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Rude Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams
BuzzSkyline writes "Traffic jams are minimized if a significant fraction of drivers break the rules by doing things like passing on the wrong side or changing lanes too close to an intersection. The insight comes from a cellular automata study published this month in the journal Physical Review E. In effect, people who disregard the rules help to break up the groups that form as rule-followers clump together. The risk of jamming is lower if all people obey the rules than if they all disobey them, according to the analysis, but jamming risk is lowest when about 40 percent of people drive like jerks."
especially on the Belt Parkway where people seem to slow down to 30mph to go over a bridge
So I guess if 100% drive like jerks it's even worse? This is a strange study. I'm not sure how you're gonna convince those 60% to not drive like jerks!
apparently this study didn't take atlanta into consideration..... everyone there drives like jerks.
stephen
That's why you always hear the little motor in my '06 Civic Coupe revving it's little brains out.
I'm just clearing the log-jam people. Move along...
Drivers breaking the rules to get out of traffic jams reduces the number of cars in traffic jams.
In other news... passengers jumping out of airplanes leaves more room for other passengers.
How do you explain the traffic jams in Mass? its about 89% massholes, and 10% jerks, 1 percent follow the rules. (probably due to outstanding warrents)
Of course rude drivers ease congestion. When they kill someone because of their stupidity, not only will that person not drive again, but they'll probably lose their license, so they won't either!
One guys who made the study live in OC and drive a monster truck?
Soooo ... if I'm blasting people that clump traffic with an airhorn, am I just part of the jerk population that's helping traffic flow or just a jerk?
that we all have to take turns driving like jerks? Some of us aren't slowing down for anybody.
The problem of cars "clumping" is due to the "rule abiding" drivers following each other too closely. This is in fact not rule abiding.
A reasonable space must be left between each car to provide enough extra slack to handle unexpected events like braking and slowing. When people follow too closely, this slack is all but eliminated thus causing each unexpected event's effect to become magnified. A quick tap of the brakes causes a chain reaction resulting in a traffic jam. Leaving enough space to handle an unexpected event provides each driver extra time to react.
In addition, since the additional slack allows for longer reaction times, a faster average speed can be achieved. Bob Dobbs would be so proud.
Except for the part where people who don't follow the rules (Follow to closely, cross entire lanes of traffic to catch an exit, drive excessively fast (90+) cause accidents thus resulting in traffic.
Or what about people who fail to get over when a sign says "Right lane ends 1/4 mile" Rather than get over now so traffic can move along smoothly (Because if you notice, once the lane ends, things pick up) they wait till the last damn second and hold everyone else up. Yeah sure that may not be against the law, but it still increases traffic (And road rage for that matter)
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"Breaking the rules" is not rude behavior on the road, as far as I'm concerned. Most of the problems on our highways are caused by people driving 'below' the rules. Some examples are failing to accelerate to highway speed on the onramp, driving in the 'passing' lane when you aren't passing anyone, and my personal least favorite, not being ready to go when the light turns green at a crowded rush hour intersection. If no-one made these key mistakes our highways would probably be able to accomodate 20% more traffic without any physical upgrades in capacity. yet somehow, I'm the bad guy for flashing my lights at some jerk driving 55 right next to someone else going 55 when there are 15 cars stacked up behind him!
My #1 example as to why this is BS...
I am on a 3 lane highway where the right hand lanes are merging so that there will be only 2 lanes. There are plenty of signs. So people start merging when they are told. However, some people feel the need to use the 100 feet or so remaining to gain an advantage of 3 to 4 cars in line so they speed around the right side and then merge in farther up. This causes even further delays. A merge of two lanes should work like a zipper. Its more efficient that way. Its the idiots that think that they are saving some extra time by getting that extra 3 to 4 car lengths in line, when really, they are contributing to even more congestion.
Article also says to always obey the 3 second rule. This doesn't make sense. In heavy traffic most folks are 1/2 to one second apart. If you spread them 3 seconds apart, throughput goes down by a factor of between three and six. Too bad, the original research is impressive and spot on.
If this was the case, with most drivers being who they are, then we should never experience any traffic jams. I never understood how people you know who are intelligent, polite, and reasonable, get behind a steering wheel and suddenly become "savages"?
Vindication at last! I can now provide proof to my wife that my driving style has a purpose, and that purpose is for the greater good of mankind.
Take it to the limit, everybody to the limit, come on, everybody fhqwhgads.
IMO, a lot of problems could be avoided if people respected all the rules of the road, and not just the official ones. For example, I respect anyone's right to drive at whatever speed they feel comfortable with. If that's at, above or below the speed limit I don't care. However, no matter how fast you're going, if there's someone behind you who wishes to go faster, move over to the right. It's not your job to set speed limits, the cops do that, and they exercise discretion too depending on the traffic and time of the day.
What gets me really frustrated is people in the left lane, going at or slightly below the speed limit, with a LONG line behind them. It's situations like these that cause problems, as people who wish to go faster try to get around the slowpokes.
In my opinion, if people simply moved over for a faster car, kept the left lane open for passing/faster traffic, then the vast majority of weaving cars and "jerks" on the highways would disappear.
It's a big peeve of mine. I drive faster than the speed limit, I'll admit it. If I'm in the wrong, the cops will pull me over. However, get out of the left lane if you're going slow and there's 10 cars tailgating behind you!
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
The risk of jamming is lower if all people obey the rules than if they all disobey them
I beg to differ, compression waves in traffic form even when everyone obeys traffic http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2008/03/shockwave-traff.html
Once in traffic if you drive slowly avoiding the urge to speed up when a gap forms you can actually help everyone behind you have a more pleasant cruise.
I read that 40% of the people need to drive like jerks. My mind tells me to go drive like a jerk with a .40.
Excellent, now what should my novelty license plate say to convey that I am driving like an ass for everyone's benefit?
so many assumptions.. to little time
bottom line - people that cut in line create the traffic jams
Tragedy of the commons. Seriously, what's the deal with 'studies' like this even being done?
In any system that requires order, a certain amount of entropy is desirable. But when the factors contributing to this entropy are 'given permission' to increase, then the system breaks down into complete chaos.
Isn't that just great? Now jerkwad drivers can justify themselves quoting this study: "But I was just trying to be the 40% of helpful guys!"
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.. or changing lanes too close to an intersection ..
Changing lanes in or near an intersection by itself is not against the law, at least in California, according to a CHP officer who was teaching a driver safety class that I attended (I need to take it yearly for work) - as long as the person who changes lanes does so with reasonable safety. Of course in the context of driving in traffic then it is best not to change lanes in an intersection because there is a probable chance that one will get a ticket if a cop is there to see it.
Or people can just stop tailgating
What do these jerks do to the incidence of accidents?
I'd rather continue to wait than significantly increase my chances of being involved in a collision.
(No, I haven't read the article yet.)
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
I live in Boston, so I have empirical evidence that if 40% people drive like assholes, you still get plenty of traffic jams. Sorry, your model must be broken.
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I didn't see anything in the review about what happens when an accident occurs due to the 'rude' driver. The study was using people walking, I doubt it would apply to cars since a car bumping into another car is not likely to just generate an 'Excuse me' and off we go. One accident and your chance of traffic jam goes to 100%.
From TFA: "Jamming in vehicular traffics has natures different from that in pedestrian traffics... This study is mainly focused on this pedestrian case."
From TFAbstract: "The risk for jamming at a fixed density, when starting from a disordered situation, is smaller when every agent abides by a traffic rule than when all agents ignore the rule."
Doesn't say rude drivers clear up jams, just that they reduce the risk of a jam occurring in the first place.
Additionally, the risk for jamming almost certainly increases to 1 as density goes up; whether the risk goes up more slowly with a few rude drivers in the mix won't make much difference to your average rush hour gridlock.
The first thing that came to mind for me was, "what makes a hardware driver rude?" This is Slashdot, afterall...
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On a related note, my other biggest pet peeve is the slow people who speed up when they see you trying to pass them so that you can't, and then slow down again.
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
to know that for years, I have been doing my part to reduce traffic jams. Now I cant look at those middle fingers and hear those blaring horns as affirmations of my good deeds.
I have a problem with making assumptions for automobile traffic based on a computer simulation that used pedestrian traffic. For one thing, pedestrians don't have speed limits. If everyone on the road drove 60 miles per hour, there would be no "traffic clumps." It's the variations in speed that cause these. Also, previous studies have shown it's the jerks who force the rule-abiders to hit their breaks unexpectedly, which causes additional clumps in the system, waves of traffic jams that can last hours after a close-call occurs.
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This is actually a law in a lot of states. The actual wording varies from "Left lane is for passing only" to "you can be in the left lane but must not impede faster traffic" to "you can be in the left lane, but must be driving at the speed limit and should not impede faster traffic."
As somebody has already mentioned in the comment on PhysicsCentral, a realistic model should take into account the dependence between the probability of causing an accident resulting in a traffic jam and the driving style. I could read only the abstract. If the parameter q is the only parameter used, it is not entirely surprising that they got the results they got. In such a model, the rule-obeying drivers driving in the same direction stick together. Rule non-obedience makes the fluid more compressible. Shock waves in compressible fluids appears at higher velocities. It is surely nice their model agrees with the intuition. I would not call such a simplified model realistic, though.
Normally I don't do this but I was curious. I RTFA and it seems that the studies were all about preventing pooling/jamming. It may be true that by creating disruptions one can reduce jamming but how does that affect the overall traffic flow. I would suspect in a perfect system each car abiding by the rules would have the greatest flow. What is hard to determine is that in the real world what would be the best.
Actually I don't think it really matters. Even if the study shows that driving 65 and leaving 5 second gaps can prevent 50% of traffic jams the social change necessary probably wouldn't happen.
