Interstate travel - best on weekend or weekdays?

[GpsyLady]

Ha! Below the limit?? Others on the road will run you over!
I've been told that if you stay at least 9 mph under the speed limit, you will not be bothered for a speeding ticket. I've had a couple of tickets under my belt and was not happy when I had to pay $400 to the state of Georgia!! So, therefore, I adhere to the rules and refuse to part with my hard-earned cash again. Any insight on speed limits on interstates from the pros?

[Lifemagician]

Others on the road will run you over!

Yeah!! so I keep being told. In almost 100000 miles so far, it has not happened.

Lifey

[DonnaR57]

My husband is a former commercial driver. Their trucks were mandated at a specific speed, and I believe it was 65. (Another company is mandated at 60 mph.)

If you go the speed limit or just under it, you should NOT get a ticket for speeding. If you are obstructing traffic by going too slow, you CAN get a ticket for that. Most states have mandated seat belt laws, so be sure you wear one.

True story from a colleague: last week she was traveling down I-8 between Casa Grande, AZ and San Diego, CA. She said she was speeding through the Gila Bend/Sentinel area at 85 and no problems. However, once she crossed over to CA, she decided to go 5 miles more than the speed limit (70). She ended up with a very expensive ticket for going 75.


Donna

[AZBuck]

I've talked about this before, but perhaps it bears repeating. What I have learned over the (too many) years that I've been driving is that the safest, least 'noticeable' and most relaxing speed to drive under any circumstances is the 'wave speed' of traffic. First a bit about what it is.

The next time you're driving down the Interstate, watch the traffic on the other side of the highway. You get to see a lot more of what's really going on that way. What you will notice under most load conditions is that the traffic is traveling in bunches. There will be a collection of cars, then a relatively empty space, then a collection of cars, etc. Think of the clumps of cars as the crest of a wave and the empty spaces as the trough between waves. Individual faster cars will come up to the back of a clump, slowly work their way through and then rush through the trough to the next crest. Likewise the clump will come up to slower traffic, slowly work its way around it, and then leave that car to slowly be caught up to by the next wave. Individual car speeds do not matter. What matters is how fast those crests and troughs are moving - that is the wave speed.

Next start noting how often the waves pass you by (on the other side of the road). If you are in typical conditions, it will be about every 25-30 seconds. What this means is that the waves are spaced about a mile apart. You are approaching each other at something like a combined 120-150 mph at average real world Interstate speeds. Note also that the clumps are shorter than the empty spaces unless traffic is what would be described as 'heavy' or worse.

Now, think about what that all means. You can't go much faster than wave speed on a consistent basis, You just spend most of your time in the clumps going only slightly faster than wave speed as you work your way through, and very little time in the troughs between clumps where you think you're making 'great time'. And for that perception of getting somewhere in a hurry, you are spending most of your time in close proximity to other drivers, any one of whom may not notice you, cut you off, slow you down, fail to move over, and all the other things that lead to accidents. When you're not in traffic, you're speeding - going faster than the average driver - and making yourself a prime target for anyone with a quota to meet.

So, what to do instead? Settle down in the trough, in the gap between crests and simply go at the same speed as the wave. This is easy enough to do in cars with cruise control. You can make a pretty good guess as to the wave speed as you work your way through a crest (in either direction). Once you do so and find yourself in a trough, set your cruise control to that speed. If a wave catches up and goes by you, wait until you're back in a trough and hit your 'accelerate' button once. This typically ups your cruise speed by 1 or 2 mph. Similarly, if you find yourself working through a crest, wait until you about half a mile in front of it and then decrease your speed by 1 or 2 mph. Repeat until you only occasionally find yourself in a crest and enjoy driving in your own bubble of 'light' traffic.

AZBuck

[Foy]

......according to some traffic engineering studies, it's speed differential which kills.

While I'm entirely in tune with curtailing speed to conserve fuel, I am also entirely intolerant of traveling on an Interstate at such speeds which have traffic continually flying up behind me. I'll always adjust to keep up with prevailing traffic to one degree or another.

As noted herein, trucks nowadays are by and large governed. Figuring out what their average speed is, and setting your own cruise control slightly faster, and being willing to turn the darn thing off now and then in order to complete an overtake (pass) without allowing traffic to pile up behind you is nothing less than the most elementary of courtesies.

With a bit of focus on how the world is working around you, it's possible to tailor most any RoadTrip segment into a drive which pleases both the traveler and the locals.

Foy

[glc]

I set my cruise at exactly 3 to 4 mph over the limit, verified by GPS. 5 or more over CAN get you stopped, been there done that. I was stopped for 81 in a 75 in the middle of nowhere on I-94 in Montana a few years ago.