The need for speed and Interstate 81

My wife and I had the great pleasure of attending a beautiful wedding in Harrisonburg, Va. on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend 2007.

From Roanoke, that means a trip on Interstate 81.   When we went up just before noon, traffic was moderate for Interstate 81.  Some reports from the day before were of bumper to bumper traffic.

That same Friday, I had gone to Virginia Tech for a couple of meetings and found that the trucks are still rolling on I81. In fact that Friday as I merged onto the highway at Salem, I squeezed in among a pack of five or six trucks. Traffic did slow to 40 mph on one the hills as trucks played their passing game.

Still I managed to get home safely without seeing any wrecks and was ready for our Saturday trip.

Saturday morning's traffic also moved smoothly so getting to the church on time was not a problem.   After a wonderful reception in a barn in the countryside around Harrisonburg, we headed home a little after seven pm.

Traffic was light by I81 standards. In fact we have found that Saturday evening is one of the best times to travel both Interstate 81 and 77.

I am not by nature a slow driver. I generally take full advantage of the five to seven miles per hour buffer over the speed limit.

As any regular traveler on I81 will tell you, that is about what it takes to keep from getting run over.

That Saturday night was a special case though.  I felt like I was living life in the slow lane.  Between Staunton and Troutville, I was passed by over one dozen cars all traveling in my somewhat experienced eye at least 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. 

Now I was also passed by some cars going perhaps ten miles per hour over the speed limit, but those cars take a while to get around you since they are only going a little faster than I am.

I am convinced that I saw at least two vehicles going 95 mph or better.

We saw one police car set up in a radar trap just before Staunton and one car pulled over in the same area going northbound, but there was nothing to impede the speed on southbound 81 despite all the talk of a crackdown.

I81 has no monopoly on speed, the Raleigh, NC paper has been running a series about speed and how judges in NC go easy on speeders even those driving over 100 mph.

A couple of the comments in the NC paper have indicated that North Carolinians think Virginians have figured out how to get people to drive the speed limit. 

Unfortunately that is a challenging problem which in addition to enforcement has to do with having reasonable speed limits and highways that are well designed for the amount of traffic they are carrying.

As we all know there are some places that even five miles over the speed limit can place you in jeopardy.  My list includes, US 220, US29, US460, any place in Salem and spots on 419 when the police just want to write tickets.  There is also a section on I77 near milepost 10 around Hillsville that also requires careful attention.

Places where ten miles per hour over the speed limit are the bare minimum include Route 268, the Toll Road in Northern Virginia, though I do understand it might not be as much of a racetrack as it used to be.  Interstate 95 south of Washington can also be pretty speedy.

Of course I try to avoid Interstates these days except I40 east of Raleigh which has a 70 mph speed limit and usually very little traffic.  There I also usually drive five miles per hour or less over the speed limit.  I rarely see as many super speeders on that section of I40 as I did that Saturday night on I81.

I did notice that a high percentage of the racers on I81 that Saturday night had out of state tags with Georgia and Maryland have the honor of having two tags each in the group. There were Virginia drivers in the group, probably three or four.

In North Carolina, I find most rural roads are safe to drive at that five to seven miles over the speed limit, though I pretty much stick to five miles over the speed limit on Highway 24 when I am down on the coast.

I treat Emerald Isle, NC like I do Salem, VA, I stay very close to the speed limit.  Fortunately for me, the speed limit in Emerald Isle is a much more reasonable 35 mph than the all too prevalent 25 mph that you see in Salem, Roanoke County, and Roanoke.  Salem has the honor of having 25 mph posted on at leas on stretch of a four lane road.

Over the nineteen years I have lived in the Roanoke area, I have gotten five speeding tickets while driving an average of over 35,000 miles per year.

One was in California for doing a little over sixty in a fifty miles per hour zone near Santa Cruz. 

Two were on 419. One was just after exciting I81.  I was doing just under 50 in the 35 zone.  I was stopped before the sign. Another ticket was for doing almost 55 on 419 in the long stretch just before Oak Grove Plaza headed north.  It was the last day of the month.

No long after we moved to the area, I got ticket for doing almost 35 in a 25 mph zone while rushing to pick up one of the kids from a church event.

My other ticket was for doing almost 75 on Interstate 66 where that is pretty the average speed in that particular 65 mph zone.   It was a case of random justice.

Fortunately I have watched my speed perhaps a little closer in the Roanoke area the last three years so I am no longer terrorizing 419.

From my own experience I would say that just maybe we should spend a little more time chasing down the 80 to 100 mph speeders.