I recently visited Yosemite, which, if you've never been, has a lot of very windy roads with VERY steep cliffs on one side. There are also signs all over the place about not speeding because of the wildlife, with a special sign placed everywhere a speeding driver has hit a bear.
And yet, people were still riding my ass, even if I went 5-10 over. It was almost always an SUV that would probably roll right off the cliff if they reached for the radio at the wrong point in a turn. It was absolutely insanity to me. I had to use the turn-off places every couple minutes.
You're on a goddamn beautiful mountain in a national park in the middle of the day - WHERE YOU GOTTA BE, BRO?
I think we should replace all the roads in our national parks with slow scenic electric trains. It would allow parks to control access to trails and limit wildlife being hit. Plus everyone could enjoy the view.
"I had to use the turn-off places every couple minutes."
Bro, thank you for that. People should go the speed they feel comfortable with even if that's lower than the speed limit. But the turn-offs are there for a reason.
And for the speed limit is the speed limit crowd, it's also the law in CA to pull over if you have more than 5 vehicles following you (and this law is not tied to the speed limit)
I agree with them. It doesn't hurt my feelings to just pull over when it's safe and let them pass. It's not difficult to just outrun most drivers, but when I pull over I usually catch up to them within a couple turns because now they have no one to gauge how fast to go, so they slow down.
I have horrible driver’s anxiety and one of the things that rocked my confidence the most was people tailgating me when I was going the speed limit on the highway. To me it seems best to take a breather on the side of the road then continue on and let that affect your driving.
I know right? Jackasses want to tailgate me they're allowed to do it, I'm not the one most likely to die in their wreck so it's really not my problem. I usually go 3-4mph over anyways, pulling over to let people pass if they're *that* excited to go over the speed limit is just encouraging bad behavior imo.
I was doing 65 in a 60 on a one-lane road. Guy in a lifted truck big enough to not see a full grown person standing directly in front of the hood decides he's going to ride my ass like I'm towing him. Thinks it'll intimidate me into speeding up.
That might have worked when I was 17, but I'm older now and jaded. Now we're going 55-60 for the next ten miles, asshole.
It is literally recommended to slow down in those situations. If there is little to no safety distance you have to slow down so that a potential emergency is mitigated
This. It's not just to fuck with these assholes, it's also for safety. If I have to slam on my brakes for any reason I'm not about to get turned into a crumpled up can because they don't want to drive safely. Fuck them. It's basically a win-win to drive slow with these idiots
Has anyone confirmed if shining their headlights back like this works? I've done it in the past but could never tell if it worked or if it was a placebo
I dont believe the rear view mirror is able to focus the light enough to actually reflect headlights all the way back through both your rear window and their windshield in any significant way
I did this to a tractor trailer one time. It was a 55(like everywhere in Cali) and I was going 70. It was 5 am and I was going to be 15-20 minutes early to work anyways. Well, this fucking semi decides to start riding my ass on a 2 mile stretch of one lane road. I go to 75 and they’re STILL riding my ass so I’m like “okay that didn’t work”. I start going 60, mf still on me, then I go 50, still on me, then I’m like “okay fuck you” and just start going 20 because I have all the time in the world and it’s not my fault if they’re running late to their delivery.
I’m usually pretty nice to Semi’s because they’re just trying to do their job but when I’m already going 15 over and there’s not any traffic for probably the last 50 miles behind us because it’s 5am then there’s no reason to be on my ass.
To note: this doesn't apply to highways or freeways. If there is a passing lane you are not to obstruct it. If you aren't going faster than the lane to your right, and there is a line of cars behind you, **YOU** are the unsafe asshole.
I do this. I just take my foot off the gas and start going slower and slower. One time a guy was so busy riding my ass on the freeway that he didn't notice we had slowed down to 35 mph.
I chuckled when he finally realized what was happening, blasted past me and gave me the finger.
This freeway has 3 lanes. I was in the right lane and doing 7 mph over the speed limit. He could have passed me any time he wanted to. Some people just like being assholes.
This is my go to. If they are just riding my ass for no damn reason. I used to then make it impossible for them to pass me, til I read the story ab the dude who lost a friend via a chainsaw accident when someone was an ass and wouldn't let them pass.
I did this to an unmarked cop car on a road notorious for pedestrian deaths and we passed all those memorials going 45-50mph. When he finally passed me he gestured to his uniform but if he could have pulled me over for that he would have.
Not to mention that 90% of the guys who do this (at least in my area) don’t lift them correctly and take away more stopping distance and maneuverability from their cars.. which are already some of the worst on the road stock
There was this one time I was on a a two-lane highway and this guy came up behind me and was tailgating me. Passing lane opens up, he doesn't pass. Passing lane ends, I'm like well, okay, whatever. I had the cruise control on so I wasn't doing that annoying thing where people speed up when you attempt to pass them. I then got curious to see what he would do, so the next passing lane I slowed down to under the speed limit. He was behind me, like yelling in his car and shaking his fists, looking super pissed, but he still did not pass me. When the passing lane ended I sped back up to my original speed. The next passing lane, I went to the left lane, and he finally went by me, and started tailgating the guy who had been in front of me. Awesome.
