thrash wrote:
Picture this:
you are in downtown Munich, you are driving on a 1-lane, 1 way road. Parked cars line one side of the street. As in most european cities, there's really not a full "lane" to park in, so most of these cars are at least half on the sidewalk, but that means they jut irregularly into the "lane" that you're supposed to be driving in. Infact, it's not clear that you'd even have enough room to open your door enough to get out of the car without hitting a parked car. Maybe one of them is about to pull into traffic?
Naturally this is a cobblestone street so a few things are apparent
your brakes don't work as well as they normally would, due to the irregular adhesion
the tires are apt to tramline and dart more than you'd like
Now for bonus material, let's add in that there are people (including children) on this "sidewalk" and some of them are trying to jay-walk across this street from inbetween the haphzardly parked cars.
Going much faster than 15mph here is just irresponsible.
Could I do 30, 40, or 50 through here and keep the car shiny? Maybe. I'm certainly not afraid of speed, and I have a little bit of an idea what I'm doing behind the wheel (I've driven the Nordschleife, and managed to pass a newbie on a sport-bike )
I've had enough close calls that sometimes I recognize a situation where the "posted limit" doesn't take into consideration other aggrivating factors (like the ones I mentioned) and I feel the need to slow down.
There are reasons that good drivers will sometimes choose to go below the posted speed limit. Sometimes it's because they know they aren't mentally in it (like when looking at the scenery, trying to find an unfamiliar place, etc). Sometime's slowing down is just what the situation calls for - the liklihood of something popping out infront of you without you having a chance to stop in time is simply too high (remember, stopping distance goes up with the square of velocity).
Even at 15mph.
Now, all that said, most of the people you see around here going under the limit are either out to lunch or just panicking
Well said. Couldn't agree more.
