Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Would higher speed limits be safer?

What do the Germans do to drivers that don't have a license, insurance and brakes? We give them a check every month.

The Germans and all European countries actually have a driver's test that's worthashit. Driver License tests here are a JOKE. Cops give tickets mostly to meet revenue quotas, and ignore the people who cause accidents for the most part, driving at or below speed limits in the left lane, STOPPING to merge onto highways and of course the favorite around here, people ignoring yellow lights.

I agree with Jammer -- school zones, urban streets, construction zones, I always strictly comply with the posted limits because, for one, there's no time to be made up by cheating -- and it's dangerous.
Speed and momentum are not dangerous in and of themselves, it's where you have it and what happens to it that really matters.
One thing I'd like to see for drivers is an A-Card license. You go five years without a ticket and/or wreck and you get an A-license and a transponder that is good only for you. ZOOOOM. Huge fines if you cheat. No speeding tickets....but you can lose your A card with an at-fault or careless driving citation as noted below.
I really miss the reasonable and prudent law we had in Montana. It would be nice to have a category called "Driving While Stupid." Try to explain THAT before a judge.
What I would really like to see is more enforcement of proper driving, lane changes, signalling, right-left lane, centerline, tailgating, leaking out of the left-turn lane, unsafe, blown stops and the other "sloppy" things people do. If people tightened up their actual driving, it would make a huge difference.

dont really find much to disagree with yah there Dave

The stuff in red accounts for about 95% of dumb$hit stuff that American drivers pull. If you did either of those in Germany you'd have everyone on the road honking and flashing their lights at you, they give immediate negative feedback when another driver does something stupid. Here we just pile up behind them while they poke along in the left lane with 20 cars stacked behind them. It costs about $3000 and a long time to get a Germany drivers license, I'm not sure I want that here. People are people and I'm not convinced that German drivers are really any better than American drivers, they're just not allowed to do the two stupid things mentioned above and that would fix most of the problems here. Teaching people in driver's ed that the left lane is for passing ONLY along with meaningful laws against impeding the flow of traffic and aggressive enforcement of them would fix a lot. You're in the left lane impeding the flow of traffic---$200 fine. Instead our cops would rather write tickets for doing 45 in a 35 zone.

We had a neighborhood here a few years ago that wanted, begged and pleaded for ZERO TOLERANCE on speeders. They demanded it. Anybody speeding gets a ticket-no exceptions, no "five over is OK".

That lasted exactly two days. Apparently they wanted EVERYBODY ELSE to get tickets.

Now I know why the kids on your bus think you rock..........

some of the better drivers i've been around were on the Autoban; the only speed limit was how fast your car would go;
although I did hear on the radio of a 200 plus car pile up.


Here in the SW, 70 mph does not seem fast. The roads can be a straight line to the horizon. If it is a multi lane road, have a fast/passing lane to the left and slower traffic to the right.

Worldly and cloistered at the same time. Neat.

I would think so on rural highways in eastern Oregon, 55 is the fastest allowed which is so slow for most road conditions, it's hard to keep awake and alert.

Last week I drove from Boise to Grants Pass. Fifty-five is too fast to be slow and too slow to be fast. The roads can easily handle 70MHP.

I agree. Oregon speed limits are ridiculous. But this is the state gave the country the 55 mph limit and our Governor would love to impose it again if he could. Gov. Do-over.

Rant ON

If you are being tailgated in the left hand lane, you are the problem. Lead , follow or get the hell outa the way. I don't care if you get out and crawl to where you are going, just do it in the right hand lane. I don't have all day to get to where I am going.

Rand OFF

If all the drivers were going the same speed I don't see how faster would be a bad thing.
As is there are hoards of drivers addicted to the Passing lane and driving well under the limit, being tailgated by drivers that want to get down the road with lots of dodging and darting to get around.
It's not unusual to wait behind a driver that wont merge with traffic until there is a clear shot to the far left lane.

IMHO, it's the Difference in driving speeds that is the real danger. Not just the max posted speed.

Only speed limit that matters is light speed.

Even on the freeway. From Caldwell ID to the border is 75MPH then you hit the river into OR and is 65MPH and they do not screw around. Sure you get into the winders in the canyon around Lime and is down to 55MPH, but nothing after that until you get to the Blues. Have never figured that one out. We go over to Sumpter every other weekend and gets really old once you hit OR and we are never in a rush.

Some of the local gravel roads are 60-70mph(if you're in a hurry, I'm usually not), of course slow down when you meet another outfit. Hate catching rocks on the windshield.



As for speeding, I hate [bleep] who zoom around town 35-40mph, slow down damnit.

i do at the school zones......

We have toll road 130 that runs to Austin, that averages 80 mph, sometimes 85 mph! Its the fastest posted in the usa. Think most drive 90 on it! Texas now has little farm roads marked 75 now.

My #1 rant is driving in the left lane. I stay in the right except to pass. Don't know if I changed their minds but had two women at work insist that as long as they were driving the speed limit it didn't matter which lane they were in. Women