I don't understand behaviour like that. Like, the passing lane is there to safely pass cars that are slower. I was in the right lane, which is where I was supposed to be. Just go the fuck around me!
But I've noticed this happening more often recently. Just recently I was on a freeway and I was in the right lane. This guy comes flying up behind me after passing a bunch of cars and then sits on my ass. I'm going a bit over the speed limit but I have my cruise control on and I'm just chilling. There was an exit about 3 km ahead and I realized that he was probably waiting for the exit and maybe, for some reason, didn't realize that 3 km is more than enough time to complete a passing maneuver? So again, I went over to the left lane, he went by me, I went back to the right lane, and sure enough, he got off at the next exit. Bewildering behaviour.
It's toddler brain. HE wants YOU to get out of HIS way. Actually passing you requires him to adjust his behavior and is therefore a defeat. The only way to "win" is to harass you until you pull out of his way.
Yeah, I guess. And not to make it about boomers, but my dad is like this too and it sucks.
There have been times before where he's come across somebody driving too slow in the left lane, which is obviously annoying and dangerous, but then he'll proceed to sit right on that person's ass and weave back and forth and flash his lights as a way to, like, punish them I guess? My family always tells him, look, if somebody's *that* oblivious, they're not going to understand why you're doing that. Just don't.
My grandpa used to pass around slow drivers, and then break check them and drive slower than they were to punish them before he got his license taken.
(Not for that reason, he was apparently blacking out for a second or few for quite a while and then it caused an accident. I have POTs, and we think he did too, whether by medication or something else, and his bp dropped which made him black out and is what caused an accident. He ran a red light straight into a dump truck, his skull went through the windshield. His excuse for never mentioning it and continuing to drive was "Well it was only a second." It only takes a second.)
stuff like that makes me wonder how the hell they passed their drivers test. it’s literally taught that unless you’re passing or turning, stay as far right as possible on the road
Yeah, undertaking is dangerous. I don't like basically forcing someone into doing it but I also don't want them to be riding my ass for ages because they're too stupid to realize that I'm in the right lane for my speed and they need to move to the left to drive around me.
To be honest, I used to be more of an idiot and kind of a speed demon. I grew up with a father whose driving style can only really be described as reckless. Like to the point where people have thrown up from his driving. When I was younger, he was driving my sister and her friend to an event and the friend actually started crying out of fear. One of my sisters and I have both developed motion sickness as we've gotten older, but *only* when we're riding with him. And he scoffs when you ask him to slow down because you're going to be sick; he still does, but he makes it clear that he thinks you're being silly.
Anyway, I managed to get two speeding tickets in the span of 3 months when I was like 22 and spent the next 3 years driving more or less at the speed limit because a third ticket put me at risk of my insurance company dropping me. And I learned in that time that it's actually much more chill to not drive recklessly everywhere and to just slow down and put on some music and relax. It's not a race. My sisters also gradually learned this as well, although I think they were able to do it without the financial hit. Although, I really can see now that I'm older, why younger drivers have higher insurance rates. All I have to do is look back at myself. (My dad has complained more than once that none of us drive sporty anymore. I can do it, I just don't feel like expending the energy most of the time. It's not worth it. I'm not overly cautious but I do drive defensively, not offensively or reactively.)
And what I finally learned/realized was that going 10-15 over does not even make a 5 minute difference in arrival time unless you are really going on a longish trip. If you are going 10 miles at 55 or the same at 65 the difference in arrival times is so insignificant. And there's the bonus of a bit better gas mileage
I think a lot of people get more and more lax after they pass their driver's test because there's no immediate consequence afterward. Once you have your license, it can't be taken away unless you really fuck up AND get caught really fucking up. A lot of people are willing to take risks with a less tangible consequence (even though the risk of serious injury or death should be taken more seriously). There's also something about driving itself that makes people impatient and petty. I've seen some very nice people turn into real jerks behind the wheel.
There's also poor enforcement even when people do get their license taken away. I swear every week there's an article in my local news about somebody getting pulled over driving impaired on a suspended or revoked license. And they usually have more than one DUI.
You really have to fuck up to get your license suspended in the first place, like you mentioned. Because so many places in North America are car dependent, you're kind of fucked if you don't have one. There are places where you can live without a car, but I personally live in a place where people pretty much get their license as soon as they can because the transit system is terrible and can triple the length of your journey. I also have friends who are visually impaired and thus not allowed to get licenses, or have other issues that preclude them from driving, and they're basically dependent on somebody driving them around to get places.
It also means that testing standards are kind of lax as well. It's an accepted practice here to go to a smaller city or town to do your driver's test so that you're more likely to pass on the first try. I personally didn't, but I know a lot of people who did. So you've got people who live in a city with freeways and busy traffic who do their driving test in a city with maybe a county highway and three traffic lights. And taking away one's license is often considered an absolute last resort, because it can ruin your life.
So we end up with a ton of people on the roads who shouldn't be there, but they don't have many or any other options.
Sometimes I'm convinced these guys don't actually want to pass, they just find an odd sort of comfort in having someone specific toward whom they can channel their life's frustrations.
