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1. If the sign says 45 mph, then you must GO 45 mph.
2. The proper following distance is apparently one half the length of the behemoth for every 30 miles per hour of speed
3. Turning right out of the left lane is okay (because people in the right lane were not going the posted 45 mph) as long as you have the safety and security of 4 wheel drive
4. The proper amount of room before moving back into ones lane is approximately one half the length of the behemoth, or just as soon as the rear bumper clears the "passee's" front bumper.
5. Brakes are optional at stoplights as long as one is proceeding at the posted 45 mph.
Freeway rules (from what I gathered from the morning news) appear to be a study of some of Newton's laws:
1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. The external force in this case appeared to be guardrails
2. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This would refer to the "reaction" of other drivers to the SUV drivers "action" of cutting them off.
Sometimes, you enjoy driving past rollovers.
I'm the fourth car back from a line of at least 10. Since my turn off in not far ahead I just relax and take in the scenery. Well, several cars/Suv's try to pass but there is really no room or visual distance to do safely. The guy in the tractor just keeps driving along with no regard to what is happening behind him. I had the notion of just pulling in front of him and stopping completely but I wasn't in the mood to be shot
Sometimes, you just have to let it roll off like water on a ducks back, but it's hard to do.
Well, over the hill comes a fire engine and an ambulance. All the oncoming traffic pulls to the shoulder, and we all pull over too, to clear room on our side as well.
Well, wouldn't you know it, a car jerked out onto the road the instant the ambulance passed, and proceeded to cut everyone else off. Rode the ambulance's rear-end until he was out of sight. Gawd, I hope the cops down the road caught him!
I have a 4Runner. It weighs about 4300 lbs. It actually takes longer to stop in the snow because of its weight, than some lighter vehicles. I have Vehicle Skid Control in the 4Runner that has never kicked in.
I learned to drive in the snow in Chicago in big old RWD cars of the early 60's. I am used to driving non FWD cars. I think a lot of new 4WD owners are used to driving only FWD and have learned to point a skidding car where they want it to go. In 4WD and RWD, you steer the front end to be in front of the sliding rear end. This may be the opposite of FWD experience.
So a sliding 4WD may be corrected in a skid in the opposite of what should be done.
I owned two old military jeeps that I used to take out in the snow to learn how to drive in it in my misspent youth.
By the way Ive never liked passing on the right. Leaves way too many more variables that could cause an accident than if the person in front is kind enough to just move over and let you through. Plus, there's plenty of two lane expressways around here where one left lane camper who stays glued to the vehicle next to him can make passing on the right impossible and cause a whole rolling traffic jam. Ill do it on an almost empty road or on multi-lane roads, otherwise I like my way better. Also, on multi lane roads this may necessitate moving over 2-3 lanes to get around the LLC AND the slow driver in the middle lane and then moving back another 2-3 lanes to get back in the left lane in front of the LLC. In which case now everybody including law enforcement is looking at you like this looney veering across multiple lanes of traffic while the LLC looks perfectly innocent.
So why should I lay back and allow the LLC to impose his will on me, but I am not allowed to do the same? For me, it is not even about imposing my will or making my 'blood surge.' It's about getting through the pack so I can continue safely down the road at my comfort speed without hovering near lots of other cars. It would seem to me that a determined left lane camper is the one who's more interested in bending other drivers to his will, ie "MY SPEED is the only appropriate speed to drive at. No higher speed is appropriate. So you shouldnt have to pass me anyway, so why cant I park in the passing lane?"
Whereas all the faster driver wants is to move past you and continue at his own comfort speed, and he could not care less about what you're doing with your own vehicle as long as you're not needlessly impeding his progress. Why am I a bully for not wanting to be behind him, but he's not a bully for forcing me to stay there?
And dont waste your breath on arguing 'its the law'. We're both breaking laws in this instance. Im breaking the speed limit, the LLC is breaking the 'keep right except to pass even if traveling at the limit', which is clearly stated in the driver's manual and on some road signs.
I try not to be too impatient with these people, but here's how it normally goes.
Cruising at 10-15 over the limit, approach someone going the exact same speed as the person in beside them with no cars ahead for at least a quarter mile or so.I Slow down to match speeds and wait patiently for about half a minute. 9 times out of ten, the LLC is in a deep trance. They got over there to make a pass, then got distracted by the passing scenery, lost their focus, got deep in thought, maybe got deep into their cell phone convo as the jerk in the LS400 I got stuck behind the other day, or they just dont give a darn what's going on behind them. And now they're just kind of cruising along in a daze side by side with the next vehicle over.
