Interesting article about average highway speeds

Jstas

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/26/tomtom-data-reveals-u-s-drivers-average-speed-fastest-highway/

"If you have a TomTom, the eye in the sky has been watching you and tracking your interstate speeds over the past two years. Don't worry, TomTom isn't going nark you out – it's tracking the data from its Speed Profiles program to help fleet drivers find the fastest routes around the nation. The two years of data collection shows that, overall, Americans tend to drive within the acceptable limits of the law overall, but the average speed of your journey will typically be determined by where you're driving."

vc69

I went to Dallas and back this past weekend. Averaged about 90 mph.

hearingimpared

Anyone who has ever driven in Washington D.C. knows that traffic is typically set to crawl, and TomTom's data shows that the median speed is a pokish 46 mph. Hawaii (53 mph); Delaware (61 mph); Rhode Island (63 mph); and Oregon (63 mph) are the next slowest states. Hit the jump to read over TomTom's press release, and tell us your favorite interstate for high speed motoring in the post-jump comments.

I don't know how they came up with that stat as I go 70 mph on Rt 95 and people pass me like I'm standing still.

Jstas

hearingimpared wrote: »

I don't know how they came up with that stat as I go 70 mph on Rt 95 and people pass me like I'm standing still.

Ever get stuck in traffic on Route 13 trying to get in to Jersey? I can average 110 MPH all the way through Delaware for an hour and a half and then hit the I95/US1/US13/Rt113 interchange at the Delaware Memorial Bridge and do 2 MPH for an hour and a half. It'll drag the average speed down to around 70 MPH. If I was actually doing the 55 MPH speed limit, average speed would drop down to 35 MPH. I could see, over the course of a year, the average speed in Delaware being 61 MPH if all traffic patterns and congestion were taken in to account.

bobman1235

Exactly. Basically the article is meaningless; it makes no distinction between places where people drive slower vs places with a lot of traffic. Highways in New England tend to cruise at about 80MPH when there's no traffic, but at rush hour it's stop and go.

hearingimpared

Jstas wrote: »

Ever get stuck in traffic on Route 13 trying to get in to Jersey? I can average 110 MPH all the way through Delaware for an hour and a half and then hit the I95/US1/US13/Rt113 interchange at the Delaware Memorial Bridge and do 2 MPH for an hour and a half. It'll drag the average speed down to around 70 MPH. If I was actually doing the 55 MPH speed limit, average speed would drop down to 35 MPH. I could see, over the course of a year, the average speed in Delaware being 61 MPH if all traffic patterns and congestion were taken in to account.

Understatement! on 95 during rush hour and all the friggin construction.

Jstas

bobman1235 wrote: »

Exactly. Basically the article is meaningless; it makes no distinction between places where people drive slower vs places with a lot of traffic. Highways in New England tend to cruise at about 80MPH when there's no traffic, but at rush hour it's stop and go.

Well, it's not meaningless, it shows were population and congestion affect transportation. If I was Obama and pushing legislation for high speed trains, I'd be looking at the places with low average speed on highways. Especially if the average speed is noticeably below the posted legal limit. To me, that's not a positive statistic signifying "safer drivers" but much more indicative of a negative statistic signifying a greater problem

bobman1235

Hmm. Decent point. I guess it's just meaningless in the way people in this thread are taking it, as in "this shows which part of the country drives fastest."

devani

It's funny people to pay to use I-95 and stuck in traffic

Jstas

devani wrote: »

It's funny people to pay to use I-95 and stuck in traffic

You have to pay to use pretty much all of Delaware. Why do you think Joe doesn't have to pay taxes? They bilk the rest of us instead.

tonyb

Tom Tom should really learn to keep some info to themselves. They just gave government a new way to give you a ticket...by satellite. Wait..it won't be long.

bigaudiofanatic

hearingimpared wrote: »

I don't know how they came up with that stat as I go 70 mph on Rt 95 and people pass me like I'm standing still.