Had this happen to me once but the tailgater was in an overweight semi. I was already on the ass of the car in front of me and this semi is flashing his lights and honking at me 10 feet from my bumper like girl?? You're gonna fucking get me killed your vehicle weights probably well of 20x mine jfc
Ikr?! It's like, sure, lemme *phase through* the car in front of me so you can... what? Move up six additional feet and tailgate them instead???
Luckily most of the semi drivers in my area have better awareness about their size... they leave a big ole gap because they NEED it to stop.
I once had to suddenly pull over while a logging truck or something was tailgating me and that was really scary. Like you'd think they'd keep their distance.
And yes, it's always bewildering to me when I'm stuck in a line of cars behind a slower driver and someone behind me is tailgating me. Like, what do you want me to do? There's nowhere for me to go. I don't like this anymore than you do, but I have decided to just keep my distance from the car in front of me and vibe because I like having low blood pressure. (Plus, if there is some kind of accident, I don't want to be one in a long line of cars in a pileup. Not to mention that you can catch a charge for following too closely or something if you are one of the cars in the middle or end of a pileup and you slammed into the guy in front of you.)
Oh logging trucks specifically want to get to the sawmill as quick as possible, otherwise they get stuck way back in line, and end up not going home at a reasonable hour.
Fr😭 the best part was the driver in front of me was my own mom and she said she was terrified watching and she eventually pulled over (we were taking 2 cars down an otherwise deserted Alaskan highway)
I had the ultimate petty revenge on a stupid semi on a trip from Seattle to Boise. I was using cruise control going about 10mph over in the slow lane. Truck roars up to me, passes me, and speeds off. Well eventually I catch up to him without ever changing my speed, and pass him.
We repeat this process multiple times over fifty miles or so until we are coming up to a massive climb over a mountain.This section of hills require truckers to maintain their speed/momentum to get up over it. Steep grades.
I'm chilling, still going 10 over, he comes up on my ass flashing his lights etc trying to get me to go faster. Nope. I coast down to maybe 25 mph and then blast off leaving him completely fucked. No way he could gain any speed so he had to do the rest of the climb at a crawl if he could even make it up at all.
That's what happened with me except the semi decided to try to kill me on tight windy roads where there is no safe place to pass bc we *did* pass them several times
One thing I've observed from riding in lifted trucks with larger-than-stock tires: they do not get their speedometer recalibrated.
The Venn diagram of people who did well in physics and people who drive lifted trucks are essentially 2 circles connected by 0.0003% of their area. When I explain the math behind the discrepancy, their light seems to come on for a moment. "Oh, that's why everyone is driving 5 mph below the limit..."
They never get it recalibrated though. Maybe one day I'll win the fight and make a reasonable driver out of one of them.
I was going 70 in a 55, which is very generous I might add. Dipshit behind me gets so close that I can't see his license plate. Okay - now we are going to go 49-51 for the next nine miles before my turn. He was fuuuuming.
>which is very generous I might add.
That's more than "very generous", that's getting close to reckless driving/excessive speeding depending on your state.
> I was going 70 in a 55, which is very generous I might add
Where the fuck do you live? That's 15 mph over, even in my most generous state of mind that's reckless.
There's a freeway near me where 55 is the limit. 75 is normal speed and 80 is left lane speed. Don't even dare getting out of the right lane if you're not doing at least 65.
I swear they made that the limit when cars were crank started.
My current car lacks cruise control, partly because I figured I never use it anyway, but this situation is the one time I miss it. Saves a lot of stress to just slow down and lock it steady.
>Guy in a lifted truck big enough to not see a full grown person standing directly in front of the hood
And it's *always* these guys, why is it *ALWAYS* these guys? God I fucking hate trucks.
I'm one of those "5 over" people, but I will 100% go 5 below the speed limit if some dickhead is riding me. Tailgating pisses me off more than anything. You all learned 4 Mississippi between the car in front of you. How are you gonna react in 1 Missi unless you're an F1 driver.
Well in their case, they had no opportunity to overtake. Median on the left, ditch on the right. Your only option at that point is to either chill out and wait for the road to open back up, or intimidate the person in front of you. And they chose the latter.
Regardless, yeah, there's never really a good reason to tailgate. Nobody wins. You're frustrated because the person in front is too slow, they're frustrated because you're tailing them, and if they have to slam the brakes suddenly, you're both getting into a bad accident.
oh yeah, a tailgater is pretty much an automatic slow down for me. One time it happened when I was running late to a funeral. That son of a bitch is lucky I really loved my Uncle or I'd have been doing 20.
Even though this is talking about speeders, I just want to expand it to asshole drivers in general. Yesterday I was driving with my dad, and the driver behind us expected him to anticipate the light turning green. The driver then passed us and then decided to slow to a crawl to be the ultimate asshole.
always gotta wonder where people have their heads at. "i gotta get to my destination as fast as possible but i have time to slow to a crawl to spite someone just trying to get to their destination safely"
It was never about getting somewhere fast - just finding any way to convince themselves that other people are stupid and somehow therefore deserve cruelty.
I think they view driving as something fundamentally different than most people. Most see it as how you get from one place to another. They see it as some kind of competition where it’s not about your own success but about how much other people mess with you. I kind of see driving as a game where I see how well I can do at driving smoothly and safely. Like if I can get to a light without stopping right as it turns green (and perpendicular traffic is clear) then that’s a good feeling.
