GetOffYourGas said:
There is a lot of condescension around here, and "my roads are tougher than your roads". Before you guys pick on someone for being "terrified to drive a little stretch in the south", you should be aware that I-24 in Tennessee is considered one of the most dangerous roads in the U.S. This isn't just some simple country boy afraid of traveling faster than his tractor can take him.
For example, I did a google search of "most dangerous roads in us" and found this list:
http://www.smashinglists.com/top-10-most-dangerous-highways-in-america/. Notice that 7 of 10 of them are in the south.
Thank you, yes I have no problem going above the speed limit,
if I feel its safe. Heck I remember as a youth testing out my new Fiat X-19 for top end on a very flat stretch of road somewhere between TX and CA and I think it topped out somewhere around 110+ mph(the Fiat was only a 4 cylinder, 1.5L I believe) but it was evening and I was
the only one on the road. What I didn't like about I-24 was in TN was everyone going above the speed limit,
with bumper to bumper traffic :shock: All I could think of was if one person had a blowout(I see cars in parking lots all the time with near flat tires or what if someone picked up a nail or such, or maybe blew a piston, things happen) and at that high rate of speed and cars not much more than one car length apart, well it made me terrified. And before anyone says,
just go a safe speed, well I do that when the traffic is light and people can easily go around me. I drive an ICE several times/year to Duluth MN and beyond(on I-35) and it gets far better mileage at 60 or even 55 than 70+(like 2+ mpg worse/5 miles per hour over 50) so even though the posted speed is 70(and most do 75) I like to do 60, I've done 55 but I feel a bit worried when a semi comes up behind me going 70+ and isn't paying attention and needs to make a last minute swerve to the fast lane. I figure at 10 mph difference it isn't so bad but 15+ difference would be even worse. Anyway I have no problem doing this because cars are generally several hundred yards apart, people have time to get in the other lane. When cars are bumper to bumper like I experienced on I-24 in TN, trying to go at a speed much lower than the flowing traffic IMO isn't safe to me or the other drivers, I just don't belong there, others may feel differently but it's just my feeling.
On another stretch of my TN trip, heading into Nashville from the North, we saw a accident in the Northbound lanes of the divided interstate, it looked horrific and even though the crash was well out of Nashville the backup approached the outskirts of Nashville, it was over 15 miles
I've never seen anything like that in my area, sure we get backups during rush hour and several mile backups with accidents but other than extremely high traffic I feel most of the blame for such horrific crashes is the rate of speed compounded by people only being a car length or so apart from each other. One person has a issue and it's a domino effect. Oh during the 15+ mile Nashville backup I bet there was a dozen or so ripple effect crashes, again due to rate of speed and close following distance, just nuts IMO!
Sorry to have gotten OT in this
heat related thread and it wasn't my intention, it's just when the OP started talking about that particular stretch of road it brought back memories, which I really hope to never experience again. Not that the countryside around that area wasn't beautiful, but it's hard to concentrate on beautiful scenery when I'm holding onto the steering wheel with all my might and am afraid to take my eyes off the road or the person a car length ahead of me. Funny part was we purposely waited in Nashville until we thought the traffic should have subsided, we didn't realize it would go well into the evening and even dark.
More OT talk, the '07 Prius we drove for a bit over 3000 miles from MN to FL(and back) basically all interstate(60-65 when we could, 70+ when we were forced to in areas like TN, around STL or even ATL) and we averaged 50 MPG! And this was in a vehicle carrying 4 people packed to the gills, if one has to use an ICE you can't really beat the little Prius