After my latest run-in with law enforcement, my interest in speed limits in most places in the U.S. being wrong is renewed. What I'm curious about are these:

1. Who sets the limit on a given road?

2. What methodology is used to determine the proper limit?

3. Who does a citizen complain to if they think a limit should be changed?

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Speed limits are the jurisdiction of the entity that "owns" the road, so if it's a state highway, city street or county . . . that's the governing body. Some states have regulations that apply to all subordinant entities.

As to setting the limit, that also varies by jurisdiction. The typical situation is that there is a department of transportation, or roads or safety, that is charged with establishing or adopting standards. Public input, either via hearings or written comment, are usually required.

Most SLs are set by construction standards set up by the NHSI (National Highway Safety Institute).

With that said, then things can go to hell...

The NHSI sets the standards and once the road is built, local conditions take over...amount of traffic, accidents, local issues (lots of foggy days, icy conditions, wind, etc...)

Then the human factor enters into all of this...

Who's kid got a speeding ticket, which politician got a speeding ticket, whether the road was built by the un-employed BIL of the politician, who cut corners when mixing the cement or not prepping the roadbed properly...whether there's access/egress issues with side-streets, on-ramps, off-ramps...blue-hairs or pre-pubes in the area and in your lane...

Complain too?

Good luck.

Coordinating a change in the SL in an area usually involves some simple tragedy like a kid getting hit by a dump-truck or a little old lady gets t-boned while blindly backing out of a drive-way. Body-counts vary from one community to another, but count on more than a FEW before anyone has any impetus to change the SL...and generally? It goes DOWN...not up.

Good luck fighting City Hall Mr. Quixote...

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“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

Read up on speed surveys. I heard they're one way to fight a speeding ticket if you suspect a section of roadway is a speed trap. Here are some quick results:

Speed Survey, Traffic Survey, or Engineer Survey

City of Pleasanton - Explanation of Speed Surveys

Sixto
87 300D^2

1. The DB with the fastest car sets the limit. Usually it's about 110 mph.

2. The gas pedal is mashed to the floor and the DB talks on the cell phone until the car accelerates to the point where the DB nearly loses control That's the practical speed limit.

3. Well, raising it is pretty much impossible because the vehicles would be going off the road left and right. Lowering it is always possible but no DB would obey the lowered limit anyway, so why bother............

Oh man, you guys need to do what *I* just did for a couple of weeks this June and July.

Ran up and down the Autobahn.


130-160 mph EVERY DAY!

Safely, legally, comfortably, serenely. As comfortable as taking a bath.

LEFT lane for PASSING only. And believe me, I passed up everything in sight. Everything.

In 2 weeks only got passed ONCE (it was somewhere between Stuttgart and Munich). Saw those BMW angel eyes closing REAL fast. So I signaled and moved over immediately.

It was some kind of new BMW, in the split second I saw it, looked like a new M5. It looked like the whole car was dipped in black paint, even the windows - limo tint on it probably.

Within seconds it was miles ahead of me, and i was doing abour 130 mph, if I had to guess he was doing over 180 mph - way over 260 kph.

Sure put America and its drivers to shame. Shallow, bad roads, and drivers that change lanes without looking or signaling, untrained, oblivious idiots yakking, talking and texting on cell phones, lots of them drunk, left-lane bandits that will go real slow and refuse to pull over, road ragers, what a nation of morons in their cars, all you need is money and you can buy a car and get a license to drive, no matter if the last thing you were herding down the road was a water buffalo in Vietnam.

DUI limit in Germany is .05 - they mean BUSINESS too, over there. Omne of the worst sins is PASSING on the right - unpredicvtable chaos can occur if you do that. You can get STIFF fines and lose your license if you try that. Tourists can run away so their fines are DOUBLE and you "PAY RIGHT NOW, pliss." Can even be 4,000 euros for tourists.

The Autobahn Polizei chase you differently. They pull in FRONT of you. Then, blue lights on the roof flash at you and the sign you see says: " HALT BITTE " (STOP PLEASE")

They used to run these:





Can't wait to go back. Drove through "D" - Germany, "F" - France, "CH" -Switzerland, "A" - Austria, "I" -Italy and "FL" - Lichtenstein.

Almost 4,000 kms in TWO weeks.

No tour bus could EVER go that fast and cover that much groumd and see as much as I got to see, in that amount of time.

Going back this next year. Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Bratislava and Warsaw and Berlin are on the agenda, I think. And more..

Europa has its act together.

I know. I got to be part of it.

I had this Audi A6 turbo diesel. That thing REALLY got the job done.

Seen at the hotel De l'Abbaye d'Alspach in Kientzheim, France


(Alsace wine country)





Serious Autobahn runners almost exclusively favor the medium and big BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi. This was no surprise to me. I had to fight tooth and nail to rent one. The idiot American travel agent tried to rent me some silly Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta or like tin can.

Nein danke.

America doesn't get it..

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Got to agree, driving in Germany has got to rank up there . When I was a loonie, travelling 200+ mph...albeit for 10 minutes at a time...any more is exhausting...on my 1983 750 turbo...never had any problems with other road users in Germany.

Except a 1982/3 Porsche Martini Turbo that I tried to take towards Vilingen-Schenningen(?) from Stuttgart....with my truck, a 1984 IVECO 190-38. ( Pump without a throttle stop screw.)

He finally put the boot down and left me . We where running 120 to 125mph. Any more and I thought the engine might destruct. About 2400rpm on the tach.

Here in Oklahoma it's better to travel UNDER the speed limit...or am I just gettin' old ?


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[http://languageandgrammar.com/2008/01/14/youve-got-problems-not-issues/ ]

"A liberal is someone who feels they owe a great debt to their fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money."

Speed limits are for those who have no regard for finely crafted automobiles.

The rule regarding speed limits is NOT safety but revenue generation.

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MB-less

There's more to driving on the Autobahn than how fast you can go.

If you run out of gas, you get a ticket - that's preventable.
Flat tire - too bad, you pay.
Car breaks down - kiss your day goodbye.
Passing on the right - kiss your self goodbye.
Driving in the passing lane - you won't pass stop and go.
You can get a ticket for just about anything that no one would even bother to think about over here.
You can go very fast but it's also very costly for fuel. Maybe a $1.00 or more per KM depending on what you're driving and how fast you drive.

There are speed limits going through cities and other designated areas. The real challenge is just how quickly someone can come up behnd you. Pull out to pass a big truck, OK no one's coming.... before you can even get half way around the truck there's some guy in a high end BMW wildly flashing his lights for you to get the hell out of his way!

If that statement had any shred of truth, the coffers of every municipality in the United States would be bulging with cash.............

Why is it possible to do 75 in a 55 if revenue generation is the prime motivator?

Gas SHOULD be expensive, and lane discipline should be strictly enforced. Germans have it right on these counts. If a few tailgaters and left lane hogs had their cars towed and crushed in public, it would make US roads a much better place.

For many years, I have had a belief that on the Garden State Parkway, a major toll road in New Jersey, 72-74's a gimme. NJ State Police patrol the road and I' don't think twice about it. I keep the needle just south of 75. Normal limit is 65.

There is a basis for speed limits, signage, etc. The MUTCD Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices

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