400 Series highway @ 80km/hour

folcar

folcar

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Mar 26, 2007
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I have been doing alot of highway driving recently, and have noticed what is appearing to me to be an alarming trend. A large number of drivers seem to accelerating to 80-90 km/h when entering onto a highway. And they are staying put at those lower speeds on several occasions i have had the misfortune of being stuck behind these folks and it is quite ussettling to see a semi doing 120+ getting larger in your rearview when your doing 80km's. These drivers pose as much of a threat to road safety as speeders, and they should be ticketed or warned that as a result. Is this just my local area or have others been noticing this a sa growing trend?
 
karrie

karrie

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Folcar, the trend seems to be an all around inability to not stay at the limit. Which poses more danger? The person doing 80 risking an accident? Or the semi barrelling down at 120 risking an accident? It's still the semi speeding along that's your greatest risk. But you're right that people ought to stick near the limit, and in many areas, you can be ticketed for going too slow as well as too fast.

My best advice for drivers is to just be courteous, take a deep breath, obey the law, and get there in one piece. If you let the slowpokes or the speeders get under your skin and upset you, you're simply adding more risk factors to the road. Angry drivers suck.
 
DurkaDurka

DurkaDurka

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Mar 15, 2006
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Karrie,

The posted speed limit on the 400 series highways in Ontario is 100km/h, if a motorist plans on driving at 80km/h they are not the norm and have the potential to cause accidents.
 
folcar

folcar

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Mar 26, 2007
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Angry drivers suck.
I agree, angry drivers do suck! However drivers who are doing 20km/h below the posted limit do cause a risk. Most drivers drive between 100 - 110km/h in my experience, a smaller proportion drive 120km/+ My concern here is that the 2 extremes really don't mix as regular drivers are going far faster following the posted limits, without even considering the speeders out there. Should there be a minimum limit imposed? I always thought a min of 90 and a max of 110 with a 0 tolerance would suit every body just fine, and the the trend/ inability to not stay at the limit needs could be curbed.
 
L Gilbert

L Gilbert

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Whatever the speed limit, going at the rate that the mass of drivers are going causes least accidents. Most drivers drive between the speed limit and 10k over the limit. Don't change speed when exiting but change after you're off the main highway if needed. When merging from an offramp, do so at the speed the traffic is already moving. It's the abberations from what the majority is doing that cause most accidents.
 
karrie

karrie

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DurkaDurka said:
Karrie,

The posted speed limit on the 400 series highways in Ontario is 100km/h, if a motorist plans on driving at 80km/h they are not the norm and have the potential to cause accidents.
Click to expand...

I never said they didn't did I?
 
karrie

karrie

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folcar said:
Angry drivers suck.
I agree, angry drivers do suck! However drivers who are doing 20km/h below the posted limit do cause a risk. Most drivers drive between 100 - 110km/h in my experience, a smaller proportion drive 120km/+ My concern here is that the 2 extremes really don't mix as regular drivers are going far faster following the posted limits, without even considering the speeders out there. Should there be a minimum limit imposed? I always thought a min of 90 and a max of 110 with a 0 tolerance would suit every body just fine, and the the trend/ inability to not stay at the limit needs could be curbed.
Click to expand...

Any driver doing 20km/h outside the speed limit either way is causing risk, but, I'd still rather end up in a collosion with the guy going 80 than the guy going 120.
 
eh1eh

eh1eh

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I usually drive at 130 km/h when the highway is clear enough. When traffic gets busy I go with the flow. Going with the flow is the safest for everyone. The 80 km/h driver on the freeway is a menace. I just drove to Florida and most of the way I was going 130 km/h or 80 mph. That's 2400 km, never got a ticket, people were passing me. The flow on modern the freeway is much faster than 20 years ago. This is due to advancements in vehicle and tire design. People who want to go 80 km/h should not be on the freeway.
To qualify my remarks I will mention I have logged much more than one million miles driving in Southern Ontario. I certainly have lost my pateince with over cautious drivers. I won't even mention the clueless morons.:x
End rant, thank you.:smile:
 