I've found this depends very much on the type of "illegal" behavior. In general, it seems to depend if the type of illegal behavior is sensible or stupid. Passing on the shoulder to make a right turn isn't rude; it's an indication that a turn lane should be present. Passing on the right, while dangerous, helps get around somebody else who was rude (and probably illegal) in parking in the passing lane. Those all make sense.
There's a lot of other behavior that is rude and doesn't help congestion. For instance, in a jam where both lanes are clogged, and you have some asshole who's constantly changing lanes because one looks faster for 10 seconds. He doesn't get anywhere, just slows everything down. Or the people who use the merge lane as a passing lane. They clog up everything by forcing the whole right lane to come to a stop to let them in when the merge ends. Or the "oh, my exit's over there!" people who wait until the last second to change lanes for their turn, invariably forcing everyone else to stop.
You can claim that certain illegal behaviors benefit traffic as a whole, but my guess is that these are a small subset of the many stupid, dangerous, rude, and illegal things that drivers do.
The other day, a person was changing their tire on the shoulder of the road facing the opposite direction (was a 4-lane road, 2 lanes in each direction, separated by a 20 foot or so median) and traffic on my side of the road came to a halt. Once I made it to the front of the line of traffic, in the lane (going the opposite direction) nearest the tire-changer, a car in the lane next to me and slightly ahead of me was gawking at the scene so hard they started drifting HARD into my lane. They were completely mesmerized by someone changing a frigging tire. To the point that they weren't even conscious that they were still driving a car.
I swear I don't get it. I had to blare my horn at them to get them to get back over into their lane, and they had the temerity to flip me off! Luckily for me, I drive a large truck and was able to pull in front of them at the next light where I stopped, put on my hazards, drug them from their car and threw them into traffic. No, of course I didn't. However, it's interesting how rage-filled we people get in traffic. I am trying to get it under control, but cannot abide selfish, stupid unaware drivers. I hate them with a burning passion.
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Then watch this driving class.
Please be considerate of other drivers.
I know I slow down when people tailgate me very badly (within a meter), and speed up again when they change lanes. It's a guilty pleasure.
Honestly, it's the only safe thing to me do. If I have someone driving that close behind me I'll need more time to brake if something happens up ahead, to prevent the person behind me ramming into me.
Give me space, and we'll go a nice fast speed. I'll be happy to let you pass me and will move to the right. Ride my ass and expect to go under the limit.
I wrote a traffic simulaton in college, and it only worked (i.e. didn't jam up) when there was a wide variety of driver behaviours - preferred separaton distance, preferred speed, and slow-down-or-change-lane factor I think were the main attributes that I used. It wasn't sophisticated enough to take laws or highway code into account, but it was just a bunch of Pascal code running on a rickety old Pr1me.
Nothing frustrates me more than incompetence on the road. I deal with it swiftly, and with great justice!
The biggest thing I've noticed since I moved out here is that Californians (the Bay Area, to be specific, I understand LA is another world) have awful lane discipline.
I wish I had a dime for everytime I've been on 101 and there are 4 cars in front of me all going 65 (the limit) with nothing in front of them. Nobody seems to understand that the passing lane is for passing. As a result, you get trapped behind these rolling roadblocks of cars going at or below the limit. This is not only more jam-prone, it's more dangerous. Don't drive side-by-side people! Leave an opening so that other people have a chance to pass, thus getting a longer following distance. Slowing down behind a rolling roadblock isn't practical either, because you have to drop well below the limit and become a hazard yourself. People will just pass you and get stuck behind the same idiots.
It's not rocket science, people: 1. Pull left. 2. Pass. 3. Get right.
This is in stark contrast to my home town: the Washington DC metro area.
On the Beltway, everybody is in a contest to pass the other guy. The thing is a f'n racetrack and it's so dangerous I think the cops are afraid to pull people over; but at least you don't get stuck behind idiots all driving side-by-side. They'd be T-boned off the highway, or some guy in a Porsch would slide between them like slalom skiiing and they'd get the message. I may have been scared a bit more often on the Beltway, but I was never as frustrated.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
In effect, people who disregard the rules help to break up the groups that form as rule-followers clump together.
I understand that breaking the rules would clear up a clump faster than following the rules, but wouldn't this clump form at first due to someone who disregards the rules? Unless someone else can think of a more common reasons a clump might form due to rule-following instead of slow drivers in the passing lane or people slamming on the brakes to avoid someone veering through traffic.
Welcome to Mexico City, where people offer "assertive driving" seminars and workshops
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Just doing my small part to make the world better!
This does not, of course, excuse the reckless driving of the "angered" guy trying to get around the slowpoke.
(but you're right, driving in the "slow lane" when "going slow[ly]" makes sense and helps mitigate people getting angry...)
On the other hand, what about the annoying guys that just whizz past you in the lane you're trying to get over into while you are trying to get OUT of the fast lane? And they sometimes get really upset, because you just moved into HIS LANE and he had to use his brakes. Ugh! Awful brakes.
Seriously. If people just ... lightened up and were in slightly less of a hurry and did not think that the road, highway, lane, etc., belonged to them... and at the same time realized that the hulk of plastic they are sitting in really doesn't protect them a whole lot in the grand scheme of things...
Yes, those people find me suddenly cutting in front of them. Enought with driving in the left lane; its ALSO illegal in many states.
And they don't rubber-neck. They don't break down. They don't get pulled over for speeding tickets,
if I can get out of tickets using this excuse. "But officer, I was being a jerk so I wouldn't create a traffic jam. Here's the study. Read it yourself!"
"Come to New York. We have cured traffic problems forever."
Sounds like someone got paid to make a study so they can feel better about themselves when they drive like an a-hole.
One of the freeways I drive down (I-496) has this happen all the time.
The catch is that these cars are still passing the people in the right lane, who are going at least 10mph below the speed limit.
To clarify, the speed limit on I-496 went from 55mph to 70mph a few years ago, and some people still don't seem to have caught on that the speed limit has increased.
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This guy is hilarious. He is essentially saying: 'Everybody else obey the official rules -and- my rules! I will drive as I wish.'
Who made you ruler of the world?
"In my opinion, if people simply moved over for a faster car, kept the left lane open for passing/faster traffic, then the vast majority of weaving cars and "jerks" on the highways would disappear."
How about respecting the rules of the road (see your post title) and drive the speed limit.
"It's not your job to set speed limits"
Then who said it was your job to set the speed limit?
The speed limit is the speed limit, DON'T SPEED.
A useful study would've compared the overall cost, not just jams.
If jams go down 40% but wrecks, injuries, fatalities, and associated costs all go up 2%, that might or might not be "worth it." If they go up 0.00001% it probably is worth it. If they go up 1000% it probably is not worth it.
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Yes, yes, yes. ;-) ) then they will have their crash some distance in front of you, rather than INTO you. That certainly sounds better to me.
I don't know how it is for your part of the world, but in the English Midlands the number of 'wannabe traffic police' hogging the fast lane seems to be increasing. I don't know why (maybe increased cost of fuel?).
If somebody is behind you, intending to drive faster than you are, you should let them past. Not only is it common courtesy; if they truely are a dangerous jerk (and everyone driving faster than you are at a given moment is a jerk, right?
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People interested in traffic dynamics should check out this amateur hobbyist's blog at trafficwaves.org
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the safe thing to do is you should have already switched lanes (if you're in the left that is) by the time they got to you if you see them coming up.
Seriously, if they're going to do research based purely on computer simulations, the least they could do is release the source code of the simulation. If we're going to call these studies science, think how much science would be done if everyone had access and could edit the tools used in the study.
So let me get this straight.... you drive in the passing lanes simply to block faster drivers, and will only let them pass if they slow down and give you ample space behind you? Your guilty pleasure seems to be derived from some false sense of authority on driving practices.
... between jerks and idiots. While the jerks will get through quicker by ignoring rules and other people, idiots will make the problem worse by ignoring the existence of things like other cars and the laws of Newtonian physics.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
And this is why people get shot. Move over asshole. Its dumb twats like you playing around that contributes to the problem. Someone is tailgating you? Get off your damn cell phone and pay attention. What a douche...
Part of the problem with this is that nobody ever goes -at- the speed limit. If everyone traveled the same speed, and someone were going slower, then you could pass on the left lane, and everything would be smooth. But it never works.
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...but it sure is exciting to do on a 2-lane road!
I agree with all of this and wished everyone would follow suit, but assholes will be assholes. There are always going to be some people who just can't wait and will continue to tailgate and weave in and out of traffic. I especially enjoy the geniuses who weave into the slow lane, run out of room in their attempt to pass, and then weave back into the fast lane.
A big pet peeve of mine is when I'm in the passing lane, going as fast as the guy in front of me, passing a convoy of cars in the slow lane, and some asshole is still tailgating me. As soon as there is some room I will change lanes just to get him off of me, but why can't these people understand I can only go as fast as the guy in front of me? Then you've also got people who tailgate you even in the slow lane, but that's another story.
So, when did getting around people disrupting the flow of traffic, become the rude part?
They'd be less offensive to me if they said, "40% of the drivers drive like they have a destination in mind."
Think of it like you're in a mall, rather than a freeway. In the mall you'd go: um, excuse me. And you'd walk around the rude people. The guy walking around isn't the rude one, sorry.
Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
On I-15 around Salt Lake City rude rivers are different. They seem to think that it's ok to get into a big clump of cars 3 or 4-lanes wide all going the same speed. That way, nobody can pass on any side... If you aren't going faster than the car to your right, you need to get in that lane and let people pass you on the left. Also, if you are in the far left (where I'm from, the 'fast' lane) and you see an open lane for half a mile in front of you, and 3+ cars directly behind you, it's probably time to get out of that lane... Common sense would help traffic flow better than rudeness.
