No, drivers judge and anticipate what others are doing and going to do every single time they drive. If they didn't, then the crash rate would be much higher.
It may be beyond the driver's control (I can't prevent someone from pulling out in front of me, but I can anticipate it and have an escape route planned in case it does happen), but hardly beyond their perception.
Good drivers will expect what everyone else believes is not possible to expect.
A good driver who's waiting at a traffic light will look both ways just as he's starting to cross the intersection. A bad driver is one who jumps the light, or arbitrarily waits 5 seconds to go on a green.
Safe driving is only problematic when drivers don't check for traffic before performing a maneuver. One would have to approach speed differentials of 60 mph+ before visibility becomes an issue on an interstate. Even if one is going 25 to 30 mph faster than other traffic, that traffic an see the faster vehicle(s) at least 30 seconds in advance.
That's not what a speed limit is supposed to be about. The speed limit is supposed to represent an *upper bound* speed. It's not supposed to be a speed where most drivers can handle it. As you already know, the 85th percentile speed represents the speed 85 percent of drivers drive at *or under*. That may mean that the lowest 18 percent of drivers are only be confident enough to drive 5 to 10 mph below the 85th percentile speed limit.
The 65 mph limit on VA interstates is not reasonable.
But from what I gather in the individual article, the LEOs were not weaving, possibly not tailgating, or engaging in any of the behaviors I've described above. AFAICT, they were using their emergency lights while driving in the left lane and making other drivers yield to them (the "forcing out of the pbutting lane" line in the article points to that possibility).
If it were truly unsafe for police officers to drive 85 to 95 mph with their overhead lights activated, then police should stop enforcing the speed limit. Those attempting to catch up with drivers going 78 in a 65 mph zone routinely exceed 90 and even 100 mph while using their overhead lights. If they didn't, they'd never catch up with the offender in a reasonable amount of time.
Oh, and if you do want to pretend that this is the old thread, then I would like to get the last word in please :)
