5 ms·

On his 1938 Austin Cambridge which can barely hit 50mph "It's great to drive, there's always a clear road ahead but behind a sea of traffic." I was expecting to

by ahi 3y ago

On his 1938 Austin Cambridge which can barely hit 50mph "It's great to drive, there's always a clear road ahead but behind a sea of traffic." I was expecting to hate the kid, but he has me in stitches.

Aloha 3y ago
Yeah, I chortled at that line too.
wlindley 3y ago
I drive like this all the time, keeping out of the "fast" lane on the highway with the cruise set at 3mph under the limit. Enya CD playing and life's good.
- Erratic6576 3y ago
  I did some experiments. My record is 3,1 l/100 km at around 90 km/h mostly downhill adding around 30 min to my 2 hour trip. Not having to take over is the best part of it.
  - saalweachter 3y ago
    I've been doing some experiments on a bridge on ramp near me. Leaving the bridge, going up hill, the speed limit is 40mph. Approaching the bridge, going downhill, the speed limit is 25mph. There are two lanes, but the bridge only has three total lanes so at different points during the day the right lane of the approach closes and you merge left before using the right most lane of the bridge. Traffic, of course, approaches the bridge at 40+mph. Semi-regularly there's a police officer pulling people over and ticketing them. I've begun entering the right lane, whenever possible, and setting my cruise control to a hard limit of 25mph. (Setting a soft limit of 25mph does nothing, as you coast up to 40 down that hill.) When two lanes are open on the bridge, about 80% of the time when I reach the bottom of the hill at 25mph... I immediately have to slow, and sometimes stop, as the traffic on the bridge is slower. If there was a good bit of traffic with me, approximately 6 cars will have passed me on the hill, and be stopped ahead of me waiting for the bridge to clear. If there is only one lane, the usual traffic pattern is that some people merge left as early as possible, and others will begin passing in the right lane, usually aiming to pass as much of the line of traffic as possible before merging. This typically leads to stop and go traffic, because as the left lane slows down approaching the bridge they lose any space for a zipper merge, and must come to a complete stop for the detectors to merge in at the last minute. If I set my cruise to 25 -- the speed limit -- in the right lane, then after a few moments there aren't typically people zipping down the right lane ahead or behind me, and the merge typically happens at about 25-30 mph behind me as people pass me, and there's typically not any merging at 0 mph at the last minute. About 80% of the time, by the time I get to the bottom of the hill, there's no one left in the left lane, everyone having passed me and zipped away, and I can merge without difficulty. The failure mode here is that if traffic is significantly backed up in the left lane, either I have to zip past them at 25mph and merge at the last minute, being the asshole, or I merge earlier, into the slow-moving traffic, and abandon my traffic-shaping experiments.
    - WirelessGigabit 3y ago
      You're not an asshole. It's a lane. Use it.
  - fho 3y ago
    Yep ... Energy required scales (at least [1]) quadratically with speed, but time to target only linearly. We noticed that while commuting between two cities over the German Autobahn (A2). I could go 100 km/h and be in sync with the semis, or could go 120 km/h because at that time there are too many cars to go faster. Going slower was almost two liters gas less per day but increased travel time by only 5-10 minutes.
- runjake 3y ago
  In the western US, going 3 mph under the speed limit would be considered a mortal sin. But I do see the same effect going a mere 4 mph[1] over the speed limit. 1. I arrived at 4 mph over, because this was the usual answer when I've asked several police officers "How much over the speed limit to I have to drive for you to pull me over?". Their answer nearly always was "Up to 4 mph and you're okay."
  - topato 3y ago
    4 over the speed limit is definitely the safe zone in California, although having an 11-99 license plate frame still gets you more leeway. I remember when the frames allowed you to get out of driving 90mph.... Good times.
    - rylittle 3y ago
      Is this true?
  - dudul 3y ago
    Hum that seems low. Does it depend on the actual speed limit? Going 4mph over when the SL is 30 yeah I get being pulled over, but on a highway where the limit is 65? I think you can easily push to 70/75.
  - dude187 3y ago
    I always heard it put as (for highway driving) "9 you're fine, 10 you're mine". I do a lot of highway driving and the cruise is always set to 9 over, never had a problem. I just slow up at the speed traps but usually they probably see my first speed before I slow up
  - bitwize 3y ago
    My wife rigidly hews to the "10% over the speed limit" standard on the highway. So 6.5 mph over in a 65mph speed limit zone, etc. Never been caught for this. Of course she accumulates an entourage of people crawling up her tailpipe before speeding by rudely, even when she's in the slow lane. Because America.
isk517 3y ago
Yeah, the impression I get from the article is that he is self-aware enough to understand he is a bit unusual but confident enough to own it, which I can respect.
- willcipriano 3y ago
  Sensitive people on the internet have trained the population to gild jokes too much so that even the most dull headed can be involved. This young man knows the best humor is found when the target isn't entirely certain if you are serious or not.
  - LemmyInThePub 3y ago
    Welcome to humour. Spelt using the letter U.
SapporoChris 3y ago
One of my former cars had a distinctly police car outline for the time and location that I owned it. When I drove speed limit I noticed a the same effect, especially certain lighting conditions like if I was driving into a sunset. It's a worse situation because some (or many) people are literally afraid to pass what they think is a police car. As others have pointed out. If not in a rush, driving slightly under the speed limit is very relaxing.
- colechristensen 3y ago
  I drove an actual old police car bought at auction which included a spotlight. The problem was more people in front of me slowing down to the speed limit or a little slower, which was annoying.
- Aloha 3y ago
  I owned a Crown Victoria, particularly at night - if I didn't drive 10+ over the speed limit I'd bring the freeway to a halt. At night I could part the red sea with it (people would just move out of my way if I was going like I was in a hurry) though.

by ahi 3y ago

Aloha 3y ago

Yeah, I chortled at that line too.

wlindley 3y ago

I drive like this all the time, keeping out of the "fast" lane on the highway with the cruise set at 3mph under the limit. Enya CD playing and life's good.