Mod this guy up, slower traffic keep right.
This is a major problem in the widwest where timid drivers like to pick a lane and stay in it. You couple that with the people who speed up to not allow others to pass and you end up with a moving roadblock going 5 under the speed limit. On one occasion I was in a hurry behind these Vogons of the road and was a complete and total jerk and passed them on the shoulder. They flipped me off, I smiled and waved since I got what I wanted... clear road. Nothing is more beautiful.
I'm not a fan of the current trend of driving with the brights on either.
Hopefully I won't get trolled for this, but it's that kind of mentality that causes accidents. Not the part about slowing down in front of a tailgater necessarily, but intentionally speeding up as soon as they go to pass you in the other lane.
I agree with the frustrating left lane chain due to one asshole going slower or equal to the traffic on the right (usually equal, so that nobody can get by). Once I can actually get around someone like this, sometimes I will get in front of him and slow down significantly... well below the speed limit for two purposes: 1) It annoys him 2) it creates a gap where people in the chain can pass this asshole on the right. VA does have a left lane for passing only law, but i've never seen it enforced. My latest grip about the beltway is the ramp from 66E to get on 495S. It used to be two exit lanes that merge once they reach the beltway. Due to recent construction, the 2nd lane has been closed off and now there's only one exit lane. Since the merge was eliminated, I expected the flow of traffic to speed UP, however now, people tend to slow down or stop as if there was no place to merge at the end of the ramp..... The lane does not, in fact end, so I see no reason to even slow down--> the lane now has no merge and doesnt end. Why do people act as if they're driving off the edge of a cliff? Its gotten so bad in fact, that I now go a few miles further east and backtrack because its faster than sitting in this exit lane.
The simple fact is that it is inefficient to have each driver make independent decisions regarding operating their vehicle. The only way to reduce traffic jams is to take the individual driver out of the equation and replace it with a centralized decision maker (i.e. autonomous vehicles).
If someone is tailgating you, most likely it's because YOU are impeding traffic! Ever hear that slower traffic is supposed to stay to the right? It's NOT safe, because eventually you'll frustrate the driver behind and they'll be forced to PASS you on the right. This is bad driving practice...and it's likely you'll incite some road rage behaving this way. Better not try this in SoCal....you just might find a gun aimed your way!
This is a stupid attitude and exactly the type of behaviour that can cause traffic issues. Move to the right lane when it's safe to do so, simple courtesy on the road.
Slowing down to prove "your point" on a highway has real potential to cause accidents further down the line.
Give your head a shake.
I'm assuming that they tailgate you because you're not going a "nice fast speed" in their opinion and you failed to move to the right to let them pass. Because, if you had moved to the right as they were approaching, then you wouldnt be sitting there going slow and in their way causing them to tailgate.
Just a guess
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Finally, I'm vindicated for my superior driving skills!
Just doing my part to prevent traffic jams since 1975!
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Where I live in PA one of the biggest issues is the massive amount of tailgating that goes on. Not only will they tailgate on single lane roads (sorry, no one is going to be expected to go from 35mph to 50 to statisfy the person behind them, when the speed limit is 30 mph), they'll do it in the middle and right lanes of major highways. PA is the only state I've been in that had signs up saying "Tailgating Prohibited."
I thought about buying a big old truck, attaching some 2x4s to the back bumper, and then slamming on my breaks every time I'm tailgated. When the 2x4s are worn out just replace them with new ones. I never did do it, though.
I'd like anyone who is making a left turn at a green traffic light, which is not a deliberate red light for left turns, to PULL THE HELL UP INTO THE INTERSECTION.
On several different occasions, I have ridden with ppl that drive like that (once up the Poudre, another going up the Thompson and another up to Fraser/winter park). I asked them why they were driving like and basically, they all said that they were afraid of the cliffs/river. In essence, they did not mind an accident in a head-on, or simply crashing into a pole, but going off a 200M/600Ft cliff or into the raging Poudre/Thompson, made them too afraid.
What I found interesting is that once those items were removed from their sight, they were all to happy to drive the speed limits. Sadly, those times were on the flats and not a one of them had the idea that the bypass was designed to allow other drivers pass such ppl. I even pointed it out to one, but he did not care. Sad. That attitude leads to accidents by those that will pass. I know; driving for an hour behind somebody that is doing 25/30 and not yielding when it is safe to pass frustrates me as well; years ago, I have passed several ppl on different occasions going up the Poudre.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
the safe thing to do is you should have already switched lanes (if you're in the left that is) by the time they got to you if you see them coming up.
If you're passing a line of cars, you can't merge back into the RH lane.
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I get really frustrated when people don't realize that both sides of the road have the same speed limit. The speed limits are there to promote safety and traffic flow. You shouldn't need a cop to put you in line. So stop ragging on the people who want to use the road properly.
I know I slow down when people tailgate me very badly (within a meter), and speed up again when they change lanes. It's a guilty pleasure.
I do this do, but not the speeding up part (well, I speed back up to the speed I was going at before I was tailgated). And no, I am not in the f****** left lane when these idiots are on my rear bumper.
I'll only ride your ass if you aren't passing the person next to you, or if you don't get over when you have a chance. But even then, there's nobody in the world that can react fast enough to someone slamming on the brakes from tailgating distance, and the accident would probably end up being my fault, so I don't do it often. I think most of us (90% or more) understand this and drive that way. It only takes a few fucknuggets to screw it up for everyone else, though.
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So what the article is saying is that all those middle fingers are actually other driver's way of saying thanks for helping decrease traffic congestion? I'm glad to help!
Now excuse me while I drive on the median strip.
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Your selfishness contributes to the problem. Does it feel good to exert control over somebody who seems to be acting like a jerk? Sure. But it causes plenty of problems down the line for others who were not being jerks. Not to mention it causes frustration for that person, who will likely take it out on somebody else at some point in his/her drive.
You should stop being selfish and get out of the way. Feel free to make an ugly face as they go by, as this does not impede traffic patterns and still would result in you making yourself feel good.
the safe thing to do is you should have already switched lanes (if you're in the left that is) by the time they got to you if you see them coming up.
This isn't always possible. Often, there are people in the right hand lane going 70-75 mph and passing the speed limiters in the left lane who are traveling 65 mph. Just because you want to go 85 mph doesn't mean the slower motorists should automatically bow to your speedy abilities. This would, in my opinion, mean that *you* are driving like an asshole.
This is *most* evident when two tractor trailers are passing each other on a major two or three lane highway. But basic congestion causes it too... and whenever you drive like an asshole when there is already congestion... you are only going to make it worse.
Corollary: I've always thought cops should actively seek to give tickets to motorists who get passed on the left by drivers who are traveling at a legal speed limit. That behavior is just a dangerous as the asshole who weaves in and out of traffic. So, slow drivers in right-hand and middle lanes are assholes, too.
Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
I am ecstatic that someone finally noticed my efforts to disburse traffic jams... after all these years... a tear comes to my eye.
Agreed with both you and GP. I slow down for tailgaters.
I also let drivers pass if they want to go a faster speed than I am, and I have the opportunity to get out of their way.
If there's a car right in front of me and someone is tailgating me, I don't hesitate to slow down until they're a safe distance behind me.
On a similar note, I just rolled through a stop sign to do my part in saving the environment.
One of my traffic engineering professors, the great Robert Herman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Herman), conducted a study in the 60s or 70s in which he compared the effectiveness of aggressive driving in various conditions. They collected data in various places, like New York City and Matamoros, Mexico, with Herman himself and various graduate student at the wheel.
The biggest payoff was in congested situations. For the aggressive driver only of course.
I can imagine Prof Herman and various graduate students all piled into a car and heading for Mexico. One thing I learned from him - to be a scientist, get out there and collect real data about the real world. TFA is a mere simulation - lets see if they can reproduce the results in real traffic.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
I'll try to write this in the nicest way possible.
YOU are the problem. YOU cause most traffic to slow down. YOU are what causes road rage. Its really quite simple actually. You stay right except to pass. Period. If you think you're so self-righteous that you can set the speed for others and feel good about that, thats the definition of DOUCHEBAG, and don't deserve to be on the road.
It was a pleasure to drive in Germany. You stay in the right all the time, and not once in 2 weeks did I have to pass someone on the right. Everyone plays by the rules. It might be because if you don't, you'll have a mercedes going 200km/h that looks like it'll run right into you.
But seriously, people need to go back to driving school and learn that you STAY RIGHT AT ALL TIMES EXCEPT TO PASS.
And don't sit in the middle lane either. In many states, trucks are not allowed to use the left lane at all, therefore they need to pass in the middle lane. This includes RVs, People hauling trailers behind them, etc. So what does that mean...? STAY RIGHT AT ALL TIMES EXCEPT TO PASS!
So please, do us all a favor and get off the road and use mass transit if you can't follow this simple rule... STAY RIGHT AT ALL TIMES EXCEPT TO PASS
I always obey the speed limit. And most of the time, I drive in the right lane. But sometimes I drive in the left lane, and I've been the guy you hate. Why should I have to change lanes just because you want to break the law? I'm doing nothing wrong; you're the one who wants to.
There are both legitimate and illegitimate scenarios on both sides -- if you're in the passing lane with no one in front of you, you're a moron, and even worse if you "block" someone from passing.
But there are also plenty of scenarios where traffic is dense and the passing lane is already blocked. When a reckless driver is trying to weave in and out of very small gaps in traffic in this scenario, it's very dangerous. "Blocking" that driver may actually be the safest thing to do.
