If you’ve ever driven on one of America’s many highways, you’ve certainly seen a speed limit sign before. But some of these highways also have another number under the posted speed limit, labeled “minimum” or “minimum speed.”
As you can probably guess, this number dictates the slowest speed a vehicle is allowed to travel on the roadway. Speed minimums aren’t just there to keep slow pokes from holding up traffic; they’re usually implemented for safety reasons. It’d be bad to have an overloaded tractor-trailer going 20 mph alongside a new passenger car going 80 mph on the same road—it’s those sorts of speed differentials that can cause catastrophic wrecks.
It’s this increasing speed differential that has lawmakers in Georgia looking at whether to hike the minimum speed limit on its highways through a new bill that would raise the lowest speed drivers can legally travel by a full 10 mph. If it passes, you and your old, 30-horsepower Citroën might have to take the back roads instead.
The Specifics Behind Speed Minimums
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration has some specific rules about speed minimums. It specifies that minimums aren’t necessary, but when they are used, they’re displayed in a particular fashion:
Where engineering judgment determines that slow speeds on a highway might impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, the Minimum Speed Limit sign may be installed below a Speed Limit (R2-1) sign to indicate the minimum legal speed. If desired, these two signs may be combined on the R2-4a sign (see Figure 2B-3).
So as the FHA explains, you’ll never see a minimum speed sign on its own. It’ll always be accompanied by a speed limit sign, either directly over it as two separate signs, or as a combination sign (top right). This makes sense—if I saw a minimum speed sign after I entered a highway and nothing else, the only thing I’d be wondering is what the maximum speed was. Thanks to the combo, I know the exact region on my speedometer within which I need to be cruising.
Here’s What’s Happening In Georgia
The state of Georgia has maintained a minimum speed limit of 40 mph for its highways for decades. That minimum was enacted back when the speed limit was just 55 mph, though. Over the years, the maximum speed has increased to 70 mph on some highways. Yet the 40 mph minimum hasn’t increased to keep the speed delta constant.
House Bill 809 is an attempt to tighten that delta. It proposes increasing the minimum speed to 50 mph on any part of a Georgia highway “with a speed limit of 65 miles per hour or greater.” In a sense, it’s a law that would actually encourage people to drive faster—but only if you’re going really slowly.
The bill is sponsored by Republican state representative John Carson and was initially proposed by Colonel William Hitchens, the commissioner for Georgia’s Department of Public Safety, according to Georgia-based nonprofit news service Capitol-Beat.org:
Col. William Hitchens, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, said Georgia State Patrol officers have seen significant damage and injuries involving slow-moving vehicles.
“Driving below the speed limit can, in some cases, be as dangerous as traveling above the posted speed limit,” Hitchens wrote in a letter last month to Carson about his proposal. “Vehicles that are traveling below the minimum speed can cause traffic issues such as long backups and cause motorists to take evasive actions due to approaching the vehicle faster than expected.”
Not everyone is a fan of the bill. Capitol Beat also spoke with Democratic state representative Rhonda Taylor, who voiced her concerns for drivers who might not be able to negotiate the higher speeds.
Senior citizens and student drivers might struggle with a higher minimum speed limit, said state Rep. Rhonda Taylor, D-Conyers.
“It would be a better solution … (to) move to the right,” Taylor said. “It almost feel like I’m being penalized because I can’t drive 50 miles an hour.”
Currently, people who break the law can be fined up to $1,000 and be issued three points on their license, according to the Georgia Department of Driver Services. According to local news affiliate WABE, local jurisdictions usually carry a much lower fine, between $100 and $200. If House Bill 809 passes and the minimum goes up, that won’t change. My advice? If you have a slow car, just take the scenic route. You’ll have more fun, anyway.
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
I’ve only had one or two harrowing encounters in my life where the pack of cars going 75 comes up on the car going 45 with their hazards on on the interstate, but the speed difference definitely shows. Doesn’t help that inattentive drivers snap out of their zombie modes and snap switch lanes at the last minute when they come up on them.
Funny, the Germans have little problem handling massive speed differentials on Autobahns. The fastest any truck or bus is allowed to go is 100km/hr, with the vast majority limited to only 90km/hr (and they ALL have limiters) STRICLTY enforced too. In the derestricted areas the fastest a car is allowed to go is “how fast can you afford to go?”. Even in most restricted zones the speed limit is 120-130km/hr for cars. so still a big differential by design.
