Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Charlie
People only think they drive 65 (or 75, or whatever). That's not a reality, but a target speed that gets hit for brief times under ideal circumstances. The rest of the time is spent accelerating to it, hitting the brakes when someone changes lanes badly, accelerating again, hitting the brakes when an on ramp comes in, etc. Your target speed is never going to be your average speed. Commutes on the highway are really just stop & go at higher speeds. Adjusting the target speed downward has the stated benefits that lower speed gets you, but it's also attainable and predictable- your drive will be smoother and actually at your target speed if your target speed doesn't require you to fight your way through the crowd.
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A LOT of truth here and certainly worth mentioning. Driving steady at a slightly slower speed will cost you next to nothing verses the up and down speed game. There have been more instances than I can count where a 'rabbit' blows by me, then get's caught up in traffic and slams on the brakes, then speeds off again, then has to stop for that left-turner, then stops on the gas again, and all the while I cruise along never having to vary my speed more than 5mph for changing traffic and after 10-20mi of this I end up where the 'rabbit' is only 15-20sec. behind. The actual 'cost' of driving slower is probably only like 25% of what the 'math' says it will be because you are often time not able to maintain that higher target speed due to outside influences. The difference is often greater, or sometimes reversed (slower = LESS time), when you start talking in-town as timing lights and setting a maintainable pace can actually SAVE time over the course of a trip.