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It goes oh so smoothly at legal speeds and gets 32 mpg on the highway at 65.
The fact is that even a lowly Hyundai can do 150. That doesn't mean our highways should have the speed limits raised to 150. I'm not anti-speedometer gauges of 150. I'm anti-speed limits of 150. Heck I wish my car could go 200mph. Doesn't mean I would take it on the highways at 200.
Yes, you are lucky I don't run an insurance company. All cars should be speed limited to 130 imo or face additional premiums.
.you see no nexus(..."minor effect"...) here?????
I see no cause and effect of how high the speedometer reads, to how safely one drives.
I get that also, but why would you not want to get 55 mpg plus?
..."I see no cause and effect of how high the speedometer reads, to how safely one drives."...
Neither do the Europeans!
The real tells are the internet surfing, DVD movie watching, cell phone talking, shaving,putting on make up, eating, drinking, etc. etc. To me if the driver is doing these types of things,he/she is almost unsafe at any speed.
Well to summarize:
1. The autobahn has a lower normalized fatality rate than the entire US.
2. When an accident occurs on the autobahn, it's very severe.
3. The autobahn concept will never work in the US. Imagine for one minute the lawsuits that would result from an accident or worse at 150+. Lawyers would have a field day.
4. The autobahn costs $1M/mile to maintain, I don't see any governmental body wanting that type of overhead.
5. I see no reason that any vehicle except emergency vehicles, should go over 130. Those that do, should get hit with additional premiums.
6. The folks that drive the autobahn take driving very seriously. You have to, there is no room for error at 150+.
7. Speed alone doesn't kill. The higher the speed the less room for error.
8. Lies, damn lies and statistics.
I would say that would be true in the states also.
I would submit that when you hit a tree or a telephone pole head on in the USA that might rate in the "severe" category? Yet for as long as that has been happening, (forever) there is no effort to remove them from the likely path of traffic??
Also the emergency police cruiser of current choice: Ford CV taps out at app 125 mph.
Also one powerful motivator that European governments have to keeping autobahn speeds as they are is hidden and transparent, (for these discussion purposes) until you do the math. Fuel is app 6 dollars per gal in Europe vs our outrageous 2 dollars.
I agree, let's take it in degrees. Hitting a telephone pole at:
- 20 mph (probable survival)
- 30 mph (probable survival)
- 40 mph (probable survival)
- 65 mph (probable survival)
- 120 mph (autobahn speed on the autobahn, probable instant death)
-150 mph (autobahn speed on the autobahn, same)
Probably have a marginal chance of living at 65, but a zero chance of living at 120 or 150. So if you're intimating severe accidents can happen at any speed, common sense again says it will.
Interesting analysis. Of course it's politics and revenue that drive the traffic laws and not engineering, safety and budget.
Again, the (august body) NHTSA has pretty much substantiated the fact that 85% of all fatalities happen at 45 mph and UNDER!!!!
85% does qualify as a "MAJORITY" would you not agree?
The problem is they shy way from that frame of reference too much anymore, because it conflicts with their old tried and true (and failed) mantra that "SPEED KILLS". The argument is not "DOES or DOES NOT speed kills (real bad english and syntax here, but..)
but at WHAT SPEED (and why) DOES speed kill!! Again others have made a strong case for keep right except to pass etc etc.
Take a hypothetical population of 100,000 drivers, and assume that for some reason 15,000 of them drive above 45 mph at all times and 85,000 of them drive below 45. If there are 10,000 fatalities in the group over the course of a year, and 8,500 of the fatalities happen in the "slow group", that doesn't prove that slow driving is more dangerous. In fact, in this hypothetical, the RATE of fatalities is exactly the same. (10%) Without know how many people are drving fast or slow, the percentage of fatalities that occur below 45 MPH, while interesting, is pretty much meaningless in drawing any conclusions about the safety of driving at high speeds.
Does that have to do with the fact, where a majority of traffic is in certain areas, in traffic clogged city streets, where drivers are hit by vehicles that weigh three times what their vehicles way? What does this have to do with highway safety? Nothing.
These statistics are meaningless unless the basis is understood. Lies, damn lies and statistics?
With the autobahn, while the odds of getting into an accident are less, the odds of getting more severly hurt in any unintended circumstance are more due to the speed.
Does anyone know what I just heard. I've heard similar statements before. The point was to fasten your seatbelts.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The fact is both the USA and German, European rates are normalized, which includes the (full fatality accident injury picture) majority of traffic, clogged city streets etc etc. So to me it is a three cup monte for one to say highway vs city vs usa vs autobahn etc. to say those variables are incomparable. They are comparable. I think some fear the conclusions that might be drawn rather than the inquiry process.
So in other words if I drive in CA, the tendency is to have accident injury fatality within a 25 mile radius of domicile. So if I travel to say Peoria IL, the chances are relatively SLIM!!!
..."I'd guestimate that 95%+ of my driving happens within 15 miles of the house"...
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
In times past, I remember a major stated reason why folks did'nt use seat belts was too close to home, not going that fast and knew my way around so why bother?
