r/driving • u/PublicDragonfruit158 • 5h ago
Speeding Excuses
The thre most common excuses I see here for speeding:
"I am an excellend driver and know how to co ntrol my vehicle"
Modern cars have better handling and grip than the older cars around when they set speed limits.
Roads are designed for much higher speeds than they are limited to.
Given those three excuses, how come nearly every day when driving to work at the speed limit and the road enters a sweeping curve (where I easily stay in my lane), do the speeders ripping past me enter my lane? Theey are inches from my mirror, and often I see them either nail the brakes or jerk back over into thier lane. (Seen a couple actually overdo it and end up in the ditch between the lanes of traffic.
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u/Jexen117 5h ago edited 5h ago
Most people who think they are good drivers have never once actually had to drive a car precisely in an intense situation, like at the limit of the cars grip or in response to a sudden unexpected event. And it’s partially not their fault, they just don’t know any better because most people never even get close to experiencing the limit of a car unless they’re actively out of control. The people that think that having a higher-than-it-should-be risk tolerance and pushing the pedal down for slightly longer than the people around them on a straight road makes them good at controlling that vehicle are delusional and annoying. But those same people always tend to fall apart (slip out of lanes, slow way down, etc..) as soon as driving requires the use of steering and (god forbid) braking.
I say this as someone who loves cars and likes to drive quickly when the situation is appropriate. Going 100 on the highway because “I’m a good driver” is not one of those situations.
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u/Wind_Mediocre 5h ago
I agree 100%. The funniest thing is the folks that ride my bumper on the straights and quickly fall behind once we get to some curves, even when I'm in a 4WD pickup. Granted those days are fewer in between now that I drive a lot in a state that cannot figure out ROW trimming, especially in curves and there is zero sight distance. Its often folks in small cars that have some if the worst driving. I think a lot of it involves not understanding momentum, vehicle dynamics or even basics of reaction time and sight distance. The race car drivers you see on TV are in a controlled setting and wreck all the time, because shit happens.
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u/StankoMicin 5h ago
Exactly this
I feel like people's views of good driving are influenced by their fantasies of being Dom Toretto. Most people don't have anywhere near the handling ability nor the knowledge of their cars for that kind of driving..(Not to mention it is fake anyways). They have no real knowledge of handling, traction, stopping distance, gauging traffic, speed, etc. They just think they are good because they have gotten away with shitty driving habits for long enough. Any idiot can go fast. Knowing when and where it is appropriate to do that is part of being a good driver. Most people don't even practice driving drills beyond their one time drivers test... Things like emergency stops, swerve, etc are not things most people regularly engage with.
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u/GarageEven5240 5h ago
The most common reason I've seen for speeding is moving with the flow of traffic.
This is an excellent reason. It's also much safer than deliberately driving slower than traffic, especially in the passing lane, because you think it's your job to force other people to drive at your preferred rate of speed.
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u/Wind_Mediocre 5h ago
Many drivers have a herd mentality. They want to drive on the bumper of the person in front of them, whether its going 10mph below the speed limit, or 20mph above
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u/GarageEven5240 4h ago
"Wanting to drive on the bumper of the person in front of them..." Is not an "excuse for speeding" I have ever seen offered on this sub. And I've seen lots of excuses for speeding.
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u/Wind_Mediocre 3h ago
I'm not sure those folks would use it as an excuse because they likely have absolutely no clue they are speeding. I am convinced there are some drivers that don't look at their speedometers and have no clue how fast the are going most of the time.
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u/Valuable_Agency_1306 5h ago
Also, when did it become acceptable to drive through a parking lot at 30mph
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u/_Bon_Vivant_ 5h ago
The top excuse given for posted speed limits is "Because that's what the tables says it should be". No consideration for drivers capabilities, cars capabilities, road conditions, weather conditions, traffic conditions, any realworld, realtime factors.
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u/StankoMicin 5h ago
- Roads are designed for much higher speeds than they are limited to.
