10 ms·

I drive slower now than I did 30 years ago, not just because of advancing age and increased sense / reduced stupidity; but because the roads just ain't is as go

I drive slower now than I did 30 years ago, not just because of advancing age and increased sense / reduced stupidity; but because the roads just ain't is as good shape as they used to be. A nasty pothole at 65mph is a wheel destroyer at 120mph. There's more around now than there used to be and they hang out longer and get a chance to grow and have families.

oneoff786 5y ago
Where were you driving 120mph like it’s no big deal in the US?
- mrkstu 5y ago
  Anywhere in the West and parts of the South have large stretches of empty begging to be driven at 100+. Plenty of freeways posted at 80 (one place in Texas at 85,) so you're not more than double the speed limit at 120 like you were in the 55 mph days.
- zeta0134 5y ago
  Have you driven between big cities in Texas? There are some awfully straight stretches of road with absolutely nothing at all as far as the eye can see. Now you're supposed to be doing like, 80mph posted, but if nobody is around to see it... I've encountered packs of cars keeping up with each other doing 100mph+ and someone in a big truck breaking 120 just for fun wouldn't surprise me. Illegal? Oh yes. Doesn't matter if nobody is there to enforce it.
  - sidewndr46 5y ago
    Between cities? Even on SH130 on the east side of Austin doing the speed limit is often nerve wracking because so many drivers are attempting to drive 100 mph or faster.
  - ubermonkey 5y ago
    Well, it depends on which big cities. The East Texas set of DFW / SA / Austin / Houston is mostly connected by highways that stay busy. 45 between Houston and DFW is thinner, but I-10 is almost urban levels of busy from the Louisiana state line until you get well past San Antonio. West of San Antonio or DFW? Oh yeah, it gets thin FAST.
- yao420 5y ago
  I take my sports car to the west Texas desert. Think the Big Bend Marfa area. Long, empty, straight roads with great clarity thanks to no hills.
  - _fat_santa 5y ago
    I heard a story of a dude getting a ticket down there. Had to be the unluckiest guy in the desert that day. There is nothing there (except a cop on this day).
  - hotpotamus 5y ago
    I was going to post this before I saw your reply. Fastest I've ever been on the ground was in my cousin's car coming back from Big Bend. Hit 155MPH. He did ask if we were OK with him opening it up to see what it could do. It's probably about as good a place as possible to do it on public roads (at least anywhere close to my part of the country) - long straightaway through the desert with miles of visibility. He got it out of his system and got back down to saner speeds for the rest of the trip.
  - pram 5y ago
    Agreed, most places along Highway 90 are usually dead. You just have to watch out around Del Rio and such because Border Patrol and a bunch of other Federal LE enjoy hanging around random places and hassling people.
- jsjohnst 5y ago
  Nevada Highway 50 is one place you could.
- _fat_santa 5y ago
  In southern Colorado, speeds will often reach that. I got passed by a Honda minivan once down there. Looked down at my speedometer and saw I was doing 117, and this minivan was just casually pulling ahead.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  120 is on the high side, but on big empty roads with light traffic and great visibility, e.g. eastern Washington, I've seen packs of cars pushing 100 pretty regularly. Modern cars, modern tires, it's probably a good bit safer than going 55 was in the 70s.
- HideousKojima 5y ago
  One time I was driving on the I-5 a ways north of Seattle late at night. There was a stretch of freeway with virtually no lighting, surrounded by trees, and there were no cars in sight in either direction. I completely lost any sense of speed, and when I looked down at my speedometer I was going about 120 MPH. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to not slam on the brakes and to let the car slow down naturally, but it was scary to realize how dangerous my speed was, and I was lucky a deer didn't tumble out of the woods.