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#juan

#juan

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Just a couple years ago my wife and I flew to Toronto at the start of a three week holiday in Ontario and Quebec. We rented a car at the airport. That first 10 or 15 miles from the airport heading for Hamilton was frightening. The average traffic speed was around a 130 klicks. People were passing us on both sides till I got the idea. Even then there were some who were going close to 150. I have no trouble driving at 125 or 130 but above that, things just happen too damn fast and it is too fast for most drivers.
 
lysyfacet

lysyfacet

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Not sure if any of you know this, but you can get a ticket from the Police for not doing the speed limit aka driving to slow, or not going with the flow. But like you all said, slow drivers cause a large risk on the roads we drive on. Sad thing, we can't really do much about it. As long as they use their right lanes on our highways, and leave our left lanes to speedier drivers, i wouldn't complain.
As for the guy going 120km/h, he should be adjusting to his driving to whats up ahead.
Trust me, i know the frustration when you get stuck behind one of those who do 60 when its an 80km/h zone. But hey, like Karrie said, don't let that get to you, or you will just increase the risks. You always want to be in the right frame of mind when driving, makes it safer for you, and the drivers you share the road with :). Let the police deal with those who make the road an unsafe place, don't take the law into your own hands, let the authorities do it :). Why else do we pay those cops, to sit around and eat donuts and drink their coffee :p lol.
 
SVMc

SVMc

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Apr 16, 2007
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A couple of people have said this already, but generally the safest is to go with traffic. I find during the day I'm usually between 110km/h and 120km/hr in the third lane, while at night in the first lane I find the average speed is 120km/h - 130km/h in the first lane.

Generally I find a lane and drive at a speed that I'm comfortable at, and make sure that I don't have cars whizzing around me because I'm blocking them, and also am not aggressively weaving myself between cars.

My three road rage triggers are the guy that thinks it's okay to go 80km/h in the middle or third lane, first lane is bad enough but when you are actively forcing traffic to split around you, I'd really like to see that guy get pulled over.

Second is that semi-truck that is evidently on cruize control, and if you are slightly off of his cruize control his (or her's) expectation is for me to move. These guys (or gals) scare the hell out of me, nothing like having a semi riding your bumper at 3am when you're already going 130km/hr in the first lane and having them so close you can't see if you do have room to move into the middle lane to git rid of them.

Last is the idiots (and I do mean idiots) that seem to think it's acceptable to merge onto the highway at 50 or 60km/hr. WTF!!?? I can understand if the ramp is short, or if there's a traffic jam, but merging onto the highway that slowly is just dangerous for everyone.
 
#juan

#juan

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hermanntrude said:
what is "semi" short for anyway? it seems funny that something that big is known by a word that means partial or half
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"Semi" is short for semi-trailer, which has no front axle and a large percentage of the total weight is supported by the powered tractor truck.
 
folcar

folcar

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Mar 26, 2007
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ToroThe speed limit on the provincial highways in Ontario is 80 km/h. That's retarded.


It is 100 km/h the issue is folks driving well below that speed, when combined with speeders it is cause for a huge accident just waiting to happen.
SVMc I agree tailgating is also a big problem, especially when the vehicle doing so is alot larger than yours! It becomes a distraction as well as a dangerous situation, as the necessary gap required to stop is non existant. The stupidest folks in this category is the guy in the compact on the semi's bumber, if they can't see you they can't avoid you.
Another issue bugging my better driving sense of late is the treatment of stop signs like they are a suggestion, every day it seems you can spot drivers barely slowing when they come to one. In terms of speeders and stop sign runners this is already legislated as part of the highway act, why then are so few driving infractions handed out. There are parts of the States where you can't go 5 min's on the freeway without seeing a trooper, sometimes here you can go days. Why the lack of enforcement on our roads?
 
L Gilbert

L Gilbert

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#juan said:
Just a couple years ago my wife and I flew to Toronto at the start of a three week holiday in Ontario and Quebec. We rented a car at the airport. That first 10 or 15 miles from the airport heading for Hamilton was frightening. The average traffic speed was around a 130 klicks. People were passing us on both sides till I got the idea. Even then there were some who were going close to 150. I have no trouble driving at 125 or 130 but above that, things just happen too damn fast and it is too fast for most drivers.
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It definitely is tto fast for most. For the bucks I thought (and still do) that drivers training is a definite benefit. There are training classes for everything from skid control, to actual racing. People would benefit by choosing a couple appropriate to the type of driving they most commonly do and train in them.
 
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