Newish Highway Speed Limits

[wjhandy850]

Those 6 speed plus transmissions in the newer cars out there today can speed along at those speeds without feeling like they are on it.

[MrAl]

Hi,

Wow, so i guess you guys dont mind traveling at 80mph that much then. I read up on the Autobahn now too, and it's almost unbelievable that some people will drive at 120mph and even 140mph with a possible 200mph. Puts a new meaning to "Godspeed", cause you're going to see God much sooner than you probably expect to

But to help make my point of the dangers involved, i also saw a video of a car that crashed on said roadway and it's hard to tell it was ever a car at all. Looks like something you get out of a car crusher when you junk a car.

You can get in an accident at 20mph and die, but the chances of surviving are probably close to 100 percent, whereas the chances at 80mph are probably closer to 1 percent. That means at 20mph probably nearly 100 out of 100 car drivers survive, while at 80 almost none do. In fact in the video they even mention that they have to have a special response team to get out there quick, but it's not to help the survivors really it's to clear the wreckage so other drivers have a clear path again, cause they know there wont be any survivors.

They also mentioned that the main crash age was near 18 years old, because the drivers dont have much experience yet driving at any speed.

All i can say is try to make sure you have room all around the car, on all sides, especially out in front. If there are no cars very close to you then the only problem could be with your own car, which you have more control over.

One other interesting issue came up too. That is, where one car is going 60mph and the other coming up from the rear is going 80mph. Someone, in fact a couple people now, told me that you cant do 65 or you'll get run over. But now i see that cant be the whole story because in Germany they have cars that are only allowed to go 60mph due to restrictions of various sorts, and there will be cars going 100mph easy. Yet they all deal with it on an everyday basis. Are these people suggesting that you must go 80mph then? That would be insane too, and contrary to what is actually happening out there.

Thanks for any more ideas and suggestions, and thanks for the previous ones. I am trying to get a feel for what is going on out there on the highway these days, for real
For myself, i take the back roads.

[abscate]

I try to drive at the 25 % speed ..that is, the speed at which 75% of traffic is faster

Less stress
Better mpg
You can use cruise almost continuously
No high speed passes except for the real RICHARDS

On the upstate NY Thruway this is about 70 mph

[precopster]

That's exactly why I prefer the P80 V70 to the P2 V70; placement of the cruise stalk. If only the rest of the car were as good as the P2. You can have the hands in the natural 10 to 2 position and still accelerate/decelerate the car with the cruise stalk in the P80.

In the P2 series the thumb get the cruise job and the hands then sit at an unsafe 20 to 2. From makers of cars aimed at safety this is very poor ergonomics. They should have put the trip computer controls on the wheel and left the perfect cruise position alone.

I once knew a chauffer who knew a great shortcut. It was longer but shorter in the longrun

[abscate]

Once you hit NYC/NJ traffic cruise is off. As MrAl notes, following distances drop to 20-30 feet where it isn't safe.

80 is ok for a modern car with good brakes and tires, but when things go bad that's a lot of a Kinetic a Energy to bend things.

[Matty Moo]

77-80 is the norm in Michigan, rarely will the police even look at you. I had a Chrysler Minivan and I normally did 85 with that.

[E Showell]

To Mike -- They're getting away from a 10-2 hands position recommendation here. Now they say a safe driving position is 9-3 or even 8-4. Reason being the tendency for more airbag-related injuries if hands are at 10-2. Based on how the bags deploy, 10-2 can cause hands/arms to hit your face, whereas at 9-3 or 8-4 that risk appears to be greatly diminished.

[abscate]

I've read that too and it makes no sense to me.

10-2 is best position to control the car, and I find even in my relatively sedate driving habit, I have to steer away from a situation suddenly 3-4 times a year. I certainly avoid an accident every 2-3 years. I would like to see the math on the accident avoidance impact vs air bag injury increase weighted by occurrence, but I haven't found that anywhere. Kind of like the car seat in plane argument....is it safer for your kids to be in car seats at 600 mph than 60mph? Statistically, no....and for society, resoundingly no.

Remember, below 30 mph your airbags aren't going off anyway.

It might be better to have your arms in front to shield you from the Takata metal, too.



Of course, this might be an old fart reaction from the days of no-air bags....

[Cees Klumper]

I used to live in Florida when the speed limit was 55 and people stuck to it for the most part. Now that the limits are higher and I return frequently, it strikes me how much faster people drive, like 75 in a 60 zone. Seems the police are much less strict now. The trouble with that is is that people still overtake on the right, swerve in and out of lanes, and generally don't seem to know how to drive that much faster responsibly (like, yes, on the Autobahns and in Italy where I was earlier this week). 'In the old days' also everyone was pretty much going the same speed, greatly reducing the risk of accidents. It's the differences in speeds people drive on the same stretch of road that increase the risks. Anyways here in Switzerland the speed limit on highways is around 80 and everyone pretty much abides by that. When I drive in Germany though, I like to go around 100 MPH and must admit I've enjoyed doing long stretches at as much as 140. After an hour or two at that speed, 100 seems very slow. All other things being equal, higher speed does equal greater risk. But if that was paramount to me, I would not drive a motorcycle to and from work every day.

[eriscentro]

I'm a native NJ resident, although I go to school (and at this point work) in northeastern Ohio. When I drive home, I take I80 for about 400 miles, then the remainder is on the Garden State Pkwy. I've made the drive about 8-10 times in my 850. There are two 70 mph zones on the entire trip: the ohio turnpike, for about 30 miles, and a big stretch of PA, which was 65 until about a year ago. There are a few 50-55 zones (work areas), but the trip is primarily 65. OH and PA drivers are usually pretty cool about exiting the left lane for others to pass, but people from NJ and NY are absolutely terrible about it, which I find incredibly frustrating.
I've found that the average driver tends to do 5-10 MPH over the limit in Ohio and PA, but that usually ups to 10-15 in NJ. Usually once I get a few miles into NJ, drivers tend to be more aggressive. I guess the stereotypes are true . Overall, I've noticed that cruise control is something that far too few people use. I'm usually a 10 over the limit kind of driver, and I set cruise control for almost the entirety of the drive. It's clear that many others don't do so, as you can see them speed up and slow down over and over again, which is pretty annoying when you're behind them. Coincidentally, the cars that I see driving the fastest and most aggressively aren't newer, but rather are the older (and usually crappier) cars. I've seen many older, rusty, terrible sounding, cars pass me at 90+ MPH. I think the fastest car I've seen in the many trips were two drivers in an older acura and a porsche 968 pass me at well over 100, although they had canadian plates . Both of those cars were definitely 15+ years old.

My 96 non-turbo is usually fine. I get somewhere between 27 and 30 MPG at those speeds, and do the whole trip in one tank. The only time I've ever had an issue is when the rear exhaust hanger broke as I got onto I80 in NJ, causing a crack between the cat and the muffler, which made a terrible noise. I had no idea what the issue was until I got back to OH and found that the exhaust pipe had been pushed upward, and melted a hole into my bumper. It took me about a week to get to an exhaust shop to get it fixed, and by the end of the week, the car was unbelievably loud.

TLDR; I like higher speed limits since it usually means the trip is shorter. More importantly, on a two lane highway, truckers who block up the left lane and take 10+ minutes to pass the truck in the right lane are the source of all evil.