Speed Limit Signs Do Not Matter in Lubbock, Texas

Speed limit signs are barely a suggestion in Lubbock.

If you're like me, and most everybody was yesterday (and the day before, and the day before that), you rarely even look at your speedometer. Generally what folks like us do is follow the flow of the traffic. That is, we go however fast the people around us are going. The prevailing thought is that hopefully the person up ahead will slow down and/or get the ticket while we draft everybody in the back.

Yesterday during lunch hour on the west loop, the flow of traffic was 70 mph. t's somewhat of an unwritten rule that if you're within five miles of the posted speed limit, the cops won't mess with ya. Keep in mind, this is a rule of thumb and not a real rule that the police department goes by. Oh, and I do want to mention that everyone was going 70 mph in the "slow" right lane. The posted limit is 65 mph. (Let's not even get into how fast people go over the speed limit on some of our mid-level arteries, like 82nd Street, Quaker Ave. and Ave Q.)

I'm not really complaining; as I said, I go with the flow. Where I do have a problem is people not following the rules of the road when it comes to construction areas and/or where emergency vehicles are pulled over. You're actually supposed to drop 20 miles an hour below the posted speed limit when you see any of those things.

Here's an actual quote from TxDOT:

This law requires drivers to move over a lane or slow to 20 mph below the posted speed limit when approaching emergency vehicles, law enforcement, tow trucks, utility service vehicles, TxDOT vehicles or other highway construction or maintenance vehicles using visual signals or flashing lights activated on the roadside.

So when it comes to going with the flow I'm with you guys, but we have to be a little more careful when there's an emergency or construction stuff going on. I'm all about being a big boy and going as fast as I want to go, I just don't want to hurt anyone else by doing it.