Story on the morning news (6-24-08) a Hybrid driver was ticked for driving too slow, the story said the told the officer that he was saving gas, showed him the 70 plus indicator on the car didn't help still got a ticket for inpeading the flow of triffic.

 

My opinion of this event depends, of course, on HOW SLOW the hybrid driver was going.

If he's like me and goes 60 mph in a 70 zone, no big deal. If he's like some hyper-milers and goes 48 ..... well then he's lucky the cop got him. Folks around Houston tend to drive large vehicles with NRA bumper stickers.

 

this is the link from Google
http://www.nbc4.com/news/16699850/detail.html

 

If the min & max is 45 / 70 then one should be able to drive within those limits. Not sure what it is on I95 there but by his comment about going 51 from now on it must be 50 mph.

 

If the speed limit is 55, going 51 isn't going to help you avoid future encouters with law enforcement officials....

I find it very annoying when someone is on the beltway/highway going 30mph slower than traffic, this is very dangerous as noted in the article. Cops are allowed to pull you over even if you are going the speed limit if you are found impeding traffic as well.

But again, people that drive hybrids are going to become targets like the red sports car counterparts since cops may believe we have more money (gas savings, etc)

 

Just the way the story goes, I got the impression that the driver was countering the officers comment about going 15mph below the speed limit. This leads me to believe that the speed limit is 65mph and the driver will now avoid going 15mph below the speed limit by driving 51mph. Anyone familiar with this stretch of I-95 and know the min/max limits?

 

I can tell you from experience, it is not a hwy you want to mess with. People will run you off the road. It is a main artery for the east coast, it runs from FL - NY

 

Who said anything about driving 30 miles per hour less than the speed limit? He was driving 15 miles per hour below and still above the minimum. With multiple lanes on the interstate I really don't see how you can be impeding the flow of traffic if you are staying in the right hand lane.

I recently drove round trip Pittsburgh, PA to Tampa, FL 2200 miles, including a segment through N. Carolina where the min is 50 and max is 80, drove 55 miles per hour the whole way and only had 2 people run up my butt for no reason. I only passed one other person the entire trip. While I never got pulled over, I did see multiple people pulled over for speeding, including one of the people that ran up my butt earlier. There are a lot of reasons for driving slower and they are not all about saving money. People are going to have to start thinking about where that money is going and how many countries that hate us are profiting from our dependency upon them.

 

This is from the driver himself, who wrote this article earlier in The Washington Post

He was going 50 in a 65 zone in light traffic in the right lane.

If you examine this dispassionately, he was going fast enough legally and he was not endangering others.

The officer gave him a warning because he knew a ticket would be dismissed in court.

 

HemiSync

Wooh Woooh Wooooh bud! I know the guy wasn't going under 30mph.. but what I am saying we cannot assume just because a speed limit sign states 65mph that it is okay to go 45mph in a "range" theory... It is just plain dangerous to do that.

"really don't see how you can be impeding the flow of traffic if you are staying in the right hand lane"

Since most exits are on the right, going too slow will prevent people from bringing their car up to speed. Where I live, the highway splits and if you are entering at the end of it, you need to speed up to merge into the FAR left lane (stupid design). I don't advocate people driving 80-100mph in the right lane but 55-65 depending on the posted limit should be followed.

Exceptions to this rule would be wide load trucks, people moving large objects strapped to the roof, medical emergencies, all of which will require you to use your flashers.

As far as the hyper-speeders (hehe), I can't stand them either. When I drive to work people are passing me left and right for GOING the speed limit in a residential area!!! I love it when someone who cuts me off or passes me gets pulled over. (little hoorays go off)