I'd go so far as to say that reckless drivers who tailgate are the ones that cause both traffic jams AND many accidents. If people weren't afraid of some jerk cutting them off to get 1 space ahead in already-dense traffic, people would not follow so close together that they trigger and prolong traffic jams.
I always make an ugly face when passed, but that is just the natural state of my face.
From a safety standpoint, you are absolutely right. Pulling over is the safest thing to do. In my estimation, if a person is enough of an idiot to go flying down the highway at unsafe speeds, then I probably should get out of their way, because they're clearly not being careful.
But I have to admit, I get a bit of pleasure watching the guy behind me froth at the mouth because I delayed him a few seconds from getting to whatever thing he thinks is important enough that he doesn't mind endangering all the people around him. If someone wants to drive irresponsibly, they're going to have to deal with the fact that other people aren't going to like them for it.
I always wished I had a horn on the back of my car. Or, you know, Spy Hunter oil slicks.
> Give me space, and we'll go a nice fast speed.
The speed of "fast" is subjective and I doubt you and the person behind you agree on what it is, so please move to the right.
I have seen cars reversing on the left lane to catch the missed exit, compare to that - slow car on left lane is a non issue. (Note: I live in Shanghai) haa...ok this is off topic.
And one day I have been Japan for sight seeing and drove on an Interstate equivalent. It's a two lanes per direction, moderate traffic. I was driving at 120kph on average, and passing ~80kph cars on the fast lane. (The speed limit is 80kph IIRC)
But not so unoften, there were cars which are driving at 140kph. Throughout an hour of trip I learned to pay attention to the mirror (note: I don't own a car and i drive may be once per year?), and look for cars catching me up. When there was car catching me up, I just waved back to the slow link with 80kph car and let the 140kph car behind me to pass. Then I went back to the fast lane passing the 80kph cars. And the 100kph cars on the passing lane did the same for me.
All in all it's a really pleasure and enjoyable experience...
I used to do a lot of freeway driving and noticed there are drivers who are amplifiers. When the car in front of them slows, they increase their following distance, so they are slowing more than the car in front of them. If everyone drove like that, shock waves would be a constant problem. I always made it my goal to smooth out my velocity, in part because I have a stick shift and in part, because not amplifying problems seems like the safe and ethical thing to do.
Hey, I've had shit heads riding my ass, in the right hand lane of a 6 lane highway. I slow down, and dick-breath just rides closer, flashing lights, blowing horn, and so on. Other two lanes clear, too, plenty of chance for them to pass.
I know I slow down when people tailgate me very badly (within a meter), and speed up again when they change lanes. It's a guilty pleasure.
Honestly, it's the only safe thing to me do. If I have someone driving that close behind me I'll need more time to brake if something happens up ahead, to prevent the person behind me ramming into me.
Give me space, and we'll go a nice fast speed. I'll be happy to let you pass me and will move to the right. Ride my ass and expect to go under the limit.
You know what my guilty pleasure is...
I really like tailgating people then trying to pass them on the right especially when they speed up. Fortunately, I have a high HP car so I always make it past them and give them the finger.
Seriously, don't be a prick and just move to the right.
However, get out of the left lane if you're going slow and there's 10 cars tailgating behind you!
I don't change lanes when there's people tailgating me. I do when I notice them approaching me from behind and/or they leave an appropriate amount of space. Just to piss them off; obviously they're not going to learn from my lesson because they don't know why I'm doing it. I just hate people who think a metre is a good length of space to leave between cars on a freeway at 100 km/h.
Nice! I am finally part of the solution.
"Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the f-ing Peace Corps." - John 'Bluto' Blutarsky
the safe thing to do is you should have already switched lanes (if you're in the left that is) by the time they got to you if you see them coming up.
Yes, if there is a safe opening in the right lane, and if there is no third lane to the left which the following driver could use to pass you instead.
So many tailgaters expect you to move over and make way even if there is no safe gap. After all, they're willing to endanger their lives, why should you be so picky about yours?
Thank you for validating my mental model of the kind of person who drives like that. Your rage and frustration warms my cold, black heart.
I would imagine the same principle might apply to those who in crowds who rush inbetween people or push past others.
While similar i'm not sure it fits 'the mob as a fluid' theory though:
http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2009/01/physics-of-crowds.html
Itself somewhat dismissed (at least in passing) for disregarding irrationality here:
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13174313
In all probability it may be that a cross of all factors is at work. Perhaps some people see it as queuing while others always look for the alternative way through.
This UID is 7651 digits too high to subjectively infer IQ from.
...to be a skilled driver. All you need to do is pay attention.
And this has been another installament of Captain Obvious!
I'm with you there, I used to like to speed. Now I like to cruise in the slow lane, and I have the opposite peeve: Asshats who refuse to use the two empty lanes on my left to pass, and ride my frickin bumper. I'll give em a minute, then the foot comes off the gas. Had one guy wait until we got down to 35 before he passed me. So sorry, is changing lanes really that hard?
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Keep in mind, getting over to the right isn't always a good option. If my left turn is not far ahead and other drivers aren't doing a decent job of letting people over, then I'm not getting out left lane. I'll do the same thing if I'm expecting to make a left turn and don't know how far ahead it is. If another driver wants to speed, then it it's his/her problem.
On the interstate it's a different story - no left turns to make. However, if I'm passing another vehicle and not going fast enough for your fancy, then you'll just have to wait. I don't mind changing lanes to get out of somebody's way, but sometimes it's not safe to get into the slow lane. If every car in the slow lane has a one-second following distance, then I'll wait for a bigger opening.
Finally, if there are only two lanes, then there can't be six speeds. If I'm doing the speed limit and not going fast enough for you, then frankly it's not my problem. "Fast lane" doesn't mean "lane for people who feel like breaking the law."
On a related note, tailgating may be intended as a signal that the driver behind wishes to pass, but it's interpreted as a threat to the safety of the driver in front, and makes it more difficult to get over, because the driver in front has two things to think about instead of one. Better to tap your lights gently and leave plenty of room. That's polite. If the car in front gets over for you, a polite wave of thanks is also nice. Otherwise the message seems to be, "get the hell out of my way, because my time is worth more than yours."
Just for clarification, I often drive in the right hand lane, and rarely slow for tailgaters in the left hand lane. Single lane roads or the right lane is fair game though. People *still* tailgate me in the right lane.
For the real idiots I'm willing to pull off the road and let them pass. Given our Canadian sense of passive aggressiveness, that's a fairly strong insult. :)
Right. In the fictional roadways, people in the right lane are going under the speed limit.
In reality, the people with the most contempt for the speed limit are the ones that are using the "passing lane".
Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
Since the article is talking about scientists studying pedestrian traffic, they have no data on the effect crashes have on the slow down.
We know that people walking in a confined section of sidewalk acting like jerks keeps the flow of traffic moving, but this does not really apply to vehicles since they cannot add in a few variables such as crashes from being too close, crashes from changing lanes in front of others etc.
I think the article title is misleading (not the slashdot headline, but the actual article title) as it describes driving, when the research was clearly geared towards pedestrians.
when jerks at an intersection don't stop, pull out, then go slow as hell in front of me. I want a video game where you have to BLOW THEM AWAY with LARGE GUNS and LASERS, I'd play all day long and probably even pay for a monthly subscription if it was an MMO...OMG I just invented the next big rip off!
If there's space...
If I'm passing a truck at the speed limit, it's going to take me several seconds to get past them, during which time some ass can (and indeed, has) come up behind me and started tailgating.
Sometimes, just as you get to a safe distance past so that you can pull back in and not scare the living daylights out of the truck driver, the aforementioned ass will decide it's the perfect moment to pull in and undertake.
Nonsense. Blocking them like that prevents them from cutting you off on the right. It's controlling the situation. While it might drive the douche into a greater rage, and hence be more likely to do something stupid to cause an accident, it keeps him safely behind you.
And face it, this situation only presents itself in thick traffic. This is not a case of someone wanting to go faster, it is the case of someone trying to leapfrog as many cars as possible, evidence of a dim mind that believes that progress is made not with velocity but by the number of cars passed.
Wow.. lots of hostility below.
I'm sure someone's going to pick on my "rarely" slow down in the left lane comment. I *only* slow down in the left lane when tailgated there's some sort of imminent danger from the driving situation because of the introduction of someone speeding behind me. I will pull into the right lane as soon as is safe.
I *will* slow down if I deem the driving situation unsafe, and I don't get any guilty pleasure from a "left lane tailgater slowdown".
There's a reason we don't have flying cars: people tend to drive (despite their skill level) like idiots in the first place.
I understand their intent here: sometimes breaking the rules helps the common 'herd'. I agree. And I take driving very seriously every time- no cellphone, no texting, no makeup...you get the idea.
But merely "driving like a jerk" is a discription of someone cutting off another driver, for instance. He stops, cars behind him stop, and so on- NOT what they're talking about here.
PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE because what they have to offer is important and easily misunderstood!
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
The left lane slow pokes are the ones who cause jams not only for this reason, but also because their exit just came up and now they need to slow down more and merge over 2 to 4 lanes to get off causing everyone else to as well.
Nah, you're being an idiot as GP suggests. In California, slower traffic has to move to the right. I'm sure other states have the same rules. You're breaking the law and you should be pulled over by the cops. I wish the US would enforce this as much as Europe does.
There's a special place in hell for people like you. Thanks for making driving more dangerous! You are not doing anyone any "favours" or preventing any accidents. People like you cause traffic jams.
everything is slowed down for a long time.
And unnecessary $ will be going to the lawyers sooner or later.
