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On the freeway, I drive 75-80 mph (120-130 kph) pretty consistently. What about you?
Of course, here in D.C. where stop and go traffic is the norm on the freeways, I don't drive that fast.
Surprisingly, most American drivers are approximately law abiding. From personal experience, I can state that Southerners tend to drive really fast!
Of course, here in D.C. where stop and go traffic is the norm on the freeways, I don't drive that fast.
Surprisingly, most American drivers are approximately law abiding. From personal experience, I can state that Southerners tend to drive really fast!
Left to their own devices, American drivers confronted with an open stretch of interstate highway tend to drive at about 70 miles per hour—whatever the legal speed limit happens to be.
That's the finding of an analysis of speed data gathered by TomTom Inc., a marketer of GPS navigation devices. This helps to explain why safety advocates and conservationists are losing the long-running debate over lowering freeway speed limits.
That's the finding of an analysis of speed data gathered by TomTom Inc., a marketer of GPS navigation devices. This helps to explain why safety advocates and conservationists are losing the long-running debate over lowering freeway speed limits.
TomTom collected speed data from 45 states and the District of Columbia, under agreements with customers who agreed to allow the company to collect the information anonymously to improve the quality of its route guidance by directing customers away from congested roads at peak travel times.
The TomTom data suggest that most drivers tend to stay within a few miles per hour of the speed limit on major roads. In 31 out of the 46 jurisdictions, average freeway speeds ranged between 65 and 70.1 mph.
TomTom found the fastest drivers, on average, in Mississippi, where interstate drivers average 70.1 mph, or a hair over the maximum posted limit. The company doesn't have speed data from some sparsely populated states, including Montana, where drivers may be moving faster than those in Mississippi, says Nhai Cao, senior product manager for TomTom's SpeedProfiles database.
Virginia drivers clock in at a law-abiding 65 mph. The slowest drivers—drumroll, please—are in Washington, D.C. Freeway traffic in the nation's congested capital crawls at an average of 46.4 mph, according to TomTom's data. That may explain the eagerness of Virginia residents who work inside the Beltway for the freedom to go faster when they finally see some open road.
Hawaii is the slowest state, with highway drivers traveling at an average 52.7 mph.
The TomTom data suggest that most drivers tend to stay within a few miles per hour of the speed limit on major roads. In 31 out of the 46 jurisdictions, average freeway speeds ranged between 65 and 70.1 mph.
TomTom found the fastest drivers, on average, in Mississippi, where interstate drivers average 70.1 mph, or a hair over the maximum posted limit. The company doesn't have speed data from some sparsely populated states, including Montana, where drivers may be moving faster than those in Mississippi, says Nhai Cao, senior product manager for TomTom's SpeedProfiles database.
Virginia drivers clock in at a law-abiding 65 mph. The slowest drivers—drumroll, please—are in Washington, D.C. Freeway traffic in the nation's congested capital crawls at an average of 46.4 mph, according to TomTom's data. That may explain the eagerness of Virginia residents who work inside the Beltway for the freedom to go faster when they finally see some open road.
Hawaii is the slowest state, with highway drivers traveling at an average 52.7 mph.
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