- h2odragon 5y ago
  Midstate IL (I 57), and the "Purchase Parkway" in KY, both had sections I used to run hard on. I wont say "no big deal." As others have mentioned there's long stretches of many roads out west that can be run at those speeds. Edit to brag: I have done 100mph+ down Lake Shore Drive at least once, but that was special circumstances and an extra helping of st00pit.
  - cestith 5y ago
    That's whitetail country. 120 MPH around dusk, come up on a dozen deer in the lanes, and it turns into a bloody mess. It can be done, but be aware in your risk assessment that there are cars on the shoulder, animals crossing the lanes, semis passing each other, and all sorts of other factors besides you and the road.
- moron4hire 5y ago
  Depending on the vehicle, you don't need a lot of room to get going that fast. No, your typical passenger vehicle is probably geared to not go much faster than 100mph, and a lot of cars have a rev-limiter at 115 or 120. But, for example, my Mazda CX-5--which I wouldn't call particularly powerful at "only" 225hp--can do it quite easily just on the on-ramp for the 395 express way to DC. I don't drive more than 80, usually, but, I mean, you gotta open it up at least once.
- ubermonkey 5y ago
  120 is a big deal anywhere in the US, but there are absolutely stretches of the west where you can be very, very alone on long, straight stretches of road. Margin of error vanishes at speeds like that, but yeah, you could do 120 fairly safely in a well-maintained car on good tires in those places.
- mrguyorama 5y ago
  Here in Maine we have I-95 up north. From about Bangor to Houlton, you have 180 miles of two lane, usually very well maintained highway, with nearly zero cops, and almost zero traffic on the average day. There's a solid hour and a half of driving highway speed with about five actual exits. I used to make that trek at least twice a month. I may have tested a couple cars to limits up there.
arethuza 5y ago
I stopped speeding about 12 years ago when I got my first (and hopefully last) speeding ticket. I've since discovered that it's actually a lot less stressful, you use less petrol and I don't seem to get places that much slower. I'm also happier with cars with cars with much smaller engines - which saves even more money.
- mgkimsal 5y ago
  Something that's helped me to reduce speeding is real time GPS/map info. I don't drive half as much as I did a few years ago, and much of that was 'around town' (a... 30-40 mile radius for various events). There's not a lot of places to 'speed' in the 'really fast' sense, but 45 in a 35 zone - that's still 'speeding', and can get you a ticket I know, I've had some over the years!) Having a map with real time info when I'm going someplace helps me ... calm down some. I can see if there's a known accident, I can get automatically rerouted if I take a wrong turn or miss an exit, and if I know I'm going to be vastly late, I just call or message the party I'm meeting. I understand that some of that may contribute to 'distracted' driving, but when I used to miss turns or get delayed 20 years ago, I was still 'distracted', and probably just as much a danger, because of the anxiety/stress. Overall, I think it's been a net win for me - less speeding and no tickets in years, a bit less stress while driving, less fuel consumption, etc.
  - arethuza 5y ago
    I don't even remember speeding (and I really did speed a lot) for any particular reason - certainly not for appointments. Maybe buying an expensive fast car makes you want to speed - could easily be something as daft as that. Now I am perfectly happy with my 1L 3-cylinder Skoda :-)
    - mgkimsal 5y ago
      My first ticket was being late for school. I grew up in an environment where being 'late' or 'rushed' seemed to be a default mode - young parents with 3 young kids, everything probably did stress them out more than it should have, and... I just grew up feeling 'late' and 'rushed' for everything all the time. It manifested in many ways, but speeding was one. I've had a few tickets over the years. I think... probably 4 or 5 over... 30 years? So.. perhaps somewhat habitual and just lucky I've not been caught more. But the last few years - per the comment above - real time info has had a bit of a calming effect. Probably age a bit too, but I don't think so.