Because of this they're not paying enough attention to notice you coming up behind them going 20mph faster. They're not paying enough attention to notice when you stop several car lengths behind and politely wait to see if theyll notice youre there on their own and do the right thing. They arent awake enough to notice when you move a little closer. They're someetimes not even paying enough attention to notice when you politely blink your high beams twice to say "please let me by."
No, they only finally wake up when you hit them with a combination of high beams and/or fogs. Then they notice you there for the first time even though you've been hovering back there patiently for the last 5-10 minutes with traffic piling up behind you. But now because they didn't notice you when you were polite, only when you get rude about it, they're wondering why that jerk behind them has to be so darned obnoxious.
Maybe if left lane campers would be awake enough and courteous enough to notice me when I was still trying to be polite about it, I wouldn't have to be rude. Funny, but in 8 years of driving I can barely recall but one or two instances where Ive ever been tail gated in the left lane. Could that be connected to the fact that Im constantly scanning my rear view mirror and will move over in an instant if I see another vehicle closing fast? I think maybe so!
I also think that most folks tend to not only know that but follow it when safe.
It has also been law for a long time in CA anyway that passing on the right is legal.
So like I have said, if I am legally behind a vehicle in front and he gives no indication he either sees me or will move right I begin to pass on the right. Following someone for 10-15 miles at less than 2-3 mississippi seconds is not only unsafe, but if I happen to rear end him, I will be held at fault, the majority of the time.
I was also taught not to go faster than the speed limit, and to stay below it in anything but perfect conditions.
You do the math.
I've learned since, but I never would've if I didn't get into cars and start reading websites like this one. Everyone else who learned alongside me...
I'm picturing my typical experience where I'm going 5-10 over on 3 lane interstate. The LLD (left lane dominator/trix) rolls up in the left lane damanding "their" lane be open so they can show everyone that 80 is safe in Ohio in medium/heavy traffic flow. They roll up to almost hit you bumper to emphasize they have a right to their lane, then after 30 seconds coast back to a safer distance.
Sometimes they do not wait until there is a medium size opening in the middle lane for me to move over to allow them to ply their dominance on the next person 500 feet in front of me; they quickly move to the right and pass with exaggeration of their lane changes to the point their SUV/Pickemuptruck wags its rear. They cut over through the middle lane to the right hand truck lane, slower and sometimes with openings between trucks and safe drivers so they can speed up to 85 and get up ahead to move back to their left lane.
Notice I said SUVs are often guiltly along with foreign car drivers or expensive imports, more often BMW and Lexi and around Cincy, the Infinity owners are more prevalent. Often the driver in the LLD is on their cell phone, usually handheld, sometimes handsfree where they talking to themselves!
eharris is describing someone going at the same speed as middle lane traffic and with the middle lane having room for the person to move over. (Most Michigan travels are safer than others though, so save the flames if you're from Michigan.)
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I hear we might get another snow storm on the East Coast on Wednesday. I'll be prepared to drive as safely as I can.
Does he camp in the left lane and make others weave around him to pass on the right ?
If they then look over, you can give them the odscene gesture of the day.
But I've noticed that, if you flick someone off, it's almost like admitting that they've won. They've succeeded in pissing you off, and they like that satisfaction. I'm sure we've all seen it...flick someone off, and they just laugh.
Instead, try this. Next time you have the urge to flick someone off, instead, just look at them like you're ashamed of them, and shake your head back and forth in disgust. I've noticed this gets a much better reaction. People love it when they get you mad enough to flick them off. However, nobody likes being criticized, and that's how they take it. By shaking your head back and forth like you would to a naughty child, or a dog that got into the cat's litter box for some "breath fresheners", you're doing just that.
I have also learned that flicking your 4 fingers together under your chin in an outward gesture works well with some Mediterranean cultures. Holding your thumb against your 4 fingers in a group. pointed up and shook back and forth works with some of the same cultures, too. These are generally effective and it takes the form of a game trying to find one that fits individual drivers.
In NJ, I found an upthrusting right fist , stopped by the palm of the left hand on the inside right elbow to be really effective.
That's what I call the obscene gesture of the day.
If they're slightly to your rear and you need to get over into their lane, they always 'happen' to want to speed up at that exact moment. If they're slightly ahead of you and you want to get in behind them once they move past, they reach your front fender and suddenly want to take it easy and loaf along just slow enough that you can't squeeze in behind them.
A left lane blocker will cling to the passing lane and drive you nuts all day long, but then decide they're finally ready to move over at the EXACT second you start passing on the right.
A day dreamer will take off from three lights in a row as slow as continental drift, but they suddenly become speed racer when anybody pulls up next to them and tries to escape.
