Monday morning, after thanksgiving, bluehaired driver blues.
I drove a couple hundred miles yesterday. Most of the trip, the needle hovered around 75. This was how the traffic was flowing. About once a mile, I would be overtaken by someone driving about 90, or come across someone driving about 45. Talk about delta V. SO watched my six, kept a good look out for morons. No surprise to anyone that ALL the fuckedup drivers were out of state, and no surprise that they were mostly bluehairs, but there were a few surprises:
Most of the ones going 45 were obviously teenagers going back to school.
Most of the high speed morons were older, some in some pretty fancy cars (bmw M5, Lexus, Porsche Cayenne) and while they could drive fast, they seemed incapable of accelerating- I got behind one at a rest stop, and it took him a full minute to get up to 60. As soon as I could I passed him, and in five minutes he was passing me going 90 again. And five minutes later, he was having a conversation with a nice policeman.
Oh, and as I know this strip of road is heavily patrolled, I decided not to get too carried away with speed; I didn’t see a single squad. I saw bike cops, and a LOT of them. Guess the boys (and girls) in blue wanted to get some two wheel time in before the weather turned.
That’s pretty much what I’ve found on such trips. Although here in Georgia, we have the infamous I-16 from macon to Savannah: 185 miles of darn near nothing. Speeds there run in the 75-85 range. I’ve been passed by moms in minivans and young Strbucks types in clapped out Sentras going 90+.
I prefer to run a steady 75-80. I’ve found that most cops will give you 75 all day long; get much over that and you’re asking for a ticket.
The other thing is that so many cars nowadays have such incredible capability; 250 bhp is common for almost any midprice sedan or minivan. They can easily cruise at 90+ all day without breaking a sweat. Braking, steering, and tire technology has advanced so much since the early days of the interstate system that our speed limits are way out of whack with “real” everyday speeds.
Unfortunately, this makes for great revenues, so I doubt it will change. It used to be that speed limits were set to “85th Percentile” speeds to keep traffic flowing, but now they’re set artificially low to generate revenue for gummint.
What I always find funny is when I’m running along with the wife and kids, cruise set at 78 or so, and passing the high-buck sports cars or the odd M5 who are so afraid that their “cop-bait” cars will get a ticket that they drive slower than eveyone else.
I used to dread the drive out to El Paso.
That is the loneliest most desolate 592 mile piece of straight highway I can think of.
Thank god they finally raised the speed limit to 80. I traveled that thing at 55mph way too many times.
That’s how it is on my way to work every morning.
Ah, yes. I 55 and I 74. know them both well.
I feel your pain, Og. Florida is overrun by dangerous Blue Hairs w/drivers licenses that should’ve been yanked 15 years ago.
At least 3X a week I’m nearly run off the road by one, who is oblivious after the fact to the wreck they nearly caused.