New Economic Perspectives
This study also assumes people who drive like jerks have 100% success in not hitting other drivers.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Amen. Another rule that should ALWAYS be followed is "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS". In many states it's posted "Slower traffic keep right" which is a joke because fewer people deem themselves to be "slower traffic", seemingly oblivious to the 5 or 6 cars waiting behind them.
This is compounded by 4 lane roads that only give drivers 2 choices of speed as well as drillrods (and all of Los Angeles) who think changing lanes is some sort of attempt for emotional rape or assault and react accordingly.
Please don't use "umm" or "err" or "erm".
On the other hand, MY pet peeve is drivers who drive 10 or 15 over the speed limit, then ride my bumper trying to get me to move over. Driving faster than the speed limit isn't a right.
What constitutes "slower traffic"? Slower than the speed limit? Slower than the median speed of all cars within a 1km radius? Slower than the guy behind you?
I can just see tomorrow's article about slashdotter road rage victims who took this article's advice. Luckily, if this happens to me, I have a plan to explain the logic in detail to calm the other driver down.
Problem is the tailgaters do it in the right lane too. I tend to stick always in the slow lane and I still get tailgaters. I can't go faster due to heavy traffic. If I switch lanes every time a tailgater shows up, I'd be weaving.
People on the Interstate slow down to let the person merging onto the highway. On the Autobahn, when you are merging, you yield unless someone is nice enough to move over to the left to give you room.
If you are in the left lane and see someone coming up behind you, you wait until they are right on your ass, then slow down, and play games instead of trying to get over to the right. On the Autobahn if you are rear ended in the left lane, you get the ticket, not the guy who rear ended you.
Some "good samaritan" will see someone waiting to come out of a parking lot, and come to almost a complete stop to let him out, being a "nice guy" to the one car, while pissing off the 10 or 20 behind him. If the "good samaritan" would have just kept driving, the person leaving the parking lot would only have to wait a few more seconds.
You could be the only person on the road, and the jackass who just got to the intersection will putt putt out in front of you instead of waiting to pass before entering the roadway.
The self appointed "set the speed limit" driver who will do everything in his power to make sure everyone behind him can go no faster than he can. Through all his paying attention to the people behind him, he invariably ends up driving slower than the speed limit pissing off everyone behind him.
The "brake light flasher". He is either riding with his foot over the brake pedal, or is just a nervous nelly and slows down for every divot, pothole, loose pebble, and unidentifiable stain in the road.
The people who have to come to a complete stop and drive slowly over the railroad tracks that are almost smoother than the roadway itself. Rather than letting their shock absorbers work the way they are supposed too, they want to feel every single bump as they creep their way across the tracks.
Then I clump all these together. The cell phone users, the arguing couples, the newpaper readers, the texters, and gps users. They all drive like friggin morons.
Finally everyone who just drives in their own little world and not worrying about how their lack of attentiveness affects the vehicles around them.
These are just a few.
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?", George Carlin
Are they rude or simply better? Perhaps they have driven in countries like Germany where drivers are aware of their traffic surroundings and often break "rules" in order to allow traffic to continue moving along. They also had a tnedency to complain of American drivers on the road as a danger - they are right!
It's funny how there are so many bad drivers among the general population, but everyone posting here is great at it.
I doubt anyone actually tailgates you at a 1 meter interval very often. Your stupid 'guilty pleasure' is responsible for way more traffic problems than the faster driver you are somehow trying to mess with. As the other poster noted, if you are not actively passing someone, you need to move over and let the faster traffic pass. It's not your job to enforce speed limits! (and that crap about needing more room to slow down to accomodate the person behind you is bogus. you already said that yo do it for the guilty pleasure, so don't try to justify it somehow.)
Unless there was a slow car in front of you and the Not Talent Ass Clown behind you decides that it is your fault and rides your ass. I will do everything in my power to go as slow as possible when this happens and may even spray my wipers to drive the point home.
When a pileup happens, I think it negates the entire advantage gained by "lubricating" blocks of law-abiding vehicles. The study mentioned didn't look at the likelihood of collisions as a result of rude driving behavior, so it's premature to advocate rude driving behavior as a means to reduce time spent in congestion.
DRIVE RIGHT! PASS LEFT!
Repeat as necessary.
DRIVE RIGHT! PASS LEFT!
Don't spend ANY more time in the left lane than necessary to pass and return.
How hard is that?
DRIVE RIGHT! PASS LEFT!
Signs with this should be up under every speed limit sign and cops should be giving tickets for it at every opportunity until people get it. It's already on your drivers test.
I remember a couple times in heavy traffic - having a long view of the next mile or two of traffic, and seeing a much larger portion of the cars in the left lane...while the right lane moved along consistently faster. People equate the left lane with the 'fast' lane.
It is, but only if it isn't all overcrowded with lemmings.
There's a special place in Hell for you, buddy.
...maybe someone can help med by writing a computer analogy?
But I have to admit, I get a bit of pleasure watching the guy behind me froth at the mouth because I delayed him a few seconds from getting to whatever thing he thinks is important enough that he doesn't mind endangering all the people around him.
So you're a scumbag and you take pleasure in being a scumbag? Wow, what a vile subhuman piece of shit you are.
What if the thing he was trying to get to actually was important like his little girl was dying in the back seat and good old douchebag raddan decided that he should not be allowed to get his little girl to the hospital to save her life because that would interfere with raddan's entirely unjustified belief that the world revolves around him.
This exact fucking situation happened to me last week.
Take this to heart, you evil self-centered piece of human garbage:
I managed to get around that scumbag through highly illegal and dangerous driving which would have been entirely unnecessary had he acted as if he were a decent human being. Minutes were *critical* at that point. Had that asshat succeeded in his vile plan to hold me down to the speed he decided that I should be driving and had my little girl died instead of *barely* by fucking *minutes* been saved at the emergency room, then I would have run that sick son of a bitch off of the road and beaten them to death without a second's hesitation or a moment's regret.
You should really think long and hard about what a disgustingly vile piece of shit *you are* when you take pleasure in hurting others without even helping yourself at all. When you get pleasure from things that can easily lead to the morally correct action on somebody else's part being beating you to death, then you are a very seriously diseased monster and should probably avoid mouthing off in public forums thereby demonstrating your disgusting subhuman nature. You're are a sick little fucker and beneath contempt. I adamantly hope that you die soon and painfully you vile evil worm.
I took a quick look at the article, and it does not appear to be about vehicular traffic. Here are a few lines from the introduction:
"It is notable that the jamming in vehicular traffics has natures different from that in pedestrian traffics. The former is explained by the time delay in the responses of the drivers, and this is the reason why the jamming may easily occur with vehicles only in one direction [10]. In the latter case, on the other hand, the jamming is caused by the collision of agents in opposite directions [7]. This study is mainly focused on this pedestrian case.
In the present work, we use the CA approach and find that the minimal risk for a jamming of the pedestrian flow occurs when a small fraction of traffic-rule ignorers is present within a majority of traffic-rule abiders."
From this, it would appear that they're talking about pedestrians, not vehicles, in the article, so the post title here is misleading.
It's a big peeve of mine. I drive faster than the speed limit, I'll admit it. If I'm in the wrong, the cops will pull me over. However, get out of the left lane if you're going slow and there's 10 cars tailgating behind you! ...unless of course your speeding ends up killing someone. The cops pulling you over is suppose to be to prevent that. (Yes it gets perverted into a revenue raising excercise). Your attitude sucks. If you don't want to abide by the laws don't fucking use the road. Instead you break the rules then bitch and moan that someone else has inconvenienced you by abiding by the laws. What an asshole!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Actually, the USDOT has known this for some time.
Proprietary, closed source drivers are the biggest barrier to the perceived capability and adoption of Free Software (tm). If there are Rude Drivers, we need to ensure that these are open-sourced, without binary obfuscation or other proprietary claims made through digital rights restrictions, etc.
Gimme the source for the Rude Drivers!
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
You can take advantage of some drivers' impatience and lead foot to determine if there are any cops ahead. Simply linger in the passing lane when someone is driving right on your bumper. Don't get over until you can tell they're about to pass you on the right, then get over. The irritated driver will then shoot ahead much faster than they probably intended to go. If there are any police within the next few miles, the speeding driver will draw their attention.
guess the ones in charge of the study has never been in uruguay...
99 % of the rules are broken by everybody,
no turning lights, no speed limits, dont respect lanes in long turns, a 3 lane road gets used by 2 cars in a row and sometimes by 4 cars in a row, 10% of the cars lack at least one of the minimum required lights, people start accelerating 1-2 seconds after the red light turns off, etc, etc...
still i make 20 miles in 30 minutes in my motorcycle, while in car it takes 50 and the speedlimit is about 45 miles/h.
and yes i drive like a maniac, and only 1 ticket in the past 3 years and not a single accident.
i often find myself passing people by the right side, getting in front of them and slowing down till they change lanes, then obviously i speedup to let the tailgaterers of that car pass...
Ride my ass and expect to go under the limit.
After all, one can never be too careful their assets.
When driving on the highway I like those jerks in trucks who try to intimidate other drivers into pulling over into the right lane by riding on their rear bumpers. I do as they wish, then pull back out and follow them, taking advantage of their lane clearing behavior. They may be rude, possibly dangerous, but they do help keep the 'fast' lane fast.
Loose lips lose spit.
I get pissed at the guy idling in the passing lane with his blinker on trying to wait for an opening in the traffic in the exit lane because he apparently forgot this was his exit. Take the next exit and backtrack! Now instead of him being 20 minutes late, he's 10 minutes late, and 100 other people are also 10 minutes late.
Not always an option, as in the case of a saturated next-lane-over, nor always an appropriate response, such as in the case that you are already doing 10 over the limit and keeping pace with the vehicle 3-4 car lengths ahead of you who is keeping pace with the vehicle 1-2 car lengths ahead of him who is keeping pace...