Could it be the real problem is inattentiveness, distraction, and lack of driver training, and not the difference in speeds?
Hilariously, it’s those low, low speed limits that result in Euro trucks being on average so much more powerful than US trucks, not that they are generally allowed to be slightly heavier. If you can only go 90km/hr, period, you want to ALWAYS be going that speed no matter how steep the hill, and you want to GET to that speed as quickly as possible after a slowdown. No making it up on the flats like we do in the states.
Am I correct that a 30-40 km/h speed difference (~18-25 mph) is right in line with the raised minimum speed limit? In a 70 mph zone with a 50 mph minimum, your maximum legal speed difference would be 32km/h.
I also don’t think comparing the Autobahn to every highway in Georgia is the fairest comparison. You also have to consider that semis can go the same speed as cars on these roads – meaning if a car is going 40 mph, Semis will have to react and maneuver around them, not the other way around. Semi’s are incredibly restricted in their movement and ability to stop – so decreasing the potential speed differential they are facing seems like a no-brainer to me.
I don’t think anyone is denying that driver issues (training, distractedness, etc.) are at play here – but a reduction in speed differential is at least partially designed to lessen the impact of these problems. It’s much easier to enforce speed en masse than something like cell phone use, and even a distracted driver will have more reaction time with a smaller speed delta.
Not all trucks on the Autobahn can maintain that maximum speed either – there are slower one out there, and the other trucks (and everyone else) have to maneuver around them, with MUCH larger speed differentials as a normal thing.
I certainly have nothing against there being a minimum speed requirement – nobody should be driving a vintage car that can only do 35mph should be driving it on a 70mph interstate highway. My point is that speed differential in and of itself is not the real problem, driver incompetence, inattentiveness and distraction are.
Have you ever driven on the unrestricted portions of the autobahn in the middle of the day? It’s mentally exhausting if you travel in anything but the rightmost lane. You have big German sedans and Volvos passing you on the left at 120-150 mph and slow trucks on the right that move at a glacial pace. Then you’ll inevitably get “road works” where the speed limit slows to a crawl when you get an open stretch and are at triple digit speeds. You check your mirrors every few seconds, keep right except to pass, change lanes to the left and back to the right every minute or so and focus 100% of you attention on driving because there is A LOT going on. An hour of that is about as tiring as 10 hours on a US interstate – fortunately Germany is a whole lot smaller than the US so there’s no need to drive at high speed for more than a couple of hours – either you reach your destination or leave Germany.
It’s not so much a driver training issue. Germany and most of northern Europe have cultures where rule following is expected. No one gives a damn about anything but themselves in the US – whether that be camping in the fast lane at 20 under the prevailing flow of traffic, the truck rolling coal on a Prius for fun, or my neighbor with the BRZ with the exhaust system from a WW2 fighter plane that wakes up my infant son (and yes, I’ve talked to him about it – we almost came to blows as he is a complete A hole).
Two things can be true at once. Indeed, those cultures do hold following the rules to a much higher importance, but they also take driver training much more seriously. Most anywhere in the US, driving training involves reading a thin handbook (which is usually hard to take seriously), passing a written test (which is usually multiple choice and the information is just regurgitated from the handbook), and passing a very basic driving course. And once you do that, you’ll never have to take a test again.
It’s no wonder that we have people camping in the wrong lane, merging at 40mph, stopping in roundabouts, and doing all sorts of other dumb stuff, because no one tells them any better.
Exactly this. People literally don’t know any better.
Yes, many thousands of miles, mostly in cars that can run with the big dogs in the left lane (and I do). I find it refreshing to drive there, but I guess if I was in some crappy cheap rental car it would be a different story.
No, it’s mostly driver training, though the “I’ve got mine, fuck you” attitude of the (below) average American certainly doesn’t help. IMHO that is a training issue as well.
