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Comments
I think I'll celebrate by getting some messy cheeseburgers in the drive-thru, and eating them while talking on my cell phone at 55 mph in the left lane on the Kennedy Expressway.
I'll tell you why... Mr. Chevy Truck and Mr. GMC Truck don't like each other, so they gotta race at 85 mph in their trucks (hey, if you wanna speed 100 mph in your Bonnevilles and Impalas, cool, but not your 'sport trucks')... and they don't really give much care to, you know, little Japanese sport coupes. Thus, I can't LLC, even if I wanted to.
Usually, Detroit traffic is where I am scrambling at 90 to reach the traffic in front of me. Inconsiderate? You bet! All those Big Three employees get in their cars at the end of the day and blast home to watch Channel 7 News and pig out on ice cream.
Detroit rush hour is fun... betcha you didn't know a Malibu is a NASCAR racing speed demon ...
Here's Bob in his Malibu
Passing Chris in his Aztek
Almost cut off by Mike in his Century
Racing past Jim in his Taurus
And here's Lance in his Sunfire on the onramp!
Average speed: 80-85 mph
(Actually, this is a true case... my Grandmother loves her
Grand Am... smoking and driving, lots of fun!)
I'd like to peg the speedo in my SVT Contour, but that's around 160+ MPH, so I'll need a bit more room and motor for that chore.
TB
I see someone coming up behind me at 25 above the limit. Realizing I'm LLCing, I move to the right lane and maintain my chosen speed, as does the guy ahead of me, who stays in the left lane, typically oblivious to his surroundings.
The guy behind us brakes, and has to endure our rolling roadblock for miles and miles.
In this scenario I have followed the strict anti-LLC rules, so I have done absolutely nothing wrong.
Right?
No light bar going to warn folks or anything, 1AM. Very good chance of coming up on someone half asleep or unaware of what was going on.
These are the same folks who want to give me a ticket when I'm 18 over, clear sunny day, only car on the road.
Give me a break. Deputy Friendly was not worried about safety tonight.
TB
All this wrangling about when to move over, and brake-checking (there's a bright idea in heavy traffic!) etc. is dancing around the point. If people would just pass, spread out and get away from other cars as much as traffic will allow, then it will flow better, and give more room for reactions when something goes wrong. Bunched up packs are dangerous.
I guess the opposite is true when traffic is too heavy to spread out. During heavy traffic periods, when all of the lanes are full, most of these rules are out the window. Usually there isn't room to get over, and the few morons who think they can get home 20 seconds faster by zipping through the slots between other cars should vaporized.
"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
I agree with these statements. Drivers should always always be aware of the higher purpose behind the law, and that should come above following the law itself.
If I have an 18-wheeler on my tail, and I need to speed in order not to have him on my tail, you best believe I'm going to do it, for my own safety.
I also make sure that I am not contributing to any blockage of traffic.
The law cannot envision every circumstance, and the ideal situation is when drivers are smart enough to know how to create the safest possible situation on the roads, even if it means bending the old rules a little bit at times.
Common merging problem in OK- most here do not successfully know how to negotiate a safe merge. Speed limits are 65-70 on most freeways in OK. Its probably not a good idea to slow down to 20-30 mph(or in a rare and very dangerous instance..STOP!) just before entering a highway. Why others dont realize that the need to speed up makes slipping into the flow of traffic so much easier...
Classic- When negotiating a cloverleaf...you merge on and the person who wants off cuts right in front of you.
The guy in front of me slows in the acceleration/decelleration lane and our intrepid passer completes his exit in the safety vee.
It's a good thing I wasn't first, because I would have continued accelerating on the shoulder if I had to 8^), at least long enough to make Mr, "I don't understand courtesy or driving rules enough to know that I shouldn't try to pass two accelrating cars when I ultimately have to slow down to take the ramp."
Sheesh.
TB
However, my favorite ramps are the ones from Northbound 255 getting onto eastbound Illinois 15 and Eastbound I64/US40. Both have some nifty ess turns in them that I like to take about 75+ in my SVT, probably 65 in the Buick with the 16" wheels/tires on when possible. (Rarely, too many people in SUVs who have to do the recommended speed or lower! Many of the drivers go fast on ice when they need to slow down, then the slow down in the curves when I want to go fast.)
