How much over the speed limit do you drive?

[tvguy]

Harry Potter star Emma Watson just had her driver's license suspended for multiple speeding tickets. The last one, for going 8 miles an hour over the speed limit. Granted, it was a 30 mph zone. A quick survey of my law enforcement friends indicates that that would not be fast enough for them to do a traffic stop, let alone write a ticket. Well, one guy said he might get on his PA and say "slow down, the speed limit is 30"
Do you drive over the speed limit and if so, how far do you push it?

Right now my Facebook feed has a few scattered posts of people getting caught with radar speeding, but ALL have been going over 100 miles an hour, including one car doing 110 in a 55. Hard to defend that speed.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm more likely to go with the speed of traffic on the main highways (which is unfortunately, usually the 'flow' of traffic is too fast), but stay very close to it around homes, yards, driveways, and especially schools. Sadly, even school zones don't always seem to slow people down.

This is an area most 'lawful' people just go brain dead and ignore! Can't tell you many times I've been doing right around the speed limit on the back roads around our home, only to have someone doing 20-30 mph over the limit come up behind me incredibly fast, and then sit on my bumper - like I'm the one in the wrong.....! It's the legal speed limit for a reason!

People caught driving triple digits in a non-emergency situation should lose their license...... But I'm also certain my views won't change anything. Ignoring the speed limit seems to be engrained in our society now!!

 

[BrianL]

It very much depends. In some areas I will not go over at all - this would be on smaller streets in residential areas. On larger streets, I may go a little over, never more than 5 to 10, but it's more important to keep with traffic flow, especially once you get to the highway/interstate level. If people are generally going faster, I will keep pace, at least to a certain point. If the highway has become a racetrack, I might just stay off of it.

 

[soccerdad72]

I try to keep it within 5-10 MPH over most of the time. Highway driving, maybe a little more.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I do not go with the flow of traffic on the highway because they are doing close to 100 and I’m not about to do that speed limit is 60 to 65 depending on what area of the highway you’re on I will be doing somewhere in the neighborhood of the 70 to 75 but I’m over in the slow lane getting passed to me it’s absolutely insane that you’re doing over 70 in the slow lane being passed that is why when there’s an accident they’re so bad because people are doing well over 100
I don’t speed in school zones but most people do most people don’t stop for buses either which is absolutely disgusting ymmv that’s just my opinion - I have noted that a lot of people don’t seem to know the rules on the roads for buses either on how many lanes require you to stop or you’re allowed to go I have also had bus drivers said did not know that rule either and we’re letting kids out where they should not be letting kids out which put kids in very dangerous situations and yes I reported it
Roads in my area that are marked 30 miles an hour speed enforced you will get a ticket if you get caught speeding over 30 miles an hour I try to avoid those roads
Most of the time I’m usually doing 10 miles over the post speed limit on roads that are not the highway

 

[kdonnel]

I drive like a 98 year old woman going to and from Church.

Around town I tend to go 0-5 MPH over the speed limit.

On the highway I use the adaptive cruise control and speed limit recognition feature my car has with a +4 MPH setting. Meaning that the car will always go +4 over whatever the speed limit is on the road. If it is 70 I am going 74, if 65 I am going 69, etc. As the speed limits change on the road the car automatically adapts to the new speed with the +4 MPH addition.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Well, the options aren't great on the poll - too broad. I will go 10-15 over in a 55-65mph zone, not in a 20 or even 40mph zone. And I routinely go 25-30mph over very briefly where there is a drastic drop from 55mph to 25mph.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Rumour has it that here in the UK speed cameras will only trip if you exceed the speed limit plus 10% and 1MPH. Certainly, it seems that if you go at 52MPH in a 50 zone, the police don't care; do 60MPH in a 50 zone and they will probably chase you.

 

[jdb in AZ]

I'm real careful in school zones (too many photo radar cameras) but I go with the flow on the freeway. Any law-abiding driver going the speed limit is a road hazard.

A cop friend once told me he didn't ticket people going 5 mph over the limit because if he took the time to write a ticket he might miss someone going much faster.

 

[tvguy]

On the highway I use the adaptive cruise control and speed limit recognition feature my car has with a +4 MPH setting. Meaning that the car will always go +4 over whatever the speed limit is on the road. If it is 70 I am going 74, if 65 I am going 69, etc. As the speed limits change on the road the car automatically adapts to the new speed with the +4 MPH addition.

We have adaptive cruise control on our Toyota. I am torn about how it operates. It starts slowing a lot sooner than I would like, I find myself stepping the gas to close the gap to six car lengths. It is set on six car lengths, and it seems it slows you down much further ahead than it needs to to maintain a six car length distance.
We use Google maps and it displays what the speed limit is supposed to be, but here in California they often set up construction zones for the day or half day with temporary lower speed limits. Google says 70, and sometimes the work zone speed limit is as low as 45 so you really have to pay attention.