The combination of these two events coinciding with some impatient schmuck who 'needs' to get somewhere leading to them speeding up to me and tailgating close enough that I can watch the funny frustrated expressions they make in my rear view mirror is a frequent occurrence on my morning drive. Like the GP, I often slow down as a courtesy to these jerks, as well as to myself. On more than one occasion, the extra follow distance this gains has prevented a multiple car collision with myself in the middle.
It's still terrifying to have go easy on the breaks as I hurtle towards the car in front of me just because the hemorrhoid on my ass is following too close to not collide with me otherwise.
Really, I'm tired of hearing justifications for why I should accommodate the bad behavior of reckless drivers.
1. "hypermilers" who don't understand lights are timed for the speed limit, and if you don't get up to speed in a reasonable amount of time, you're just going to waste all that gas at red lights.
2. During rush hour, the problem on "surface" streets is that lights can't be long enough to allow everyone to go through during the green light, so those people just sitting there when the light turns green are racking up the number of cars that are going to get stuck for an extra cycle... but the problem, as I see it, is people have largely stopped honking, so they'll just sit behind such an oblivious person and just wait. If people honked, we could get things moving again. It doesn't have to be a nasty lean on the horn, just a toot-toot.
And lately, the past year or so, I wouldn't necessarily call them "hypermilers" but so many people seem unwilling to even get up to the speed limit, let alone exceed it by a few miles per hour, as if you're going to get a ticket for 48 in a 45... I know the police aren't going to give me a ticket for 5 miles over, and I often get passed by cops when doing so.
He's a thing I do: When the light in front of me turns red, I get my foot off the gas, and I let the car decelerate towards the red light.
When I'm in the zone, I pretty much don't stop at red lights because they have the time to turn back to green before I get to them.
Now, here's the problem with that: The masses of idiots who are in a fucking hurry to go park on the red. They cut me off, and then I have to stop behind them while I wait for them to start up again when the light turns green. Some of them are salvageable, as after seeing me do my thing for a few lights they understand the principle and start laying off the gas when they see the next red, some are not, and insist on cutting me off and, I dunno... win the street race going on in their demented little heads. First one wasting gas and brake lining wins! Woo!
Anyway, leadfoot, remember that red lights mean "stop accelerating", not "this is the finish line to the race, quick, get here before anybody else" :)
You can't take the sky from me...
the safe thing to do is you should have already switched lanes (if you're in the left that is)
If I'm in the left lane, I'm passing. If I'm not passing fast enough for you, tough shit. I'm already going 10 miles over the speed limit. I'm not going to slow down 10 to 20 mph just so you can go 20 over.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States.
Espero que la gente de los Estados Unidos no son tan mal como este :)
I guess thats all I have to say.
I live in Massachusetts and drive 30K to 45K miles per year, and I see a LOT of masshattery. I've been in so many near misses arising from people who use the highways as their own personal slalom, people who tailgate, and from people who have no clue what red lights, stop signs, and yield signs mean.
Usually I own and drive fast cars. For a number of years I had a Ford F-150 and then a GMC Sierra 1500. I always hated driving those things because 0-60 and 50-70 could be measured in weeks (exaggeration, obviously) - unsafe for avoidance.
A few weeks ago I was stopped in a traffic jam on the parking lot we affectionately call Route 128. I was rear-ended by a semi. He wasn't going fast but the problem was he just wasn't paying attention and he mis-shifted, and a mass of 30K to 60K pounds isn't easy to stop. So, my truck was toast. The bumper and frame were bent, and the bed shifted over. I managed to get the bed on straight (all by myself - yes, I know how to use breaker bars and sockets) but the truck was on its last legs anyhow so I junked it.
Well, from there I decided it was time to get something more sporty. I was looking at the Rav4 w/V6 because I need cargo space for work, but we decided that if the company needs a truck, the company should buy one, not me. So, that freed me up to buy something different. I went with a Saab. Now I feel safe again.
Why do I think a (relatively) fast car is needed? I encounter a LOT of asshattery. About six years ago, I had two simultaneous collisions happen in front of me (lane drop, massholes being massholes and not yielding to the left lane, and someone in the left lane wanted to pass on the right). The collisions were too close for me to stop, so I just nailed it and navigated through unscathed.
Since I bought this car last week I've had massholes weaving through traffic almost broadside my driver-side fender, some charlie-uniform-november-tango pull right out in front of me, and so forth. People are too impatient. I drive the limit, understand right of way, and the way people drive in Massachusetts drives me nuts.
I have a clean driving record and drive very conservatively when there are other cars around. Why can't everyone do the same? Why can't people drive sensibly when there are other people on the road? It's partially because of other people I choose performance-oriented vehicles (that, and on empty rural roads they're just fun!).
It's due to ignorance of others that we have the ridiculous 65mph speed limit instead of unlimited speed on rural highways. It's due to asshattery that insurance rates are outrageous. It's due to masshattery that the gubbament can justify traffic light cameras.
It's due to ignorant asshole drivers that my door has a dent in it. I parked my car, went into the store, came out, and found that someone had opened their door against mine, right at the B pillar. So now, my car door looks like I opened it against a wall or something. The other car's paint rubbed off so there is no mar, but now every time I walk up to the car my eye is drawn right to that ding. I had the thing only four days, I parked out in the boonies, and some asshole still managed to ding my car. It's amazing.
Asshattery. It's human nature. Massholes are the perfect example of that.
I may be a masshole, but I refuse to drive like one. Even if one is self-centered/selfish, they should think about how their driving like assholes affects their own insurance rates and spawns new legislation restricting their own rights - if they won't think about how their actions will affect others. If you're selfish, think of the negative consequences for being a jerk. If everyone followed the law and also courtesy, traffic jams would be rare. Want to jockey for position? Just go ahead. I won't be bothered. I usually take off quick but if someone is jockeying, I just let them go. It's not worth the aggravation and the risk.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
What gets me really frustrated is people in the left lane, going at or slightly below the speed limit, with a LONG line behind them.
Alright, that's frustrating, but I'll one up ya: People who are in a super hurry to get in front of you... and then go slow.
They know they won't be driving fast, but they HAVE to be in front! It's more important than driving safely, more important than driving fast, they have to be in front. That's people I wish I could take out with rocket propelled grenades.
You can't take the sky from me...
Tell that to all of the A$$holes who suddenly feel the need to accelerate as you try to pass them!
Get a Porsche.
By the time they realize you're accelerating you are already a kilometer ahead of them.
no s$it. if you get out of my way, I don't have to shut down my cruise control and slow down, all the while riding your bumper.
use your freaking rear view mirror.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein
If you're already 10 below the posted limit and there's nowhere to pass, don't be surprised if drivers like me stick to your ass like glue. As in mere inches apart. If you'd just go what's frikin' posted, I'd start backing off. Unless you're at the posted limit, the assholery is more so on the blocker's end than the tailgater's end. Also if there's more than one lane, and you're not making a left anytime soon (U.S./Eur. rules) keep in the right lane.
Also it pisses me off when idiots slow to a crawl for no perceivable reason, and then less than one second before making the turn is when they signal. I'll get on your ass when you're doing that too. If you can signal 4-5 seconds ahead of your turn, then that at least gives a clue. And I'll give room for that too. But slowing down without apparent reason is really really annoying. Just be happy I don't have a mack truck where I could actually start pushing you without breaking something on my vehicle.
The only time I find going slower than posted is acceptable is when the weather is shitty (snow/ice/fog/pouring rain), traffic is just that bad (where is there to go?), or if the road is complete shit (ie: most streets in Gary, IN.) and going the limit would break something. Otherwise there's really no exuse for it, and the minimum should be what the posted limit is. If you're health/vision is so bad that you can't drive normally, you really should give up your license and let somebody else do the driving. And if you're car is the problem, get it in a shop, start taking the bus, or trade in already. You're just being a PITA otherwise.
Why? Simple: it's polite. (It might also be illegal for you not to get over; driving in the left lane when not passing is illegal in many places, but disregarding that, it's still rude not to move over.)
Even if it isn't illegal, driving the speed limit in the left lane when you know there are people behind you who want to pass is rude. Yes, they're trying to speed and that would be breaking the law, but first and foremost it's not your job to force them to obey the speed limit. Second, if it's legal for you to do the speed limit in the left lane, it's also legal for the guy in front of you to do 5 to 10 under in the left lane (the minimum speed limit is what, 45?), and you wouldn't like that either... so you should have the same respect for the people behind you just out of politeness.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
You're are a sick little fucker and beneath contempt. I adamantly hope that you die soon and painfully you vile evil worm.
I suspect you two won't become friends.
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My experience has shown time and again that it is the rule breakers that start the jams. It is always with respect to a merge. Some jerk tries to get by just one more car and squeezes in at the last point forcing the cars behind him to stop so they don't hit him and voila, traffic jam. If he had just merged sooner, or followed an every other pattern there wouldn't have been a problem. Then again LonGisland drivers are easily the worst in the nation, what should I expect?
Traffic accidents cause traffic jams.
People driving in unpredictable fashions increase the risk of accidents.
The increased accident rate of 40% of people ignoring rules would have an inverse impact that would outweigh any optimal reactions to existing jams.
This is not the result of a scientific experiment. This is the result of common sense based on my daily commute, including my experience as a motorcyclist.
Blowing away people with my twin mounted rocket launcher.
Yeah! that gets them going!!!!!!
I've lived in the L.A. area nearly my whole life so I've had my fair share of experience with traffic.
