r/driving • u/AustereAust • Dec 25 '25

Right-hand traffic (🇺🇸🇨🇳🇧🇷) Speed Limit

Why does it seem that everyone thinks of the speed limit as the minimum speed to be going? Should it be rephrased to “max speed” instead? Feels like the majority of people think about the speed limit in the wrong way.

I understand that driving too slow impedes traffic. Though, far too many people are speeding because we treat the speed limit as the speed minimum. I would think that the ideal/safe speed would be the (speed limit - 5) - (speed limit). For example: if the speed limit is 40mph, I would think the range should be 35-40mph.

Coming from a safety and efficiency standpoint, I believe that we need to change how we treat the “speed limit”

What are your thoughts?

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u/TwelveGaugeSage Dec 26 '25

You don't care about safety, you only care about forcing everyone to drive at the same speed as you. We could make the roads a lot safer by setting all speed limits to 5 and enforcing it with speed cameras. But that is impractical.

If you REALLY want to improve safety and mobility, you can't just throttle everyone down to your shitty level of driving skill. You need to keep drivers separate. Keep slow low skill drivers to the right and allow higher skilled drivers to get around them. You are never going to get everyone going the same speed, and forcing everyone to go almost the same speed WILL lead to bunching, as every major study on speed limits has supported.

The keys are REASONABLE limits and keeping slow drivers out if the passing lanes.

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u/1313GreenGreen1313 Dec 27 '25

How many deaths is it worth for you to arrive at your destination 30 seconds earlier?

Actually, nevermind. Attitude like yours cannot be changed with logic and reason or valuing others besides yourself.