TheBanyanTree: What's the Speed Limit?

[Spoonoid at cs.com]

Spoonoids:

       The last few weeks I had occasion to drive my car the length of 
Interstate 81 in Virginia, northbound first, then southbound in return. The posted 
speed limit is 65 MPH (104 Km/H) for most of the way, except they try to slow 
you down to 55 (88) going past a couple towns, and in road construction zones. 
But what is the speed limit, really? How fast can you go before the State 
Patrol will pull you over and write a ticket?

       Being a good citizen, I try to obey the posted speed limit when I 
enter a new state. But after a few miles at 65, everybody and their grandmother 
are whizzing past me. So I figure it is safer to go with the flow, and speed up 
to 75 to stay with the traffic. Occasionally a semi trailer truck will pass me 
doing 80 or 85, and I am tempted to latch onto his draft and follow along. 
But maybe that is tempting the troopers to pick me off and let the truck charge 
on down the road. So usually I choose to stick with a group of cars going 75 
or so. Then we pass a state trooper parked in the median with his radar gun. 
Everybody in the group cruises on by without slowing down, and the cop ignores 
us. He must be waiting to nab a 90. This scenario was repeated at least three 
times during my journey through Virginia. I have heard that the state patrol 
will generally give you 4 mph over the limit, but will nab you at 6 or more. 
Apparently this rule was not active on I-81for the last few weeks, and the police 
left all us scofflaws to do our public displays of civil disobedience.  

       I did observe an interesting situation on my northbound trip, though. 
We were tooling along in light traffic at 65 or so, in the right lane when we 
came upon some orange signs advising that the left lane was closed ahead, due 
to an accident. All the vehicles around us dutifully moved into the right lane 
and slowed to a crawl as the traffic backed up from the accident scene. This 
left the left lane clear of vehicles for a good mile or so, and only a few 
cars went whizzing past us in the left lane, to get way ahead of us and then butt 
their way into the line in the right lane. I thought of changing to the left 
lane to get around all the other suckers, but since everyone in line was being 
polite to wait their turn, I decided to be courteous, too. Then I wondered 
WHY all those jerks behind us were not rushing past in the clear left lane, like 
they usually do in the city. Could it be that these Virginia citizens were 
exercising their southern hospitality? That the country folks along this highway 
were more civilized than the usual lot of Americans? Nope.

    I looked in my side view mirror to see a semi truck in the left lane, 
back about 100 yards, blocking the left lane, and traveling along beside another 
semi in the right lane, at the same speed as the right lane. And he stayed 
alongside that other truck as we all crept along for a mile and a half till we 
passed the accident site where both lanes were clear again. 

    I think that truck driver did us all a favor, at least for all the cars 
in line in front of him. And probably for the people behind him as well. It 
made the traffic flow more orderly, and we probably all made it through the jam 
more quickly than we would have otherwise. 

    Does anybody know if truck drivers normally exercise this type of traffic 
control, or was my man independently inspired?

Later, John.