I can see where some rude behavior could reduce congestion, but a whole lot of the activities that rude drivers engage in wreaks havoc. One of the biggest issues is people who wait till the last possible minute to merge at an interchange or onramp, they will invariably end up slowing down a non-merging lane dramatically while they attempt to force their way in to the merging lane, while the merging lane is disrupted causing it to slow further. I regularly see people get out of a lane of traffic to drive the last few hundred feet of an onramp before forcing their way in 2-3 carlengths ahead of where they were.
Other rude behaviors which significantly increase congestion include driving slowly (often below the speed limit) in the left lane (or any lane but the right) and turning into the wrong lane (i.e.turn right into the left lane)
where the people would do things like drive three abreast on a two-lane road, because one person was passing without enough clearance. The oncoming car would slide out to make room. Their traffic looked crazy, but everybody knew what they were doing, and were willing to accommodate other drivers without throwing a fit.
Evil is the money of root.
a sick little fucker and beneath contempt
so he might be the kind of friend I get along with.
I had plenty ot speeding tickets over the years for 5 or 10 miles over. I don't want to go 60. I want to go 65, but, I'm not going over. Kiss my ass!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
Yeah, that's great when that's an option, but IME, that's rarely when the problem occurs. IIt seems to happen most often to me when I am stuck behind traffic ahead, but traffic on the right is backed up and going even slower, so there is nowhere in the right lane for me to go. In that case, the tailgater is only making a bad situation worse.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Here in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area, we have dozens of fixed and mobile speed cameras on our state highways. (There is currently a drive to ban them - go to camerafraud.com to learn more about their drive - but that's another story). A big part of the pro-camera argument coming from the vendors (and the Highway Patrol - called DPS in Arizona) is that the cameras significantly improve traffic flow and make the roads "smoother and more efficient" for drivers, and this study flies in the face of this oft-preached philosophy.
I'm one of those "jerk drivers" this study was talking about, and my anecdotal experience has been that since the cameras were installed and turned on last November, the drivers now will not move over and let other drivers by (this behavior suddenly appeared the week of the installation, so there's strong correlation between the two events.) Whether it is because of speed camera fear, pride, revenge-driven anger at speeders, or gadget-induced ignorance of the drivers around them (cell phones, texting, etc.), they are now clogging ALL lanes at cruise control like speeds. (In many cases I have seen these drivers taking advantage of their "smooth" time by choose to text or call other people or do some other menial (and dangerous) task while being oblivious of the rolling traffic jam that is forming behind them.)
When I can finally get past these drivers and go around them at 15+ over the ridiculously low 55 or 65 MPH speed limits they are rolling along at (keep in mind that these are speed limits on newer, modern, wide, and smooth 10+ lane highways), it breaks these clogs up for various reasons. Sometimes the slow drivers realize that they are a problem and move over. At other times, other drivers are encouraged to speed up and go around the slower drivers. Either way, the traffic cesspool that forms due to one or two "law abiding citizens" that don't move out of the way is broken up - by me, a "jerk" driver.
So, if this study is correct, and speed cameras continue to go up everywhere, and license plates are tracked in order to enforce speeds EVERYWHERE, traffic is going to suffer greatly in Arizona, unless us "jerks" keep it moving more efficiently.
Switching lanes unecessarily is an additional danger that is not needed if you would SLOW THE FUCK DOWN AND DO THE SPEED LIMIT JACK-ASS!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
so he might be the kind of friend I get along with.
Unlikely.
You think that your ability to fuck people over solely for your sick amusement is far more important than a person's right to save the life of their loved one. That is sick and evil beyond anything I would associate myself with. That's who you are, Sparky. An absolutely vile monster.
I choose friends who are hands down better people than you are. I don't associate with people who are, like you yourself bragged about being, driven purely by their hatred of other people living their lives without your approval.
Oh well, when and if you get your head pulped with steel toes boots for acting like the monster you brag about being you'll know damn well why it happened and that you richly deserved it.
I know that I saved my family from the fate that a shitbag like yourself attempted to inflict upon us.
I'm quite obviously a far better person that you could ever hope to be and I have nothing but contempt for you because I know how fucking pointless and *murderous* your cowardly douchebaggery really is in practice.
Go die in a fire before you end up killing decent people.
The speed limit is the speed limit. Don't like it? Lobby the state legislature; otherwise, fuck off!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
This is why in most states it is against the law to not pass in the left most (passing) lane. The exception is when someone is in front of you but if you're in the left hand lane and are not passing someone to the right regardless if someone is behind you or not then you need to move over.
I wish this law was enforced and not the speed limit laws. If the passing lane laws where enforced there would be a lot less traffic, a lot less crashes, and a lot less deaths on the road.
Okay, let's pick the 405 N transition to the W 101. It's very popular for 'rude' drivers to wait till the last minute before merging (I don't do this by the way). It used to bother me till I realized that a large percent of the time they're filling gaps left by lazy drivers who lag in their response to the stop and go of heavy traffic. If the 'rude' drivers merged earlier the backup would be much larger. Sure, there are a small percent who dangerously stop/slow traffic in their lane when they can't gracefully find that gap but overall I think they help.
You think that your ability to fuck people over solely for your sick amusement is far more important than a person's right to save the life of their loved one.
Incorrect logic. Had he known that you were trying to save the life of your loved one, and he'd acted the same, that would be correct.
He was just being thoughtless, not malicious/evil.
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There are many fine traffic modeling journals out there. Physical Review E is not one of them. More telling is the lack of any references to any transportation journal articles regarding traffic flow models. While cellular automata approaches to modeling traffic flow have become increasingly popular in the last two decades, nothing in the abstract or citations leads me to believe they used an established traffic flow model.
Have mod points right now, but wanted to get your 10+ year old stale knowledge updated a bit instead.....Actually, Montana has had a set speed limit since May 28, 1999 as Montana was threatened by the federal government that it would withhold all highway funding unless Montana would enact speed limits. Just FYI, this is one of the main ways the federal government controls state governments; by withholding funds.
Take a look at http://www.us-highways.com/montana/mtspeed.htm for more info on current Montana speeds based on type of vehicle. In case you don't want to click the link, this means that for cars during daylight hours, the maximum speed limit on interstate highways is 75 mph (or 120.7008 kph).
In addition, during the time when Montana "didn't have a speed limit", the rule of the road during daytime driving was to drive in a "Reasonable and Prudent" way. Requiring people to THINK when driving is so much safer.
Here is the text from http://www.us-highways.com/montana/reasonable.htm
What was Reasonable and Prudent?
Basic Rule Speed Restriction
Motorists were to comply with the "basic rule" speed limit when they drove, in a manner that did not unreasonably endanger other highway users. To ensure this, drivers were to be constantly alert to changing traffic conditions and adjust their speed as conditions varied. These conditions were numerous and could change rapidly. Thus drivers were to be alert for:
* the amount and type of traffic sharing the highway with them. The traffic could have been heavy or light and may have included trucks, cars, motorhomes, farm equipment, and motorcycles.
* changing weather conditions that could have affected driver visibility and road conditions. These conditions could have included fog or snow and road surface conditions such as water or ice.
* the type of vehicle they were driving, particularly the condition of their brakes and the weight of their vehicle, which affects braking ability.
* the character of the highway they were driving. Drivers were to adjust their speed for hills or for winding and narrow roads.
* the presence of intersections, railway grade crossings or pedestrians.
Driving in a careful and prudent manner, complying with the basic rule, required drivers to be constantly alert and mindful of their personal responsibility not only for their own safety but also for that of other highway users.
Sig Return: 204 No Content
Tailgating someone only makes you look like an asshole.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
If someone is honking their horn and flashing their lights, I'll get out of the way. Maybe they really need to get somewhere fast. I have no problems with that. But if Darby needs to think I am
An absolutely vile monster
and that I
fuck people over solely for your sick amusement
well, he's wrong, but then his beliefs are his own business. Can't please everyone. Last I checked, I was talking about being the responsible party. Oh well.
You know, I think I'm going to click that little Slashdot friend button, anyway.
This study is focusing on peds only. You'd be amazed at what 2 tons of metal around someone does to regular traffic flow. (Most likely, the decrease in agility, or perceived agility causes slightly less aggressive behaviour.) I'm not sure the results should be extrapolated to include cars.
I apparently need to go dig up my old traffic simulation software (Simtraffic) for some testing this evening . . .
You think that your ability to fuck people over solely for your sick amusement is far more important than a person's right to save the life of their loved one.
Incorrect logic. Had he known that you were trying to save the life of your loved one, and he'd acted the same, that would be correct. He was just being thoughtless, not malicious/evil.
I'll just say this one thing: if you are going to go out of your way to be a dick, you better be god damned certain that you have all of the facts, fully understand all potential implications of your actions, and are prepared for the possibility that you are making a bad assumption about the situation. If you don't know why somebody is trying so hard to pass you because you don't personally know both them and their situation, then you fail this criteria.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
no s$it. When I'm on cruise control in the left lane, passing people on the right one, I don't have to shut it down because you're tailgating me and want to drive even 1 mph faster than I'm what doing. Especially not if I'm speeding myself.
Keep your freaking distance.
That would be Mackay, Idaho. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackay,_Idaho Way more cows than people.
One of the reasons lane splitting on motorcycles has not been outlawed in California is because it reduces traffic. I always have to smile, a little bitterly, when I think about it. You see, I've heard the only reason it was allowed in the first place was because motorcycle police officers drove big air cooled bikes in the 60's and 70's, and needed to keep moving in traffic. The bitter part being regular riders on the same bikes didn't warrant notice, but the police officers did. As for clumping, I am not sure why it happens, but I rarely get stuck in clumps. You gotta either travel slightly faster or slightly slower than the clumps, and if the road isn't full of people you'll spend most of the drive blessedly alone.