If I had been in a 500HP sedan I probably could have kept in the left lane without much thinking. I was in a hyundai rental car with a 1L turbo motor. It topped out at 121 mph and there was no way I could just get in the left lane and cruise. There was a LOT of lane changing at 100mph plus
It’s much more fun in a BMW M235i. Even with merely 326hp it was still accelerating quite well when the limiter ended the fun at 155mph. I didn’t have to get out of the way much with my 230hp 328! wagon either – that one was limited to 130mph, but perfectly happy to sit there all day if I could have, IIRC sans limiter they are still good for 145 or so. It is much easier on 3-lane than 2-lane Autobahns, the middle lane generally seems to go ~100.
But even at 155, there will be Porsches and whatnot blazing past at warp speed, so you still have to keep one eye on the rearview. Adds to the fun of it all.
In my electric-assist velomobile(single-person microcar) I used to cruise 45 mph in the slow lane on state highways that had 40 mph minimum speed posted. It was quite peaceful when the traffic density was low, as everyone else could go around me and I had my mirrors set to constantly have a 360 view of my surroundings, a shoulder to get onto in emergencies, as well as lights blinking and prominently visible to alert approaching drivers. Usually, night time between 9 pm to 5 am was best. During times of high traffic density, it was harrowing. The economy was unmatched by any car you can buy(I’d LOVE to make an actual car around this concept that could cruise 100+ mph), and at the time, the only thing preventing me from cruising at a faster speed was the fact that my battery was only 46.8V nominal, limiting the torque curve of my motor. I upgraded to hydraulic disc brake calipers/lever from motorcycle/ATV parts on the front wheels, had beefier e-bike appropriate disc rotors on all three wheels, and a cable pulled Avid BB7 bicycle brake caliper plus regen in the rear and which also functioned as a parking brake. I topped out at 50 mph when the charge was full on the older 4T wind Leafbike 1500W PMDC motor in a 26″ bicycle wheel with a 26×1.5″ Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour tire. As the battery depleted, the top speed dropped to as low as 40 mph. The hydraulic brakes worked flawlessly and could panic stop my ass at much higher speeds than 50 mph, something I later learned, but the ebike tires I used were not up to the task. They were really only rated for 32 mph and I was well exceeding that cruising at 45 mph.
This was before upgrading.to the Leafbike 1500W 3T motor, all wheels built with 16×1.5″ DOT rims with 16×2.25″ DOT-rated solar car tires. The 4T motor ended up being repurposed for a much slower mountainbike conversion, since I melted the wiring in it and had to repair it after doing donuts in a parking lot with the velo. When I fried it, I’d just started playing with a 10 kW 46.8V power upgrade, and the 250A phase current launches with an ASI BAC4000 controller were too much for Leafbike 4T motor to handle and I totally shredded the tread on that Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour doing that. 0-30 mph acceleration dropped to like 2.5 seconds, but it still only had 50 mph top speed in it on a fresh charge, and it was more than a bit of a handful to operate to its limits. Once the operator loses rear wheel traction in this, they lose control over where the vehicle goes until traction is regained, and that 1.5″ tire was not enough to make full use of the drive system’s new-found capabilities. If rear wheel traction is regained while the trike is not going straight, it could also flip. It became VERY dangerous to operate in a spirited manner, JUST THE WAY I LIKE IT.
A 72V pack would have had me cruising at 70 mph and maybe topping 90+ mph after the upgrade to a 3T motor and 72V configuration, at least for an hour or so before the motor might have damaged itself from heat buildup(the battery would have run out of charge before then). But I didn’t get to experiment much with that before the body got totaled after being rear-ended while stopped at a red light. At the time of the wreck I was out of charge and operating it on a disabled motor, pedaling it 20-25 mph around town. Before the wreck, I did try the vehicle with the body on the highway at 70 mph once, didn’t have a flat enough section to get a consistent power draw measurement, and it was deceptively stable at speed(rear tire blowout = DEATH; tadpole trike woes, but the brakes worked adequately at speed).
Without the body on it, it still did 71 mph top speed on the highway using all 10 kW available, and 2 miles at that speed consumed nearly 25% of my battery capacity, and the motor was rapidly beginning to overheat. 0-60 mph was about 7 seconds, although an aerodynamic body might have cut half a second off of that. With the shell, I got 150-200 miles range at 30-35 mph cruising speeds with mild pedaling effort(~100-150W from my legs) on 1.5 kWh and 1.8 kWh packs, while the naked trike at 30-35 mph got about 30-40 miles range at 30-35 mph cruising speeds on the 1.8 kWh pack, for comparison. Aerodynamics makes a MASSIVE difference, and I estimate I might have gotten 35-40 miles range at 70 mph with that previous body and moderate(~200-250W) pedaling effort on the 1.8 kW pack at 72V. No car on today’s market would come close to that efficiency. But it was only ~40 kg with a 0.20 m^2 CdA, maybe ~120 kg laden with me plus my tools.
