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Absolute and Relative Speeds
R. Alex Whitlock
I suppose it's been too long since I had a tire burst on the road. I equally suppose that taking into account that 80% of my driving is done on an unpopulated freeway, it would happen in BFE.
One of the things that I did not realize is how difficult it is to drive slowly on an open freeway. Donuts are not supposed to go above a certain speed (40mph, from what I understand) and I tried to honor that. But my cruise control wasn't working and it was quite tough. Without constant dilligence, I found myself creeping up to 70. Way too fast, though naturally too slow for my fellow driver. My usual speed, and the flow of traffic, is about 80mph.
When I got off the freeway I drove down a self-declared highway with speed limits ranging from 25-55mph. I consistently found myself creeping up to about ten below my usual level (except at 25mph, where I went 25mph).
I hadn't realized, I guess, how hardwired I was to go a certain speed in certain areas. I have no difficulty going 55mph on the self-declared highway, but going even 60 on the freeway was almost painful.
I learned to drive on a 55mph cap on Interstates. The federal law was repealed my first year behind the wheel. I remember what a glorious feeling that was. Once it sank in, which wasn't immediate.
I was driving Anna down to Galveston one evening when a Galveston County Sheriff's vehicle, which had been waiting on the shoulder, demonstrated the accelerating power of a Camaro and pulled up behind me. Even before he flipped on his lights I looked down and realized that I was going 70. I was about to get my first speeding ticket. As any guilty-as-sin driver does, I slowed down to the speed limit, thinking that he might not have looked at his own spedometer.
The cop lights went on and I slowed down even further to gravitate towards the right. I got to about 40 and he started flashing me and honking his horn. When I finally made my way over, he darted into the distance at 90mph to catch, I would guess, the car in front of me. About that time I saw a speed limit sign tell me that I had never actually been speeding at all.
Felt like I was. Going 70mph was adventerous in those days because I was not used to legally being able to go it (US highways allowed it, but around Houston there are few opportunities for it to get that high). When the speed limit was lowered to 55mph for Harris and the eight surrounding counties, it sucked doubly. Not just because it took so much longer to get there, but because 55 was slower than it had been before.
On my way to Idaho, the first taste of freedom was Colorado, which has an 80mph cap. I, naturally, went 90. What a thrill! When I got to 75mph Wyoming, it was a bit of a let down.
Of course, if the speed limits around here were 90mph, it would take 100 to feel adventurous. If they were 30, then 40 wouldn't be so bad.
But 25 miles an hour is bad regardless of the norm, and the guardians of language transperency ought to prohibit anything so limited from calling itself a "Freeway.""Highway." [corrected]
Observations
What "Freeway" where you on that was 25mph? I'm sure it's just terminology, but you said you got on a "Highway" that limited to 25. US highways frequently change speeds ranging from 20 to 70 as they tend to pass through small towns, etc. where they lower the speeds. I don't know if there are any technical differences between a "Freeway" and "Highway," but when I use those terms I know I have a general idea of what I mean.
A freeway doesn't have stop signs or stop lights whereas a highway sometimes does.
I've known highways to get down to 35 before (Webster's stretch of Highway 3), but don't remember it touching the 20's back there, even in town.
A "freeway" is a road that is just that: NO stop signs or stoplights.
A "highway" is parlance for just about any main thoroughfare once you're out in the boondocks or heading through hicksville.
And if you were on a "highway" that fluctuated between 25 and 45, it means only one thing: some crooked county commissioners were trying to make their particular county into a speed trap area to make money off of travelers. It's like a toll, only it's entirely random and it messes with your insurance premiums.
I've seen one that went 70->65->55->35->15->35->15->45->15->55 in about a distance of 10 miles.
My favorite was when Montana abolished their daytime speed limit. I cranked up my truck to 100, blasted along next to a state police car, and we exchanged dirty/defiant looks. I said aloud, as if he could hear me, "I DARE you to pull me over." He didn't, and in the end the experiemce was pretty hollow as I watched my gas gauge plummet in the middle of nowhere.
But it was wild, speeding along legally next to a state cop.
(Ethan @ <a href="
http://www.thevisionthing.com">TVT</a>)
Interestingly enough, Idaho doesn't do speed traps the way Texas does. I don't have a problem with the speed limit cause of the geography involved. They just have no business calling it a "highway."
But generally speaking, you're right. a "highway" that goes under 40 is generally reason to be suspicious of whomever is setting the speed limit.
Ethan,
I heard that one of the reasons they did away with the limitless freeway was that since it was left to the cop's discretion, it was leading to a difference of opinion as to what a safe or unsafe speed is/was. In other words, folks like you were getting pulled over when they weren't supposed to :)
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