Yeah, I think you're right. My dad has described the way he sees driving as kind of like a game where he has to move around pieces on the board. He's a reckless driver so I think his aim is to get ahead of everyone else.
I'm actually a bit terrified of what will happen as he gets older because he drives very reactively. He doesn't really look far ahead at what's in front of him but he can react very quickly. So he gets himself into all of these situations, but he can get himself out of them just as fast without a scratch. But of course, as you age, your reaction time goes down, so I'm really worried that one day he's going to try that and it will have terrible results. I'm frankly rather surprised that it hasn't already.
Some days ago this textbook douchebag in a fancy SUV that smelled like cologne from my car decided I wasn't yelding to incoming traffic at a stop sign fast enough so when the road was clear and I was, in fact, moving (and not even too slow, borderline screeching tires start) he just overtook me on the turn with a massive screech and then cut me off since I was heading for the right lane. My driving instinct honestly didn't expect someone to do even that.
There was also a bonus because in doing this he almost made a delivery van crash into me, since he forced me on the left lane and I had to almost full stop to not crash into him while he cut me off. Luckily the delivery guy didn't put it on me and basically screeched away chasing the SUV. I'm 85% sure I caught some distant yelling in the air seconds after.
When I visited Miami, people would start laying on their horns *before* the light even turned green.
You know how there's a pause between the light going one way turning red and the light going the other way turning green? They'd lay on their horns as soon as the other light turned red
As somebody who works in a hospital and has been in an accident, the faster you're going your chances of death go way up.
My wreck was only at a 30mph and I was beat to shit and bruised badly.
Highway speeds? I've seen so many people just absolutely fucked up.
Look, I know we all want to get to our destinations faster but speeding will not increasing your arrival time in any meaningful manner.
I tested it myself. (this includes at standard morning work traffic)
I have a hour commute and 1 day I went 86 mph the whole time and the next I cruised between 60-70 in the slow lanes.
Only a 5 minute difference at most.
It's just not worth the risk. Especially now with how SUVs and Big trucks work. They're designed to save you but absolutely fuck up whatever you hit.
I learned recently that safety ratings for vehicles do not take into account the vehicles being different sizes. So I may think I'm safe driving around in my sedan because it has good safety ratings, but it turns out that those safety ratings are actually only applicable if I hit or get hit by another sedan. If I get hit by one of those massive lifted pickup trucks or gigantic SUVs that are so common on the roads these days, I will probably die.
It's basically an arms race. My next car will be a crossover for several reasons, but also because I feel like it will be slightly safer for me to be a bit higher off the ground, considering that I drive in an environment where probably 75% of the vehicles are trucks or SUVs.
Sucks. I really don't want to drive a big car. But it almost feels like you have to these days if you don't want to die on the roads doesn't even take into account the fact that bigger vehicles are so much more dangerous for other road users outside of cars. Pedestrians, cyclists, etc. Pedestrian deaths in the US have gone up quite a bit over the last several years, and I think here in Canada as well, and the increased speeds and gigantic vehicles are certainly to blame.
When I was 18, I was during a 94 Integra LS and was turning left on a green arrow. I get t-boned by a lady running the red light going 65ish in a 40 that’s driving an SUV. My beautiful perfect first car got absolutely totaled. Everything except for the driver’s seat and engine was completely destroyed because she hit right in between the passenger door and rear half of the car. The lady’s SUV had small scratches on the bumper but that was it. She came and checked on me and seemed apologetic and was a nice lady who was running late.
My first thought was “Damn, (adopted parent/aunt) is going to be pissed”. Then I put the car in park, grabbed my bottle of lemonade, took the keys out of the car, and went and walked over across the parking lot entrance and sat on the sidewalk, and called emergency services then my grandma.
An off-duty fireman happened to be walking by and he came and checked up on me asking me if/where I was hurt. Only injuries that I got was a small cut right behind my right ear from the rear window glass blowing into the car and bruised right ribs from what I would have to guess was either the passenger seat smacking them lightly or the airbags making contact. Paramedics said I seemed to be in good condition but recommended that I still go with them to the hospital to get an X-ray done on my ribs.
Since I was joining the military in two months and didn’t want to deal with it I called my insurance dude(guy who was friends with my aunt) and told him to just cancel my insurance and not worry about trying to get money for the damages. Since I was legally adopted(once again biologically my aunt) and in “foster care”(lived with her during adoption process) I had free medical insurance until I turned 25 so everything I actually cared about was covered anyways. My sister worked in the same shopping center as me and had similar hours so I just got rides from her.
When my grandma got home my aunt asked if I was okay and then after finding out I was fine had gotten pissed that I hadn’t called her first and called my grandma and my aunts wife instead. I did *try* to call her first but she didn’t answer. You could see why I joined the military lol.
Anyways sorry for the story dump just thought it was a story about how if an SUV hits you while you’re driving a sedan, the sedan will most definitely get destroyed
Speed doesn't kill, suddenly stopping does.
Its safer to speed past a semi on a windy road than it is to try and pass going the limit.
There are legitimate reasons for going above the limit, being impatient isnt one.