My next body is going to have 1/2 or even as low as 1/3 the drag of the previous, while the vehicle will now have 4 wheels and AWD. I might have a Frenchman here on the Autopian do a virtual wind tunnel test of the shell if I ever get around to making a CAD model of it for him. We’ll see. My time has been limited.
This comment warrants its own article! That’s really cool stuff!
Indeed! Member’s Rides?
I’ll be amenable to that when I actually finish something.
Right now, I got the quadricycle limited to 1500W while pedaling split between two front hub motors, which is a massive downgrade from the 10 kW rear drive trike it was last year. I still have to do a few things to the rear end before I crank the front motors up to 3-6 kW each and start testing the vehicle’s cornering capabilities and rear brakes. As a quad, I have not yet taken it over 25 mph. I also need to order my middrive of choice so that the rear wheels are also electrically powered, the Cyclone 4.5 kW being my current plan, and get a control system that will independently put 6 kW to each motor(Considering a Nucular Electronics X6F). I will have to make custom pieces to mount the mid drive where I want it and keep its torque output isolated from the torque output of the pedal powered drive train.
I removed the ASI BAC4000 that used to control the Leafbike 3T when the bike was a trike, and am currently running two Phaserunners since the CA3 computer can allow me to run multiple controllers of the same type off of itself. I can confidently put those at 3 kW peak each and 90A phase current each, for 6 kW total with front-drive, once the rest of the bike is ready to handle it. When I get the mid drive, I can add a 3rd Phaserunner in my possession and make that 9 kW peak. That alone will be properly quick and comparable to where it was as a one-motor trike with 10 kW, and be much more confidence inspiring when I decide to do dumb things with it. 9 kW with 3 Phaserunners will be the stopgap before getting the control system I actually want and doubling the power to 18 kW and maybe tripling the torque.
In either case, I have AWD while pedaling, and currently have FWD if I use throttle only. I have the torque sensor currently multiplying my pedal output 2.5x at the front wheels while my legs power the rear wheels. I didn’t have it ready before the snow storm to see how it did in the snow, but I’m hoping I’ll get at least one chance to test how it is in the snow before the spring.
Then there’s also the Triumph GT6 I need to finish.
Since when does not having anything finished stop this site from posting articles?
The minimum speed increase seems pretty reasonable to me. Speed can kill but the real danger is speed differential. You’d think that they would have already increased the minimum speed if the limit is increased.
I remember driving from Boise back to Mountain Home on I-84 in my 1986 CRX Si. This was in 2015ish and the limit once you get outside of Boise was 80mph. With over 400k miles (https://imgur.com/a/TYNH1#SnDSSOv), the horrendous crosswinds and the featherweight mass of an early CRX, I wasn’t going to push my luck above 65mph. There is nothing more terrifying than having a semi trucks bear down on you while piloting a 30 year old Honda that weighs no more than a fart. I never drove that car on I-84 again; opting to take my Jeep Wrangler instead, which should tell you how terrifying the Honda was.
Speed differential is no joke.
The wife inherited a ’77 MGB a few years back. There’s an all-British-car field day (car show) about 3 hours away, if we take the 4-lane highways. If we stick to 2-lane roads, it’s more like 4-1/2 hours away, which pretty much requires an overnight stay to avoid driving in the dark.
I’d be petrified to try and drive that MGB at 50 mph on the interstates where the speed limit is 70, but everybody goes 80.
People took those on Interstates all the time when they were still common on the roads, which was well into the 1990s in the suburbs where I grew up
If my 1960s tin can can cruise for hours at 80, your late ’70s sports car can handle it fine. You have almost 50% less horsepower, but 1/3 less weight and 2 more gears.
It’s at 3000 RPM at 50 mph. That’s about as fast as it likes to go. I can push it to 55 mph for brief intervals, but holding 3000 rpm is where it seems the happiest.
