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As an aside… I wonder why “80 mph” was picked as an arbitrary value. In rural areas of Utah we have 80 mph posted limits and prima facie speed laws. A lot of U

As an aside… I wonder why “80 mph” was picked as an arbitrary value. In rural areas of Utah we have 80 mph posted limits and prima facie speed laws. A lot of Utah drivers regularly exceed 80 MPH and I’d argue they do so legally. It’s just a weird number for them to pick.

ang_cire 3mo ago
I'd surmise it's because several states (CA comes to the top of mind) set speeds in excess of 80 as a potential felony enhancement. iirc in CA it's 20mph over the speed limit, or speeds over 80. The insurance companies probably want to know who to raise rates on.
- dexterdog 3mo ago
  Which is crazy because when I do 80 in Mostly PA and NJ I am getting passed constantly.
  - dlev_pika 3mo ago
    I just looked and both PA and NJ, have way below natl average car accident deaths per 100K drivers, even if death in over speeding seems to be a a significant contributing factor to overall rates. Interesting to me. I wonder what are they doing right.
tzs 3mo ago
They may be looking at a correlation between speed and claims rather than whether or not the speed is legal. Accidents at 80 mph will tend to be more severe, and possibly also more frequent. Note that they are also looking at night driving, which as far as I know is legal everywhere, but someone who spends a higher percentage of their time driving at night probably is a bigger risk for the insurance company than a similar person who doesn't drive as much at night.
polski-g 3mo ago
It's not arbitrary. In Virginia that's a guaranteed reckless driving charge.
- pixl97 3mo ago
  Texas: we set the speed limit at 85.
  - mschuster91 3mo ago
    Meanwhile Germany: that's the target speed you should aim for, but if you want to drive faster, you absolutely can.
- stackskipton 3mo ago
  Not anymore. It got moved to 85 because speed limit on interstates moved to 70.
  - rirze 3mo ago
    How do one know this? I don't know where to get this information and whether to trust it.
SoftTalker 3mo ago
Even it it's legal, it's probably less safe. Insurance companies care about your likelihood of being in an accident that they will have to pay for, not strictly whether your driving is legal.
8note 3mo ago
people that drive on those high speed roads are more likely to be involved in more dangerous/harmful collisions? legally and unlikely-to-make-expensive-consequences are separate items that insurance exists to differentiate why shouldnt people driving on such dangerous roads have to pay higher insurance rates?
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]
smalltorch 3mo ago
It's not arbitrary, there are limits of physics to how fast you can slow down on rubber wheels no matter how good your brakes are. The stopping distance starts to grow dramatically around these speeds.
moron4hire 3mo ago
In jurisdictions where 65MPH is the highway speed limit, 80MPH is usually the "reckless driving" threshold. And in Virginia, reckless driving is a felony misdemeanor.

ang_cire 3mo ago

I'd surmise it's because several states (CA comes to the top of mind) set speeds in excess of 80 as a potential felony enhancement. iirc in CA it's 20mph over the speed limit, or speeds over 80. The insurance companies probably want to know who to raise rates on.

dexterdog 3mo ago
Which is crazy because when I do 80 in Mostly PA and NJ I am getting passed constantly.
- dlev_pika 3mo ago
  I just looked and both PA and NJ, have way below natl average car accident deaths per 100K drivers, even if death in over speeding seems to be a a significant contributing factor to overall rates. Interesting to me. I wonder what are they doing right.

tzs 3mo ago

They may be looking at a correlation between speed and claims rather than whether or not the speed is legal. Accidents at 80 mph will tend to be more severe, and possibly also more frequent. Note that they are also looking at night driving, which as far as I know is legal everywhere, but someone who spends a higher percentage of their time driving at night probably is a bigger risk for the insurance company than a similar person who doesn't drive as much at night.

polski-g 3mo ago

It's not arbitrary. In Virginia that's a guaranteed reckless driving charge.

pixl97 3mo ago
Texas: we set the speed limit at 85.
- mschuster91 3mo ago
  Meanwhile Germany: that's the target speed you should aim for, but if you want to drive faster, you absolutely can.
stackskipton 3mo ago
Not anymore. It got moved to 85 because speed limit on interstates moved to 70.
- rirze 3mo ago
  How do one know this? I don't know where to get this information and whether to trust it.

SoftTalker 3mo ago

Even it it's legal, it's probably less safe. Insurance companies care about your likelihood of being in an accident that they will have to pay for, not strictly whether your driving is legal.

8note 3mo ago

people that drive on those high speed roads are more likely to be involved in more dangerous/harmful collisions? legally and unlikely-to-make-expensive-consequences are separate items that insurance exists to differentiate why shouldnt people driving on such dangerous roads have to pay higher insurance rates?

deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]

smalltorch 3mo ago

It's not arbitrary, there are limits of physics to how fast you can slow down on rubber wheels no matter how good your brakes are. The stopping distance starts to grow dramatically around these speeds.

moron4hire 3mo ago

In jurisdictions where 65MPH is the highway speed limit, 80MPH is usually the "reckless driving" threshold. And in Virginia, reckless driving is a felony misdemeanor.