There are roads where speeding is so common you will in fact be dangerously tailgated if you drive the speed limit
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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i have gotten tailgated by a semi truck in a highway construction zone, one of the scariest things i have experienced while driving. i couldnt even see his lights in my back window he was so close
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My entire commute
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In my experience, American roads are built to support much higher speeds than the speed limit is set. Going 10-20mph over the limit doesn't feel particularly unsafe on the wide, straight roads.
On the other side, it felt crazy to drive the speed limit on (for example) the narrow, windy roads in Ireland. The limit there felt like a literal maximum, whereas in the US it feels like the minimum.
As noted car enthusiast NotJustBikes has said, driving is not a conscious activity. We drive to what feels right, to a degree. A road built to support 100kph will always have speeder problems until layers of traffic calming are put in place.
UK B road limits are in fact limits (as opposed to North American suggested minimums), often being little more than millennia old cart paths with asphalt applied
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If you look at the design documents for the roads in your area, usually available in plain old PDF files at your State DOT website... it usually states both the designed speed, and what the posted speed will be.
If it's a modern road, it is almost certainly designed for 5-10mph over what the posted limit will be. Because they know most traffic will speed, and that is accounted for in the road design, regardless of the posted limit sign.
It's wild to me that someone heard this logic and said "makes sense".
Like, I get it from an engineering perspective. You find out the maximum capacity of a bridge, account for extremes like multiple heavy loads, find the point of failure, and then engineer in a safety factor. Making sure your bridge can handle your theoretical maximum several times over.
But, we aren't dealing with people seeing a strong bridge and thinking "nice, I can carry more stuff in my car" and encourage a larger capacity. The capacity they carry is already limited by their vehicle. They aren't even thinking about the bridges capacity.
With road design. The road controls the capacity (speed) directly to the user of the road. There is a physical speed that if their car reaches they will crash. They interact with it directly.
Designing a road that increases that speed at which a guaranteed crash will happen is primarily just increasing the lethality of said crash. That's the primary part of "safety" that the design guideline is controlling.
It's saying. "Hey, if you go too fast for the road conditions, don't worry. We made sure that the road was designed so that when you reach that speed you'll have less time to react and more chance of dying".
Also, "everyone speeds" is bull shit. Every speeds down a zero intersection straight road with a posted speed limit 15 MPH under what the road was designed for. It's a fucking self fulfilling prophecy.
It's saying. "Hey, if you go too fast for the road conditions, don't worry. We made sure that the road was designed so that when you reach that speed you'll have less time to react and more chance of dying".
That's not at all what's being said. Knowing the speed people will want to drive with a specific design, doesn't make it inherently "too fast", its the exact opposite. The road designers are literally designing what the road condition will feel like to drivers, then taking the human factor into account to set a sensible limit instead of an arbitrary one.
If they know the road design will make people drive 50mph, and that most people drive 5mph over the posted limit, they post a 45mph limit. Driving at 50mph down that road is not "too fast", that's literally what was designed to feel correct.
There have been several studies over the years about posted versus real world speeds. Including studies of the same road with the posted speed being changed and monitoring driver behavior. They found that regardless of what the posted sign says, people usually drove about the same speed on that road. The minimum and maximum speeds varied with different signs as some people used that number directly, but the average of all traffic stayed the same regardless of the signage because that's the speed that felt correct for that roadway. In some cases that was under the posted limit, in others that average was up to 10 over the posted limit.
Every speeds down a zero intersection straight road with a posted speed limit 15 MPH under what the road was designed for. It's a fucking self fulfilling prophecy.
Most roads do not have posted speed limits that vary dramatically from the speed that feels right on that road, because they're designed for a specific speed and posted with that consideration. Artificially low speed limits are not common. They're usually from a speed being changed years after the road was designed and built, so it wasn't intended to have drivers at that speed and also wasn't physically changed to help reinforce that speed subconsciously, or from a town trying to boost ticket revenue.
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When I was in Appalachia, on the mountain roads, many are very narrow, and winding. Speed limits often like 40, and you can't go more than that without crashing unless you have a motorcycle or something. It's not a suggestion, it's the maximum you can do on the curves.
Furthermore, even though that's the maximum, the safest speed on mountain roads is the one you feel comfortable with. Even though I'm experienced driving in the mountains and can comfortably go that limit I'm not gonna be too annoyed at the car from Florida in front of me going 15mph under. I will get extremely annoyed when they don't use the pull out spots or if they accelerate up to the speed limit in the passing zones though.