"On the other hand, what about the annoying guys that just whizz past you in the lane you're trying to get over into while you are trying to get OUT of the fast lane? And they sometimes get really upset, because you just moved into HIS LANE and he had to use his brakes. Ugh! Awful brakes."
No offense but it sounds like either your relaxes are terrible, you do not use your mirrors, or you do not know how to properly drive. Either way, you're being dangerous.
Shouldn't you move over BEFORE they can move over or even get behind you? Also, shouldn't you use your mirrors to see that the person has moved over already before you've started changing lanes?
I'm saying this not to be offensive but more that if you do not think about it and change your driving style (based on what you've said) you might end up dead one day.
One of the primary reasons that traffic jams occur and persist is precisely because people selfishly "jam", deliberately following so closely that it prevents lane movements of any kind, whether those lane movements are reasonable and necessary or not. Traffic jams are a collective exclusionary tactic... sound like familiar human group(think) behavior?
Don't get me started on traffic signals, which are alleged to promote safer crossings than roundabouts, but which "drive" these same rule-breaking drivers to risk everyone's life and limb trying to beat the arbitrary traffic lights, and cause the rest of us to stop thus ruining the efficiency of transit for everyone.
It's not rule-breakers "livening things up" that we need: it's better collective cooperation and less selfishness. A machine doesn't work very well if the individual gears in it don't work in perfect unison. Don't disrespect "The Process"!
I believe we should drop the speed limit to zero. It's clear that speed costs lives - a speed limit of zero would clear the problem up overnight. And we should be forced to drive three horsepower rubber cars with a planter in the back.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
But a damned traffic jam slowed it down!!
If someone throws a brick at you, the safe thing to do is duck. That doesn't take away from the fact that the person shouldn't have thrown the brick in the first place.
While riding a motorcycle, I once had an idiot work real hard to get in front of me, then immediately slam on the brakes to make a right turn...
The perfect commuting vehicle around here... a 1986 HD pickup truck with a big smelly diesel, plenty of dents and rust over a camouflage paint job, and perhaps the logos of some other makes of cars spray painted on the drivers side door just in case anyone misses the point. Oh, and wear a full face helmet while driving your truck. Gets a lot of right-of-way!
"Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
Other people acting like douches doesn't mean you should act like a douche yourself. Get where you need to go safely, if other people don't know how to drive then avoid them - leave the policing to the cops. Anything else is contributing to the problem.
I drive at 85 miles per hour. If someone behind me wants to do 90, I move over.
It always seems weird to me that:
The same people who will slow down to stare at a car by the side of the freeway with a slightly crushed fender (or flat tire, or nothing at all) ...will not even glance at hundreds of massively mangled cars stacked up in a junkyard.
In Bangalore its the other way round. If one person breaks the rule then it triggers a chain reaction and before you can do something you end up in a deadlock. The problem is that the traffic system is stretched to the limit. Some of the roads are a nightmare to drive.
Got a ticket for doing 47 in a 45 zone.
The Judge dismissed it, told me to have a nice day & dismissed me, then "had a talk" with the ticketing officer about "wasting [his] time".
If it's in 5MPH of the posted limit, chances are it's in the "margin for error" realm of the machine the cop is using to measure your speed.
Judges don't like it when ANYONE wastes their time, but ESPECIALLY when it's a cop who's supposed to know better.
I don't know if that's an urban myth or what, but anyway I heard the story of a group of people who wanted to demonstrate how stupidly low are speed limits in certain areas outside the cities, so they took their cars and formed a blob moving exactly at the maximum speed allowed in that road. As a result, a clog of vehicles stuffed with infuriated drivers was created in a matter of minutes behind them.
You must move to the right hand lane for faster moving traffic (regardless of speed) or you get a ticket for obstructing the flow of traffic.
So which lane should I choose if I'm in a slow-moving vehicle and I want to turn left?
The article is about jurisdictions that drive on the right: Sweden, Alberta (Canada), Paris (France). If you want to discuss the UK or other jurisdictions that drive on the left, you'll have to mentally mirror the examples first.
Do I really need to drive two hours a day to sit inside a Baltimore office and type code all day? I can do the exact-same work at home.
Unless your employer is subject to third party restrictions against telecommuting. Nintendo, for instance, is known for its disapproval of authorized developers working out of home offices. I would imagine that this is common among organizations that deal in classified or otherwise sensitive information.
What gets me really frustrated is people in the left lane, going at or slightly below the speed limit, with a LONG line behind them.
Where I come from, that would be a line of people preparing to turn left.
I wish I could prove it but I am convinced that if automatics were outlawed there would be a strong reduction in the number of accidents.
I live in the UK where we predominantly drive manual rather than automatic.
People still drive reactively. You can very easily (say 1 year of driving) reach a stage where gear changes are completely automatic to you, they never enter your thought process. At this point, the driver is free to sink into a reactive way of driving.
And that's exactly what they do!
If you're passing a line of cars, you can't merge back into the RH lane.
Very true. In some cases, however, the definition of "line of cars" used by the non-merging car's driver appears to be "any sequence of cars with up to 150 meters between them" which is a tad annoying, to say the least.
It's a fundamental law of nature, an element of chaos prevents stagnation and encourages change.
well, he's wrong, but then his beliefs are his own business. Can't please everyone. Last I checked, I was talking about being the responsible party.
No, I am not at all wrong. You yourself stated that as a fact. That was your assertion and something that you were bragging about. Trying to deny that now is both stupid and deeply dishonest.
You were not talking about being the responsible party. You were talking about going out of your way to fuck over other drivers because their frustration amuses you.
Since you do not have the foggiest idea what the motivations of the other party are before deciding to fuck them over you are a bad person. It really is that simple. It sucks for everyone else that you don't possess even the most basic common sense or basic human decency which is all it would take a healthy person to realise that, but pretending the facts aren't what they are by your own admission is just stupid.
It's not up to you to decide whether or not somebody else's emergency is important enough. It's your responsibility to stay the fuck out of people's way and *not* be an asshole because you find that amusing. You don't have the right to make those decisions for others. When you attempt to usurp that authority over others, you grant them the right to decide whether or not you live or die. That is the oldest deal in the history of humanity and every struggle against every tyrant is premised on that fact.
Incorrect logic.
On your part, not mine.
Had he known that you were trying to save the life of your loved one, and he'd acted the same, that would be correct.
Wrong. Had he known *for a fact* that it was not the case that a life was on the line then he'd still be an asshole, but his crime would be less egregious. It doesn't make it ok to actively be an asshole just because you're ignorant of the situation.
He was just being thoughtless, not malicious/evil.
Wrong again. He was *intentionally* fucking over other drivers and preventing them from keeping up with the flow of traffic because being an asshole amuses him. That was his statement. That is malicious by definition. Evil too in my book, but that term isn't well defined. Actively hurting others without gaining any benefit for yourself just for the intended purpose of being an asshole to people meets it in my book though. Had his intentionally malicious evil led to the death of an innocent person, then his execution would be completely justified. That doesn't mean that if he doesn't kill somebody with his childish asshattery that it magically becomes OK. It is never ok to act like that under any circumstances.
Thoughtless would be if he was daydreaming, ended up in the passing lane without consciously noticing and then when somebody asks him to get out of the way he does and apologises. That's thoughtless. What he did took active thought according to him. His intent was to fuck over other people for his amusement. Why you would even bother trying to defend the type of scum who routinely does that shit is a question you should be asking yourself. The answer to that will say a lot about you.
I drive the speed limit or perhaps 5 under, and I think I have the same effect. People tend to get into clumps going 5 over, 10 over, etc, and move as a lump down all the lanes. When they come up behind me, they're forced to move over and pass, and I think the turbulent flow tends to break things up and allow people to resort themselves into different speed groups.
Corollary: I've always thought cops should actively seek to give tickets to motorists who get passed on the left by drivers who are traveling at a legal speed limit. That behavior is just a dangerous as the asshole who weaves in and out of traffic. So, slow drivers in right-hand and middle lanes are assholes, too.
This makes no sense. The right-hand lane is called the slow lane, because that's where you're supposed to stay if you're driving slower than other traffic. You're supposed to let traffic to your left pass you. If you match speeds with them, you'll block the road.
I find it an interesting metric of slashdot readership that every single complaint involves this "omighod must stay with the herd" behaviour resulting in multiple lanes being 'blocke'd on the freeway.
Not one comment (at least that I saw, and I read most of 'em) mentions the much more hazardous problem of passing on two-lane roads, where you go to pass someone and they speed up to match you WHILE YOU ARE IN THE ONCOMING TRAFFIC'S LANE.
Again, judging from my neighbour's behaviour, this is usually unconscious (hardwired stick-with-the-herd), not just being an asshole.
====
You trust your fellow man. In fact, you trust him with your very life.
Don't think so?? You drive on two-lane roads, don't you??
Er, well, judging from the comment chain as remarked above... maybe not.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
If switching lanes is a dangerous manuever for you, perhaps you need to take public transportation or hire a driver. I bet you avoid the right hand lanes as well to avoid merging. If you're unable to match the skills of the general population of drivers please stop increasing my risk of delays and accidents by your subpar driving abilities.
You are forgetting that the roads are a public resource, with corresponding laws and rules created by the public. When you are driving on your own road (the one you own personally and in full), you can make any decisions you want. When you ride on the public road, you're supposed to obey the rules set up for that road. Driving isn't an experiment in "I want to be there now" or "I can do anything I want as long as I don't get caught", because other peoples lives (outside of your own) are at stake if you make a stupid mistake. Remember, its only a method of transport from A to B.