Plus, at 55 mph, a panic stop would still probably require 300 feet and a couple of downshifts. I couldn’t imagine having to slam on the brakes at 60 or 70 mph. (70 mph would require sustained engine rpms over 4000)
That’s a slow/low-geared B. I moved to LA in 1980 and had to keep up with the 70mph traffic in my ’72 Spit. Wasn’t a problem and I believe it was around 3500 rpm at that speed. An overdrive would help.
Are there no grades in Georgia? In the mountain west, it’s rather common to see fully-laden semi-trucks go up 6% grades at 40-45 mph. Will those drivers get ticketed?
Also, this gives me a fantasy about every single driver stuck in Atlanta traffic at 5pm getting pulled over for doing 3mph. The law is the law.
Hey, maybe the real solution to stopping traffic jams is just stricter enforcement of minimum speed limits!
There were times I was lucky to pull the Grapevine or the Cajon pass in California or I-70 heading east to Denver weighing just under 80,000 lbs. at 25 mph. Colorado was the worst.
Im 117% sure that this rule would be waived for sections of highway with heavy grades. And also much of the country already has minimums of 40mph on the interstate and of fucking course no one gets pulled over in traffic. And ALSO georgia doesn’t have many heavy grades at all but that’s beside the point. Dumbest comment I’ve ever read on this site.
Thanks!
Uhh, your welcome?
Huh. And all this time I thought all speed limits were minimums. That explains all those flashing red and blue lights in my rear view.
This is a no brainer. If you cannot drive at least 50mph do not take the highway with a 65-75mph speed limit. We don’t let pedestrians, bicyclists or Amish horse buggies on interstate highways either, for similar reasons. It’s freaking dangerous.
It’s not like the only way to travel is on the interstate. If you want to poke along at 50mph, feel free, just do it on roads that are designed for that speed.
Actually, here in Nevada, we do allow bicycles on some portions of the Interstate. Sometimes, there is no reasonable alternate route.
In the wide open western states, where there is no other option, I could see special circumstances. But I don’t think there is anywhere in Georgia that would fall into that category. The remote areas there are full of back roads with lower limits.
You shouldn’t be on a road with everyone doing 70, or more realistically 80, if you can’t go over 40. That’s too big of a differential for most drivers to expect.
During the bleak period of the national 55 mph limit many Interstates still had a minimum of 40 mph posted. I laughed at the fact that there was only a 15 mph cushion to be lawful.
And, even during that period, a number of western states just had a $5 “energy wasting” fine for anything up to 70mph, rather than an actual speeding ticket
In Michigan 5 over was cited as the “Speed Energy Law” 5 over in any area with a speed limit over 45. It was a $50 fine and no points if I remember correctly. It was dropped once the speed limits were raised.
In Pennsylvania we have another speed sign I have never seen anywhere else. It is Speed 45 Ends. Yes you see 45 mph or whatever signs and then a new sign that says that speed limit ends. And no they don’t have a new speed limit sign saying the new speed limit. Does it mean you can go any speed you want so long as it isn’t 45 mph? I don’t know know, the driver training manual doesn’t say and believe it or not the State Troopers won’t tell you but they will let you off with a warning if you ask them.
Here in Ontario we have signs like that: “Speed limit 50 Ends”
We’re just expected to know that unless otherwise posted, the default city speed limit is 50 km/h, and the default highway limit is 80 km/h.
So for that “50 ends” sign near my hometown, you’re expected to read it at “80 begins”
Interesting that PA doesn’t seem to have similar defaults listed anywhere!
New Jersey is even worse, there’s places where you can drive for miles and miles and not see a single speed limit sign, you just have to guess, and you’re probably going to guess wrong, because when one finally does come up, its always lower than it feels like it should be
I’ve driven in about half of the lower 48 and I’ve seen those signs in every state I’ve been through, usually in towns off the main interstate arteries. They’re not that unusual.
This seems pretty normal and uncontroversial. Unless it’s a escorted vehicle or one that is completely broken nobody is going 40 on the interstate.
They already have a minimum speed law at 40, I’m sure there is already language in there about less than ideal conditions.
