But... so many people are practically forced to exceed the limit just to keep up with the rest of the traffic that's already blowing past the limit. If you force a few people to go at the limit, that's frustrating for everyone behind them in the best case at best... and I imagine possibly even more dangerous in the worst case, no? If they're going to enforce then shouldn't they try to enforce it as widely as they can?
> that's frustrating for everyone behind them in the best case at best... and I imagine possibly even more dangerous in the worst case, no?
No.
Waymo put the myth to bed [1]. Even if you might piss off a speeder, driving the limit in speeding flow remains safer as the handling advantage (frequency) and exponentially-lower energy in the event of a collision (magnitude) dwarf other effects.
Your link is about Waymo. It doesn't imply the same is true for human drivers. When I search around whether driving too slowly is too dangerous, basically every source I see says it is. Random example:
if slow driving wasn’t as dangerous (if not more), highways would not have minimum speed. would you personally choose cars driving 15mph on a highway you are on or 90mph? between those two choices, I’d choose 90mph any day of the week and twice on sunday
You must live somewhere warm. On Canadian highways 15 mph is just a fact of life a few times a year. I've never seen a Canadian highway with a minimum speed.
Of course! I did not mean that anyone should ever drive any speed that is too slow for given conditions, I have driven 5-10mph on higways with minimum speed of 45+mph during inclement weather.
I live in the USA and can tell you with 100% certainty that if I drove 15mph on a highway drivers that pass me will call 911 and I will be pulled over. driving 30-40mph over the limit is unlikely to trigger the same concern from other drivers unless I am “street racing”
other cars or driving erradicaly
No. No one is 'forced' to exceed the limit, not remotely, and there are plenty of drivers who, for a variety of reasons, drive at or under the speed limit (many large trucks, for example).
On a highway, driving slow in the left lane is not good, but doing 65 in a 70 in the right lane is perfectly fine.
What really messes up flow is traffic "waves"[1] and these are often caused by drivers hitting the brakes because they're following too closely or someone cuts in front of them aggressively.
Yes. Once I realized this, I tried to put a higher priority on maintaining a more steady average speed, even though that usually means leaving a larger gap ahead of me.
Of course, the problem then becomes that people will often use that gap to cut in front of you, thus negating much of the benefit. Tragedy of the commons.
I blame automatic transmissions. Stop and go traffic is hell in a manual, so there's a bigger incentive to maintain a constant slow speed instead of zooming forward then slamming the brakes.
Yep - follow distance makes a huge difference in both safety and traffic flow. If you can leave 20 cars in front of you, do it. You get there just as fast but have more time to react and don't need to hit your brakes as often.
It's always the fault of the tailgater. There are other ways to ask someone to move over like flashing your high beams. Tailgating just creates a dangerous situation.
In my experience, if someone is tailgating you in the right lane, then speeding up is not likely to make them tailgate you any less, because such a person is either not paying attention or intentionally being a jerk.
