Motorcycle Forum / General / Sportbikes / April 2005

The article also mentioned this was the rural highways that didn't have the
speed limit in Montana, Not heavily populated metropolitan areas. I could
only imagine if there was no speed limit on the 10 though LA!
There is some development going on near my house, and there is a nice big
road, three lanes on both sides and very little traffic. I will be driving
along minding my own business, going at my own pace, and I passed a speed
limit sign, "65MPH" I glance down, I'm doing 60. Even if there was no speed
limit at all, I would still be doing 60 on there.
I think a cause of a lot of traffic is the speed limit on the freeways. I
will get on the freeway on my motorcycle, and everyone is doing 30MPH, Since
I find that a bit slow, I start splitting lanes on my motorcycle, after
splitting for five or ten minutes. I pass these two idiots in the middle
lanes that are doing 50 on the freeway, side by side and everyone is trying
to get around them. Once I pass them, the freeway is empty. Do they even
realize they have three miles of cars backed up behind them?? most likely
not. This is often the cause of traffic, frustration, and the beginning of
highly aggressive behavior. Many times when I am on my way home at 1am, the
freeway is moving at about 80-90 mph, and navigating from one lane to the
next its very easy, since very few people are tailgating at those speeds.

I'm all for speeds being radically increased from the current limits.
Unfortunately our licensing guarantees this is not a good idea. In
Europe they have people that can actually drive. This is not the case
in the United States.

Recently the NYPD had taken to parking a highway cruiser on a very
visible stretch of urban speedway at night. It was empty, which I
verified by shining my high beams on it and zipping past at 90mph. But
it had the desired effect of making everyone slow down and drive
reasonable.

Last nite everyone was driving like an a.s. People were up each
others' tailpipes, passing in an imprudent fashion and generally road
raging all over the joint. Why? The empty cruiser wasn't in it's usual
spot. It was gone.

I wish speed enforcement would just go away. Unforutnately I also
suspect there's a reason why the police are treat the driving public
like children. If you had to see the kinds of messes they get
themselves into when left to their own devices, you'd think of them as
children too.

Which is why I've always favored a "class" system to licensing. You'd
stil get pulled over, but if you're operating within your class'
limits then it's catch and release.