Michigan did this about 15 years ago. Speed limit was 70 at the time (now 75), and they raised the minimum speed from 45 to 55. I don’t have a problem driving 55 on a clear day, but optimal conditions aren’t so common. Dark, deer season, snowfall 6-8 months of the year, ice, more rainy days than coastal Oregon. That’s where the selective enforcement comes in. Do I push my car past its safe limits in bad conditions to not get a ticket? What is considered bad enough? I’ve been pulled over for approaching an icy intersection on a back road at 22 mph and told I was going too slow. Same for 45 on a 2 lane on a dark winter night during heavy deer activity. When I had to do downstate, I got to where I would just take the back road when the weather started getting bad and people were driving too fast, because more often than not I could predict a pileup happening. But as always, follow the money. Pileups generate a lot of money for a lot of places. Safe driving does not.
It’s also kind of funny. It turns immediately from 2-lane (55 max) to freeway (55 min). So technically no matter how hard you try to be a law abiding citizen, you will always be breaking the speed law. Best you can do is try to cross the sign at exactly 55, but you never will be exact.
Unless something drastic has changed, Michigan speed limits all are stated as “The speed limit is XX or whatever is reasonable and prudent for the conditions of the road.” Meaning that if the weather and or/state of the road is poor, you should slow down to something rational. You could conceivably get ticketed for driving 55 or 60 or whatever the posted limit is if the road is snowy/icy/wet enough to for hydroplaning risk and you’re clearly not in safe control of the vehicle.
That’s how we were taught in Michigan driver education in the 80s. Slowing down for safety in poor conditions was expected.
That’s the same way I was taught in Colorado. Yeah, roads have minimums, but they don’t apply in inclement weather.
That’s what I was taught as well in Michigan in the 90s. But as with anywhere, there are rules on paper to make themselves look good. Then the way things are actually enforced. I went to Detroit to enter a car show a few years ago. Driving the speed limit in the right lane and nonstop cars flying past me. A couple times got run off the road almost into concrete bridge barriers. Loved the show and got to meet up with guys I’d only talked to online 20 years earlier. But never again. People saying that’s just the way it is there. I’ll stay up north.
My Dad was a slow driver. When I was 15 1/2 he got pulled over by a State Patrolman who was angry it took him two miles to find who was holding up traffic on a two lane state highway. My Dad had me take over on my learners permit, even though we were pulling a boat trailer. It was Plymouth Fury wagon with a V-8 and I had no problem mashing the go pedal.
This isn’t about old peoples’ feelings, this is about meeting a minimum requirement for safety. We might as well lament OUI standards “discriminating” against the poor alcoholics who can’t get sober before having to drive—it’s not their fault, it’s a disease! A standard is a standard. If you can’t meet it, you don’t pass. Participation trophies are for the weak, younger generations, right, gummers?
My grandfather stopped driving at around 80. It came a few days after I heard a curious scraping, grinding sound coming down the road, then his car came into view with sparks flying out both sides from under the ’85 Caprice. As he pulled to a stop at the curb, a huge cobblestone/chunk of curbing/breached castle wall slid out from where it had been held against the front crossmember. I pointed it out and inspected the undercarriage for damage (none). He scratched his head and said he had no idea how that ended up there and said that maybe he shouldn’t be driving anymore. He loved driving and hated being a burden in that other people would have to drive him and my grandmother around, but he realized he was no longer safe and didn’t need to have the keys pried from him like the wrinkled old toddlers we have today who aren’t even being prevented from driving by this, merely potentially penalized if they’re caught being unsafely slow on certain road ways.
Old people? My mom God rest her soul was racking up speeding tickets until the she volunteered to give up her license.
When mass transit is nonexistent, driving is medically and logistically required in many places.
Cabs and Ubers are as available in many places as broadband.
None for my grandfather, either, and Uber didn’t exist. He walked a few miles a day to the stores and carried shit back, but that was the ’90s. Unlike then, everyone delivers nowadays and some have senior discounts. Live so far into the sticks that isn’t an option, well, take a guess why it’s cheap to live there—you make your choices and you live with the compromises, which is basic adult stuff. Standards aren’t negotiable, they’re not established according to feelings or convenience or to cater to the incapable. And the repercussions that people are whining about here are nearly non-existent. Can’t do a measly 50, stay on surface roads or just drive on the freeway as the chances are pretty low that they’ll get pulled over on these rare occasions they need to drive and that they’ll get ticketed instead of a warning and they have cheap insurance if any of that even happens.
