BS: How fast do you drive ?

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: frogprince
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 03:43 PM

Yeah, JohninK got me. (no big surprise). Our church pinewood derby includes an adult division; I never got to do this stuff as a kid. My wife's first (so far only) entry didn't beat me, but it took the electronic finish line readout to be sure of least one heat, and she was always within a nose of matching or beating me.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Scoville
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 02:52 PM

I used to enter the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby (little toy cars running down a chute) every year in the "family" division when my brother was in Cub Scouts. I slaughtered them every year. Ha ha. Even the Cub Scouts can forget their manners when a girl beats them at the Derby.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: kendall
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 09:28 AM

Sorry, I never heard of the Pinewoods Derby.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 08:16 AM

kendall

Check out the "Pinewood Derby" competitions.

My recollection is that one of our members posted a thread about his brilliant success in one - PWDerby or similar - some time ago, ending with the lamentation that his wife's entry beat his.

Mind you, I don't really recall who the member was ...

John

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: kendall
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 07:06 AM

frogprince, that looks like a matchbox car to me!

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: julian morbihan
Date: 13 Jun 07 - 04:26 AM

Since I moved from UK to live in France, I find cruising at 90 nice and comfortable on the motorways. Unfortunately the trucks all want to do a 100! (KPH that is...)

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 11:06 PM

No, not necessarily. The windshield could well have held together but have killed the duck. Would have tenderized it something fierce, too.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:18 PM

Peace - I don't believe you ate the duck........you would have been picking glass out of it!

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 09:59 PM

Well, if we take away their homes they should be able to take ours, no?

Speed limit in town is 25 mph unless posted otherwise. Back East it was 30, unless posted otherwise. And 20 in school and similar zones. 25 through the University area, and you MUST give pedestrians the crosswalk.

Cops are really strict about this stuff, too. Go 35 in a 30 zone or 30 in a 25 and you can face a fine of US $100.00, but usually the cop will let you off with a warning unless you mouth off or something. Go another mile per hour and you get a ticket, go 10 miles over the limit and fines double.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Mickey191
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 09:44 PM

It surprised me that the turkey would do that much damage--It looked just like the damage Carol C. got with the deer accident.

Bruce, Hope you had a nice wine with the duck. You'd
pay about $25.00 for that in an average restaurant.

McGrath, I think his death was too fast for ruminations.

There are so many strange animal stories of late in NY & NJ. Coyotes are eating wee pet dogs-& one boy was saved from a coyote who did some damage to the child. (Kid was playing in his backyard.) Bear sightings in town are commonplace. I guess they are being crowded out of their own habitats.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 06:05 PM

"There I was flying along, minding my own business, and this crazy car comes rushing along and smashes into me..."

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 05:42 PM

Had a duck do that to my windshield at one time. $350 for the windshield. Duck tasted good though.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Mickey191
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 05:41 PM

Beware of TURKEYS. Tonight's news showed the destroyed windshield of a lovely lady who was minding her own business when a wild turkey came thru her windshield & landed in her lap. This is in Goshen NY. Who'd a thought?



She was okay.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 05:05 PM

I entered this car
in the 2004 racing season. It has a 240 mph speedometer, and remains undefeated. The speed wasn't actually clocked, though, and the speedometer wasn't operating at the track.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 05:01 PM

In Harlow we've got some roads unrestricted (ie 60), some 50, some 40, some 30 and some 20. It gets confusing - you get essentially identical roads with different speed limits.

Twenty as a maximum for any road in a residential area (it with houses facing on to it) makes sense. Mind, there are plenty of roads where parked cars can mean that it'd be sensible to keep well below that maximum.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 04:54 PM

....it was,   20mph it is now.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 04:53 PM

30mph

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 04:49 PM

20 MPH? That's pretty extreme...what is it now?

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 04:48 PM

And that's fast enough in the congestion of a city.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 04:25 PM

In Portsmouth, England, the city council are now imposing a city wide speed limit of 20mph.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 01:29 PM

Cars out here tend to clump too. I will, if possible, get out of the clump, generally by slowing a tiny bit (e.g., I'm going 82 and the clump is going 90 I don't have to slow at all, but if the clump is going 82 I'll slow to 80 or less). Druther drive in my own clump, since I know my driving skills.