Can someone explain this to me? I feel like I always hear hour US roads suck and haven't liekly been update in decades
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u/RemarkableBody4331 26m ago
They're entering your lane because that's how they take the fast turn. They're in the lane you're in, but they go over the line because there's nobody in that lane and there's nobody to hit, and they can maintain speed by increasing the angle of the turn.
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u/Wind_Mediocre 5h ago
TBH, the idiots passing you probably aren't "good drivers". They are probably late to work and racing to get there. Folks also have a ton on their minds and are likely not fully engaged in driving.
I notice that especially on the highways during rush hour, a lot of folks will be doing 80mph on each others bumpers. Then they wonder why there is a five car pile up every single day.
I speed, but I am also acutely aware of the risks and cautious. I'm the person going 10mph under in a crowded downtown area with heavy pedestrian traffic, because I cannot control someone stepping out in front of me. I slow down around sharp curves if I don't have adequate sight distance to avoid an obstruction. I leave a minimum of a 2 second gap in front of me during heavy traffic. But give me a open road, good sight distance, favorable weather conditions, plus light traffic, and I fly. The only time I drive reckless is when I am pissed off and am going fuck my life. Even then, I don't drive as poorly as half the maniacs on the road
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u/Nearby_Bit_6643 5h ago edited 5h ago
What’s funny about 3 is that the speed limit is made for the roads limit in any condition, including rain or whatever. So that logic is stupid. And the fact that these people think they know better than the engineers who designed it and actually know is laughable.
Edit: IDEAL conditions is more accurate.
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u/Insertsociallife 5h ago
No, the speed limit is (allegedly) made for the road's limit in ideal conditions. It is supposed to be as fast as it is ever acceptable to drive on the road in question. It is suicidal to do 70 down the freeway in the middle of a blizzard. Every speed limit in MN would be like 25 if all road conditions were considered.
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u/Nearby_Bit_6643 5h ago
You are absolutely right. I considered snow but not other conditions.
That spoiled SoCal life and all.
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u/Wind_Mediocre 5h ago
Lol, that is completely false. The speedlimits are when you have favorable conditions. In many states you can recieve a ticket for exceeding a speed safe for the conditions if you try and maintain the speed limit during inclement weather. Things like limited visibility, heavy rains, snow and ice all affect how fast you can safely go. Speed limits typically depend on the type of road, area it is in, and traffic volumes.
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u/Nearby_Bit_6643 5h ago
I already corrected it, my guy.
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u/Wind_Mediocre 5h ago
Lol, thank you. That is a very important detail that many folks miss. And then we wonder how there is a 100 car pileup on the interstate every winter
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u/marx-and-metal 5h ago
speed limits in most places are actually based on how fast people drive down those roads. when setting up the speed limits decades ago, cities would measure how fast drivers were going, then often set the speed limit around the 70th percentile rounded to the nearest 5 or 10. this was also back when most people drove safer because their was much less traffic which causes a lot of drivers to get aggravated and reckless.
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u/Wind_Mediocre 4h ago
That is mostly done for curve advisory signs. In the US, speed limits are typically based on type of road and jurisdiction. For example, in my states, inside city limits is 35mph. Roads may be individually posted slower or faster, with many neighbor roads being posted 25mph, and major streets posted 35mph. 55mph is the speed limit for state roads outside of city limits unless otherwise posted. For controlled access highways, it is 65mph in city limits, 70mph outside city limits, with 55mph zones for busy interchanges or older routes.
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u/Silent_Coffee_7292 5h ago
Because they overestimated #1, which means they can utilize safely #2 which means #3 is now irrelevant
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u/GammaRay914 5h ago
Either they can’t handle the curves or they are lazy and don’t want to feel the g-forces when taking curves at higher speeds.
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u/youaresowrongguy 5h ago
The cars are faster and safer at speeds the reaction times of the people driving them and theirblnowege of how weather affects conditions remains so the speed limits are not gonna change. You are not the exception. The rules are based on that 1% of the time you don't react perfectly to put it in terms you can accept (to the speeding drivers reading I mean)