Speeding

It’s been several weeks since I have written – I was pretty sick, and then we went away for a week. I hate to say it, but I totally spaced this blog until this week. So here we are, back again…

I was driving home from an appointment on a nearby island, and it was brought home to me – again – that I really don’t know what to do with speed limits. This is true very often on the freeway, but I will get back to that.

On the way home, I was driving on a highway, where the speed limit was mostly 45. So I tried going 45. However, cars behind me wanted to go faster. So here is my question – what am I supposed to do? Do I go faster because the cars behind me want me to? Do I keep driving 45 mph, because that is the speed limit? If I continue to go the speed limit, do these cars behind me get tired of it, and start to, perhaps unsafely, pass me?

And as for the freeway limits – what the hell am I supposed to do there? I mostly stay out of the left lane, because many, many drivers treat that as the “I am in the fast lane, therefore I am entitled to go as fast as I want here, regardless of the posted speed limit” lane. I am not unwilling to go maybe 5 mph over the speed limit, but I will not drive 80 in a posted 60 mph zone! I do not feel it is my place to stop others from speeding either,  so I do not camp out in that lane trying to keep the speeds down. But I pay for the roads too – if I am passing traffic on the right, am I not entitled to drove in the left lane without going faster than a bat out of hell?

This is a conundrum…I know that going slower than the surrounding traffic could be a hazard, just as well as going too fast. I also know that “I was just going as fast as everyone else” is not a valid excuse when I am stopped for speeding. So what am I supposed to do – can anyone tell me?