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I was pondering this the other day, and I thought I'd just do a bit of a brain dump here.

I remember many years ago, back when most of the freeway speed limits were 55mph, I was driving with my dad (who hardly ever speeds) and someone passed us doing ~75mph. I remember he said, "That guy must be doing 75! That's really dangerous!"

Now some freeways here in SoCal are 70mph limits and most of the others are 65mph. So now speeds that were once considered dangerous are lawful. Now the average "flow of traffic" on many parts of the I-15 is 85-90mph.

Now my dad will drive 70-75mph no problem. Why? He's used to it and is comfortable in his ability to control the vehicle at that speed.

Granted the higher your speed is, the less time you have to react and the greater the chances are of you losing control of your car while performing emergency evasive actions, but my question is this: If you are used to driving say, 100mph, and you are able to control your vehicle (thanks possibly in part to performance tires and suspension) at said speed and you only drive that speed when road conditions safely allow, what's the big deal?

I see people on this site decrying people that say they were driving 90mph, and depending on the situation they might be justified in doing so.

I drove a 30 mile section of the I-15 for about 5 years and did so at speeds in excess of 100mph a good portion of the time. I am used to the way my car responds, the distance I need for reaction times and I'm used to anticipating traffic patterns at those speeds. Did I drive 100mph when it was raining? No. Did I drive 100mph in heavy traffic? No. I drove those speeds when I felt conditions were safe. I was able to control my vehicle at that speed because I have become used to it just like the average Joe is used to driving 65mph and doesn't have a problem controling his vehicle at that speed.

Given careful consideration of all those factors before mashing the pedal to the floor, what's the big deal about what some consider "excessive" speed?

 
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I'm comfortable at driving at 100 mph........... but than i wonder why i get tickets hahahaha

 
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As a little addendum, I have a friend (a chick) that doesn't drive freeways at all. All surface streets. For her 65mph would be "excessive speed" because she wouldn't be comfortable controlling her car at that speed.

At 120+ I start getting an adrenaline rush and I need to pay careful attention because I'm not used to that speed.

I'm comfortable controlling my car at 100-110mph because I've done it for so long. Why then when people find out I drive 100mph do they give me a disapproving glare just because they personally can't drive that fast?

 
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i always wonder the same...i never got into a accident any way. but got plenty of tickets. damn. i swear the highway patrol ticket us just to make money.

 
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i think the main reason that others dissaprove of speeds in excess of 70/80mph is because of what you said about reaction time being much less. i dont think its a matter of you being comfortable at 100mph, or you being able to controll your car well at that speed, its a matter of them not knowing that. also if youre coming up on someone at 100mph and they, like many people where i drive, dont use the rear view mirror, they wont know youre there. a minute ago you were waaaaaaaay back there, so they assume youre still back there, but youre about to pass them. its good that youre confident with your driving skills, but the fact remains that there are a lot of stupid people on the road. there is so much that can happen that cant be anticipated or predicted. and thats how accidents happen.
they test bumpers at 5mph and some cars get mangled and screwed up from that...imagine what would happen if someone gets rear ended at 100mph.
i think if there was a higher emphasis put on driving training and road etiquette, roads here would be much safer. if you look at many european countries, like germany and such, many drivers there know how to drive. they yeild to faster cars, they use blinkers, theyre not a$$holes, and they actually know how to drive most of the time. in the US thats a dif. situation. but what can you do??

 
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Yeah, I could tell sometimes when I scared the crap out of an unobservant driver. I tried to take those people into consideration by giving them a wide berth whenever possible and by signaling any lane changes WAY before I actually did it.

You're right about European countries. They're allowed to drive at high speeds because it's a lot harder to get a license there and they go through much more training.

 
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um... you and i may be comfortable at 90, 100, 110+ MPH on the freeway... alone. as soon as grandma or mary-kate and ashley olson start to merge on to the road, i'm VERY uncomfortable.

 
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I live in Germany and on most places on the auto-bahn there is no speed limitations at all. I drive between 80-120 mph all the time. You just get used to reacting very quick. Germans believe in getting out of the way if you are faster than them. Sometimes I slow down from 120 to 70 and it feels like im riding a bike or something.

Once you go fast you'll never go back!!

