Is this something that I’m too European to understand? How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit?

LeifCarrotson 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Because American drivers have normalized always driving 10 mph (16 km/h) over the speed limit.

Cops won't pull you over or write tickets if you're not at least 15 mph over, we basically don't have speed cameras, everyone's trying to win the rat race and dehumanizing other cars around them, and it's not considered morally wrong (by most) to break that specific part of the law.

So a single vehicle obeying the law will quickly get a long line of tailgaters and tailgaters of tailgaters trying to "push" the vehicle to go faster.

They can suck it, I'm not late or in a hurry, and my ancient truck, steel bumper, and class 5 receiver hitch will not be badly harmed by your plastic grille. I get better gas mileage and have a longer stopping distance when I drive the limit, and I don't care if others are honking or riding my ass because they think I should drive faster.

	▲	rootusrootus 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> my ancient truck, steel bumper, and class 5 receiver hitch will not be badly harmed by your plastic grille I've been rear-ended in my truck, and the receiver punched a nice hole right through the radiator of the guy who hit me. Definitely fucked his car up way more than it did my truck ... except man, that is definitely one of the hardest impacts I've ever felt in my body. I now appreciate how hard the head rests really are, despite looking a little soft. I think I'd rather have crumpled crumple zones and a new truck next time.

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1shooner 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

On most US highways (i.e. multi-lane limited access roads), it's customary to leave a path in the left 'passing lane' for any traffic that wants/needs to go faster than you. If cars match speeds across lanes, it impedes faster traffic.

The speed limit itself is a separate convention and regulation. In some places you can be cited for obstructing traffic by going the speed limit in the passing lane if you are matching the speed of cars to your right, effectively blocking the road.

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FL410 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>it's customary to leave a path in the left 'passing lane' for any traffic that wants/needs to go faster than you

It's not just customary in many (most?) states, it's the law. People who sit in the left lane are the problem.

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eszed 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> it's customary to leave a path in the left 'passing lane' for any traffic that wants/needs to go faster than you.

A custom that (where I live) is becoming more honored in the breach than the observance. It makes driving very much more dangerous.

In Britain they have a sardonic nickname for people who do this: CLARAs. "Centre Lane Residency Association".

	▲	rootusrootus 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Sometimes I an appreciate wanting to cruise in the middle lane, because ADAS level 2 systems common on cars today is far more comfortable when it does not have to deal with regular merging traffic. But aside from that, I really don't like it when people camp in the middle lane because they tend to form a pretty tight line and manage to effectively turn a three-lane highway into two single-lane highways -- hard to get through from one side to the other.
	▲	circuit10 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I’m from England but I’ve only every heard “middle lane hoggers” for this

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rootusrootus 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> If cars match speeds across lanes, it impedes faster traffic.

I think this undersells it a little. It does not just impede faster traffic, when the lanes are pacing each other it makes navigating harder -- simply switching lanes is more difficult. The highway moves so much more efficiently with a small but steady difference in speed between each lane.

	▲	saalweachter 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Results: A 5-mph increase in the maximum state speed limit was associated with an 8.5% increase in fatality rates on interstates/freeways and a 2.8% increase on other roads. In total during the 25-year study period, there were an estimated 36,760 more traffic fatalities than would have been expected if maximum speed limits had not increased—13,638 on interstates/freeways and 23,122 on other roads. https://www.iihs.org/research-areas/bibliography/ref/2188

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JumpCrisscross 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> How do you get “stuck” behind someone doing the speed limit?

"Only 46.5 percent of U.S. drivers consider going more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on the freeway to be "extremely" or "very" dangerous — with 40.6 percent openly admitting to doing it at least "a few times" in the last 30 days" [1].

[1] https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/11/30/why-so-many-u-s-drive...

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rootusrootus 7 hours ago | parent [-]

We have a lot of freeway speed limits that are holdovers from the last oil crisis decades ago. Cars have gotten quieter, smoother, more capable, to the point where 55 mph is kind of hilariously slow. When the legal speed limit does not reflect what most drivers think is reasonable, then we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely reflect conventional wisdom.

	▲	JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> we can stamp our feet and insist that the law must be right, or we could redesign the road or adjust the speed limit to more closely reflect conventional wisdom Most Americans ignore speed limits. This stems from it being socially and legally problematic to permanently revoke our driver’s licenses. We should raise a lot of limits. But many others are fine and still sped through.

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nutjob2 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

On the stretch of motorway that I frequent in Italy, the speed limit is mostly 130 km/h, but the majority of people drive at about 100 to 110 km/h (including me).

But there are also people who drive in the left lane, who will tailgate you at 1 or 2 meters because you're doing 130 km/h. These people are idiots, but you get these sorts of people everywhere.

On American freeways, you don't have a choice, every lane is doing about 10 mph over the limit (or in LA way under) and it is disruptive or dangerous not to. These freeways tend to be running at full capacity so it actually makes sense since it improves capacity.

	▲	yccs27 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Road capacity does not increase with speed above 50 km/h on urban roads or 70 km/h on highways. Following distance scales with speed, so more speed can actually mean fewer cars per unit of time. In theory, braking distance scales quadratically with speed. In practice, people leave less room on highways, because they rely on others driving predictably, but spacing still increases faster than linear.

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HDThoreaun 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

speed limits in the US are barely suggestions, let alone rules