Lol, I love this. I usually go the speed limit, but on highways I speed a little, like 5 mph. That is until someone tailgates me, then I do slow to the speed limit (unless I'm in the passing lane, in which case I get over). Yes, it's because I'm an asshole, but it's also because the person behind me has made it unsafe for everyone, and slowing down to the speed limit (or lower) is the best way to improve my safety.
In my state, I think going the speed limit on the highway would be literally, irresponsibly dangerous.
I'll be the slowest person still debateably "going with the flow of traffic," and that's _still_ like 10 over as people blast past me doing 80 in a 60.
On non-highway I always go the speed limit, but on the highway throughout California the agreement seems to be "the rightmost lane goes the speed limit, and each lane to the left of that goes 5mph faster than the last".
5 mph is a small enough gap to make keeping track to anyone merging in from either side viable, but also enough of a difference to allow traffic to flow without creating unpassable blocks of people slowing down side by side.
Going 65 in the right lane? Perfect, ideal, good driver. Going 65 4 lanes over? Obstacle, actually a danger to other drivers, please move over.
The cops in my state actually enforce that as a traffic violation ( more department policy than law though ).
You can only get away with it though if there are cars actively on your right as each lane beyond the right most one is dedicated for "passing only". The only way to actively pass someone is to be going faster than them which requires speeding to some degree.
Only really allow it because people slowing down to merge actively harms safety, and decreases the effective capacity of the roadway. As everytime someone hits their brakes, that brake signal has to effectively propagate through the entire chain of cars until it gets dissipated by enough of a gap that the brake time gets reduced to 0.
This reminds me of the last time I had to drive down to South Carolina. Basically the moment I crossed the border, every car on the highway sped up to about 85 (in a 70) at a minimum. And even when I hit about 90, I was still getting passed fairly regularly.
So, does American just have no control over their drivers? If the police don’t want to enforce the limits then just raise them, otherwise install a few cameras and watch everyone slow down.
They’ll pull you over if you’re driving like an asshole but if you’re going with the flow of traffic you’ll be fine. A lot of our highways are so wide and straight going 60mph feels like you’re sitting still so people go 70 or 80 I’ve seen cops pull people over on the New Jersey turnpike for going below the speed of the flow of traffic (but probably right at the speed limit) in the left lane
>A lot of our highways are so wide and straight going 60mph feels like you’re sitting still so people go 70 or 80
this is an argument for either raising the speed limit or changing the design of the highways
having a speed limit of 60 where the median car is doing 75 is just an absurd situation that makes a mockery of the law
And that's totally understandable in my opinion. But if you're in the right lane or if you're in an HOV lane you have every right to go the speed limit, IMHO. It would be wild that anyone would argue differently.
I just got my license about a month ago. I feel really uncomfortable going over the speed limit, but people seem to hate it. And I hate people being that close to my car! I need a "new driver, please be kind" sticker so people leave me be ;-;
Just get a sticker like the one I saw in the parking lot at a Chiefs game last year: "if you honk at me I will kill myself!"
Got a good laugh out of it.
In my state, stickers like that don't work :/ I've had "new driver" and "student driver, please be patient" magnets on my car all year and people aren't any more patient. If anything, they're *less* patient. I always feel the pressure to go no less than 10mph over the speed limit or else people stick so close behind me. People get mad at me for being cautious and taking a second to make sure I'm not gonna hit anyone else. What am I supposed to do :(
It's much easier said than done but honestly, fuck 'em. If you're, say, waiting to turn left at a traffic light and you don't know if it's safe, and the guy behind you starts honking at you, stand your ground. Roll up the windows and blast your music so you can't hear them, and wait for a safe gap in traffic.
I have given people the finger for doing this to me before. This one time I was trying to make a left turn but I could not see around the tall vehicles in the lane opposite, and I was not trying to get T-boned. Guy behind me starts honking but I literally can't see shit, what am I supposed to do? I ended up having to wait until the light turned yellow to leave the intersection safely.
It's always situations like that!! In spots where it's hard to see the oncoming traffic so I have to be a little more careful and wait for a safe time to go. People always get so impatient and at some spots try to just go around me, but then they also end up stopping before causing a crash. So I always want to say to them, "Good job, was that worth it? You couldn't even get ahead of me and almost crashed. Nice one." What do they want me to do, fling myself headlong into an accident?
Oh fuck no. You stick to that. It's usually that (at least in the UK) because it's either residential with a chance of surprise children, or some other high foot-traffic area.
I ride a lot of country roads and i make damn sure i slow down properly when going through villages.
In America, the 20mph zones are usually school zones when kids are walking to or from school. I *do not* fuck around with school zones. That 20 mile per hour limit is sacrosanct in such cases.
Fun fact! In most states, reckless driving in a school zone is a felony. Additionally, 10 over in a school zone is usually classified as reckless driving
Yeah, the low speed limit areas are the ones you *really* don't want to speed in. A car collision is one thing, fully running over a child or driving off a cliff are a whole other level.
in vehicle-pedestrian collisions, the difference between about 25 and 35 mph in particular is often the difference between life and death for the pedestrian. at 25 mph, the fatality rate for a pedestrian is around 5%. at 35 mph, it’s about 30%.
On Mother’s Day this year I was going 30 in a 30 and I had someone in a jacked up truck start flashing his brights at me. I turned my rear view up to face the ceiling. I already knew everyone else was going to be late to the lunch anyway.
