I think the highest speed limit I have seen in America is 85mph, which is around 135km/h. Typical highway speed limits though are 65mph, but everyone goes 5-10 over (105-120km/h).
The nice thing about mph is the whole mile a minute at 60mph. Makes it easy to mentally estimate time of arrival.
Lol no, you have to be going something like double the speed limit most places to get arrested
You might get a ticket, but almost any judge will throw the ticket out if they write you up for going 5-10 over. Some places will write the ticket anyways in the hopes of making some extra revenue, but generally speaking it’s not a ticket that is worth writing because it’s so easy to get tossed out.
Some places are sticklers about the speed limit, and other minor offenses. If you’re local, you tend to know where they are, either from word-of-mouth or local news. Most places won’t ticket for going 5 mph over because a lot of judges will just throw the ticket out, especially if you come with a receipt saying you had your speedometer calibrated. In seemingly more and more places, 10 mph over is the norm. Some of that’s due to shrinking police forces. Pretty much everywhere, 20+ mph over is considered reckless driving.
What part of the country are you from? IME that’s far from universal. I have gotten pulled for 20+ over in multiple states and it’s often just a warning, if I do get ticketed it’s just a ticket and that’s the end of it:
When I had first gotten my license in CA I got pulled over while doing 105-110 in a 65 mph zone. The cop wrote it up for 99 mph, which was a simple speeding ticket without the option for traffic school. I went to court and the judge knocked it down to a <$200 ticket with traffic school so I didn’t get any points on my record.
85 mph in a 65 is normal in a ton of states, they’d be they’d be writing up people for reckless driving in every other traffic stop if 20 over were the threshold.
Do police not arrest people for this?
Depends on the city. Some cities are notorious for using speed traps to increase revenue.
From Texas to Ohio, municipalities are using law enforcement to counteract declining tax bases through the aggressive enforcement of fineable offenses such as speeding. A 2019 report estimated that nearly 600 jurisdictions nationwide generate at least 10% of their general fund revenue through fines and forfeitures.
Other municipalities have enacted their own policing-for-profit programs. In Brookside, Alabama, the town of about 1,200 residents saw its revenue increase more than 640% in only two years, according to AL.com, after police began an aggressive traffic stop and ticket-writing campaign. Fines and forfeitures made up almost half of the town’s budget.