 
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I personaly think that its the people going 55 in the left lane who are the problem drivers. On Rt 53 (highway in the chicago burbs) people are always going 70+, speed limit is 55 (the cops told my roomate they only look for people going 15 over, when the cop told him this, he had been doing 85). When you get that Geo Metro in the left lane going 55, that is dangerous. I also hate people who merge onto highways going 35 when everyone is going 60+. I also think that speed traps are stupid. Cops should be on the road in unmarked cars looking for the people weaving through traffic, and cutting every car off, then passing on the shoulder. Yes, they are going fast, but they are driving like an a.., and that is more dangerous. Just cuz I'm fast, doesn't make me an a..hole driver.

OK, I'm done ranting now.

 
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I drive rather fast on the Northern State Parkway and the Long Island Expressway, if anyone is familiar with those roads. What I don't do is fly in and out of lanes like a moron which is something that any cop will notice. If I happen to get stopped, I just show my ID

 
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freeway driving is a lot different than driving on 2 lane streets. There are no head on colissions so if you get rearended by someone going 100mph and your going 70mph than thats only a 30mph collision, but there is always the chance of a pile up on freeways. people like us who drive fast but well usualy do not cause the accidents, its the stupid person who dosent signal, or check a blind spot, or yield to the right of way(cause of my accident) its the "Inexperienced" or just plain stupid driver. Which is why you still can not safely go 100mph on a freeway. I usualy go 85-90mph in the 75 zone, unless there is very little trafic. I agree with a lot that your saying but it is still not safe to drive that fast.

 
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Amen brother........... Thats one of the biggest things I see around here, is slow people in the fast lane or going to slow for the traffic and thats where the problems occour.

 
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I think I've posted this before, but a study done by the Insurance Institute found that slow drivers cause more accidents than fast drivers.

I hate it when I'm driving at a resonable speed and some moron is driving slower than the speed limit, evading him or slowing for him becomes a dangerous task.

QUCK: Yeah, I hate people that dodge in and out of traffic and cut people off. I need a police ID. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/IMG] Hey, buddy ol' pal... if I pay postage will you mail me a PBA?

 
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I think the key line in your story is the fact that the car passed at 75 or so, while your Dad was holding to the speed limit. That's the dangerous part - speeding around slower traffic. I too love to let my car open up and cruise at speed, but have to be very picky about when and where. My favorite time to let a car rip is on the open road. At the end of this month, I will drive from Dallas to El Paso, 625 miles of pretty open freeway across Texas. There is one stretch, between Pecos and Van Horn, that is 96 miles of absolute desolation. The interstate is excellent, straight and smooth in this spot. I always shoot for making this stretch in an hour, if the weather is good and it is daylight (night in this area = many deer and other radiator killing creatures on the road). Every car I've owned gets this opportunity, and they have all done well! I expect my 2k2 Si will enjoy it.

 
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youre right that its relatively speaking a 30mph collision, but that is still a damn high speed to get hit at. plus you have to consider if you get rear ended like that (you at 70 and the other at 100+), you are more than likely to swirve, and even if youre an amazing driver swirving at 70 is a good way to flip your car. so even tho its a 30mph collision relatively speaking, it is much more dangerous than if youre stopped and the other car is going 30.

so yeah, just something else to think about why excessive speeds are frowned upon by the law.

 
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To anwser the original question, I think cars are being built better now and speed doesn't feel the same. If you've ever driven a car built in the 60s or 70s you know what I am talking about. Even perfromance cars like the GTO or an older Mustang just have a rougher feel at 70MPH than does a 2002 BMW. Though I typically drive ~70MPH, I don't think the speed limit should be raised. You always have those people who are determined to go 30MPH faster than whatever the limit is, even on 65MPH roads. To bump the posted speed to 80 or something would mean these idiots are at triple digit speeds. I don't care what car you drive, or who you are, our roads aren't build for 90+ speeds. Potholes, seams, and slower (read: old) drivers would pose too much of a risk. The saying they have: Arrive alive, drive 55 is less about BS and closer to the truth. I wish I had the figures, but your crash survival rate decreases exponentially for every 5MPH above that you travel. Any crash at 80+ is more likely than not, a death sentence. Accidents happen at all speeds but at 55 you might walk away.