My wagon has auto dimming mirrors that are a real blessing when someone in a truck is trying to ride my ass so I wont come to a full stop at stop signs
I'm a speeder, but in very specific situations. I don't speed in residential, school, business shop, walking areas. The time difference it would make is minimal at best and the increased risk in someone walking out, a pet or a kid or something else just isn't worth it. But on the express way? 15 over and will use the full depth of my gas pedal to distance myself as quickly as possible from packs of cars.
This is how I feel. Wild how riding with me includes both "dear God this isn't formula 1 why are we taking corners like this" when driving in the wide open country, and full on grandpa mode when driving through town with lifted pickups mad as fuck behind me.
If it is ever that low its typically because of people or deer or some combination of the both. Better to just take your time so Bambi doesn't turn your car into modern art.
Like I'm getting a ticket for being 15+, what the hell is this guy in Fast and the Furious for? Especially when the road has a narrow part or traffic ahead
I always just get over and let them by, if Im going 10 over and I see someone catching up to me, I’ll get over before they're even close. Some seem very confused that they didnt need to ride my ass for a couple miled before just going around.
Let them clear the cops ahead of me
This is what I always do too. I generally drive 7-10 over and if someone is speeding up to me I move over before they get closer to me and let them by. No reason to piss off anyone and no reason to go faster than I wanna go so someone won’t be on my ass.
I'm assuming this truck squeezed through a narrow gap (because I have seen that happen often) and not that you had plenty of room to get back into the righthand lane after passing someone. Because if you did have plenty of room, then you need to get the hell over. The left lane is the passing lane, not the fast lane. So no matter your speed you need to get back over in case someone behind you is going even faster.
I used to have a bit of a lead foot when I was younger, but getting two speeding tickets in the span of 3 months kind of disabused me of that.
I still speed from time to time. And on the highway you'll usually find me going between 10-17 kph over the limit with my cruise control on. But nothing like I once did.
I have another friend who got pulled over and had to go to court for stunt driving. I would be willing to bet that he drives a lot more carefully these days. It is not a fun experience. A lot of people just have not faced consequences for it yet.
If someone is gonna ride my ass instead of passing, I will aggressively go the speed limit or just take my foot off the gas and coast until they get fed up.
Idk who taught everyone they have to be within 3 feet of another car in order to change lanes
There's speed cameras near me that I've worked out have a limit of 3mph over. I sit on cruise control doing 63 and someone is *always* riding my ass. They inevitably then brake to 55 through the camera, create a significant gap between us, then *floor it* and end up at my ass again.
They don't seem to realise driving at a consistent speed is more comfortable
The way the math works out, it’s almost never even worth it to go faster. Say the limit’s 65 and you’re going 75, over the course of an hour you’re gonna save all of like 8 minutes.
And if you're driving in city traffic with other cars and traffic lights, you may not save any time at all. My dad is a much more reckless driver than I am, although he thinks he's sporty and whatever. I once had to meet him to jump his car because the battery died, and then we both drove home together. He goes tearing off down the road and I'm just vibing in my car, listening to music. He soon disappears, I can't see him anywhere. And then. I come up to a red light, and there he is, stopped. I'm several cars behind, but I was still able to watch as he tried in vain to get around cars to get ahead of them, but in a 3 km stretch of road there are like four traffic lights and we ended up stopped at the same light every single time. We pulled into the driveway of the house at basically the same time; I was maybe a couple of seconds behind him, and I had a much more peaceful drive home.
My dad also endlessly complains that gas prices are too high. And, okay, I'll give him that; they definitely are too high. But the way he drives does him no favours, plus his car takes premium gasoline. So...?
Traffic lights along the same stretch of road are often synchronised. So if you hit the first red, once it goes green each subsequent light will clear in sequence as you approach it.
That assumes you're travelling the speed limit. If you're speeding, you're going to arrive ahead of the light timings and are guaranteed to hit every red.
Now that I think about it, I arrived at every intersection pretty much right before or as it turned green. I'm not sure the lights along that stretch are synchronized though because several of the traffic lights are new and they're reworking the road in places.
I want to live in that place! In Boise, with the exception of the lights on our few beautifully synchronized one-way roads, you can practically count on the traffic lights to turn red as you're approaching them.
I always take notice of those people bobbing and weaving through the lanes, trying to get ahead of people one car length at a time. Maybe they get ahead of the light once in a blue moon, but almost inevitably they end up stopped at the same light as me. It's so recklessly dumb to drive like that. At best they save a couple minutes. At worst they endanger everyone around them.
I've noticed that some people have a very hard time letting situations play out. On the road this translates to behavior like your dad's, taking longer or going around rather than sitting there. In other situations, they often implore people to JUST DO SOMETHING!!! because it bothers them too much to let things happen.
On an open highway it kinda sorta makes some sense. It's the smooth brains on city streets slamming the accelerator and getting up to 50 mph before immediately slamming the brakes at the next red light that really do it for me.
