[saalweachter]

It always blows my mind how aghast some people are at the idea of driving the speed limit. How dangerous they make it sound!

My dudes, I have been driving the speed limit, even on freeways, for decades.

Nothing bad happens. Your car doesn't explode. You don't instantly create thousand-car pileups.

You get passed slightly more often than when you are speeding. You pass fewer cars. You get to your destination a few minutes later.

A car going the speed limit on the freeway is not a problem.

[AndrewKemendo]

I drive at or below the speed limit in the right lane on the freeway and everywhere else and the amount of rage it seems to induce in people is pathological.

There’s no making sense of it, people who speed will come up with infinite excuses why they are right and traffic engineers are wrong.

I’ve never been in an accident in over 40 years, I’m never late cause I leave on time and plan ahead and driving isn’t some stressful event.

[bsder]

> Nothing bad happens.

Until it does.

The biggest problem in car accidents is speed differential. When you are not driving the prevailing speed, your speed differential is significantly higher and the accident will be worse than average.

[saalweachter]

> The biggest problem in car accidents is speed differential.

Yes: it is way more dangerous to slam into a stationary object going 80mph than it is to be rear-ended by an object going 80mph while you're going 65. Only a 15mph differential in the initial collision.

Also, it almost never happens, compared to vehicles losing control due to excessive speed.

[bigstrat2003]

That is the fault of the person driving faster than the speed limit, not the person driving the speed limit.

[bsder]

Many people involved in car accidents are dead even though they were in the right.

Motorcyclists can give you long lectures about this.

[RivieraKid]

Driving at the speed limit will not meaningfully increase the chance of an accident.