sleepingadmin 5y ago
>but because the roads just ain't is as good shape as they used to be. Fundamental core functions of government is roads, borders, preventing of violence(military and police), justice, and refereeing the economy. Roads as you say are in disrepair. Borders are wide open. Military has been at war for how many decades? War exhaustion can't be higher. Violent crime is vastly under reported. Police brutality seems to be at historic highs. Victim of violent crime? Dont call the police because when they show up, the situation gets worse. Antifa is burning cities down, in part due to police brutality. Where's the justice? If your car or property is stolen, there's a ~90% chance you never see it again and nobody is caught. Arson is worse than that. Murder is the only violent crime which has a clearance rate above 50% but only barely. There is no justice. Ref for economy? If financial crisis proved anything, they clearly dont. The core function of government is clearly failed. Lets say we form the HN political party and we're going to fix this. We can't. Government debt to GDP is over 100%. The budget isn't in balance. The central bank is bankrupt; https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/central-bank-balance-sheet https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/central-bank-bala...
- couchand 5y ago
  > Borders are wide open. Talk to anybody working in this space and you'll learn this is simply not true. CBP is still chasing people down and turning them away. ICE is still deporting people by the planeful.
  - sleepingadmin 5y ago
    >Talk to anybody working in this space and you'll learn this is simply not true. CBP is still chasing people down and turning them away. ICE is still deporting people by the planeful. "Anybody working in this space' seems vague. Let's look for a more official position. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/30/immigration-us-will-no-longer-deport-people-simply-because-they-are-undocumented.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/30/immigration-us-will-no-longe... https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/politics/immigration-arrests-deportations-biden/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/politics/immigration-arrests-... https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/new-biden-rules-for-ice-point-to-fewer-arrests-and-deportations-and-a-more-restrained-agency/2021/02/07/faccb854-68c6-11eb-bf81-c618c88ed605_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/new-biden-rules-for-... Quite clear borders are wide open. The better discussion, why? https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/workforce-crisis-2030-relocation-appreciation-relationship-culture https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/workforce-cris... Baby boomers will have retired by 2030, there is simply not enough people to replace the boomers. Birth rates were too low for decades. This shortage is set in stone unless we drop the whole 'child labour laws' which will never happen. There is no denying the borders are wide open, it seems clear to me why they are doing it.
taneq 5y ago
> but because the roads just ain't is as good shape as they used to be Wow, key infrastructure declining like that must be depressing. Is this a widespread thing or just in your area?
- philk10 5y ago
  widespread - here in Michigan the Governor ran on a campaign of "fix the damn roads"
- sneak 5y ago
  A ton of places in the US built a bunch of civil infrastructure (primarily roads, water, sewer) to support suburban sprawl that is simply not sustainable given the level of property-taxes-per-square-area and the cost-per-mile to keep it in good working order. Lots and lots of suburban decay is scheduled for the next 2-3 decades. This stuff has a working lifetime and with no money to replace it it's just going to sit there and rust.