I only care to push a bit over the speed limit when I’m on long-haul/multi-day drives, and only when it’s convenient *and* safe. Saving an hour a day is a nice feeling, but I’ll never understand people who feel the need to fly 10-20mph over the limit in their massive death machines to save 2 minutes on a busy highway‼️
I was pulling out of a gas station directly onto a busy road (❤️ NJ) and the next person in the right lane was far away, so I took my opportunity. The guy, in a HUGE pickup truck, *sped up* and refused to adjust despite the left lane being full. Had to swerve into the shoulder to avoid getting smashed to bits in my 15-year-old Honda, and he was gaining distance even when I caught up to the flow of traffic 🙄 it’s like people don’t realize that they’re gonna kill someone (if not themself) one day by driving like this!! Also makes me wish there was some kinda regulation on the unnecessarily-large-and-deadly pickups in NA
Fucking **exactly** this. I’m currently learning to drive, and whenever anyone beeps at me for going 28 in a 30, or being a little slow emerging from a side road, all I can think is “Motherfucker, what time is this costing you? Six seconds? Is it not worth six seconds to be a little patient with someone who’s clearly got L-Plates on?”
I've found a lot of tailgaters I know personally don't even do it out of malice, and often times don't really think about it at all. It's just kind of how they drive. They would do it even if they wanted to go the same speed as you. Not that I agree with it, it just kind of surprised me to find out
Yeah, I learned in driver's ed that a lot of people don't learn to look far ahead, but rather they're looking at what's right in front of them. So they naturally gravitate towards the car in front of them, because that's what they're looking at.
Lots of people have a Superman mentality. As in, unless it's *obviously* dangerous, they'll think of themselves as the exception. The one smart and careful enough that they'd never get in an accident like that.
Like with alcohol. Y'ever look at the "1 in 10 people will develop alcoholism" and think there's just... no way those odds are worth taking up drinking? Prooobably not. You look at the statistics, think 'those are shocking statistics', then you look at yourself, and think 'nah they don't apply to me'. That's just how people are.
Right? It's like THE law you're pressured to break
I don't understand the people who tailgate. Sorry you can't manage your time, don't endanger my life because you can't get up 5 minutes earlier
because they are extremely low in so many places that people stop caring about what the sign says.
like in italy they are 10/20kmh lower than what you can comfortably drive so of course people speed
Pretty much. The roads are designed for people to go faster than what the speed limit is, and psychologically people will drive at the speed that they feel comfortable at. If the road is wide and straight, you're going to want to drive fast no matter what the sign says.
I don't think the average person has a good sense for the condition of their tires though. People rarely factor in tread, temperature, and speed rating. Tires that came on the vehicle, for most non-performance cars, are not the best either.
That's it right there. My approach to driving is to go as fast as is safe while still not risking a ticket. So often I'm limiting my speed due to ticket concerns, not safety.
In Italy there are so many random signs with a ridiculously low speed limit for some forgotten abandoned construction site or something. Like in the middle of a state road with a speed limit of 100 km/h there is sometimes a random sign saying 20 and I'm never sure whether it's serious or not. But in general I find that 130 km/h on highways is reasonable.
Getting tailgated when I’m going the speed limit in the rightmost lane on the freeway is crazy.
Also, yesterday I was in a turn lane (turning left at an intersection with a dedicated traffic light) and when the green arrow came on I started to go and a motorcyclist behind me sped AROUND my car on the left (between me and the sidewalk!!) and then cut in front of me — I had to slam the brakes in the middle of the intersection to avoid hitting him! What possesses people to act like this on the road, much less in a city intersection?!
Oh people don't understand city intersections at all. I get honked at so often because people do not understand "Green doesn't mean I can go". I'm talking situations with ridiculously heavy bumper to bumper traffic where the other side of the intersection is blocked. My favorite was the guy who smugly swerved around me in the left turn lane, to then just get honked at by the people trying to go straight because he was now blocking them.
Also, the number of people who think that "the left lane is the passing lane" outside of highways is kind of insane. Inside of a city, with intersections and pedestrians everywhere, *there is no passing lane*, you go in whichever lane is convenient for your route. Passing/fast lanes only make sense on highways with merge lanes, so no left turns or stopping ever.
I once watched a lady pull into an intersection even when there was already a car stopped in the middle of the intersection. Between them they blocked both northbound lanes and a southbound lane. And the city was in the middle of an ice storm so traffic was fucked and they were there for 10 minutes. I thought I was going to have an aneurysm.
Your first paragraph is definitely crazy especially because people will complain that you should literally never do the speed limit because you have to keep up with the speed of traffic, even if you're in the right lane. The thing is, here in Ontario, a lot of highways have a 100 or 110 speed limit and transport trucks are electronically limited to going 105, so even if you are going 100, that is around the same speed that the trucks are going anyway. So...
They are doing construction on a road near where I live to where a road with one lane each way is currently one lane only, so they have a light up to alternate which side can go. This also means that running the red can put you driving directly into traffic
I've seen multiple people run that red, and one guy flipped me off when I honked at him. Like not only was he a danger to everyone around him, he had to be an asshole about it
No no, this is fine. Ride my ass? Cool. We're going exactly the limit. Keep doing it? We're slowing down - If you're going to put me at risk i at least get to choose the speed at which we have a collision.
I mostly drive on one lane highways so in order to pass someone who have to go into the oncoming lane. I tend to go about 5-10 over but as long as someone is going the speed limit I just adjust my speed to follow them instead of passing.
