Depends on visibility and road conditions. Though it's admittedly been some time ago, I've seen conditions, particularly on Pennsylvania Interstates, before they got enough salt down, where 30 or 35 MPH would be pushing it. Down in Florida, where you live, you probably almost never have to deal with true winter conditions.

Took the New Jersey Turnpike north again yesterday, and very little traffic due to holiday. With a 65 mph speed limit, I would estimate the avg. speed to be 80. The mode if you will.

Of course many vehicles were going faster. To be realistic, a woman of retirement age in a Subaru followed us from the on ramp at exit 7, and 80 was too slow for her (we accelerated to that speed and then did not go faster). It's our Independence Day, no need for such theatrics and drama changing lanes and passing us as if we were granny driving! lol

Somehow this thread seems to have morphed into something whereby if you go 5-10 mph over, you are immoral, and a danger lol And I get it, nobody should be forced to speed. My mom will not. She says I don't care if people are upset, I follow the speed limit. But she doesn't hog the left lane either. Do what makes you comfortable within reason...

This is another topic in itself, has anyone been able to explain this phenomenon? I distinctly remember my cousin's dad (we don't say uncle as he beat my cousin and abandoned the family) driving and when people did this, he would yell and scream profanities at the driver who did that. I experience this all the time--I'll be coming up fast on a car with my cruise at about 73 mph, move out to pass, accelerate, look at my speedo and it's now 80, and I haven't overtaken the vehicle. Sometimes I sheepishly move back behind them--most of the time, they now continue at 80. Sometimes, they slow back down, and this process repeats. Anybody know why?

I may be over analyzing, but I wonder if there is some knee jerk reaction to a car getting closer, i.e. passing? Because this happened on the NJ Tpk yesterday. A Mercedes was going slow, maybe 65 mph, and we are doing about 80 mph, so I got out to pass, now I cannot pass the Mercedes? There is no question the driver was elderly, so I almost think he wouldn't be playing games? Even my wife made a comment, did you do something to him? So I backed off, moved into the middle lane, and guess what? He moves back over and is at 65 mph again. The next time I said the heck with him I'm passing him and just did it. But again, his car must have accelerated to about 80 so, so I had to go even faster. I know, if I only had a dash cam it would be more visual as opposed to my words describing it.

The net net is I would like to set my cruise and just maintain my speed. Traffic was really light yesterday so the elderly man behaved badly imho.

As far as sharing the road, this was the case when I was in Scandinavia in the 90's. Heck, when they get off a plane, it's orderly, row by row, instead of everyone rushing to the overheads then standing in the aisle asap...

Sure it does. If you give everyone else lower expectations only to shatter them with how awesome you are, you just seem even more awesome.

Yeah, ultimately safety should be YOUR number one concern, regardless of why the speed traps are there. I think originally, speed limits, speeding tickets, and other traffic laws are meant to discourage unsafe behavior but have since been used for making money. So, in terms of the 5-10 over argument - I think it depends on whether said speed is actually safe based on the road conditions as well as other vehicle's speeds.

In my office career, before I retired, the person who was probably our best and most capable worker was from New Jersey...don't remember which town. He still works at the office....I still stay in occasional contact with him.

haha 65. Sometimes I wonder if people speed up, not because they are being mean, but because it's like when the doctor hits your knee with a mallet and your leg kicks up....

Seriously, 80 is not fast on the NJ turnpike unless it's backed up. It may be close to the point where a trooper might be "interested," but there are definitely faster fish to fry as it is almost below avg. speed when the road is clear...

Passing on the right is inherently more dangerous and I've had enough people speed up on the left when I try and pass them. I just now assume they do this so when I do pass on the right of the fast lane, I make sure I'm at least 10 -15 mph more to overtake quickly so they don't have time to react. If they do try and speed up, I've just floored it at this point and overtaken. Just the daily crazy commute in so-cal.