(That's on the Interstate, of course. Non-Interstates have lower speed limits.)

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 01:27 PM

Many people change to bigger tires--bigger circumference that is--and forget that that changes the speedometer.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 01:19 PM

Legally speaking, in the UK anyway, the indicated speed limit is a maximum speed (aside from the different coloured signs you get sometimes which are minimum speed). They tend to allow about a few miles extra before prosecuting, in the grounds that speedometers aren't that accurate, and a prosecution might fail if a driver could persuade a court that his (or her) speedometer was misleading them.

In practice people typically add that few miles on to the speed they aim to drive - if their speedometer is in fact reading low that means they will be going quite significantly faster than the limit.

The obvious thing would be to require that speedometers were accurate, and that it was the duty of the car owner to keep them accurate.

The speed limits that are far to high are in residential areas in towns, where a maximum of 20 miles an hour makes a lot more sense than 30. I'd be willing to trade slightly higher legal speeds on motorways for a general 20 mph limit in streets.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:38 PM

Also, cruise control can be a deah sentence on icy or wet roads.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:31 PM

It has been my opinion for years that 'most' speed limits (at least on open highways) are set lower than the most reasonable speed. There is a lot of psychology involved in setting & enforcing speed limits, and if limits were raised, many would assume that they could then exceed the NEW limits by the same %.

My personal preference would be to have the signs indicate the ABSOLUTE maximum, with severe penalties for going faster, but people's heads aren't set that way, and it ain't gonna happen.

(BTW...for the first time in my life, I own a car that will easily accelerate and keep up with any normal traffic flow. I now CAN speed with little effort, and it requires me to make extra effort to be sure I'm not just zooming along at 75 like the others. I have cruise control, and it is great, but of little use in areas of high volume traffic.)

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Big Mick
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:09 PM

I drive incredible amounts of miles all over the country. On the Interstate I drive 9 MPH over the speed limit. I set my cruise for this. I can't tolerate unfsafe drivers. I hate with a passion those that cruise up on my bumper, almost as much as I hate drivers who insist on driving 45 MPH in the left lane of a 70 MPH Interstate.

Why 9 MPH over the speed limit? During the course of a 4 hour commute, that translates to me being 36 miles closer than before. That is a half hour less on the road. Think about that over the course of a year and you start to get a sense of the time saved.

But I never drive fast in an unsafe fashion. No tailgating, no weaving in and out. If the conditions don't allow for the quick speed, then I don't do it. That's not an alibi, and I am not trying to act as though I am not violating. I am. If I get a ticket, I wouldn't even challenge it. But I haven't in years. I got the same advice from a police officer years ago.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Midchuck
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:07 PM

I'd settle for one that would cause the car immediately behind me to slow automatically if it came within the one-car-length-per-10-mph guideline for following, while staying in my lane.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:04 PM

LOL! You've been having those fantasies too, have you?

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:00 PM

My fantasy is a remote 'clicker', which engages a governor on any car I point it at...each click slowing the car by 5MPH, and a RED button which causes it to coast to a stop, unable to restart for 15 minutes.
   I can't decide whether I'd like a dashboard message to appear telling him why, or that he just wonder.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Scoville
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 11:39 AM

I'm happy at 55 but I try to keep up with, or at least not impede, traffic. Invariably, I run up behind somebody going 45 in the middle lane of the freeway, though. People, either a) hang up or b) drive on the feeder if you're too chicken to drive at freeway speeds. You're a traffic hazard if you're driving 15 mph under the speed limit and everyone else is flying past you.


