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85% Of Car Drivers Break 20mph Speed Limits, Reveals U.K.’s Department For Transport
(www.forbes.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
314 points (93.6% liked)
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I remember doing that for my first (and only) time on the empty highways outside Salt Lake City in the early morning. It was exciting to try but fully concerning. I couldn't imagine doing that around other vehicles.
I mean, I think it's clear that those are the people who cause the most issues for people who want to break the speed limit. And I fundamentally don't believe you have the right to speed on a highway, and shouldn't complain about missing out on opportunities to speed.
Like, I'm not saying left lane squatters are driving correctly, they should be over in the rightmost lane. But also all the other drivers, including you, should be going the speed limit. Why does one arbitrary rule about lane positioning matter so much to people, while the arbitrary speed limit is fine to ignore? Real talk: they're both arbitrary rules. If you're breaking the speed limit: SHUT UP about the lane squatters.
It's not equal though. Speed limits at least on the highways around here are set way lower than what is actually safe so of course people will ignore them. As long as they're being safe (not tailgating, passing on the left, using turn signals, etc) they're not affecting anyone else. If you're squatting in a passing lane then you are actually impeding other traffic. If the speed limits were actually appropriate I would agree with you
"Impeding traffic" is quite the euphemism for "forcing people to slow down and drive the speed limit." Call it what it is, a mild inconvenience that you wouldn't even experience if you were following the rules that you're upset about people breaking!
And the people who are "speeding but still being safe" do impact others too. It makes it much more dangerous for drivers doing the limit to merge into the left lanes in case of stopped vehicles, slow trucks, and merging traffic.
Again, the speed limits usually aren't appropriate for the highways they're applied to so they don't make sense unlike rules regarding lane usage. If they did I wouldn't be complaining. It's also not anyone besides law enforcement's job to enforce them. By doing so you are creating an unsafe situation by packing all the traffic together.
If you need to merge into the left lane you simply wait for the faster traffic to go by. Are you suggesting that it's dangerous to cut people off? Because yea, it should be.
I think the core issue here is that you believe that it should be common and accepted for individuals to decide whether traffic rules "make sense" and ignore them based on their own individual assessment. I think that's absurd.
It's not my individual assessment. It's a well known fact that highways are engineered for higher speeds than the speed limits are set for.