It’s not cheap where I live, but it is quiet.
Deliveries don’t work.
I couldn’t even get reliable deliveries in the city, and it’s getting much worse.
Probably illegal to take a horse into town, though I might get away with it.
My option in emergencies is ambulance or air flight.
But I’m not in a city.
You may be unaware, but you cant actually own property in cities any longer.
The supreme Court settled that.
I’m at the end of a road, and the end of the broadband link I’m on.
Pure luck there, as it was never available before.
Reality is there is no attempt to provide transport in most places, so people will drive.
If you want real privation, live in a cutoff area without a car.
I’ll have to ask the people I know about how they’re coping with being pushed out of their city properties. Odd that they never mentioned it.
I don’t know what city you’re talking about, but unless you’re infested with porch pirates, it must be a pretty desolate place to have such unreliable shipping. My house can’t be seen from the mailbox and some of the GPS services show it as being on the wrong dead end street, yet I can’t recall the last time I had a delivery issue that wasn’t from a local restaurant. For the decades prior to now, delivery issues have been very rare occurrences.
Just because people make choices without thinking about the future, it doesn’t mean the consequences don’t exist. Choose to live in the middle of nowhere, possibly have no friends or family because you’ve lived a life as jerk, you end up with limited to no transportation options. We have driving standards (very low ones, at that) and rules for a reason—we are not on the roads alone, they are part of infrastructure that serves a whole society. And again, this isn’t even taking licenses away, they’re still allowed to drive. They’re free to gum up the surface streets where they’ll be more comfortable and they can even still use the freeways and break the law by driving too slow, they merely face minor consequences if they get caught and if the officer gives them a fine.
Most people are surprized to find out they have zero protection from existing laws, especially in cities.
Supreme Court has ruled cities can take property away at will without consequences, even in places that have codified restrictions.
This is such a political issue that activists arranged to seize the property of a supreme Court judge, using the rules the court set.
He received special protection making him the only American citizen that can currently claim to actually own property in a city. That’s the short version, there’s more.
I would not willingly live in a city again, if I had a choice.
Theft is a huge issue, especially when the police protect gangs, but my more serious delivery issues are related to declining quality and gigged out work by all the companies.
My last address in the city had a long driveway and currently no one will enter a drive they aren’t certain they have room to turn around in. Instructions and phone numbers don’t help.
I have never even tried to get a delivery here since I moved. Amazon locker delivery isn’t available.
I have all deliveries sent to a more conventional address I have to drive to.
Even that address has had mail issues when some dumbass decided he knew whether we wanted mail or not.
Many years ago, package deliveries where I live were already problematic.
Fortunately more official offices have provision for dual addresses now, so it’s not so rare.
As rural goes, I’m not in a very rural location. I do have more animals around than people, wild or not, which is not bad.
IME, it’s most often those travelling >20-over being the loudest voices against those driving right at the limit itself.
But if you’re struggling to hold 50 in a 70, that’s not good enough; 20mph is a significant speed differential on a controlled highway.
Heavy trucks will have escorts for this, so would be a non-issue.
The only roads around here that have 65mph and above speed limits are the Interstates and occasionally, rural stretches of U.S. and state routes that are basically Interstate-sized.
If you can’t hit 50mph on those, it’s probably best to not drive… That said, GA really needs to enforce its existing “move over to the right” traffic laws. I’d say more than half of the casual recklessness on the highways I’ve seen is people dodging slow movers in the left lane by cutting in and out of center/right lanes.
But slow pokes in the left playing state trooper and blocking people who want to go the speed limit is just as responsible
Posted speed limits assume ideal conditions. If conditions are less than ideal even doing the speed limit may be considered speeding.
I understand the haters for autos not going 50, thats not the issue as I see it. Oversized and fully loaded semis are. They can barely navigate wind turbine parts and cranes on the interstate, back roads corners are not going to be an option. Are there exceptions is you have pilot cars?
They all have the rules to apply for special transportation cops can block traffic and they can keep at a safe speed they aren’t fined for not doing 55.