95% of my driving is done with 25 miles of home, is it not common sense the greatest probability of having an accident is within those 25 miles.
In case anyone wants to disprove this common saying here is the formula:
probability of an event = number of occurences of event/total number of occurences.
I say it is! contempt in this 95% 25 mile concept is one driving it with a supposed "knowledge". So much so it becomes like a habit, which you in effect "turn off" so to speak.
If I may interject some DUI humor, it is like that drunk that says: I dont worry about drinking, my car knows the way home.
The lesson? While certainly I'm familiar with the roads, I'm not familiar with the driving patterns of my fellow commuters and I expect the unexpected.
Am I being prudent or paranoid?
Does that mean that I will probably not need it in the future? NO! Does guarantee no future need? NO! Does that gurantee that selt belt use will save me from a fatality? NO! Will I continue to use selt belts even though I have demonstrated that in the past I have NEVER needed it? YES!
Occasionally I would realize I didn't remember the stoplights if I had been thinking about what projects I was working on at work or thinking about home things. I'm drinking a coffee some days.
I drove on autopilot. This was before cellphones, but I was distracted and still driving. I probably am much more likely to have an accident there than on a run of 60 miles to Cincinnati with 59 miles on interstates.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I try to leave at least 2 car lengths. However, people use the opening to cut in front of you and slam on the brakes as traffic grinds to a halt.
I am leading up to this. If you are distracted for one second, your car will end up in the back seat of the car in front of you. I have seen too many rear-end collisions not to know when people have taken their eyes off the road at a critical time.
There is no room for distraction.
If you don't mind me saying so, you should really leave a lot more room!
You can't on this road, people cut in front of you with inches between the bumpers. All you can do is let up on the gas and depress the brake pedal to leave more room. You get used to it. It's not the way I was taught, but it is the way people here drive.
BTW - I've never needed my seat belts or air-bags either. However, in the likely event I will need them, even once - I will continue to wear the seat-belts and make sure the air-bags are always working.
Yup! I've been doing it for app 1.5M miles
It's a very dangerous stretch of road during rush hour.
OH I never said I "NEED" to follow closely, but other people do.
I have driven extensively in the east and eastern seaboard. Major cities include NYC, Philadelphia PA, Baltimore MD, Wash DC. (the beltway gig) Boston MA, Brookline MA, Providence RI. and even the great state of NJ!
Nor toll roads! NOR....
I am glad you enjoyed the driving in northern CA.
To borrow an Oregonian retort: NOW GO HOME!
Also if you care to look at the (posted in one of my prior posts) NHTSA fatality rates, in NJ and NY, you will find it is "BETTER" there than the already "good" CA. So, other data points as to why I say CA is more challenged.
Would I consider these rates? Absolutely!
My uncle hit a cop car with a dump truck. Nobody got hurt, or even in trouble, but the way my uncle described it, it was downright hysterical.
Anyway, my uncle is currently working at a construction site somewhere on the DC Beltway, I believe, where the site is actually on the median. Now, normally big trucks aren't allowed in the left lane on the Beltway, but since the site is on the median, trucks entering it have no choice.
Because of the heavy traffic, my uncle often has to get over when he can, which often means well in advance. And the truck doesn't go that fast, and since he's going to have to pull off onto the median, stop, and then back into the site, it's pointless to try to get up to a high speed only to stop. That's even more dangerous.
Well, one day he's on his way to the site, just like he normally drives. He pulls onto the median, and throws it into reverse to start backing up. Nothing in his rearview mirror, so it looks clear. He starts backing up, and almost instantly hears a loud siren, sees flashing lights from behind the truck, and hear's a voice over a loudspeaker hollering "DON'T BACK UP ANY FURTHER AND GET OUT OF THAT TRUCK!!"
At this point, looking in his rearview mirror my uncle can see the tail end of a police Impala, just barely sticking out from behind his truck at an angle.
Turns out that the cop had seen my uncle in the left lane, and got up behind him, so close that he was in my uncle's blind spot. Evidently those signs on the back of the trucks are there for a reason, because my uncle never saw him.
When my uncle pulled off, the cop thought he was pulling off because of him, and stopped, like 3 feet behind the truck, totally invisible. Then, when my uncle went to back up, he cut the wheel, hit the car at an angle, just started to push it sideways.
The cop tried to tell his seargant that my uncle pushed him back 15 feet. Which was bs, because if my uncle had indeed pushed him back 15 feet, he probably would have totaled out the car, instead of just cracking the front fascia!
Anyway, it all got settled down, and my uncle didn't get in any trouble, either with his company or the cops.
Anyway, let this serve as a warning, that sometimes you might see a big truck do something that annoys you. Sometimes, however, it might be totally in the right, and the best thing to do is just give it a wide berth.
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76East out of Philadelphia between City Line and 476.
I'm exceeding the speed limit on a four lane divided highway, passing on the left in very light traffic. I come up behind a Mercedes w/ Jersey tags. He's coasting along in the left lane at a speed slightly (1 or 2 mph) greater than the widely spaced traffic to his right.
I come up behind him but keep a few carlenghts between us and wait for him to complete his langorous pass.
