Ashley and her parents both drive for $2$ hours to meet at a restaurant on the road between her college and her parents' home. The full road distance from her college to her parents' home is $234$ miles. Ashley's speed is $7$ mph faster than her parents'. What is **Ashley's** speed?

Let $r$ be the parents' speed. Then Ashley's speed is $r + 7$. Both drive $2$ hours toward each other; the sum of their distances equals the road length: $2 r + 2 (r + 7) = 234$. Expand: $2 r + 2 r + 14 = 234 \Rightarrow 4 r = 220 \Rightarrow r = 55$. Ashley's speed $= 55 + 7 = \boxed{62}$ mph. Check: parents cover $55 \times 2 = 110$; Ashley covers $62 \times 2 = 124$. Sum $= 234$ ✓. - Trap A ($55$) is the parents' speed. - Trap B ($58.5 = 234 / 4$) treats the two drivers as identical (no $+7$). - Trap D ($117$) is half-time-related but misapplied. This is the *meeting in the middle* pattern: distances add up to the gap, times are equal but speeds differ.