A New Category of Sloth 3331And your point is... speeding is fine because "everybody does it"? Can't say I really know, exactly, since "excessive" is subjective. A traffic engineer would have a better idea. But...
gpsman
The point you miss is that all the other drivers in the driving situations you cite are the ones who do *not* have the right of way. Drivers pulling out of side streets, making left turns, and merging onto highways do not have the right of way.
The driver who is travelling on the main road and not making any turns does have the right of way. Even those who choose to disregard speed limits still yield to through traffic when merging, pulling out from a side street or when preparing to take a left.
I speed (10, 15 and sometimes 20 over the limit), but I don't pull out in front of people. I don't force other cars out of my way when merging onto the interstate, and I don't time my left turn such that through traffic coming in the opposite direction ends up slowing down to avoid colliding with me.
As for the actions I described in the previous paragraph, I really don't care what speed through traffic is going. I still will be able to complete my turn or merge without disrupting them and I don't consider it a problem if I have to wait another 5 seconds before I pull out to pbutt, find a gap behind instead of ahead of another vehicle when trying to merge, or wait a little longer to take a left turn or pull out from a side street.
