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Originally Posted by NeverAgain
4) Fourth, the traffic is averaging at least 75 and many drivers cruise at 85............
Not correct, the physics might be correct but when you are out there you won't feel it, plus you can ride in the first 2 lines till you upgrade to 650cc
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From the LA times, circa 2000... (it's gotten faster since then...)
* According to survey data, average speeds on the Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine jumped from 64 to 69 mph from 1997 to 1999, while speeds on Interstate 5 near Encinitas rose from 68 to 71 mph.
* About 45,000 of the 220,000 drivers who use the Santa Ana Freeway on a typical day now top 75 mph. Two years ago, only about 9,000 drivers did.
* The number of motorists ticketed for exceeding 100 mph in south Orange County hit an all-time high of 216 in 1999, more than double the number a decade ago. Statewide, the number of motorists ticketed for topping 100 mph doubled in the 1990s, from 4,895 to 9,716.
“It’s crazy out here, man,” said Bradley Eldon Cahill, a San Diego businessman recently cited for going 92 mph along Interstate 5 in San Clemente. “People were passing me at 100 mph.”
“Sometimes you get in a daze,” said one 27-year-old woman pulled over on the San Diego Freeway near San Clemente. Ticketed for going 88 mph in the slow lane, she said her 1999 Saturn “sealed” her from the speed. “I had no idea I was going so fast,” she said.
Remote freeways tended to record the fastest speeds. On Interstate 5 in Shasta County, the average speed in 1999 was 70 mph. On Interstate 15 in the Mojave desert,
the average speed is 75 mph, and nearly half of all motorists drive faster than 75 mph (the speed limit on this stretch is 70 mph).
“People really fly through here,” said Randy Dopp, a CHP officer who patrols the wide-open desert areas of Riverside County.
The 12-year veteran said he recently ticketed eight drivers in one day for going more than 100 mph.
In an average year, Dopp issues about 500 tickets to motorists exceeding 100 mph–more than some entire CHP offices. His talent for snaring speeders has prompted colleagues to nickname him “100-mph-Dopp.”
Dopp intercepts most drivers on Interstate 10 on the way to Palm Springs. He has pulled over famous athletes, Hollywood stars, young mothers going to visit loved ones in desert prisons, doctors speeding to hospital emergencies.
“I could write 50 tickets in a day for people going over 80 mph, so I try to find the worst of the worst,” he said.
Like Dopp, officers statewide focus on snaring the most blatant offenders.
‘I wasn’t going 88, I was going 95’
Orange County CHP officer Stephen Miles usually limits enforcement to motorists driving more than 20 mph over 65 mph. On a recent afternoon while he patrolled
the southbound San Diego Freeway, speeds were typical, with traffic moving at about 75 mph.