Sometimes I actually resort to faking people out, because their behavior seems so predictable if I just pretend to do what they expect, they'll move to close the gap and leave me an opening where I REALLY wanted to go.
Anyway, the way this little plaza is set up, there's no parking directly in front of the store. There's just a curb, with a narrow aisle just barely wide enough to two cars to pass each other, and then the parking spaces across from that.
A 1st-gen Chrysler Sebring coupe pulls up at the curb, nicely blocking in a Ford work van (an extended-wheebase Econoline model) and a few other cars. Lady gets out, walks in the store without a care in the world, and starts browsing around.
Then I notice that the van's backing out, and having problems, turning what should be an easy out into, like, a 32-point turn. So I get the lady's attention, loudly enough so that everybody else in the store can hear, too... "Yo, lady! That van out there is having an awful lot of trouble getting out because of the way you parked!"
She looks out there, like it's an inconvience to her, then back to me, giving me a "how dare you bother me with something so trifling" stare. Then she says, after a few seconds "He's out".
In the long run, it probably didn't do any good, but at least she got to wait in a long line at the 7-Eleven, with everyone else in the store giving her nasty glances!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I was on my bike in a strip mall that had one lane and parking spaces next to the one lane. A person had double parked, blocking the whole lane. I was behind a woman in a convertible and was just about to go around her and around the parked car, when a dude walks out with his dry cleaning and gets in the car that was blocking the other cars. The woman in the convertible said something about his being very inconsiderate. He said. " 4 letter word you". I drove around her and drove my front fender between his legs and revved the engine. I told him if I let the clutch in, I'd do a wheelie that would send him 10 feet in the air. I suggested he apologize. He sounded fairly sincere.
Do these people think they're really going to reach their destination quicker? I'm not world's most courteous driver by any stretch, but gimme a break. Yes, I'm fully aware that I'm in the left lane. I'm also aware that I'm in a line of traffic that is PASSING TRAFFIC in the right lane. Finally, I'm completely aware that there is a car length gap between my vehicle and the one in front of me. What makes anyone think they've got the right to try and race ahead of the left lane just to gain a car length or 2?
What's funniest... five seconds later, he moves right and tries to leap frog past the next guy in the line, but gets caught behind a slow moving truck and doesnt make it. Meanwhile I move past him again while he's trapped behind the slow moving truck and he's forced to, you guessed it, slide right in behind me when he started off. Of course at the next opportunity he tried to sneak around on the right again, only to get trapped two cars behind me. Funny... all that work and impatience and cutting people off ended up trapping him maybe 2 cars behind where he would have been if he could have just stayed still.
Haha... I see the same thing regularly. Sometimes it seems that the more aggressive you are in trying to get ahead by a few feet the more likely you are to fall far behind.
I've found that trying to move ahead in congested traffic requires knowing what the traffic is like sixty seconds ahead of you and switching lanes accordingly. I sometimes do this when there's space and it's not going to annoy anyone. But if I don't know precisely what's going on with traffic 1/3 mile ahead of me, then I've found that it's safer and faster to just stay in my lane and maintain a safe following distance.
I drive a small sporty car --> I'm a target for police.
So I'm always in a crux. Do I,
- Drive at the speed limit in the right lanes, risking my suspension, cracked rims, blown tires, a landslide of interior squeaks and rattles, and flying road debris.
- Drive at the speed limit in the left lane (not slower than it... AT it) and piss off all the people who want to drive (illegally) beyond the speed limit
- Drive in the left lane at the flow of traffic and be guaranteed a speeding ticket or two a year.
I'd be more critical of LLCs if road quality weren't an issue. For me, though, I've kind of reserved for myself the right to drive anywhere between 0 to 5mph over the speed limit in the left lane, on bad stretches of road, even if there's some truck behind me wanting to go 20mph over.
They used to have the signs on the rear to remind everyone they paid the road taxes too.
But they never said that they did $50,000 of damage because of weight and higher speeds and caused 3 accidents, 2 injuries, and 1 death:
the sign just said
"This truck paid $6000 in road use taxes last year"
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Cheers!
Paul
Had a truck force me out of middle lane because I was beside him and starting to pass when he put his blinker on to change lanes. I continued my pass.
He had a slow 40 mph vehicle in the right lane he wanted to get around.
LandStar company called me back, but noone ever called to check on my complaint. The safety # I got from the website justs took initial information.
Other companies have cared when something happens, like when they don't see you and change lanes... especially smaller ones where the owner answers the phone.
