Quote:
Originally Posted by bestclimb
If you are driving too fast to see and avoid a pothole it is past a safe speed for the road conditions. Instead of relying on what a sign says is the safe speed, take it as a suggestion and work from there.
The concept that higher speed increases the capacity of a road is not hard to understand. Think of a hose, only so many molecules of water are able to fit in it at one time. To increase the number of molecules going through during a given period of time you can do two things, one increase the size of the hose, two increase the speed the water flows through the hose.
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I completely agree with you first paragraph and would add- remember it is a maximum speed limit legally but safety judgment is in your own hands.
But your second I cant quite agree with. Water is an incompressible medium all of the molecules have to, by natures law, go the same speed. Traffic is more like air. Air wants naturally to be a certain distance from the next molecule. Pressure will reduce this distance. Traffic behaves the same way as air. When stopped at a jam- Bumper to bumper- high pressure. The distance between does increase with speed. On and off ramps, and curves cause turbulence and pressure differentials.