The issue is that they’re doing what they can to make those orders legal. They’re not there yet, they’ll hopefully hit plenty of resistance before they get there, and they’re not exactly renowned for being competent, but they’re working on it.
There’s nothing on that page that says the speed limit is the 85% percentile of the traffic flow. It states quite clearly that ‘Statutory speed limits are established by State legislatures for specific types of roads (e.g., Interstates, rural highways, urban streets) and can vary from State to State. They are enforceable by law and are applicable even if the speed limit sign is not posted’ and ‘Posted speed limits (sometimes called regulatory speed limits) are those that are sign-posted along the road and are enforceable by law.’
Those speed limits are initially set based on the design speed of the road, then later they can be assessed and possibly modified based on a number of factors including the 85% percentile you referenced, however’ ‘The 85th percentile speed is not the only factor practitioners evaluate when determining an appropriate speed limit; they complete engineering speed studies and often utilize supporting tools like USLIMITS2.’
Critically though, none of this means you can just drive at the prevailing speed of the traffic if it’s above the statutory or posted limit and not be considered to be speeding. The 85% percentile may be used to set the speed limit, but when it’s set, it’s the law.
I’m not going to say that sort of thing doesn’t happen, they undoubtedly do, but in places where the rules don’t permit speeding, just because everyone else is, the problem self corrects. If too many motorists exceed the limit, the police have a field day ticketing as many as they can, and the situation reverts to people driving at the limit.
That does take setting the limits appropriately, constant enforecement that can be scaled up, a certain margin of error being accepted so everyone doesn’t have their eyes glued to the speedo, and the understanding and acceptance from motorists that the rules are fair and there for a reason. Absent any one or more of those, and things will inevitably turn into a racetrack again. Fortunately, much of the management and enforcement is usually local, so political pressure applied locally can often help correct issues.
They wouldn’t be driving slowly, they’d be driving at the posted limit. If the limit for the road is wrong, and other people are ignoring it, that is a separate issue that needs dealing with.
It really grinds my gears when people complain about others driving at the posted limit (and, to be fair, I do it too sometimes, but I try to catch myself). You either think the limit is reasonable, in which case there isn’t actually a problem, or you think it’s wrong, in which case the driver isn’t the problem, the limit is. In that case rather than grousing about other drivers actually take action to have the limit changed. That goes just as much in areas where the limit is too high.
Anyway, rant over, I shall take a couple of deep breaths.
One might hope he’s giving out free samples, but these things are rarely as convenient as that.
You… you don’t? Surely there’s some mistake, have you checked down the back of your cupboard? Sometimes they fall down there. Where else do you keep your internet?
Appologies, I’m tired and that made more sense in my head.
What the law says, and what gets enforced are, unfirtunately, sometimes very different things. Sometimes that works in your favor, sometimes it doesn’t.