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People will always drive at the speed that feels safe, it's not just Americans. Gradually here this is being recognized, and roads narrowed, speed bumps added, etc. in places where we need to go slowly. At my work complex the stated limit is 10 mph and even on my bike I am speeding, and cars are passing me, but it doesn't feel unsafe at all.
This. My city keeps putting in more and more traffic cameras, but it doesn't slow cars down; it just generates revenue. If they actually wanted people to slow down, they'd reconsider having the main road look like a pin-straight four-lane highway.
Behavioral engineering is way more effective than posted speed limits that often didn't seem to correlate with reality.
If you give me a five lane stroad with wide lanes and lights only every 1/4-1/2 mile, I don't care what the speed limit is, I'm doing 60+ because it feels right, and if someone does the speed limit in front of me I'll probably be annoyed.
But if I was going down the same street, doing the same thing, with the same amount of time available, but the lanes were narrowed to add protected bike lanes, the center lane was replaced with a median with trees and occasional left turn/u-turn spots, and crosswalks were added between the lights, I'm going to do around 35 because that feels right, and I won't even be mad about it. I'll just cruise down the street chilling.
Give people a street where it seems like you should be going fast and people will go fast, and get aggressive/angry when they can't. Give people a nice street to roll down and chill and that's what they'll do. It looks nicer and is more walkable/rideable too.
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the real answer to question "why people speed" is someplace closer to "why was this neighbourhood road designed like a freeway". Another is "why is it safe to have virtually no speed limits on Autobahns?". I mean people act on environmental queues - from the size of lanes to what speed fellow motorists are observing. Just pinning it on individuals is incorrect. HOWEVER there are entitled arseholes out there who will totally ride jour read bumper at high speed because they need to pass you only to turn off at nearest exit.
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I mean, going the speed of traffic is safer than not. So yeah, it's okay when everyone else is doing it.
Also if the law enforcement in the area lets it happen, what message is that supposed to send to your average single-loop thinker?
Let’s it happen? I regularly see the police where I live do the kinds of things they pull people over for; speeding, rolling stops, distracted driving, failure to signal etc.
Tough to maintain credibility when those charged with enforcement don’t follow the rules either.
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I would agree with the several comments on the engineering and design of the higher speed roads being able to handle increased limits, but I don't think the road or even most of the cars' ability to go that fast are the problem. It's the drivers. Raising the limits means people will go that much faster (the ones who are even bothering to stay close to it), and the risks will be higher and more deadly.
There is also the issue of fuel efficiency vs. speed and how little time is gained for a lot more gas used. Even with modern cars there's a limit of aerodynamics and how much more it takes to push air out of the way faster as you get higher in speed. Of course this pales compared to how many people I see idling in parking lots on their phone, and then complain about gas prices. There's a disconnect somewhere.
During the Arab Oil Embargo they lowered speed limits on highways to 50 mph, which is the most economical speed to drive.
Windows up is more efficient also, as is fully inflated tires.
I tested my car as a hypermiler over thousands of miles on dead flat roads empty of other vehicles, my daily commute was 78miles. The most economical speed was 30mph in 5th gear with cruise control on. For most people that's not a practical speed for any kind of long journey,but I was getting over 100miles per uk gallon in the summer (hot weather helps with fuel economy, as does not having headlights or ac on). I got through so many audiobooks driving so slowly!
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Economy isn’t just about fuel economy. Less unsprung weight and highly inflated tyres reduce fuel consumption, but low profile tyres result in damaged wheel rims and lack of adhesion results in lack of control.
Alloy wheels with low profile tyres are lighter, but are also more prone to irreparable damage.
If you have the smallest steel rims that fit over your brakes (and the highest profile tyres to match manufacturer recommendations), you are less likely to have a puncture or damaged wheel, especially in potholed regions. (I live in Victoria, Australia).
If you have the correct tyres inflated to the correct pressures, they will last longer and provide the most optimal grip.
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It quite literally is.
If you don't keep up with traffic, people pass you, and that is much more dangerous than an extra 10mph
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I don't think I'm autistic. But it tickles my brain that the speed limit is one USian law that is designed to NOT be followed literally.
If it were, it would be trivial to use automatic toll reader cameras to give everyone who speeds a ticket. They have a time stamp when you enter the toll road. They have a time stamp when you exit. They can calculate mathematically that if your average speed is higher than the limit, you broke the speed limit.
But they don't do this, because society does NOT believe in following this specific law (speed limits)... because why exactly?
There is an unwritten rule in society that the speed limit law is not meant to be followed literally?
I hate it.
The other aspect is that we typically are against automated enforcement regardless of the law.