My mother has a fantasy wherein people who speed or drive like jackasses would be instantly teleported back to their point of origin, so the worse they drove, the longer it would take them to get anywhere, and nobody would be harmed (because they would be removed from the road once they started speeding, tailgating, darting in and out of traffic, etc.). I love that.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 11:17 AM

One of the delights of having a cell phone is the ability to call the Police when two assholes pass at 100 mph, obviously racing.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: GUEST,Gza
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:53 AM

My dad always preferred to be the fastest driver on the road, so he normally passed everyone. This would become a problem whenever he encountered someone else who thought the same way he did.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Midchuck
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:31 AM

A phenomenon that may not occur elsewhere as frequently as it does in my region is the "clumping" of traffic on the Interstate highways.

Small groups of vehicles, all travelling at about the same speed, form a clump or cluster in which the cars in front are the slowest. Cars behind, in the cluster, have caught up and can't get past to drive at their preferred speed.

THIS WOULD NOT HAPPEN IF THE F***ING A******S WOULD SORT THEMSELVES OUT ACCORDING TO SPEED! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE RIGHT LANE UNLESS YOU'RE PASSING (or are British, obviously).

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:18 AM

Linda's story reminds me of someone who hung his/her purse on the choke and wondered why s/he'd stall out after a few blocks. (Please notice the gender non-specific nature of this comment!)

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:16 AM

A phenomenon that may not occur elsewhere as frequently as it does in my region is the "clumping" of traffic on the Interstate highways.

Small groups of vehicles, all travelling at about the same speed, form a clump or cluster in which the cars in front are the slowest. Cars behind, in the cluster, have caught up and can't get past to drive at their preferred speed.

As I generally plan ahead and drive at a speed comfortable to me, often 5 to 15 mph less than the posted limit, I almost never catch up to one of these congested clusters, but may be fairly frequently overtaken by one. Since the cluster - if it catches me - is, as a whole moving a little faster than I am, when the "passing lane" jam clears me, the cars pinned behind the idiot in the lead are free to pass "wrongside" (which is illegal but expected) and are able to proceed at their preferred speed. Cars in the legal "slow lane" usually are unoffended, and will mostly wait their turn, and will pass after the "passing lane" has been cleared.

I have thus performed the useful service of "sorting the clump" by the preferred speed of the drivers previously locked into it, and within the space of a mile or so, the entire "pack" is dispersed and leaves my vicinity, and I once again have the entire road to myself to relax and enjoy my drive. The "speeders" can proceed to catch up with the next clump, where they can resume their cursing at each other. All of those formerly friendly drivers string out and enjoy their "new found freedom" to select their own preferred speed, until they catch the next cluster.

I can usually enjoy about 20 miles of "open road" before the next bunch catches me.

I see it as a public service that gives all of the idiots in the cluster a few safer and more comfortable miles.

It should be noted that I use other methods and modes of driving where the particlar phenomenon doesn't occur, and adjust my speed as needed to the conditions prevailing; but I do enjoy driving on a good road without constantly competing with closely packed mobs of other drivers, and that purpose is served quite well by simply driving at my own comfortable speed.

On "back roads" where I actually do most of my driving, I will usually run at about 10 mph less than the speed limit, since this is the minimum speed difference that allows an overtaking vehicle to pass safely without speeding excessively. I will generally speed up to the limit for stretches where I know there are no safe passing areas, if someone comes up behind me, but I'm not in too much of a hurry to assist anyone in getting around if it appears they want to go faster.

On the back roads, when someone comes up behind and there is another vehicle ahead of me, I will back off to at least double my normal safe following distance, to let the one behind know that they're welcome to pass me and pull in while looking for a safe place to get around the one(s) ahead. (There are very few safe passing areas on most of these roads where one can safely pass more than a couple of vehicles at one jump.)

I also give special consideration to commercial truckers, since I know that they have no choice in the schedules they need to maintain. Although rarely necessary, I do have a CB I can use to talk to one if there's a need to agree on a safe way to get them past me.

Of course, I'm in the rather unique situation of having nowhere I have to be if it causes risk or undue inconvenience to other drivers. I'm sure there are few others for whom that consideration applies.