Ya you have to go at least that or get run over.

bigaudiofanatic

Jstas wrote: »

Ever get stuck in traffic on Route 13 trying to get in to Jersey? I can average 110 MPH all the way through Delaware for an hour and a half and then hit the I95/US1/US13/Rt113 interchange at the Delaware Memorial Bridge and do 2 MPH for an hour and a half. It'll drag the average speed down to around 70 MPH. If I was actually doing the 55 MPH speed limit, average speed would drop down to 35 MPH. I could see, over the course of a year, the average speed in Delaware being 61 MPH if all traffic patterns and congestion were taken in to account.

If you see a red motorcycle keep your distance I do not want you plowing into me.

Jstas

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

If you see a red motorcycle keep your distance I do not want you plowing into me.

Are you going to walk out in to traffic and hold you hand up like it's going to stop any two ton lump of metal rolling down the road at 60+ MPH let alone mine? I mean, I wouldn't put it past you, but if you don't have plans to do so then I think your safe and you can keep your half-assed comments to yourself.

Jstas

tonyb wrote: »

Tom Tom should really learn to keep some info to themselves. They just gave government a new way to give you a ticket...by satellite. Wait..it won't be long.

You're behind the times. Ever since OBD-II came out, the police have been able to obtain a warrant to have your engine management computer scanned to find out what the speed was that you were traveling at the time of the collision. I had to sit on a jury in an insurance fraud case where just that happened. The dude was found to be fraudulent in his claims, fine for the fraud, damages and then given a reckless driving ticket, speeding ticket and a failure to keep right ticket. Wasn't a good day for him.

However, the operative concept there is that they had to obtain a warrant. Right now, that applies. If it doesn't in the future, that's a problem. But your rights in that respect are still protected. For the police to be able to ticket you for speeding by accessing your GPS logs, they would need to obtain a warrant to get any info from you or TomTom.

sucks2beme

Jstas wrote: »

You're behind the times. Ever since OBD-II came out, the police have been able to obtain a warrant to have your engine management computer scanned to find out what the speed was that you were traveling at the time of the collision. I had to sit on a jury in an insurance fraud case where just that happened. The dude was found to be fraudulent in his claims, fine for the fraud, damages and then given a reckless driving ticket, speeding ticket and a failure to keep right ticket. Wasn't a good day for him.

However, the operative concept there is that they had to obtain a warrant. Right now, that applies. If it doesn't in the future, that's a problem. But your rights in that respect are still protected. For the police to be able to ticket you for speeding by accessing your GPS logs, they would need to obtain a warrant to get any info from you or TomTom.

Is that held in protected memory, or does it clear out like everything else with
a battery disconnect?

Jstas

sucks2beme wrote: »

Is that held in protected memory, or does it clear out like everything else with
a battery disconnect?

It's like the black box in a plane accident.

tonyb

Yeah, I knew about the warrant thing, but imagine some moron in your state legislative body getting an idea to have GPS providers hand over info for the sole purpose of extra revenue. Of coarse this could be done under the thought of safety or national security issues much like AT&T had to hand over phone records. I know it seems far fetched, but things that are going on today and the last 10 years seemed far fetched at one point too.

hearingimpared

Jstas wrote: »

You have to pay to use pretty much all of Delaware. Why do you think Joe doesn't have to pay taxes? They bilk the rest of us instead.

Actually the toll starts just south of Newark ($5.00 rediculous) then again just before Baltimore (another $4.00). I can avoid the toll going south by driving 5 minutes past the Newark entrance to 95 and get on at the Elkton Maryland entrance.

BTW the New Jersey turnpike is 95 and that's a toll road all the way through the state and you have to pays tolls to cross over to PA, DE and NY and NJ gets half that revenue. I don't understand why they can't use some of that revenue to lower the State's real estate taxes.

It is pretty cool though not having to pay state sales tax and only have real estate taxes to the tune of $800 per year. The cost of living here is cheaper than Jersey and PA, that's why we moved here.:D;)