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Serious question: how are speed limits enforced (or not) in the USA? From what I read on the internet, it seems like they are 90% unenforced, 10% arbitrarily en

Serious question: how are speed limits enforced (or not) in the USA? From what I read on the internet, it seems like they are 90% unenforced, 10% arbitrarily enforced by cops who choose who they want to pull over from the masses who are routinely speeding. If they are mostly unenforced, how does the system work? Does everyone implicitly add 20% to the posted limit, or do they just go whatever speed feels right to them given the road and the conditions? (In my part of Australia, speeding is fairly common, but not speed limits are not a joke. You can expect most people to stick within ~5km/h of the limit, and if you choose not to then there's a real chance you'll get done by a hidden camera. The idea of everyone ignoring the limits sounds terrible: of course they are a bit arbitrary, but that's unavoidable for any unambiguous law, and the alternatives of arbitrary enforcement or no enforcement seem much worse.)

umanwizard 9y ago
> If they are mostly unenforced, how does the system work? Does everyone implicitly add 20% to the posted limit, or do they just go whatever speed feels right to them given the road and the conditions? Usually people go limit + 10mph on major freeways, and "whatever feels safe" in city driving.
darkmarmot 9y ago
rich or connected -> warning white -> warning or ticket black -> ticket or execution
jmalicki 9y ago
Part of the issue is that within large parts of the united states, speed limits are set at the 85%ile of the speed people drive [1] ... and in my experience, often are only enforced if the police suspect you of something else, or you are driving extremely aggressively (cutting people off, not safe stopping distance, etc.) because speeding is a far more cut-and-dry offense to prosecute, "reckless driving" may be easier to argue away in court due to the level of judgement required. [1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/11/16/one-for-the-dustbin-the-85th-percentile-rule-in-traffic-engineering/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/11/16/one-for-the-dustbin-t...

umanwizard 9y ago

> If they are mostly unenforced, how does the system work? Does everyone implicitly add 20% to the posted limit, or do they just go whatever speed feels right to them given the road and the conditions? Usually people go limit + 10mph on major freeways, and "whatever feels safe" in city driving.

darkmarmot 9y ago

rich or connected -> warning white -> warning or ticket black -> ticket or execution

jmalicki 9y ago

Part of the issue is that within large parts of the united states, speed limits are set at the 85%ile of the speed people drive [1] ... and in my experience, often are only enforced if the police suspect you of something else, or you are driving extremely aggressively (cutting people off, not safe stopping distance, etc.) because speeding is a far more cut-and-dry offense to prosecute, "reckless driving" may be easier to argue away in court due to the level of judgement required. [1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/11/16/one-for-the-dustbin-the-85th-percentile-rule-in-traffic-engineering/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/11/16/one-for-the-dustbin-t...