oneoff786 5y ago

Where were you driving 120mph like it’s no big deal in the US?

mrkstu 5y ago
Anywhere in the West and parts of the South have large stretches of empty begging to be driven at 100+. Plenty of freeways posted at 80 (one place in Texas at 85,) so you're not more than double the speed limit at 120 like you were in the 55 mph days.
zeta0134 5y ago
Have you driven between big cities in Texas? There are some awfully straight stretches of road with absolutely nothing at all as far as the eye can see. Now you're supposed to be doing like, 80mph posted, but if nobody is around to see it... I've encountered packs of cars keeping up with each other doing 100mph+ and someone in a big truck breaking 120 just for fun wouldn't surprise me. Illegal? Oh yes. Doesn't matter if nobody is there to enforce it.
- sidewndr46 5y ago
  Between cities? Even on SH130 on the east side of Austin doing the speed limit is often nerve wracking because so many drivers are attempting to drive 100 mph or faster.
- ubermonkey 5y ago
  Well, it depends on which big cities. The East Texas set of DFW / SA / Austin / Houston is mostly connected by highways that stay busy. 45 between Houston and DFW is thinner, but I-10 is almost urban levels of busy from the Louisiana state line until you get well past San Antonio. West of San Antonio or DFW? Oh yeah, it gets thin FAST.
yao420 5y ago
I take my sports car to the west Texas desert. Think the Big Bend Marfa area. Long, empty, straight roads with great clarity thanks to no hills.
- _fat_santa 5y ago
  I heard a story of a dude getting a ticket down there. Had to be the unluckiest guy in the desert that day. There is nothing there (except a cop on this day).
- hotpotamus 5y ago
  I was going to post this before I saw your reply. Fastest I've ever been on the ground was in my cousin's car coming back from Big Bend. Hit 155MPH. He did ask if we were OK with him opening it up to see what it could do. It's probably about as good a place as possible to do it on public roads (at least anywhere close to my part of the country) - long straightaway through the desert with miles of visibility. He got it out of his system and got back down to saner speeds for the rest of the trip.
- pram 5y ago
  Agreed, most places along Highway 90 are usually dead. You just have to watch out around Del Rio and such because Border Patrol and a bunch of other Federal LE enjoy hanging around random places and hassling people.
jsjohnst 5y ago
Nevada Highway 50 is one place you could.
_fat_santa 5y ago
In southern Colorado, speeds will often reach that. I got passed by a Honda minivan once down there. Looked down at my speedometer and saw I was doing 117, and this minivan was just casually pulling ahead.
rootusrootus 5y ago
120 is on the high side, but on big empty roads with light traffic and great visibility, e.g. eastern Washington, I've seen packs of cars pushing 100 pretty regularly. Modern cars, modern tires, it's probably a good bit safer than going 55 was in the 70s.
HideousKojima 5y ago
One time I was driving on the I-5 a ways north of Seattle late at night. There was a stretch of freeway with virtually no lighting, surrounded by trees, and there were no cars in sight in either direction. I completely lost any sense of speed, and when I looked down at my speedometer I was going about 120 MPH. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to not slam on the brakes and to let the car slow down naturally, but it was scary to realize how dangerous my speed was, and I was lucky a deer didn't tumble out of the woods.
h2odragon 5y ago
Midstate IL (I 57), and the "Purchase Parkway" in KY, both had sections I used to run hard on. I wont say "no big deal." As others have mentioned there's long stretches of many roads out west that can be run at those speeds. Edit to brag: I have done 100mph+ down Lake Shore Drive at least once, but that was special circumstances and an extra helping of st00pit.
- cestith 5y ago
  That's whitetail country. 120 MPH around dusk, come up on a dozen deer in the lanes, and it turns into a bloody mess. It can be done, but be aware in your risk assessment that there are cars on the shoulder, animals crossing the lanes, semis passing each other, and all sorts of other factors besides you and the road.
moron4hire 5y ago
Depending on the vehicle, you don't need a lot of room to get going that fast. No, your typical passenger vehicle is probably geared to not go much faster than 100mph, and a lot of cars have a rev-limiter at 115 or 120. But, for example, my Mazda CX-5--which I wouldn't call particularly powerful at "only" 225hp--can do it quite easily just on the on-ramp for the 395 express way to DC. I don't drive more than 80, usually, but, I mean, you gotta open it up at least once.
ubermonkey 5y ago
120 is a big deal anywhere in the US, but there are absolutely stretches of the west where you can be very, very alone on long, straight stretches of road. Margin of error vanishes at speeds like that, but yeah, you could do 120 fairly safely in a well-maintained car on good tires in those places.
mrguyorama 5y ago
Here in Maine we have I-95 up north. From about Bangor to Houlton, you have 180 miles of two lane, usually very well maintained highway, with nearly zero cops, and almost zero traffic on the average day. There's a solid hour and a half of driving highway speed with about five actual exits. I used to make that trek at least twice a month. I may have tested a couple cars to limits up there.

arethuza 5y ago

I stopped speeding about 12 years ago when I got my first (and hopefully last) speeding ticket. I've since discovered that it's actually a lot less stressful, you use less petrol and I don't seem to get places that much slower. I'm also happier with cars with cars with much smaller engines - which saves even more money.