Wait. I need some clarification. Is it highway, freeway, or throughway? Highways have traffic lights and commercial properties along them. Freeways are free of traffic lights, and you need to use an on and off ramp to use them, Throughways is just the East Coast being annoying
I guess the wording depends on your part of the country. By me, there are no freeways, one “thruway” which is a highway, and highways have no lights and are controlled-access roads, either always or nearly always with on- and offramps. There are some parkways that have no ramp, but they are still highways, having nothing along them, and the directly butting roads are from one side only. There is no crossing possible due to the center medians which on a parkway is often a 50 yard wooded area.
I agree. It does depend on where you live and grew up. It’s amazing that we don’t have standardized wording for these.
East Coast? How about West Coast? You park on a driveway and go 65 on a parkway. Heavy traffic on a throughway that has you starting and stopping every few feet.
“I Can’t Drive 55”
I drive 55 all the time. Once when I am speeding up to 75 and again when I am slowing down from 75.
“I can’t drive 50 miles an hour.”
This situation she described is not one I am familiar with
Yeah, what kind of road-going vehicle can’t make 50? A few ancient cars like that 2CV? I’m pretty sure even Kei trucks can do that.
I mean, growing up in farm country I’ve definitely gotten stuck behind tractors on the highway going a lot slower than that, but I feel like that’s already an official or de facto exemption, since they don’t really have a lot of options
Some Model T’s can go past 55mph and that’s a +100 year old car. It would be nice if politicians would just stop lying for no reason.
Every vehicle owned by the Autopian staff. WWII Army jeep, changli, Smart4two, 2CV, and many more
I can’t speak for David’s Jeep or the 2CV, but every single one of my Smarts exceeds 50 mph. My slowest Smart has a top speed of 83 mph…
I don’t currently own any vehicle that doesn’t go at least 60 mph, because I need to be able to go at least 60 mph not to get murdered on country roads around here. lol
I guess I used to daily-ride a 66cc two-stroke bicycle conversion that could only make it to about 25 mph, but that was very much not a highway ride! I’m not sure if I was ever brave enough to ride it anywhere with a limit above 35, but I do remember seeing the on-ramps to highways (I was living in Wisconsin at the time) with signs saying motorized bicycles were not permitted. I was just pleased that they actually acknowledged such unusual vehicles that tend to be in a legal grey zone most places!
I drove a kei truck to Denver and when I started hitting elevation, it was tapped out when climbing, to around 50.
If I had reached more challenging areas, it would have had a much lower top speed.
I did have to turn off the AC.
This woman drives to work in the Flintstones car
In Illinois the minimum is 45 on interstates and has been for as long as I can remember. Max is 70. I only ever think I’ve encountered one person not doing 45, and it was a Subaru with such a severe misfire the exhaust was red hot and it had a constant gout of flame from the tailpipe.
I guess I won’t be driving my 1969 Cub Cadet on those roads any more
Tool time Turbo Military helicopter motor.
“Senior citizens and student drivers might struggle with a higher minimum speed limit, said state Rep. Rhonda Taylor, D-Conyers.”
Or, as a reasonable person would say, if you struggle to drive 50 mph, maybe you shouldn’t have a license.
Goodluck going against the largest lobby group in America.
And the fussiest most cosseted and never told no lobby.
Nor should you have one if you drive > Limit +10.
I’m not a big speeder and definitely not an agressive driver and certainly don’t advocate those things. My point is, if you can’t drive at least 50 mph on a highway with a limit of 70, assuming a clear dry day, etc. I.E. the easiest type of driving, you need to hone your skills before attempting the much more challenging side streets and school zones that don’t have traffic all going the same direction.
Wanting to drive at 50 is not the same as can’t drive faster. Also, a prudent driver can safely deal with the old guy doing 50, but not necessarily the young guy doing 85 mph.
Thanks for pointing out how feeble that argument is. It’s not super convincing as a legislative-informing opinion.
My hot take – considering an everyday normal situation, is that if you can’t handle doing the minimum speed then you shouldn’t be driving on the highway in the first place.
100%. And if you can’t drive 50 mph, get on a bus
Public transportation in America needs to be so much better before this is a viable, universal, answer.
You really think buses are an option everywhere?
What part of Europe are you from?
What if the highway is the only route to your destination?
I could see this in the inner city routes, but not the rural routes
That popped into my head, but I think most places have an alternate route. Sure it may take a heck of a lot longer but it would be slower and safer for someone not comfortable on the interstate (and I’m counting a 2+ lane divided highway with no cross roads as basically an interstate)