I agree with most of what you guys said. However, there are occasions where if your driving too slow, you need to get your butt in the right most lane. For instance, today i was driving back home from work and there was no traffic. HOV was the left most lane and I was in the lane beside it stuck behind a driver going 50 mph with a 65 mph speed limit. Now i am usually patient and dont care if I am going 50 in the right most lane, or 60 in the left lane. But 50 in the left-most lane (not including HOV) is just unacceptable.

It seems if everybody treated the left lanes as passing lanes, none of this would be an issue. Good luck getting everybody to agree on this simple policy.

Those windshield messages also say

"Hey Cops, check my speed!"

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

About three years ago one evening I was going about 60-65 in the middle lane on I35E. A pickup truck on the leftmost lane beside me whizzed by me at around 120mph. My thoughts:

• @#$#@%@&*!!!!
• "If I was in that lane, I'd been killed instantly"
• Which crime scene was he fleeing?

Same thing happens with motorcycle drivers on occasion.

Texas has estimated in this decade, the number of arrests of people going 95mph or faster has doubled.

I don't want to be around these idiots.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

One day last week in Minneapolis I was in rush hour traffic doing 65 in the middle lane when I heard the buzz and then saw the tail end of a crotch rocket doing probably 95 weaving through traffic 'California' style...unbelievable.

As long as we're all talking about speed here, maybe someone can answer me a quick question. I was doing 151 mph in a 65 mph zone (safely). I later heard that anything over double the speed limit was automatic jail time. I researched it online but I could not find anything. The traffic laws online are not very user friendly for such things as a search. This is in California. Has anyone else ever heard of this "mandotory jail time" from a bonafide authority? Thanks in advance.

ps. Now that I have a TCH I usually only do 5 mph over the posted limit (which is really just 2 mph over when you account for the speedo overshoot). I stay in the slow lanes.

In most areas, more than 25 MPH over the posted speed limit is no longer considered speeding, but moves up to "reckless driving" with steeper penalties. For going 151 MPH YOU SHOULD be locked up.

I ran across this web site a while back: http://www.wsp.wa.gov/traveler/agdrvng.htm

If you get some data on the car, you can report them. Wonder if other states have this?

*** Retired after 65,000 outstanding miles ***

This much I know - you can spend a night in jail going 95mph or faster.

Going 151mph and living to talk about it is something I'd charactarize as "lucky" - not "safe". Little chance to react to the unexpected or mechanical failures such as tire blowouts.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

All I want to know is, what's he driving that'll hit 151? There's really not so many things out there that will, and they all tend to be pretty high-end.

I have a couple highway-patrol cops in the family. They say there's some discretion involved, but depending on the offenses they write you for once you're more than 40 over a highway speed limit, and the circumstances of the stop, you can be jailed while waiting to see a judge. You *will* be seeing a judge right quick, one way or another -- there's no option to just mail in the ticket on these kinds of offenses.

Note that the only cop cars in America that can even come close to 150 are the new Magnum Hemi's, which aren't that widely used. Think about the numbers. If a cop tries to bust you at that speed, you're going to have to slow down to even let him catch up. If you blow by a parked cop at 150, even if he has really good reflexes you'll be a mile ahead of him before he's even up to 100 mph, and most cop cars only do 120-130, so you'll still be driving away from him. It's possible you'd never even see his lights. So most likely, he's going to radio to another car ahead of you and that car will watch for you and pull you over. All this is called a high-speed chase -- so the arresting officer(s) will be in less friendly moods when they do start talking with you.

Not good. (Though, I've no doubt, exhilarating.)
--doug

2007 HCH: lovin' every minute of it