 
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dude as long as your safe about it.......but still gotta watch out, cops dont care if your "being safe" ya know?

chris

 
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DxMaN: a Chinese saying goes similar to urs saying: "Better to Arrive Late Than Never Arrive"

bad drivers cause most accidents!!! if condition're nice, oh driving fast is a nice feeling [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

 
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I don't have a problem with aggressive drivers at tall. Heck, I am one of them. I weave in and out of traffic quite a bit because it's fun and I get to my destination a whole 30 seconds quicker!

Anyhow, I used to hit a 100mph and over on a regular basis. Now, I am approaching 25 years of age and have a 2 yr old daughter. I find myself not wanting to drive quite as fast anymore. I have just changed and grown up a little. Even if you are on the road alone, anything could still happen and at very high speeds, even the smallest thing could cause a fatal accident. It's just not worth it. It's funny how as you get older you realize just how vulnerable you are and that God could take your life at any given second. I'd rather be taken later than sooner!

Don't mean to preach, I am just surprised as to what has happened to me mentally. Now, I know why insurance rates are so much cheaper for the 25 and older. However, don't get me wrong, I get a wild hair every now and then when it's a full moon!

 
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You answered you own question. Say you're going 100 or so over the crest of a small hill on a highway. What is there is someone going 60 in your lane on the other side of the hill that you can't see. You have no room to react to that and your car is going to be about 3 feet shorter and you'll probably be dead, along with the person that you just basically ran over. Or, what if someone else that's doing the speed limit has to take evasive action, comes over to your lane, and you hit him. Until everybody is doing 100 on the freeway, it's stupid and dangerous to be going that fast.

 
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The highways here in California generally don't have rolling hills like you're talking about, but just for the sake of arguement:

Using your logic, what if I'm driving at the 70mph limit, crest a hill and find myself bumper to bumper with some old lady driving 45mph? Same situation. It's all about aticipating possible problems and deciding what to do if they happen.

 
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Right, but you're going to have slightly more time to react if you're going 70 than if you are 100. Basically it all comes down to reaction time and how many ft/sec your car is going. You simply have more room to react going 70 than you do going 100.

 
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True, which is why you actively develop a higher state of mental awareness at those speeds.

You feel comfortable driving 70mph because you've developed the skills (mentally and physically) to do so. I feel comfortable driving 100mph for the same reasons.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the speed limit should be 100mph or that I am in the right for driving at said speed. I was just musing about how people are so quick to condemn others who drive fast simply because they don't.

 
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See everybody, this is how you have a constructive conversation without resorting to flames. It can be done

 
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its an easy answer to this question. its the speed limit.

when teh speedlimit was set, you had a good percentage of the ppl on teh road doing that. when you get someone zipping by at speeds in exess of the limit, you endanger yourself and endanger the lives of the other people on the road.

they raise the limit to 70 now. OK, so now you raise the general flow of traffic to a higher speed, and now that danger is still there, but no longer at 70, because that ins the mean flow of traffic. the danger is now all of you people, who drive at 90 and up.

why was 75 dangerous back then and not now? easy! the law changes what people were legally allowed to do and what the majority of the population does. solved

 
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i dont agree with the equation of "driving fast = driving dangerously"
its one thing to drive fast, and yes there are morons that are dangerous while doing that. however, one is perfectly able to drive at 90 - 100 and still be safe. as was stated in the first post, it depends on many different things: road conditions, time of day/night, traffic pattern. obviously a smart person isnt going to be going 100+ when its raining golfballs and you cant see 2 inches past your windshield, nor is a smart person going to go that fast when theres traffic. but if its 3 am and no one on the road, why not?

plus, slow drivers are just as much of a danger on the highway as moron speeders. thats why canada, europe, and i think even some states post minimum speed limits.

i think going 75 back then was dangerous mostly because cars were not what they are now. airbags were not standard and recquired, seatbelts didnt become mandatory till '65 (or somthing like that....not sure about the exact year), theres been amazing technological breakthroughs in tire design and composition, plus the cars can handle the speed now. i mean motor trend said that a good family sedan now is comparable in performance to a race car of the 50's/60's.

im not saying raise the limit to 90, but im just saying that speeding shouldnt be such a big offense. i mean i might have to pay $200 cause i might have been goin 20-24mph faster than the limit. i think there are more serious crimes being committed.

damn...sorry...long post