> > > 10 km/h over seems to be a standard around
> > > here. I'll have to remember that if this was
> > > the US, I could be going 16.1 km/h over the
> > > limit...
> >
> > The customary speed, mostly on freeways, is five to ten MPH over the posted limit. Note, however, that this does not hold true over all the US. In 1995, for example, we went to Arizona, and my mom was going about five over the limit and they gave her a ticket. They're harsh. On the opposite end of the spectrum, for most of the way from here (north San Diego County, southern California) to Las Vegas, you can drive about two thousand miles an hour and no one is around to care.
>
> Southern New England is noted for its ridiculously fast drivers. In Massachusetts, the speed limit on freeways is generally 65 mph (occasionally a little bit slower). Traffic on the freeways (I-91 in particular) moves at around 85-90 mph.
>
> On a similar note, where I used to live in New York is right off of NY-17, also known as the Worst Road In The World, so called because it gets far too much traffic for a two-lane highway in its state of disrepair (and windiness). The speed limit on most of 17 is 55 mph (40 in places), and I don't think I've *ever* been on that road and gone slower than eighty. They're planning to remodel it into an interstate (I-86), but they've been planning to do that for years now. All they've accomplished so far is putting up a bunch of signs that say "future - 86."
>
> On a different - yet still similar - note, when she moved here (from Pennsylvania), Mina had a hard time getting used to driving in semi-urban Massachusetts. Apparently, in PA, the accepted standard is to drive around the speed limit to five mph under, at least when on the freeway (Sam and Leen and we encountered this phenomenon on our way to DC last year). When we went back to New York this summer we went down I-88, and Mina kept compaining about how slow all of the other drivers were going.
>
> They were going about five mph over the speed limit. :-}

Are you saying that speed limits are a joke? The only way they can enforce speed limits is to find a way to limit the speed. Someday they will put transponders in cars so the cops know exactly how fast everybody is going and they can monitor every car. I'm not saying I like the idea. I'm just saying it will work. On our recent drive across the country, most speed limits were 75, so I set the cruise on about 78 and made real good time. That's how fast I was going when a school bus full of kids passed me.
Howard