It being an extended holiday weekend, I had the opportunity to travel New Hampshire and Massachusetts highways on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Local Shops Saturday, though only one of those three days was for travel to and from the gathering of the WP clan to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Friday's travel was to meet up with a couple of long-time friends for dinner followed by a concert by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, something that has become a bit of a tradition as this was the third time we have done so during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The final trip was down to meet up with my aforementioned friends at one of those friend's home to help raise an antenna to be used for our mutual amateur radio hobby.
I figure that taking in those three days of travel I have driven the trusty RAM 1500 somewhere around 500 miles.
One of the things most obvious things I observed with all that driving on Thursday, Friday, and today?
Just about everyone was traveling above the posted speed limits. Even me.
Speeds I observed ran anywhere between 5 and 25 miles per hour above the posted limit.
On my trip home from the WP Sister's place on Thanksgiving afternoon speeds ran between 70 and 80 miles per hour. On Saturday on my way to and from dinner and the concert, highway speeds had to be between 75 and 85 per hour...even in the 'slow' lane. No one was traveling at the posted speed limits. No one.
On my trip down to my friend's place in the southern part of New Hampshire it was pretty much the same thing, but the speeds I observed people traveling were as high as 90. (The posted limit was 65 for the most part.) I was the 'slowpoke', driving in the slow (right-hand) lane at between 75 and 80 from the time I got on the Interstate in Concord and got off the Interstate in Windham. Traffic wasn't heavy and there were three, four, or five travel lanes depending on where along the Interstate I was traveling. Driving at the posted speed limit would have meant being a moving traffic obstruction and possibly causing a traffic accident. (This goes back to a lesson I learned from a couple of friends of mine who were State Troopers 'back in the day'. They told me it was safer to travel at a speed that kept up with the rest of the traffic rather than being that “moving traffic obstruction”. The WP Dad learned that lesson on Texas when he was pulled over for going too slow – 70 mph – when everyone else was doing 85. The Texas trooper told him the same thing my State Trooper friends told me.)
I don't recall seeing so many motorists driving at such high speeds like I saw over this holiday weekend. I have to wonder if the posted limits are too low, something that is quite possible. The Interstate I usually travel has a posted speed limit of 70 mph once you are north of Concord and people would push that to 75. But it seems like the posted speed limits were being universally ignored during the holiday week.
I wasn't like the State Police in Massachusetts and New Hampshire weren't stopping speeders. I saw more than a few motorists pulled over for speeding. One in New Hampshire blew by me north of the tolls on the Interstate and I'm estimating he was going over 100 mph. I saw him pulled over a couple of miles further down the highway and in this case he was out of his car and in handcuffs. Not surprising since he blew through a speed trap at that speed. With speeds like he was going it is more than just getting a speeding ticket.
I wonder if we'll be seeing this “Everyone Driving Above The Speed Limit” phenomenon during the upcoming Christmas holiday?