He finishes the pass, but stays left. I quickly flick the highbeams twice in case he was spacing out or whatnot. (It is 1AM on a weekend). He ignores it and keeps rolling. Another car is coming up so I wait for him to complete his second, leisurely pass.
He finishes the pass, but continues to stay left. I accelerate and pass him on the right... even though I hear his car downshift as he accelerates to block. We're approaching slower traffic (in the right lane) and I pull back in front of him with several car lenghts to spare (now travelling 10mph faster than he had been for the past 3/4 mile or more). He pulls up right behind me (now going more than 15mph faster than he was earlier) and flips on his highbeams.
I ignored him and eventually he settled back down to his speed and stopped being a jerk.
I have made note of LLC's the past two weeks. In 600 miles of commuting around Columbus and a 240 mile round trip Columbus to Cincinnati, I noticed abosuloutely no LLC's going under 65. Many were the situation above, those who were going slightly faster than the traffic in the right lane. The rest were hardcore speeders going 10+ over and LLVIP's.
The most obnoxious and dangerous of these was a late model blue Stratus, tailgating me at distance of a few feet at 75 MPH in heavy commuting traffic at 7:45AM. I was behind a van and several other cars in the left lane of 4. A Malibu was just ahead of the van to the right. I have been waiting for something like this to happen to try something new - after about 15 seconds of tailgating, I turned on my emergency flashers. Mr Stratus threw up his hands, moved right and began tailgating the Malibu. When a spot opened up he moved right and continued to tailgate any car he came upon.
I have found that turning on my left turn signal and driving slightly to the left of center (so that my blinker is in their left mirror) is more effective than flashing head lights. Of course, it still gets ignored by at least 50% of the LLCs.
Pass on the right (where safe) is still the most expedient way to deal with LLCs.
james
james
Once upon a time, if you flashed your low-beams, that was the cue that you wanted to pass. If you flashed your high beams, you were being a jerk. That's probably why there's so much confusion about it today.
I've found the best way to get someone out of the left lane is to just blow past them on the right, cut back over in front of them (safely, of course) and then stick your arm out the window and motion them to get over into the lane in which they belong. I get about a 50% success rate. Only been shot at 3 times. Shot back 4 :shades:
I was heading westbound on Interstate 10 in Louisiana on a Thursday night. I was heading to Texas on business and was in my boss's Ford Explorer. Traffic was light, weather was good. I had just come down onto the west bank of the Mississippi River from the bridge out of Baton Rouge and was in the right lane when I was passed on the left by a BMW, might have been a 5 series, not sure.
After passing me, he slowed, then tucked in behind me. I thought it odd, but I figured there must be a reason. I proceeded to drive as usual - close up with a car ahead, check left lane, blinker, move over, pass, go back to the right. I was doing about 75 mph, not the fastest on the road, not the slowest.
I noticed that the BMW would follow me around, but never passed me. On a couple of occaisions, I had to back out of the cruise control to let a faster car by before moving over to pass. On those occaisions, he could have easily blown by me. But he didn't. I was starting to wonder why this guy was following me.
About 15 miles west of Baton Rouge, you get to the Atchafalaya Basin bridge, which is a 17 mile long causeway over a very big swamp/river/bayou area. The speed limit drops by 10 mph, since you're basically in a concrete canyon with narrow shoulders and a 20'+ drop to the water below. I usually take it fairly easy.
When I got there, Mr BMW was still behind me. I dropped my speed down to 65mph. He moved left to pass me, then slowed to my speed and stayed in my glued to my left rear quarter. There were no other cars within a mile, ahead or behind. He sat there. And sat some more. I couldn't conceive of any possible reason for such behavior. His lights were shining in both my review and side mirrors, and the glare was beginning to bother me. What was this guy doing?
After five miles or so, I'd had enough. I stood on the brakes, hard as I dared without being unsafe. He braked too. Thing is, when we got down to 35mph, I think he realized that I intended to go all the way to a full stop if necessary. He sped up. I moved left to get behind him. He accelerated up to about 65, which I had been doing, then slowed down, possibly wanting me to go around. I sat. He sped up and slowed down a number of times, going as low as 50. Finally, he moved into the right lane.
I sat in his blind spot for about 2 minutes, just for the heckuvit. I also recorded his plate number. Idiot.
When I finally decided I was ready to do 65 again, I sped up and went around. He must have had some serious window tinting, because I couldn't even really make out the dashboard lights. He didn't follow.
I cannot think of any explanation for this behavior, other than to deliberately piss someone off.
This probably a good 60-70% of the reason why I specifically have to drive vehicles that accelarate well. I had someone do this to me last week, passing at a .0005 mph speed differential, getting ticked off when I pass on the right and get in front of him, speeding up to try to block me out and flashing high beams angrily. Amazing how some people are never, ever motivated to speed or use the gas pedal until they are being passed. Then all of a sudden any reluctance they may have had to exceed the legal limit and be one of us dangerous, aggressive speeders gets thrown out the window and they want to speed up and possibly risk an accident blocking people out just to make a point. The hypocricy of it amazes me.
(The above was taken from the BMW handbook, "Customs of the Road"