Autobahn vs US Interstate Speeds

Danh said:
One of the great things about Autobahn driving is lane discipline. Keep right except to pass and drivers comply. We can dream…
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Do not tailgate. some bridges will have white lines on the road so they can check the distance between cars, it can be costly.
There is usually no beating the tickets, you are on camera and your face is clear.
 
I got a lowly Peugeot 308 up to about 200 kph (120ish mph) and I was truly frightened that it was going to disintegrate. It was absolutely a white knuckle event.
The fleets of Mercedes were passing me like I was standing still.

And oh, by the way, ALWAYS stay in the right lane unless you're passing. You will cause an accident.
 
Chris142 said:
Seems like the latest group of new drivers think the speed limit is the minimum speed.
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Ha. Almost two decades ago I read an interview of a guy in the US who was trying to get BMW to understand how Americans drive. The issue had something to do with speed but I don't remember exactly what it was. It might have been engines being offered in the US since the max speed limit at the time was 55 mph. In any case this individual took the BMW execs for some drives out on the highway and needless to say even in the 1980's people weren't adhering to the speed limits.
 
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I regularly drive 100mph+ on 95 and 93 when traffic allows for it, many others go 80-90+ as well. Here in eastern Massachusetts most highways are 55-65mph posted speeds, but nobody does that, and the police generally leave you alone if you're going 75-80 and not driving like a **** head.
 
Danh said:
One of the great things about Autobahn driving is lane discipline. Keep right except to pass and drivers comply. We can dream…
Click to expand...
I was in Germany for a couple weeks last fall and I can confirm that you MUST have lane discipline. And you MUST be paying attention. Trucks and vehicles with trailers are limited to 80-90km/h, and everyone else can drive as fast as they want. This means you have to constantly be dealing with moving to the left lane to pass slow trucks, and then IMMEDIATELY get back in the right lane to clear the way for the Mercedes S-class doing 200+ who will be on your ass before you even know it. It's a unique experience being flat out foot to the floor with a 1.0T at about 185km/h and a BMW or Mercedes is on you like white on rice before you can even blink.

Of course it's not always like that. I drove from Niedersachsen back to Frankfurt to fly home (because after the nightmare I had when we got there I didn't trust Deutsche Bahn to get us back to the airport on time) and it was a pretty relaxing 3 1/2 hour drive. Set the cruise at 130km/h. The biggest issue was constant construction zones. As different as things can be between the US and Germany some things are the same everywhere.

Actually one thing I did like was the car had sign recognition so it would show you the current speed limit (or no speed limit as shown in this picture at the top center of the display)

IMG_20211004_145319.jpg
 
Depends , my wife got clocked so 102 in a 55MPH during Covid shutdown. The state trooper saw her hospital badge and scrubs and some of gear and said have a good day at work. My mum is there .
 
Accent Abuser said:
I regularly drive 100mph+ on 95 and 93 when traffic allows for it, many others go 80-90+ as well. Here in eastern Massachusetts most highways are 55-65mph posted speeds, but nobody does that, and the police generally leave you alone if you're going 75-80 and not driving like a **** head.
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How does the accent fair with triple digits
 
We drove from Zurich to Rome and back in an Alfa Romeo a couple years ago. I kept it under 150 kph since it had snow tires on. Was passed by little white service vans all the time going top speed. The lane discipline was amazing. All the trucks stayed right. It was so peaceful.
 
Much of Interstate 95 in Florida moves quite fast. Just did the drive again today and 90 seems to be daytime left lane normal for a significant group of motorists. Those that go slower in the left lane sometimes get harassed, despite the fact that they are already going 10 over. I saw one older man who refused to move over, get an entire case of water bottles thrown at his car. Of course, not one of them hit. Both drivers kept moving right along! How strange.

I'm a courteous fast driver. When the opportunity arises, I like to get movin.
 
"I am going to park in left lane and drive at 55mph and you can't make me move over to the right lane."

That's why we can't have nice thing here in USA :-(
 
willbur said:
Average speed on interstate? Around here on I-95 its gotta be 80 mph. Many ppl much faster. Few police around, too
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Ohio? Wasn't there used to be a running joke about Ohio speed traps in Car&Driver and/or Road&Track? The letter section always used to have few of the choice ones from Officer Bob Speed of Ohio State Polic.
 
Hall said:
It depends.... It's all relative to the posted speed limit so obviously if the speed limit is 55 and you're going 100, the fine is based on going 45 mph over the limit whereas if the speed limit were 80 (parts of Texas, N or S Dakota, as I understand), you're only 20 mph over. In Ohio, some courts simply have a chart - 1-10 mph over = $ XX, 11-20 mph over = $YY, and so on for the fine. You can pay the ticket over the phone or online too although some courts have something like "30+ mph, court appearance required...".

We also have what's called "reckless operation" citation in Ohio and this is solely at the police officer's discretion. The same officer could cite a driver for speeding at 30+ but that person was going with the flow of traffic (it's still speeding) while they could cite a driver going 20+ mph but weaving in and out of lanes with reckless operation.
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Which is totally bogus because I got that ticket in Ohio for going the speed limit in the rain. I was coming into a town in a rain storm. I saw the speed limit sign, and I saw the officer attempting to hide. I did the speed limit on the highway to within feet of the lowered speed limit sign at the town limit, where I promptly brought my car down to the proper speed. The cop must have been drooling at the idea of giving me a ticket and must have peed in his cheerios when I was right at the limit at the sign, so he gave me the bogus ticket. It didn't help I was out of state, in a Nissan Spec-V, and just out of college at the time. He must have been super happy to stand in the pouring rain to give me that ticket.
 
ChristianReske said:
Add to this some "Elelpahnt races" (German nickname) when a truck passes annother truck on a 2 lane autobahn.. wich is forbidden, but they do it...
... the many "§(/&% on a 3 lane autobahn that think the far right lane is only for trucks and they occupie the middle lane with lazy 130Km/h - 80 Mph....
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It makes me sad to hear that. I was hoping European drivers were more disciplined about "drive on the right, pass on the left".
Although we have no clever nickname for it, we have the same problem, of everyone driving in the middle lane, so they can avoid having to change lanes to pass the trucks. This practice effectively reduces the capacity of the highway, by making the right lane a very limited use lane.
 
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