Had truck tail me into construction area after he speeded down Interstate 75 for 25 miles. I called the company. They thought he was in Cleveland and coming back on Interstate 71. I told them I had passed him doing XX speed in SW OHIO and he kept up with me and tailgated me on a one lane paving area. He probably had picked up another load he dropped in another city and was heading back to the company when he tailed me.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Let me guess. You have 17 inch or larger wheels on a car that came with 15 inch wheels.
You guessed wrong.
Moreover some of us live in urban areas with potholes you could stack four chicago-style medium or large pizzas in.
I like it, because it slows some of the idiots down, but not all of them. Every once in awhile, I'll find a stray hubcap out there. And I doubt it's really rough enough to cause immediate damage, but I'm sure some of these idiots are wearing out their suspensions prematurely and slowly knocking their cars out of alignment.
Oh, and here's another one, that was kinda funny. About 5 years ago, in my old neighborhood, they put in speed humps (or quickies, as we'd call 'em ;-). Most cars would be fine if they went over them at 15-20 mph. If you had bigger tires with more cushioning, they just made speeding fun, though. Every once in awhile though, somebody would hit them a bit too fast, and you'd hear metal and other parts scraping.
One day, I came home from work, and there was a fairly new Hyundai Accent just sitting there, in the middle of the lane, about 20-30 feet on the other side of one of these speed humps. It was leaning a bit to the right. As I squeezed by it, I saw why. Right side tire was at an ungodly angle. I'm guessing they hit the hump too hard, and buckled something in the suspension, in a major way!
BTW, pothole was in right lane of a four-lane avenue.
Anyway, I hit a greasy spot on a sharp on-ramp curve, and hopped the curb. One tire popped immediately. One got a big bubble in the sidewall. And one tire had a huge chunk ripped off, right down to the steel belt.
Thankfully, I had plunked down the extra money for road-hazard, so 3 new tires only set me back like $50.00. And I lucked out and found another Olds Rally wheel in the junkyard that was a light gray. At a quick glance, it didn't look too far-off from that jadestone, once it was on the car, with its trim ring and everything. I guess the damage could have been a lot worse though, if I'd had lower-profile tires.
The Main State roads are not bad at all, no matter what lane you are in in regard to potholes. The Interstate highways are in good shape in regard to potholes.
Had to stop at the grocery store today (Mr Mom's life is VERY busy) and being close to the holidays, it's getting kind of busy. Wound up parking farther out in the lot than I usually have to. Not a big deal, but I didn't even bother looking for the "closest" spot, I just parked in one of two empty side by side spots. (I'm driving a '96 Sentra BTW) When I return to the car, I find that someone has parked a Chevy Tahoe SO close to my car that I can almost NOT squeeze my legs between the cars, much less get to the driver's door. My car is pretty much centered in the spot, so there's about 18" of my parking spot to the left of my car. The right wheels of the Tahoe are IN MY SPOT. I toss my groceries in the trunk and wait... about 15 minutes later, Mrs. Tahoe driver comes out to a Christmas surprise as I go up one side of her and down the other about how IMPORTANT she must be. (It was a lot better and more excting than that description, but I don't want to have to delete myself!! ) Never gave her a chance to respond, just unloaded on her, finishing with "Move your ______ car so I can go HOME!! ...and a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO!"
As I said, the make/model/style of vehicle isn;t the point here... just the level of INCONSIDERATE!!!
</rant>
PF Flyer
Host
Pickups & News & Views Message Boards
I very very very seldom will get into the kind of dialog that you felt you needed to do! If you would look at it from his point of view he probably thought you were a "nut" case!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
PF Flyer
Host
Pickups & News & Views Message Boards
Second parking story. I was with a friend who had a week old Chevy Full sized 1 ton van.
A guy pulls in next to him and slams his van with their car door. My friend gets out, and looks at the dent. He then yells something about his van is less than a week old and he says "how would you like a dent ?" He then kicks the door of this guy's car. He broke his foot. We still laugh about this.
Those guys raced up tailgated, swerved between lanes just to race the way they saw their beloved Nascar driver race on Sunday!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Moreover some of us live in urban areas with potholes you could stack four chicago-style medium or large pizzas in."
Hmmm, maybe some of us need to take road conditions in our area into consideration when we choose vehicles. I had an Uncle like this, he had an 89 Toyota Supra and he'd go whizzing down the street, hit a pothole, and be afraid he'd damaged something. Always funny..."vrooooooom...CLUNK... curse... vroooom... clunk... curse..." One of the reasons I love owning a truck is not having to have a heart attack and wonder if I have to have major wheel or suspension work done every time I hit a bump in the road.