The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: Should the speed limit on freeways in California be lowered, raised, or should it stay the same?
Talk about it.
55 comments
Being the majority of drivers will drive at a speed they feel like, does it really matter? Your chances of getting caught are so low, many just take the risk of speeding.
Lower because speeding kills; every 10mph increase in speed, your dying chance double in a crash. Plus there are many cars on the road, we need to slow down
It depends on where you are.
Raise it on Highway 5 when you’re out in the middle of nowhere.
Lower it on westbound Highway 4 when you’re coming to the 680 south intersection.
Also on 80 or other interstate freeways. But keep local and state highways the same or a bit lower. When people become too familiar with local fast roads they tend to go faster simply because they know them.
It doesn’t matter. Not many people pay attention to the speed limit anyway.
Huskerfan is right. Speed limits, just like red lights seem to be only a suggestion!
How about some enforcement?
It should be enforced…….
No Changes needed
Lets look at this,
there’s the posted speed limit,
there’s the speed people drive when not sitting in commute traffic
and then there’s warp plus speed people drive on highway 4 between Concord and Brentwood.
Does CA have triple digit speed limit signs ? ? ? ?
Imagine gene pool cleansing from 80+ mph limit.
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Simple philosophy stay out of fast lane, do 3-5 mph over posted limit
but make sure there are idiots in expensive flashy cars passing you.
Let them plow the road ahead and sure as heck they’ll be sitting on side of road getting a ticket while you pass them by.
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Does system work ? ? ?
Last speeding ticket was in 1975.
I have a similar system, Original G, but you’ve got me beat – my last moving violation was in1976!
I call those guys “Trailblazers” Let ’em take the point and get shot with the radar gun…. clear a path for me!
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We call them ‘rabbits’.
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.. because they’ll be preyed upon.
It should be 70 since 80 mph is the flow of traffic normally. Never go over 80 mph and you should never get popped. I haven’t since I realized this and that was like 8 years ago.
@ORIGINAL G….This last speeding ticket I got in my car was 1974 and it was a doozy. When the CHP Dodge Fury got behind me I was just coming up on 135 mph on Hwy 5 up by Lake Shasta. Besides getting chewed a new one he wrote me up for not just speeding but pollution and exhaust citations. I learned a good lesson as it cost me the equivalent of 2 weeks pay. Luckily he didn’t check my sun visor for a couple of hand rolled “cigarettes” and didn’t notice I was barefooted. I felt I got away pretty lightly. The interstate highway system was designed for 100 mph speeds back in the 40s/50s anticipating cars being built better and faster. What irritates me now is people that don’t comprehend “right of ways” laws. There’s a reason it’s called “RIGHT of ways”. Is that not covered any longer on the driver’s test?
CHP Plymouth Fury, I was in my Dodge….Mopar rules.
Back in 1996 going to work Graveyard shift 12 – 8 am in my new Impala SS.
Glanced down to instrument cluster, driving west bound on Antioch Pittsburg highway just before Loveridge.
Road. Had no clue I was doing 105, car rides so smooth. Let off gas and after that was far more attentive to speed and used cruise control more often to prevent speeding.
No matter how high the speed limit is, there will always be people that drive faster. I’m happy with it as it is, but if the state wants to make a change, then I’d like to see it raised to 80 or 85 on some highways. Parts of I-80 and most of I-5 and I-505 could handle higher speeds, and in SoCal, there are sections of I-40 from Bakersfield to Arizona, and I-15 from LA to Las Vegas that would benefit with an increased speed limit.
On I-70 in Colorado much of the posted limit is 75.
In some parts of Texas, the speed limit is 85. The last time I drove through Utah, the speed limit was 75 and in some areas it was 80.
You’re more likely to get a ticket for driving slower than the limit and backing up traffic as a result. This will all be moot once they finish the work on the transporters.
Result of advanced years, have attained enlightenment.
Am no loner in a hurry and they pay me not to go to work.
I’ll sit in right most lane and do the speed limit, just because I can.
As time progresses, youngsters may also attain enlightenment.
O G Wan Kanobe?
Why Thank You
High praise from the island master.
Well then, Swami Ji, you get anywhere you want by the speed of thought anyway. 🙂
Some places increase, some decrease …. shouldn’t just apply one or the other … there should definitely be more enforcement of those going too slow – they think they are being safe by going too slow but the opposite is actually true – they cause accidents and claim “I have been in an accident in xx years” (as a DMV Examiner)
Go on and write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license, all that jive
I can’t drive 55!!!
