Originally Posted by
sauerwald
Noisebeam - you silly misguided man. What is written in the law is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is how the law is enforced. The actual (enforced) speed law says that unless you are travelling significantly faster than the posted speed, you need to stay to the far right of the roadway and keep out of the way of real traffic. In this case, since the speed limit sign said '45', you would not be driving properly if you were going less than 50 or 55.
50 is pretty typical. I bike or drive this road daily... right past that intersection. This is the only connecting road in the area, unless you use the freeway.
North bound traffic does slow down to a crawl at about 8:15 in the morning, and south bound traffic comes to a halt between 5:00 and 6:00PM in the evening. (all the more reason to bike this route, as motor traffic is walking pace slow right at rush hour... although tempers of motorists also tend to flare)
While most drivers usually do about 50MPH through here (and higher on the downhill portions), there is also the factor of "police car" and how a police car in the area tends to temper the lead foot of many drivers.
There is a good chance the motorists and the cop at that point were going somewhere between 45 and 50MPH, and this would be very typical.