And don't even get me started about I270 Northbound, just north of I44. The curve is not so treacherous that everyone needs to slow to 35. Yet let a little traffic get on the road, and that's what happens, maybe we go 35 MPH until we get past that gentle right hand curve.
Sheesh!
TB
Harry
Harry
Ford diesel truck driver (woman), a F250 or F350, pulls into the driveway and within 10 feet of the garage doors. People had to move aside as she was coming in.
She then got out, letting this noisy, smelly monster run and started talking to a friend she found that was there. You actually could not talk over the noise of that thing.
People are such a$$hOOOOs.
Look back, I should have gotten into it and driven it down the block, leaving it there idling.
You have one lane at 40, one at 60 and another with the odd 90+mph nutjob blasting throuygh slow traffic.
They're as dangerous as LLCs.
Good post on the traffic flow.
My other pet Peeve?
Damned REAR fog lights!
Bill
Everyone has to pay attention to the traffic around them, all the time. It doesn't matter whether they're going faster or slower than the "flow of traffic".
Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending them by any means. It's just what I've noticed. Many of the slow drivers are oblivious to traffic around them, while high speed drivers at least have to pay some attention to the traffic in front of them to weave through them.
The circulation in Europe might seem very chaotic to North-American eyes, but trust me, it's not. The rules are more logical, in my opinion the drivers are more skilled (because of the training & practice), and while sounding scary, it's much faster & fluid. Whereas here, it's slow and yet quite hazardous.
They made the following experiment - they simply removed the speed limits on some streets & highways (by simply not enforcing them at all). The whole traffic settled at a much higher speed than the previous "legal speed". And yet there have been *MUCH" fewer accidents - people "arranged themselves" to drive at speeds they were comfortable with. Very few people drove faster then the average - the whole traffic was much better. This reminds me of that French park designer who created the parks but did NOT set the alleys at all - he first let people set their own paths in the grass. Obviously the people decided themselves better which were the better directions for them. Only after a year or so, after the trails have formed, did the architect order the paving of those trails. Smart ? No. Elementary. But not for our traffic law-makers & police.
There are highway curves and merges here in Montreal where the posted speed limit is "45" km/h - about 30 mph, even if you have reserved merging lanes ! Honestly, it's perfectly safe, in good weather, to take them at 90 km/h, even in old econoboxes. In bad weather, people automatically adapt - the traffic thru there is then at about 40-50 km/h, without any police enforcing it.
It's better and safer to educate people about driving instead of fragmenting the traffic and handing sppeeding tickets left and right. Unfortunately, the police is only doing the latter.
I asked my gf what the bright orange light was on the headlight control of her Mercedes. She had no idea, but it had always been on when she drove at night. I quickly figured out it was a rear fog light, and told her to never pull the knob back that far, unless it was actually foggy.
I think the Aurora has not one, but two rear fog lights, separated from the other taillights.
OTOH, I guess driving with too many lights on isn't as bad as driving without them (like my brother, who drove my Saab 900 the other night about five miles without the headlights on). I always keep the switch on, they turn off when the car goes off. Unfortunately, the dash lights are on even when the headlights aren't on, so dufus brother thought the headlights were on. D'oh!!
The problem is that many people do this without making sure nobody is coming from *either* direction, then they take both lanes to back out into traffic. I saw a driver in a Celebrity or some other old junk almost get *smacked* by a new Audi wagon recently doing just that.
Also, I think if the driver is turning around by pulling into a parking lot, they should at least use that lot to turn around. This way, they can at least leave the lot facing forward, giving everyone a better chance to avoid a collision.
For lack of a better discussion topic for this...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,50104,00.html
"Why is Hingson playing fast and loose with the data? He's on the board of directors of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)."
;|
Inconsiderate drivers? How about old people who need an invitation to make a left turn, so the traffic behind them doesn't wait forever? It's a one-way street, pull out and go. Today. Please.
You think he'd have driven on a different route.
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Unless the real reason for the goofy law is ticket revenues...