On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:31:41 -0400, HK wrote:

Really? I visit Florida several times a year and almost always rent a
car and drive on the interstates there. I rarely drive faster than 65mph
- 67 no matter what the speed limit allows that is higher, and I've
noticed that many other drivers don't, either. Why waste the gas?

I do enjoy seeing the 75 mph and over boys being pulled over for
tickets. What could be nicer?

I'd say you need new glasses - or have your vision and/or spedometer
checked. :)

If the general traffic is traveling 75, troopers aren't going to
bother picking anybody out to pull over. 80/85 yes - 75, no way.

Hey, it's okay with me if you kill yourself with high-speed driving, but
you're also putting others at risk. That is not ok.

When I did a ride-along with my son's FTO, I learned a lot about
traffic and traffic stops.

In general, troopers will pay more attention to a car moving 65 when
the general traffic is moving 75. The reason is that the car moving
65 is actually impeding traffic creating a potential problem. Mass
tried a "rolling traffic control" experiment about 10 years ago. The
program involved putting a patrol car on the road traveling at the
speed limit. They abandoned the program after a month when data
produced an interesting result - the backups created by having a car
at 65 created more accidents BEHIND the car than if the car hadn't
been there.

Another reason not to pull cars over at 75 is that is creates a
situation where people slow down to look which creates one of those
"phantom" traffic jams you see every once in a while on the
interstates.

A third issue is time management - you want to save your efforts for
the serious violations - not something that potentially impeds the
flow of traffic.