Erratic6576 3y ago
I did some experiments. My record is 3,1 l/100 km at around 90 km/h mostly downhill adding around 30 min to my 2 hour trip. Not having to take over is the best part of it.
- saalweachter 3y ago
  I've been doing some experiments on a bridge on ramp near me. Leaving the bridge, going up hill, the speed limit is 40mph. Approaching the bridge, going downhill, the speed limit is 25mph. There are two lanes, but the bridge only has three total lanes so at different points during the day the right lane of the approach closes and you merge left before using the right most lane of the bridge. Traffic, of course, approaches the bridge at 40+mph. Semi-regularly there's a police officer pulling people over and ticketing them. I've begun entering the right lane, whenever possible, and setting my cruise control to a hard limit of 25mph. (Setting a soft limit of 25mph does nothing, as you coast up to 40 down that hill.) When two lanes are open on the bridge, about 80% of the time when I reach the bottom of the hill at 25mph... I immediately have to slow, and sometimes stop, as the traffic on the bridge is slower. If there was a good bit of traffic with me, approximately 6 cars will have passed me on the hill, and be stopped ahead of me waiting for the bridge to clear. If there is only one lane, the usual traffic pattern is that some people merge left as early as possible, and others will begin passing in the right lane, usually aiming to pass as much of the line of traffic as possible before merging. This typically leads to stop and go traffic, because as the left lane slows down approaching the bridge they lose any space for a zipper merge, and must come to a complete stop for the detectors to merge in at the last minute. If I set my cruise to 25 -- the speed limit -- in the right lane, then after a few moments there aren't typically people zipping down the right lane ahead or behind me, and the merge typically happens at about 25-30 mph behind me as people pass me, and there's typically not any merging at 0 mph at the last minute. About 80% of the time, by the time I get to the bottom of the hill, there's no one left in the left lane, everyone having passed me and zipped away, and I can merge without difficulty. The failure mode here is that if traffic is significantly backed up in the left lane, either I have to zip past them at 25mph and merge at the last minute, being the asshole, or I merge earlier, into the slow-moving traffic, and abandon my traffic-shaping experiments.
  - WirelessGigabit 3y ago
    You're not an asshole. It's a lane. Use it.
- fho 3y ago
  Yep ... Energy required scales (at least [1]) quadratically with speed, but time to target only linearly. We noticed that while commuting between two cities over the German Autobahn (A2). I could go 100 km/h and be in sync with the semis, or could go 120 km/h because at that time there are too many cars to go faster. Going slower was almost two liters gas less per day but increased travel time by only 5-10 minutes.
runjake 3y ago
In the western US, going 3 mph under the speed limit would be considered a mortal sin. But I do see the same effect going a mere 4 mph[1] over the speed limit. 1. I arrived at 4 mph over, because this was the usual answer when I've asked several police officers "How much over the speed limit to I have to drive for you to pull me over?". Their answer nearly always was "Up to 4 mph and you're okay."
- topato 3y ago
  4 over the speed limit is definitely the safe zone in California, although having an 11-99 license plate frame still gets you more leeway. I remember when the frames allowed you to get out of driving 90mph.... Good times.
  - rylittle 3y ago
    Is this true?
- dudul 3y ago
  Hum that seems low. Does it depend on the actual speed limit? Going 4mph over when the SL is 30 yeah I get being pulled over, but on a highway where the limit is 65? I think you can easily push to 70/75.
- dude187 3y ago
  I always heard it put as (for highway driving) "9 you're fine, 10 you're mine". I do a lot of highway driving and the cruise is always set to 9 over, never had a problem. I just slow up at the speed traps but usually they probably see my first speed before I slow up
- bitwize 3y ago
  My wife rigidly hews to the "10% over the speed limit" standard on the highway. So 6.5 mph over in a 65mph speed limit zone, etc. Never been caught for this. Of course she accumulates an entourage of people crawling up her tailpipe before speeding by rudely, even when she's in the slow lane. Because America.

isk517 3y ago

Yeah, the impression I get from the article is that he is self-aware enough to understand he is a bit unusual but confident enough to own it, which I can respect.

willcipriano 3y ago
Sensitive people on the internet have trained the population to gild jokes too much so that even the most dull headed can be involved. This young man knows the best humor is found when the target isn't entirely certain if you are serious or not.
- LemmyInThePub 3y ago
  Welcome to humour. Spelt using the letter U.

SapporoChris 3y ago

One of my former cars had a distinctly police car outline for the time and location that I owned it. When I drove speed limit I noticed a the same effect, especially certain lighting conditions like if I was driving into a sunset. It's a worse situation because some (or many) people are literally afraid to pass what they think is a police car. As others have pointed out. If not in a rush, driving slightly under the speed limit is very relaxing.

colechristensen 3y ago
I drove an actual old police car bought at auction which included a spotlight. The problem was more people in front of me slowing down to the speed limit or a little slower, which was annoying.
Aloha 3y ago
I owned a Crown Victoria, particularly at night - if I didn't drive 10+ over the speed limit I'd bring the freeway to a halt. At night I could part the red sea with it (people would just move out of my way if I was going like I was in a hurry) though.