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Which southern state has the fastest drivers?


krazeeboi

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The fastest stretch of road I've been on is I-95 heading in either direction though SC and GA. Wow, you get on at I-26 and you better be ready to haul-you know what or else you'll get rear ended. Forced into going 80? Try 90 here and you're still passing no one. We passed a cop going 90 on our way down to St.Simons over Mem. Day weekend, he didn't even flinch.

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The fastest stretch of road I've been on is I-95 heading in either direction though SC and GA.  Wow, you get on at I-26 and you better be ready to haul-you know what or else you'll get rear ended.  Forced into going 80?  Try 90 here and you're still passing no one.  We passed a cop going 90 on our way down to St.Simons over Mem. Day weekend, he didn't even flinch.

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That is just plain ridiculous if you have to go that fast. People that go that fast are the ones who cause accidents. Damn, I thought going 75 was fast (and it really is) on the freeway. I wish more drivers, including myself sometimes, were safer drivers........I get tired of rat-race driving on the freeways and such. I try to avoid it, but sometimes I am forced into it, which is quite annoying!

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I don't ever drive that fast, and in this case I wasn't the driver either. Like paulblackgsx stated, we were in a line/group of cars (between 20 and 40) all going that fast, so while still dangerous (I totally agree), a car going 65-70 was more of a threat to cause an accident.

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Driving 90 properly spaced between cars in a well maintained car in dry weather conditions isn't a prelude to an accident.

That idiot doing 65 in a 70 in the left lane is though, when someone comes running up behind him doing 90  :lol:

Too many of those in Florida to get my vote.  Georgia could be on the list, but the fastest drivers in are metro Atlanta.  As a whole, the state isn't that fast, just the metro area.  Best ass hauling I've gotten to do?  Bama, without a doubt.

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I don't believe that going 90 properly spaced in a well maintained car in dry weather conditions is safe either! I don't care how "good" of a driver someone thinks they are, the reaction time is just way too short if someone were to put on brakes in front of you. I do agree that going too slow in a fast lane is equally dangerous, but on the whole the vast majority of people don't really understand what LIMIT means!! :rolleyes:

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While this doesn't show the fastest drivers, Allstate released a list yesterday ranking the safest drivers for cities over 100,000 in population.

The top 5 were:

#1 Cedar Rapids, IA

#2 Sioux Falls, SD

#3 Chattanooga, TN

#4 Huntsville, AL

#5 Knoxville, TN

Where other major southern cities ranked:

#10 Birmingham, AL - #18 Memphis, TN - #23 Nashville, TN - #29 Mobile, AL - #36 Winston-Salem, NC - #42 Columbia, SC - #52 Oklahoma City, OK - #58 Tulsa, OK - #65 Augusta, GA - #66 Tallahassee, FL - #75 Little Rock, AR #78 St. Petersburg, FL - #85 Durham, NC - #86 Jacksonville, FL - #94 Raleigh, NC - #99 Greensboro, NC - #114 Savannah, GA - #136 Fort Worth, TX - #141 Orlando, FL - #153 Atlanta, GA - #159 Charlotte, NC - #160 Tampa, FL - #167 Houston, TX - #169 San Antonio, TX - #176 Austin, TX - #178 Miami FL - #182 Dallas, TX - #183 New Orleans, LA

Full list here: http://www.allstate.com/media/newsheadline...vers_report.pdf

This shows the criteria of their list: http://www.allstate.com/Media/NewsHeadline...06_07_wheel.htm

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While this doesn't show the fastest drivers, Allstate released a list yesterday ranking the safest drivers for cities over 100,000 in population.

The top 5 were:

#1 Cedar Rapids, IA

#2 Sioux Falls, SD

#3 Chattanooga, TN

#4 Huntsville, AL

#5 Knoxville, TN

Where other major southern cities ranked:

#10 Birmingham, AL  - #18 Memphis, TN - #23 Nashville, TN - #29 Mobile, AL - #36 Winston-Salem, NC - #42 Columbia, SC - #52 Oklahoma City, OK - #58 Tulsa, OK - #65 Augusta, GA - #66 Tallahassee, FL - #75 Little Rock, AR #78 St. Petersburg, FL - #85 Durham, NC - #86 Jacksonville, FL - #94 Raleigh, NC - #99 Greensboro, NC - #114 Savannah, GA - #136 Fort Worth, TX - #141 Orlando, FL - #153 Atlanta, GA - #159 Charlotte, NC - #160 Tampa, FL - #167 Houston, TX - #169 San Antonio, TX - #176 Austin, TX - #178 Miami FL - #182 Dallas, TX - #183 New Orleans, LA

Full list here: http://www.allstate.com/media/newsheadline...vers_report.pdf

This shows the criteria of their list: http://www.allstate.com/Media/NewsHeadline...06_07_wheel.htm

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I'd believe that about Charlotte. You'd think there would be more cars with numbers painted on the sides on the highways around here the way most people drive. :D

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I don't believe that going 90 properly spaced in a well maintained car in dry weather conditions is safe either!  I don't care how "good" of a driver someone thinks they are, the reaction time is just way too short if someone were to put on brakes in front of you.  I do agree that going too slow in a fast lane is equally dangerous, but on the whole the vast majority of people don't really understand what LIMIT means!! :rolleyes:

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Well, lets break down my comment because you clealy didn't understand.

