A scoutmaster of mine had a theory. Everyone has their own different version of what "9:30" means- to some it's 9:25, to others 9:45. But there is only one 9:32. So he would use weird times like that, we're meeting at 6:07 today.
Saratoga, CA does something similar. The twisty part of Quito Road, between Bicknell Road and Pollard road, has a speed limit of 25 mph. But the sharper turns have advisory speed signs (the yellow diamond kind) with numbers like 17, 19, 21, and 22 mph to catch drivers' attention and get them to slow down on these turns.
Then there’s an aggressive driver who sees that and realizes it hammers home the point that the yellow speed signs (vs the white ones) are not enforceable.
And an enforceable sign could never be a weird number because speedos don’t have ticks but every 5mph.
The first time I drove in the US I came up to a turn with the yellow speed sign. I was going faster and I could feel my car strain to not go off the road. This is to this day the second scariest thing I've experienced in a car.
After that I 100% followed the yellow signs.
I had a similar experience but had an opposite takeaway. I learned that my car, in dry, daylight conditions, could comfortably go 20±5 mph faster around curves than those signs suggest.
Those signs aren’t just for whether you can go around a curve comfortably. It is if you can see and/or stop safely if something happens. If there is a broken-down car in the lane, you will see it way off at 65 mph, but if you are going around a blind curve comfortably at 65 you might plow into it or skid off the road.
Those signs can also be posted as advice for adverse conditions like snow and rain. (Of course, ice = all bets off)
> This is to this day the second scariest thing I've experienced in a car.
I have to know! What was the scariest thing?
Going past a line of cars that were backed up and going like ~10 km/h and some guy in a pickup truck suddenly decided to force his way into the line and hit a car so it jumped into my lane by a meter or so. Only time I have ever needed to perform the moose maneuver we are taught in driving school :P
I was lucky there was no car in the lane to my right.
Oof!
Here are my two scariest recent ones...
I was driving north on Highway 87 in San Jose in the #2 lane (second lane from the left) when directly in front of me was a big metal rack, standing up in the road! It looked like something you might hang clothes hangers on. Which made it all the worse because it wasn't as visible as a heavier rack.
I hit the brakes and swerved into the #1 lane to avoid it. Luckily no one was in that lane. I try to keep situational awareness of the lanes to my right and left, so I felt pretty sure that no one was in that lane next to me.
The other was driving on northbound El Camino in Menlo Park, in the rightmost lane, at night.
Someone was riding a bike in that lane, dressed all in black (and even a black hoodie), with no lights or reflectors or anything to make himself visible. And he was doing that thing that some young people like to do where they weave back and forth for no reason at all except that it's fun?
Another brake slam and swerve to avoid him. It ended OK but was definitely a white knuckle moment!
> And an enforceable sign could never be a weird number because speedos don’t have ticks but every 5mph.
Disneyland famously has a 14mph speed limit for their property. They do this both to get your attention, and because the tram moves at 14mph (because 15mph requires seatbelts).
I always love seeing stuff like this on reddit /r/oddlyspecific
I think I even saw a 5.25 mph sign once!
Not really the same thing, but in New Zealand, all speed limits are multiples of 10 (km/h), and all recommended safe speeds (e.g. for a sharp corner) end in ‘5’.
Initially I was sure you were talking about my Scoutmaster. (The details diverged in the end.) The expected arrival time for camping trips was always something like 9:59am - that way people would hopefully show up at 9-something or maybe just a few minutes late like 10:10. If the expected arrival time was 10:00, people would interpret it as 10-something and show up at 10:45.