Who cares about gas in TX? Just floor it!

[Dietmar239]

Man, I wish they did this in Maryland. The police are really going to have to work at keeping the highways safe though.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200605 ... ateto80mph

[tafnut]

I love the logic here:

The nation's top legal driving speed soon could rise to a long-forbidden 80 mph as Texas moves toward increasing the limit on parts of two interstate highways. . . .a study by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) found that 85% of drivers on the affected highways already drive 76-79 mph, says Carlos Lopez, the agency's traffic operations chief.

Apparently there are not wise to the fact that if they raise it to 80, everyone will drive 86-89! 

[Dietmar239]

Yeah, that's exactly what a judge in TX said:

"If the speed limit is raised to 80, everybody is going to be doing 85 or 90," says Hudspeth County Judge Becky Dean-Walker, the top elected official in one county facing the move to 80. "That's just human nature."

[gm]

With the traffic on those roads, good luck trying to drive faster than 80. The wind will have its say, too

[Pego]

Germany has no speed limit on the autobahn and still has no more highway fatalities than the surrounding countries that do.

[SQUACKEE]

Germany has no speed limit on the autobahn and still has no more highway fatalities than the surrounding countries that do.

Why do you think this is Pego, better cars, better drivers?

[gh]

While faster limits mean the over-the-limit goes up as well, I think it's well established that it goes up at less of a rate. i.e., if x% of people go 5mph over a 65, then y% go 5 over a 75, and y is notably smaller than x. And the higher you get, the smaller the percentage.

Some people are plain afraid (as well they should be) of big numbers, and there are an appreciable number of vehicles that don't feel so good once you get up there.

(I do recall hitting 120 once with a certain poster on this board in the car, and when a slight vibration set in he wasn't the happiest of campers :-)

[tafnut]

Germany has no speed limit on the autobahn and still has no more highway fatalities than the surrounding countries that do.

Except when the autobahn has accidents there's a 40-person death toll. When I lived there one summer, I got caught in a 2-hour jam, because everyone came whipping around a curve at 240+kph only to find a jack-knifed tractor-trailor across the highway. The cars just started piling up. 60 dead in all! I tried to go over 200kph one time (as in gh's anecdote) and it really did scare the bejeebers out of me.

[Pego]

Germany has no speed limit on the autobahn and still has no more highway fatalities than the surrounding countries that do.

Why do you think this is Pego, better cars, better drivers?

They generally stay on right, left lane is primarily used for passing only (few left lane bandits).
Under ideal conditions, speed is not that relevant. Fatalities occur when people don't slow down when conditions are less than ideal. Most European countries also have draconic drink-and-drive laws.

[Pego]

Germany has no speed limit on the autobahn and still has no more highway fatalities than the surrounding countries that do.

Except when the autobahn has accidents there's a 40-person death toll. When I lived there one summer, I got caught in a 2-hour jam, because everyone came whipping around a curve at 240+kph only to find a jack-knifed tractor-trailor across the highway. The cars just started piling up. 60 dead in all! I tried to go over 200kph one time (as in gh's anecdote) and it really did scare the bejeebers out of me.

If it scared the bejeebers out of you, you were driving faster than conditions (including your state of mind). I am pretty sure, the pile-up you are talking about would occur even if they whipped around the curve at half that speed (perhaps even third).