Reduced Temperatures Ahead

[cos]

I can remember the moment, on my first cross country road trip many years ago, when I first saw a highway sign that said "REDUCED SPEED AHEAD: 70", and I laughed.

That's how I felt when I saw the weather report today: "Temperatures dropping into the low 30s overnight."

(For readers not from the US: Around here in the northeast, highways usually have speed limits of 55 miles per hour near cities, and 65 miles per hour in rural areas. Speed limits above 65 are rare anywhere within 10 hour drive of here, and a "reduced speed ahead" sign usually means the speed limit is changing to 55 or lower. In the mountain west and great plains, though, there are a lot of highways with speed limits of 75 MPH and even some with 80, so 70 can be a "reduced" speed limit.)

Comments

[feuervogel]

Many parts of I85 in NC and SC are 70, like between Greensboro and Charlotte, then after Charlotte until the next moderately populated area in SC. But that's not within 10 hours of Boston anyway.

[cos]

I hadn't ever been to NC or SC before that first cross country trip. But now that I have been there many times since then, I still don't think I've ever seen anywhere in either of those states where 70 is a *reduced* speed limit :)

[feuervogel]

Nope, but reduced to 65 is definitely possible! (Not that anyone in the Triangle goes the posted speed of 65; the prevailing speed of traffic on I40 or 85 is usually 80-85. The right lane is usually 70-75!)

[cos]

That big difference between posted speed limit and local custom is all over the east. One of the main roads across Massachusetts is posted 55 almost the whole way but 70-75 is the local custom.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I-81 through the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia is largely 80 MPH, IIRC.

[kirin]

Not legally currently, at least on both maps I've seen. WV is max 70. Of course what speed people actually go is a different matter entirely.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Ah, right. I guess I was just remembering it was higher than any place else between NJ and there and had a big 0 at the end.

[ceo]

I-93 is 70mph north of Concord NH, except through Franconia Notch.

[kirin]

I was curious so I looked up the data and apparently 70 does exist as close to you as NH and PA, but presumably not places you've needed to go. 75 in Maine. But yeah, pretty much all the rest of the 75 is in Great Plains and Rockies states, plus 80 in Utah and 85 in Texas. I was surprised Alaska maxes at 65, though I bet it's not much enforced. Lowest is Hawaii at 60, but then, there's not very far to go there.

[cos]

I've actually been to all those places, and they're part of why I said "rare" rather than "don't exist". However, I'm fairly sure all of those were 65 or lower at the time of my first cross-country road trip. I think back then, "don't exist" would've been accurate.

P.S. There are a couple of stretches on the Big Island where a higher speed limit would actually be quite useful, if they ever built a road where anyone sane would go that fast in the first place :) But the only real highways in Hawaii are on Oahu, which is a very small island, and the highways don't even span its whole length.