 

[Becky2005]

I'm the slowpoke in the minivan. Too be fair, our area is a speed trap to the point one of my daughter's friends asked if it was a safe area because there were always cops around! LOL! They have tried everything for years to slow cars down because if the main roads get backed up people use the main entrance to our subdivision as a cut through. The speed limit is 25 with a park at each end (they even narrowed the streets by the parks) but people fly down it doing 40 and think nothing of it! Now, I usually am over 25 but never more than 30 and that depends on time of day.

In general, I do the speed limit locally -- maybe 5 over at the max.

On the highway that all depends. I have a new minivan so we will see how it goes that has the adaptive cruise control (although I don't think mine detects the speed limit! I have to still set it but it does give me 2 options on how close I want to be to the other cars). I still personally like to go the speed limit especially when they start getting into that 75 - 80 mph range but I will also do maximum 5 over unless I have no other choice.

My old minivan wouldn't physically go more than 70ish when we were in the mountain areas on a trip once. I literally had pedal to the metal and the thing was not going to go any faster. I just stayed in the slow lane doing the best I could.

 

[barkley]

my driving is strictly limited to the rural area and small town near me. I drive at or below the speed limit b/c-

if unpaved roads I don't like to 'dust' walkers/bike or horseback riders (I also don't want to spook a horse carrying a rider),

on one stretch of paved road a farmer periodically moves his herd from one side of the property to another (separated by county paved road). in a cow vs. car accident the cow may die but so will the car,

we regularly have moose, deer and elk use the roads around us-in moose and elk herd vs. car it's not unusual to have a driver fatality (we had one instance recently where we had to suddenly stop for over 20 elk to leap over one fence onto the paved county and then slow to leap over the fence on the other side-beautiful to watch, dangerous to come upon at full posted road speeds).

 

[Kitty 34]

I'm a granny driver.

 

[_19disnA]

Poll doesn't allow you to differentiate between city/freeway driving. I agree about dirt roads, used to be a few of them in the area where I lived and your car would bounce all over the road due to ruts and being uneven. Generally drove below the limit on those types of roads or planned my trip to avoid dirt roads. On some rural roads you have to be VERY careful of wildlife jumping unexpectedly into the road. Some rural roads also have lots of curves and blind corners where even driving the limit is not a good idea.

On any city streets, I drive the speed limit. On a freeway if the limit is 70, I might set the cruise on 72-73 and never have to worry about getting a speeding ticket. Generally don't use cruise control if the freeway is congested, moving slowly or lots of lanes entering/exiting. My new car has that 'adaptive cruise' feature but have never used it, only use cruise when there isn't any traffic. Have driven on many freeways all over the country and have never driven on any freeway where I felt I was driving too slowly, regardless of what others might be doing. If someone wants to pass me and go 100, have at it, but I am not changing the speed I am driving. I think some rationalize their speeding by saying everyone else is doing it. My impression is that on a freeway with a limit of 70, the majority of people are driving in the 70-75 mph range.

 

[clappyclaps]

Rumour has it that here in the UK speed cameras will only trip if you exceed the speed limit plus 10% and 1MPH. Certainly, it seems that if you go at 52MPH in a 50 zone, the police don't care; do 60MPH in a 50 zone and they will probably chase you.

That is pretty much correct. So doing 38mph in a 30 zone like Emma Watson will definitely get you booked over here.

That said, be warned that while the 10% rule tends to apply for the majority of cameras, I've heard that Forces can vary this and there's been rumours that one near me catches people if they're doing more than 1mph over the limit

Me, I'll try and aim for 5mph over the limit for the majority of the time but depends on how irritated I am with traffic and other road users.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Interesting fact - your speedo in your car is not 100% accurate. For a pin-point reading, rely on your SatNav or GPS.

 

[TAX GUY]

I'm not incriminating myself!


So long as you don't hover in the left/passing lane, your speed will not have an impact on me

 

[DizneyFamof4]

Speed limit is 25 to 35 = limit or 5 above
Rest of city limits it's 5-10 above
Freeways 10+
Last ticket = decades ago
We live in the Florida Panhandle and drive to WDW and I wish more drivers would follow the Florida mandate.
Florida Statute 316.081(3) mandates that drivers operating at less than the normal speed of traffic should drive in the rightmost lane, except when passing or preparing for a left turn. Drivers are also prohibited from continuing to occupy the left lane when being overtaken by a faster vehicle

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Speed isn't the problem here. Roundabouts are the problem. That is, normally they're fine, a great way to direct traffic. But sometimes, they take the Mickey Mouse. There's one mini-roundabout in town with seven exits, all dual lane. "Seven Dials". You might as well floor it and pray.

 

[Genie+]

Other. Mostly it’s 10-20% if I’m driving over the speed limit. Lower limits like 25-35, I tend to keep under +5mph. There are some zones posted 50mph where I’ll do 60-65mph.

I got pulled over doing 63mph in one recently and the young officer talked himself out of giving me a ticket Thank you sir!