John

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Peace
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:13 AM

So, the guy says, get in the passenger seat and watch the dog. he can run as fast as this Corvette. They began to drive. At 40 mph the pure white Malemute's tongue began to stick out, but he was right beside the car. At 80 mph the dog began to pant, but he was keeping up. At 120 mph the dog was beginning to strain a bit, but there he was. At 150 mph the driver said, "Give him a good look. He's right beside us." Just then the driver missed a bend in the road and went crashing into a tree.

Both fellows in body casts awoke in the hospital. The friend of the driver said, "I never want to see that damned dog again." The driver said, "He's in the corner." The fellow looked and said, "That's not your dog. Yours was pure white. This one has a brown ring around his neck." The driver replied, "That's him alright. The brown ring is his asshole. He's not used to stopping so fast."

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:10 AM

I was listening to the radio call-in question program "Car Talk". A caller had the problem of her brake parts needing replacement very frequently. She described how she drove, with jackrabbit starts, then slamming on the brakes at the last minute. When the moderators pointed out that this wasn't the most efficient way to drive, the caller innocently replied, "But isn't that what the brakes are FOR?"

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 10:06 AM

How fast do I flippin' drive? Like a bat outta hell! Speshally when I am in a car that I "borrowed" from....someone...and the cops are takin' accepshun to it. I don't have a licenxe so it is not a good idea fer me to stop at all if there is a cop anywhere's around, eh? Drivin' through fences and acrost fields is one way to sorta throw 'em off the track for a bit, but I do not flippin' recommend veerin' off-road into a forested area. Too many flippin' trees in the way, eh?

- Shane

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 09:47 AM

I'm always amused by the person who shoots past me, and who I meet very shortly thereafter at the stoplight. Hurry up to stop? Am I missing something?

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 09:35 AM

On the road Bill D mentions, 55 always does seem like a reasonable speed. The road is mostly curves, with lanes coming and going. Yet people constantly pass on the right, swooping in and out of lanes, going, I swear, 90 mph. No enforcement at all, because it would be too dangerous to do so. I can't imagine why there aren't horrific multi-car fatalities every day.

I am scared by the general lawlessness of people sneering at speed limits. This is after all the law. Do these speeders steal from people- assault people -just because they can get away with it? If someone cuts in front of me, I feel like that is stealing, in a way. That's MY safe space. On fairly empty highways (other than the Beltway, above) I'll sometimes drive faster than the limit, but in residential areas I feel the limit is for the safety of cars entering the road and pedestrians, and I try to keep precicely to the speed limit for them. Couple of people I was connected to have been killed in the past year trying to cross residential roads where people regularly drive in the right lane at double the speed limit.

I seem to have an inate sense of the speed limit. When I'm driving at my own pace - not pushed by surrounding traffic, I look down at my speedometer and to my surprise, see that I'm driving preciscely at the limit. I feel safe at that speed. It's probably why I don't like getting rides with other people, even my elderly aunt.

Wherever I drive, whether on limited-access highways or streets with traffic lights, whatever speed I drive (usually somewhat above the limit where that's common) I'm always passed by the entire "pack". That is so much more tiring and dangerous than when everyone drives at the same speed. The few times I've been in a situation where everyone was going at the limit, I saw how easy it was - you just drive merrily along in your lane with no maneuvering with other cars. But when the pack constantly jostles to pass everybody else, there are constant interactions with dozens of other cars at 35 - 90 mph, and much more chance for something to happen.

I've enjoyed finding the alternate, older routes to the highways, either in town, or on longer trips going toward New York. I can relax, listen to and sing along with the radio, and my favorite pink dancing socks came from a little drugstore on Route 1.

