It actually does say (from my reading) that speed limit shall not be a factor if other traffic is going a similar speed. The very first line, "Notwithstanding the prima facie speed limits..." is where I got this explanation.
Well, yes and no. Oddly enough, I think everyone is right in this section of the thread so far:
teilo said, "the safest speed is the average speed of traffic, regardless of the posted speed limit." This is true; it may not be the legal speed, but a vehicle doing 60 MPH on a highway where the average vehicle speed is 80 MPH is indeed a traffic hazard, regardless of the posted speed limit.
teilo also said, "If they could not drive comfortably at that speed, then they should stay in the right lane." This is what I was responding to when I said "it" was codified as law, and provided a citation.
hristov responded by arguing that this doesn't make it legal to go over the posted speed limit: "But nothing in this rule or any other rule gives you a right to drive above the speed limit even if everyone else is driving above the speed limit." And he's right, too. By my reading of that law, it merely says that slower traffic must move as far to the right as possible. I don't think "notwithstanding" in that case means that the drivers can ignore the posted limits, although that's certainly unclear and a point of interpretation.