Properly Spaced - in order to be properly spaced, you would need to account the 1 second that the 'average' driver needs in order to properly process the reaction of the car in front of them. Then you would need enough space to properly slow your car, taking into account their distance to stop, your distance to stop, and the additional distance you will need in order to adjust the amount of braking force your applying if it is less than the driver in front of you. You also have to consider brake fade in some vehicles, since they can not properly slow or stop from a speed like 90 with the same efficency.

Let me further break it down by reminding you I said 'prelude' to an accident. This doesn't mean you can't influence an accident by following too closely. Proper spacing also won't prevent someone from cutting you off, or otherwise entering your lane. But then things can also occur at 70, and in most of those conditions, you won't have proper time to stop either.

I also have some really bad news for everyone. Driving a car, in general, is the least safe form of transportation available. So if maximum safety is what you are after, fly.

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I'm late coming into this topic but I would have to agree with most people that Florida has the fastest drivers. I personally am one of them (now living in Charlotte). Just about everyone I know from Florida travels at least 20mph over the speed limit on a regular basis. When I used to commute from Lauderdale to Miami, you really learn to fly because you know I95 becomes a parking lot just before downtown. I would easily be going 95-100 and be considered going with the flow in the left lane. When I went to school in Gainesville the ride down rarely consisted of going less than 90mph and was also frequently over the 100mph pace. It seems the only time left lane drivers in most Florida areas go below 90 is when the cop right in front of them is going 90.

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Oh yeah... and that strip of 85 from Gastonia to SC sure is fun. I love the drive to Gaffney because I get a chance to make my slow Hyundai go 120 down those hills. Fun stuff. Since NC is the home of racing I think the Floridians need to come up here and show em how to use these long straight highways!!! :)

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Oh yeah... and that strip of 85 from Gastonia to SC sure is fun. I love the drive to Gaffney because I get a chance to make my slow Hyundai go 120 down those hills. Fun stuff. Since NC is the home of racing I think the Floridians need to come up here and show em how to use these long straight highways!!! :)

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I know what you mean about I-85 between Gastonia and Gaffney, its a fun stretch of road to drive. :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

Irony:

In ATL, you have some GDOT Rescue vehicles called HERO's. (I'll post what the abbreaviation stands for when I remember it). They are supposed to be like a first response crew to accidents on the Highway.

Yet, I saw a smashed up one being towed yesterday.

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Highway Emergency Response Operator...

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  • 2 months later...

Georga based completley on Metro Atlanta. I remember several years ago they did a study and GA 400 north of Atlanta had the highest average speed in the country at 96mph. Of course that was before the heavy traffic prevented that. Every time I go back to visit my family from Augusta, I am amazed at the change in speed and erratic driving.

Here are the top 5 cities with the worst drivers in order according to the DOT.

1. Atlanta 2.Houston 3.Dallas 4.Miami 5.Orlando. Notice they are all in the south! Here in Augusta they average about 70-75 on the interstate, so not to bad. Most all of the bad drivers I do see here have Metro Atlanta plates on them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Its a toss up between Miami/south Florida and metro Atlanta in terms of speed but Atlanta to me is more dangerous than Miami. Some factors to keep in mind of why people drive fast: the distance away between the centralized job core(s) to the suburbs, inclement weather (rain/snow), quality of life(Ex: stress) and police enforcement. Since most southern cities provide excellent engineered freeways meaning the design speeds along the travel lanes and ramps are very high with excellent pavement quality (normally concrete), they are not common to having narrow lanes, crummy pavement, ramps that require you to go slow, poor sight distance and closely spaced exits which normally, exceeding 80mph or more through an urban area is too dangerous and not the norm. I believe this is why driving at very high speeds continues to persist throughout the southern cities.

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I will say that lack of a police presence is one of the big factors in Atlanta's high speed drivers. I lived in the Atlanta area for almost 15 years and went into downtown every other weekend. I can say I never saw an Atlanta police officer having pulled over anyone for anything. I have only seen them at accident sites. My older brother lived in the city for 3 years and told me he never saw a cop there pull anyone over either. I guess some of it has to do with being extremely understaffed. I remember being on 400 in my brothers car and he was going about 105 mph. I was thinking wow we are going fast, then I looked out the window and saw most of the other cars were passing us.

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While this doesn't show the fastest drivers, Allstate released a list yesterday ranking the safest drivers for cities over 100,000 in population.

The top 5 were:

#1 Cedar Rapids, IA

#2 Sioux Falls, SD

#3 Chattanooga, TN

#4 Huntsville, AL

#5 Knoxville, TN

Full list here: http://www.allstate.com/media/newsheadline...vers_report.pdf

This shows the criteria of their list: http://www.allstate.com/Media/NewsHeadline...06_07_wheel.htm

I never would have thought Chattanooga had such "safe" draivers! As for the fastest drivers in the South, my vote would be anybody on I-75 south of Atlanta headed towards Florida. I'd say the average speed there must be 85 at least!

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From my experiance (and ive spent alot of time driving in both cities), Atlanta has faster and more erratic drivers than Miami, but Miamians tend to start and stop faster, especially at green lights. I have always felt safe on South Florida highways, but in Atlanta, when you have 12-14 lanes of traffic going 90 mph, it can get hairy!!

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