of thumb I’ve learned, is that no matter the posted speed limit, as long as you’re driving safely about the pace of traffic, and aren’t the idiot darting through 20mph faster than everyone else, then the cops generally aren’t gonna mess with you.
School zones are definitely an exception, you better be going 15mph along with everyone else, and of course following the directions of the traffic guards and bus stop signals when to stop.
TL;DR - Too much information, cannot read all signs and keep eyes on the road simultaneously.
My view is mostly uncluttered, and highway speeds are one of two speeds and they don’t change very frequently… but from this thread, the speed limits are designed to generate revenue, not control traffic.
And I find the school zone exceptions especially egregious. Yes, if you are at a school where kids walk to school, absolutely, you are a fuckfaced bastard for speeding through a school zone. But in just about every school in my area, if your kid walked to school one morning, he’d be spending the night in foster care because it would be clear child endangerment; and usually those schools are generously set back from the road and there’s no way a kid would be interacting with the street without having some serious screws loose.
Oh my, well awesome for you and your area that the roads aren’t terribly cluttered with signs, that’s cool 👍
But hey, try going anywhere near school zones in Louisiana, they got special signs with basically microprint that’s impossible to read, that basically says something like (I forget their exact schedule, I don’t live in Louisiana)…
Again disclaimer, I forget their exact schedule, but still that’s too many microprint numbers to even read while driving.
That Road Closed part is in such microprint, that as a driver you can’t even read the fucking signs unless you’re on foot or bicycle, or using binoculars to read in advance…