mgkimsal 5y ago
Something that's helped me to reduce speeding is real time GPS/map info. I don't drive half as much as I did a few years ago, and much of that was 'around town' (a... 30-40 mile radius for various events). There's not a lot of places to 'speed' in the 'really fast' sense, but 45 in a 35 zone - that's still 'speeding', and can get you a ticket I know, I've had some over the years!) Having a map with real time info when I'm going someplace helps me ... calm down some. I can see if there's a known accident, I can get automatically rerouted if I take a wrong turn or miss an exit, and if I know I'm going to be vastly late, I just call or message the party I'm meeting. I understand that some of that may contribute to 'distracted' driving, but when I used to miss turns or get delayed 20 years ago, I was still 'distracted', and probably just as much a danger, because of the anxiety/stress. Overall, I think it's been a net win for me - less speeding and no tickets in years, a bit less stress while driving, less fuel consumption, etc.
- arethuza 5y ago
  I don't even remember speeding (and I really did speed a lot) for any particular reason - certainly not for appointments. Maybe buying an expensive fast car makes you want to speed - could easily be something as daft as that. Now I am perfectly happy with my 1L 3-cylinder Skoda :-)
  - mgkimsal 5y ago
    My first ticket was being late for school. I grew up in an environment where being 'late' or 'rushed' seemed to be a default mode - young parents with 3 young kids, everything probably did stress them out more than it should have, and... I just grew up feeling 'late' and 'rushed' for everything all the time. It manifested in many ways, but speeding was one. I've had a few tickets over the years. I think... probably 4 or 5 over... 30 years? So.. perhaps somewhat habitual and just lucky I've not been caught more. But the last few years - per the comment above - real time info has had a bit of a calming effect. Probably age a bit too, but I don't think so.

sleepingadmin 5y ago

>but because the roads just ain't is as good shape as they used to be. Fundamental core functions of government is roads, borders, preventing of violence(military and police), justice, and refereeing the economy. Roads as you say are in disrepair. Borders are wide open. Military has been at war for how many decades? War exhaustion can't be higher. Violent crime is vastly under reported. Police brutality seems to be at historic highs. Victim of violent crime? Dont call the police because when they show up, the situation gets worse. Antifa is burning cities down, in part due to police brutality. Where's the justice? If your car or property is stolen, there's a ~90% chance you never see it again and nobody is caught. Arson is worse than that. Murder is the only violent crime which has a clearance rate above 50% but only barely. There is no justice. Ref for economy? If financial crisis proved anything, they clearly dont. The core function of government is clearly failed. Lets say we form the HN political party and we're going to fix this. We can't. Government debt to GDP is over 100%. The budget isn't in balance. The central bank is bankrupt; https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/central-bank-balance-sheet https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/central-bank-bala...

couchand 5y ago
> Borders are wide open. Talk to anybody working in this space and you'll learn this is simply not true. CBP is still chasing people down and turning them away. ICE is still deporting people by the planeful.
- sleepingadmin 5y ago
  >Talk to anybody working in this space and you'll learn this is simply not true. CBP is still chasing people down and turning them away. ICE is still deporting people by the planeful. "Anybody working in this space' seems vague. Let's look for a more official position. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/30/immigration-us-will-no-longer-deport-people-simply-because-they-are-undocumented.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/30/immigration-us-will-no-longe... https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/politics/immigration-arrests-deportations-biden/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/politics/immigration-arrests-... https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/new-biden-rules-for-ice-point-to-fewer-arrests-and-deportations-and-a-more-restrained-agency/2021/02/07/faccb854-68c6-11eb-bf81-c618c88ed605_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/new-biden-rules-for-... Quite clear borders are wide open. The better discussion, why? https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/workforce-crisis-2030-relocation-appreciation-relationship-culture https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/workforce-cris... Baby boomers will have retired by 2030, there is simply not enough people to replace the boomers. Birth rates were too low for decades. This shortage is set in stone unless we drop the whole 'child labour laws' which will never happen. There is no denying the borders are wide open, it seems clear to me why they are doing it.

taneq 5y ago

> but because the roads just ain't is as good shape as they used to be Wow, key infrastructure declining like that must be depressing. Is this a widespread thing or just in your area?

philk10 5y ago
widespread - here in Michigan the Governor ran on a campaign of "fix the damn roads"
sneak 5y ago
A ton of places in the US built a bunch of civil infrastructure (primarily roads, water, sewer) to support suburban sprawl that is simply not sustainable given the level of property-taxes-per-square-area and the cost-per-mile to keep it in good working order. Lots and lots of suburban decay is scheduled for the next 2-3 decades. This stuff has a working lifetime and with no money to replace it it's just going to sit there and rust.