Legendary music video
I heard a CHP officer say “if it doesn’t start with an 8, no reason to pull someone over”.
I set my cruise at 79.
Good tip. I’ve also heard most cops don’t bother with anything within 10 of the posted limit.
Bob – I got a speeding ticket for going 38 in a 35mph zone on Camino Ramon in San Ramon. I tried to fight it but judge backed up LE & the citation – true story!
Wow. That’s insanity. Concord cops would not pull that stuff. What is it with those cities’ police? Too many boy scouts.
Should be able to drive your age!
Theft and homeless crime is rampant so I speed everywhere now. Cops won’t even do anything unless they are behind you. When people run red lights, they pretend they didn’t notice.
I always thought it was more like a suggestion
Slow left lane drivers refusing to yield to faster traffic, fix that first.
look to your right. title of article says “one dead in crash on hwy 242 concord.” raise the speed limit triple digits to decrease the population, do your part for climate change.
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Raise I-5 to 80 mph.
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Only way to stop us from speeding is to actually enforce the speed limits. CHP is there less than 1% of the time. If they consistently had someone doing speed traps and patrolling each highway, they would probably Atay enough income to pay for their own position.
Only way to stop us from speeding is to actually enforce the speed limits. CHP is there less than 1% of the time. If they consistently had someone doing speed traps and patrolling each highway, they would probably generate enough income to pay for their own position.
i remember 55 mph limits !!
10 miles over limit only gets y’ass there a little sooner, DO THE MATH
& STOP TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
SUICIDAL MURDERERS
ALL IN A BIG HURRY 2 GET NOWHERE FAST
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Did Sen. Scott Wiener sponsor today’s watercooler question?
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Some places lowered, some places raised, most stay the same. Honestly the speed limit should be how fast I’m driving. But try telling that to a judge.
I would like the limits raised (decriminalized?) significantly (90 would be fine) in the non-urban areas, such as mentioned above, I-5 though most of central California, and I-10/I-40 once you get in the desert. Most times I am driving those routes, average speeds seem to be closer to 80, with the occasional 90 and occasional 75 (with a posted limit of 70).
Uh, CA freeways have speed limits…?? Returning from SoCal last weekend, I am really, really confused by the question…
The shoulder is now the slow lane
A few years ago, we were driving north on I-15 in Utah, on our way to I-70 on our way to Vail (ultimately, Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone). The speed limit was 80 and traffic was moving at 95 and was very comfortable. Modern cars are capable of sustained speeds much higher than current speed limits, unfortunately, many modern drivers are not. On places like I-5 and I-505, raise it to 85. My last speeding ticket was on U.S. 101 in Washington about 9 years ago on a clear day, no traffic, great road conditions, capable car (tires rated for 186 MPH!). I got tagged for 69 in a 55. It would have been easy and safe at 90.
What is stopping distance ? ? ? ?
At 80 mph a vehicle each second is traveling 117 feet.
Distance needed for 80 to zero mph 481 feet.
http://tinyurl.com/bd3t8bj6
Raise the limits on the interstates, but first strictly enforce distracted and impaired driving. I’d rather drive 85MPH among drivers with two hands on the wheel and two eyes on the road than the slowpoke (usually in the passing lane) looking at the phone.
Raised! Get with the current times. cars are much safer and more capable then before. if people was to drive slower they still can. posted signs are the maximum limit people…
I have never gotten a ticket for driving less than 10 mph over the speed limit, except one time in Montana. I was doing 84, but apparently, they take their 80mph limit very seriously!
Small adjustments are fine but PLEASE enforce keep right except to pass.
Keep it the same. It’s a good speed for careful drivers and the elderly. Most Californians are going to keep
speeding anyway and it is rarely enforced.
definitely raise the limit. The problem is not the speeds so much as the requirements and rules that allow even horrible drivers to get a license. Its the same thing with guns, idiots should not be allowed to legally pilot anything that can do massive amounts of damage whether it be a bullet or a vehicle, both should be kept out of the hands of inexperienced, untrained people. Stricter licensing requirements such as having to go to an actual driving school or a classroom setting that will provide a more in depth training before releasing drivers into the wild would help weed out the morons dmv and police seem to miss daily.
Most of the speed limits are probably ok as they are, but the 55MPH limit for trucks and trailers on roads like I-5 is moronic.
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