We typically want people to be in the loop. If there were more visible traffic cops, people tend to slow down to the limit.
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In my US state of Texas, speed studies set the speed limit based on a 85th percentile rule. They assume that people will basically ignore the speed limit and drive the speed they feel is safe. That's why we have highways with 85 mph speed limits.
https://www.txdot.gov/safety/driving-laws/speed-limits/speed-zone-studies.html
That's not a bad strategy. Driving slowly on slow roads or in adverse conditions and fast on highways seems rational to me. What is the point of making a road that is specifically designed for high speed and then putting a limit on it? The speed limit is an incredibly blunt instrument for deterring bad driving, as if driving below the limit is always going to be the safest option. It also motivates law enforcement abuse. The vehicle-environment-driver complex is much more nuanced than a single variable threshold.
That's always been my thoughts on the matter. Don't enforce speed. Enforce proper lane usage and following distance.
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This isn't specific to America...
Here in Europe we occasionally get road construction sites on motorways where the speed limit is temporarily reduced to 80, 60 or even 40 because the lanes are narrower than usual and drivers need to navigate around the construction site. I'm never quite sure how fast to drive there: if I actually drive the posted limit, I'll have 0 cars in front of me, but it looks (from my perspective) that I'm holding up 67 cars behind me who would want to drive faster. If I keep up with what the driver in front of me is doing, I'm technically violating the law...
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It’s because it is never enforced anymore.
It's worse than that. If everyone speeds all the time, cops have a valid reason to pull over and harass anyone they choose, on the pretext of speeding. You'll never guess what demographic gets a disproportionate amount of police attention despite not speeding (or committing other traffic violations) significantly more than average.
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Depends on where. I’m going the speed limit through town or less where there are people. It saves lives.
But highways are built for fast driving and cars continue to get safer and more performant. Fuck the speed limit set for 1970’s death traps and hasn’t changed.
The real problem as always is local roads designed like highways. Stroads seem to be one of the underrated evils of modern society
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Because roads are engineered to accommodate a certain speed limit then politicians artificially lower it so they can show how safety conscious they are. Then instead of admitting it was a stupid rule they blame everyone for breaking it just like they do with abstinence only education.
Lol wtf is all these car lovers doing in /c/FUCKCARS
First of all, you'd be surprised how many car enthusiasts support good urbanism. They aren't mutually exclusive.
Second, the people in this thread aren't demonstrating love for cars anyway; they're largely merely acknowledging the factual reality that it really is dangerous to provoke a lot of extra lane changes and passing maneuvers by driving at a significantly different speed than the flow of traffic. Speaking of which, I've removed some of your other comments (specifically, the ones suggesting to do that and to pseudo-brake-check people who tailgate in response) in accordance with section 8.1 of the Lemmy.world TOS. Please don't make similar dangerous suggestions here again.
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That's because it is.
Try driving through I-5 in Los Angeles following the speed limit. I dare you.
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It bothers me when people don't go the speed limit. Faster or slower, the speed limit is to set a consistent speed. Consistent means predictable which results in safer conditions. This would result in less traffic and less fuel consumption.
However, following the flow of traffic is safer than trying to go the speed limit. If you're the one person going 20 units per hour slower than everyone, you are the hazard.
However, following the flow of traffic is safer than trying to go the speed limit. If you're the one person going 20 units per hour slower than everyone, you are the hazard.
If people are intent on breaking the law, I will accommodate them passing me safely.
I will not be breaking the law to accommodate someone else's desire to do so, to consider that to be an expectation is downright delusional
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The American mindset seems to be drive as fast as possible without being pulled over. Therefore the default speed tends to be driving 5mph over the speed limit. So, the government should just set the speed limit to 5mph under what they actually want and then it'll be fine.
They basically do just that. If you ever see a pair of tubes across the roadway, they're measuring speeds. They set the speed limit at a percentile. Plus or minus and politics dependent...
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Driving school and being pulled over has taught me that the silly numbers are not the maximum speed, theyre the minimum speed, and the actual maximum is 5-10 higher depending on what other people are doing. "Going with the speed of traffic and going fast enough to prevent lane changes" is the real answer.
Ive begun going the exact speed limit in the right lane and ive been pulled over 3 times now and experienced more roadrage than i thought possible. I never got pulled over going 90 in a 70, or 30 in a 25, or 45 in a 35.
People are in such a hurry to save 0-30 seconds on their 15 minute drive
Can you tell these stories? I didn't think cops would pull you over for going the speed limit in the right lane.
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many of the speeders could well be cops who don’t feel like enforcing traffic laws &, well, prefer to speed themselves
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