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Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by ahi on Monday December 18, 2023 @03:20PM (#38687639)
On his 1938 Austin Cambridge which can barely hit 50mph "It's great to drive, there's always a clear road ahead but behind a sea of traffic." I was expecting to hate the kid, but he has me in stitches.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by isk517 on Monday December 18, 2023 @04:10PM (#38688329)
Yeah, the impression I get from the article is that he is self-aware enough to understand he is a bit unusual but confident enough to own it, which I can respect.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by willcipriano on Monday December 18, 2023 @04:30PM (#38688600)
Sensitive people on the internet have trained the population to gild jokes too much so that even the most dull headed can be involved. This young man knows the best humor is found when the target isn't entirely certain if you are serious or not.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by LemmyInThePub on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @03:59AM (#38693381)
Welcome to humour. Spelt using the letter U.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by SapporoChris on Monday December 18, 2023 @04:36PM (#38688677)
One of my former cars had a distinctly police car outline for the time and location that I owned it. When I drove speed limit I noticed a the same effect, especially certain lighting conditions like if I was driving into a sunset. It's a worse situation because some (or many) people are literally afraid to pass what they think is a police car.

As others have pointed out. If not in a rush, driving slightly under the speed limit is very relaxing.

Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by colechristensen on Monday December 18, 2023 @06:01PM (#38689616)
I drove an actual old police car bought at auction which included a spotlight. The problem was more people in front of me slowing down to the speed limit or a little slower, which was annoying.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by Aloha on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @10:13AM (#38696534)
I owned a Crown Victoria, particularly at night - if I didn't drive 10+ over the speed limit I'd bring the freeway to a halt.

At night I could part the red sea with it (people would just move out of my way if I was going like I was in a hurry) though.

Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by wlindley on Monday December 18, 2023 @04:06PM (#38688275)
I drive like this all the time, keeping out of the "fast" lane on the highway with the cruise set at 3mph under the limit. Enya CD playing and life's good.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by Erratic6576 on Monday December 18, 2023 @04:37PM (#38688683)
I did some experiments. My record is 3,1 l/100 km at around 90 km/h mostly downhill adding around 30 min to my 2 hour trip.

Not having to take over is the best part of it.

Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by saalweachter on Monday December 18, 2023 @05:04PM (#38688996)
I've been doing some experiments on a bridge on ramp near me. Leaving the bridge, going up hill, the speed limit is 40mph. Approaching the bridge, going downhill, the speed limit is 25mph. There are two lanes, but the bridge only has three total lanes so at different points during the day the right lane of the approach closes and you merge left before using the right most lane of the bridge.

Traffic, of course, approaches the bridge at 40+mph. Semi-regularly there's a police officer pulling people over and ticketing them.

I've begun entering the right lane, whenever possible, and setting my cruise control to a hard limit of 25mph. (Setting a soft limit of 25mph does nothing, as you coast up to 40 down that hill.)

When two lanes are open on the bridge, about 80% of the time when I reach the bottom of the hill at 25mph... I immediately have to slow, and sometimes stop, as the traffic on the bridge is slower. If there was a good bit of traffic with me, approximately 6 cars will have passed me on the hill, and be stopped ahead of me waiting for the bridge to clear.

If there is only one lane, the usual traffic pattern is that some people merge left as early as possible, and others will begin passing in the right lane, usually aiming to pass as much of the line of traffic as possible before merging. This typically leads to stop and go traffic, because as the left lane slows down approaching the bridge they lose any space for a zipper merge, and must come to a complete stop for the detectors to merge in at the last minute.

If I set my cruise to 25 -- the speed limit -- in the right lane, then after a few moments there aren't typically people zipping down the right lane ahead or behind me, and the merge typically happens at about 25-30 mph behind me as people pass me, and there's typically not any merging at 0 mph at the last minute.

About 80% of the time, by the time I get to the bottom of the hill, there's no one left in the left lane, everyone having passed me and zipped away, and I can merge without difficulty.

The failure mode here is that if traffic is significantly backed up in the left lane, either I have to zip past them at 25mph and merge at the last minute, being the asshole, or I merge earlier, into the slow-moving traffic, and abandon my traffic-shaping experiments.

Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by WirelessGigabit on Monday December 18, 2023 @05:16PM (#38689160)
You're not an asshole. It's a lane. Use it.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by fho on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @03:53AM (#38693340)
Yep ... Energy required scales (at least [1]) quadratically with speed, but time to target only linearly.

We noticed that while commuting between two cities over the German Autobahn (A2). I could go 100 km/h and be in sync with the semis, or could go 120 km/h because at that time there are too many cars to go faster.

Going slower was almost two liters gas less per day but increased travel time by only 5-10 minutes.

Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by runjake on Monday December 18, 2023 @05:48PM (#38689510)
In the western US, going 3 mph under the speed limit would be considered a mortal sin.

But I do see the same effect going a mere 4 mph[1] over the speed limit.

1. I arrived at 4 mph over, because this was the usual answer when I've asked several police officers "How much over the speed limit to I have to drive for you to pull me over?". Their answer nearly always was "Up to 4 mph and you're okay."

Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by topato on Monday December 18, 2023 @06:21PM (#38689775)
4 over the speed limit is definitely the safe zone in California, although having an 11-99 license plate frame still gets you more leeway. I remember when the frames allowed you to get out of driving 90mph.... Good times.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by rylittle on Thursday December 21, 2023 @01:32PM (#38724625)
Is this true?
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by dudul on Monday December 18, 2023 @07:15PM (#38690185)
Hum that seems low. Does it depend on the actual speed limit? Going 4mph over when the SL is 30 yeah I get being pulled over, but on a highway where the limit is 65? I think you can easily push to 70/75.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by dude187 on Monday December 18, 2023 @09:20PM (#38691032)
I always heard it put as (for highway driving) "9 you're fine, 10 you're mine". I do a lot of highway driving and the cruise is always set to 9 over, never had a problem. I just slow up at the speed traps but usually they probably see my first speed before I slow up
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by bitwize on Monday December 18, 2023 @10:53PM (#38691613)
My wife rigidly hews to the "10% over the speed limit" standard on the highway. So 6.5 mph over in a 65mph speed limit zone, etc. Never been caught for this. Of course she accumulates an entourage of people crawling up her tailpipe before speeding by rudely, even when she's in the slow lane. Because America.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by Aloha on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @10:14AM (#38696549)
The magic number I have found is 12 mph over.
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by bradknowles on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @12:19AM (#38692133)
In Texas, you can get stopped for obstructing traffic, regardless of what speed you're driving.

So, you can be speeding, and yet still driving slower than the traffic around you, and you can be given two tickets -- one for speeding, and one for obstructing traffic.

Of the two, obstructing traffic is the bigger fine.

Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by rkagerer on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @05:05AM (#38693806)
How ironic. Has this ever happened?
Re:The teenager who lives like it's the 1940s by Aloha on Monday December 18, 2023 @03:22PM (#38687661)
Yeah, I chortled at that line too.