Linda

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Llanfair
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 04:00 AM

Pray to your deity, Mickey, and watch events unfold. Everything goes into slow motion (except the vehicle, of course) and there seems to be lots of time to think. Between seeing the motorcyclist on my side of the road and him hitting me, I was able to try and avoid him, stop the car, consider how much it was going to hurt if he hit the windscreen in front of my face(he hit the unoccupied passenger side)realise that I was probably going to die, wonder what the explosion was(airbags), and finally have the presence of mind to turn the engine off and get the hell out of there, all in 5-10 seconds.
Incedentally, the "A" road where we live is described in motorcycle magazines as an ideal road to open up their bikes and test their driving abilities. There are around 20 deaths a year, mostly motorcyclists, but, as it's the main road between Birmingham and the coast, we hear the ambulances and police EVERY Friday evening as the city drivers try to overtake the caravans, thinking they can see round blind corners and over hillcrests.
I have to use that road today, and I will keep to a steady 50/55 on the straight bits, and slower through villages. Tailgaters can jolly well get on with it. I know that it won't get them there any faster, because I know where the roadworks are!!!

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 03:37 AM

Blowout? Remove feet from pedals - whatever you do don't touch the brake - grip wheel at 3:45 position with thumbs on the outside, hang on for grim death to keep the vehicle straight and start cadence braking once the speed drops to below 30mph and you are confident you have the vehicle under control.
If there is a nearside crash barrier allow the vehicle to drift into that at as shallow an angle as possible to aid deceleration.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Mickey191
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 12:40 AM

Advice on how to handle a blow out at 55mph???

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 11:40 PM

I drive this section of highway regularly. The speed limit is 55 at ALL times...sometimes it is not even possible to go 40, but when it opens up a bit, it is common to see Type 'A' s with 'important' things to do going 65-85...

I read about some of them regularly.

I will NOT drive 75 on this road, even IF 85% of them are doing so.
If a lot of the traffic is speeding, it is NOT required that I do so also. Carol C. has said it correctly several times in this thread...no one has the RIGHT to speed. I will push it a little, so as not to seem way slower than the average, but at some point, someone has to draw the line.

It is beyond stupid to decide that just because your car will GO 100, and you can theoretically steer it going that fast, that you should be be allowed grant yourself the privilege.

There is NOwhere you need go at 80-90+ MPH, except in a dire emergency, and most roads are not designed for it. I once drove at 85-90...across I-90 in Wyoming at 1-4AM in order to get to a repair shop in Billings, Montana early in the morning (I don't believe there was a speed limit then...about 1970)..(I think I saw about 4 cars total)

One aspect of speed is that we are SO busy anymore, that we get behind, and rush to make up time. There is, in my opinion, no excuse for going too fast just because you are running late. Some people around here have 1-3 HOUR commutes, and some of them think that this entitles them to shave 15-20 minutes by being in the fastest 1% of the traffic....no matter how crowded it is.

...ummmm....have you noticed that I'm a teeny bit peeved at some driving attitudes?

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 11:37 PM

while we both have the right to use the right of way, neither of us has any specific right to do it at any particular speed

I'd say the people who have set the speed limits have it right. They (whether by accident or by design... I suspect it's by design) have set the speed limits right in the middle of the range of driving abilities that we see in drivers on the road today. And that's exactly where it should be, because that's what serves the most number of people.

So enjoy your fantasies about driving fast. I'll just continue to be thankful there are some logical, practical, and level-headed people making the traffic laws.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 11:11 PM

But...wouldn't logic say that if two cars, each going the same speed and having the same mass, rammed together the potential energy stored in each would cancel each other out and nothing at all would happen?

Somebody else try it. I have to work tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: kendall
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 07:38 PM

I've made my point with plenty of logic to support it, and I stick by it.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rog Peek
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 06:54 PM

I think Peace summed it up very well. Well done!

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 06:37 PM

I remember covering an inquest on a young lad who was killed on his motorbike.   They worked out what probably happened was that he hit an old boot that happened to be lying in the middle of the road. A boot lying in the road!

Unexpected stuff happens. The faster you are going the more deadly the result is likely to be.

Subject: RE: BS: How fast do you drive ?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 06:30 PM

My wife's cousin Eddy was driving his motorcycle, helmet on, when something happened and he fell off, head down. He was dragged, at 70+ mph, for about a half mile before the bike ran off the road on a curve.

Basically his head was erased, helmet and all. Closed casket, of course.

Weird, yes. But as Peace says, shit happens. Even weird shit happens.