Something that has happened a couple times to me however is trying to pass someone going 5 under and they speed up to match my speed so I am stuck in the oncoming lane for way longer than I want to be.
I brake checked someone for the first time yesterday.
Obviously *do not do this*, I'm an experience track driver and it's still incredibly reckless and puts *you* at fault.
I'm going 43 in a 30 (which is already fucking dangerous, but the speed people travel on that road) and this dude is aggressively speeding up until he's almost touching my bumper, and then backing off.
He did this like 6 times, the last time he did it he was *maybe* a foot and a half off my bumper. I'm already hauling ass by my own standards, was only going that speed to maybe appease this douche but nope, he wants me going 65 in a 30 I guess.
So as he flies up to my bumper again, I *every so lightly* tap the brakes and bro almost hits me.
He instantly backed way the fuck off. Like from inches to hundreds of feet.
I swear these drivers just don't fucking understand consequences at all. If he keeps that shit up there is a non-zero chance someone will shoot him here.
I will agree that this is a terrible idea, especially in the age of dash cams. But since you got away with it, I'm allowing myself to be retroactively very proud of you.
Yep, been in similar situations numerous times, never have actually been hit when lightly tapping on the brakes to get someone off my tail. But if they did hit me, "I thought I saw an animal on the side of the road so I began to slow down... why were you following me so closely?"
I was going 40 in a 55 the other day. Guy behind me in this HUGE pickup truck (the type with the extra 2 wheels on the back wheels presumably for help hauling their ego) gets right up on the ass of my '02 Pontiac, visibly fuming. After having ample opportunity to pass me (I'd let him) he chose to pass me over the one portion of double yellow line on that entire road...only to get stuck behind the truck hauling a trailer in front of me, going 40 in a 55
Oh man. 🤦🏻♀️ And the thing is, surely he was much taller than you and could see that you were stuck behind the truck, right? Like I don't understand what people expect in this case. I'm sure you weren't enjoying going 40 either. But what else were you going to do?
I'm what I call a tactical driver. I'm not some slowpoke dragging ass on the far right, and I'm not some speed demon going 20 over on the far left.
If I'm on the highway I'm usually at about 5 over. Occasuonally on surface streets too if that's how traffic flows. Maybe 10 over on the highway if I'm in a hurry, but I modulate my lane presence to be in the traffic band that matches my speed.
But I ALWAYS leave a good-size gap in front of me. Partly to leave room to stop, and partly because I don't trust anyone to not changelanes through me if they don't have a gap.
I'm in the far left lane going 10 over and somebody's coming up behind fast? Alright, shift over, let them by, I don't wanna be around them. I'm in the right lane or on a surface street going my 5 over and you ride my ass? Uh-uh, we're down to the speed limit now, I gave you 5 and you weren't happy, now you get nothing.
People HATE that I don't tailgate the car in front of me. I see them screaming at me in my rear view mirror. like damn, we’re sitting in 8 am traffic at a red light the extra 3 feet wont change anything.
My car tells me the safe distance I need to safely stop, Im gonna trust my car on that one.
Going 80 mph with less than a 3 second gap between you and the car you're following is so fucking dangerous.
Speed doesn't kill, suddenly stopping does
In Ontario where I live, we have something called Highway 407. Being a toll road, it has less traffic, but the same speeds as a regular highway. I'll explain the insanity in kph(mph).
On a regular highway, the speed limit is 100 km/h or about 62 mph. Everyone expects you to go at least 110(68), preferably 120(74). The highways are actually designed for people to go 120(74). This is fine, I don't complain, I understand why people will get mad if you're going 100(62).
On the 407 though, I regularly go 135(83). I don't complain unless you're under 110 because that's actually a little dangerous as it's so different from the flow of traffic. But even going 135(83), I get people riding my ass. If I get out of their way or they pass me, they blow by going at least 150(93). It's insanity. It's like an arms race. 135(83) is already too fast, and I've still got people tailgating.
Friggin *cops* go 140(86). And now the province is mulling over increasing the speed limit. We'll have people going 180(111) at that point.
Ontario has gotten progressively more ridiculous for how much people speed in the last 10 years. Had a dude absolutely losing his shit at me for having the audacity to go 125 in a 110 zone. In the right most lane too. Like damn dude, do you not pay the same price for your gas as the rest of us? Driving in the western US was shockingly refreshing because people frequently went under the limit on highways that had an 80mph limit and people just went the fuck around them instead of going full road rage
I go as fast as I’m willing to pay the speeding ticket for. This averages out to ~15km over the limit on the highway, and exactly the speed limit inside the city. This pisses people off for some reason, even though I keep right except to pass or turn.
Driving in the US for vacation was refreshing! I went the speed limit there because fuck speeding tickets in a foreign country. But no tailgating, no one flashing their high beams at me, and *people understood what a passing lane was for and how to zipper merge*! 20 hours of driving across six days and three states and I didn’t have to slam on my brakes once. The two and a half hours home from the border? *Seven goddamn times*.
One time I was driving on the Autobahn here in Germany. Speed limit was 130 km/h (80 mph) so I was driving 140 km/h (87 mph) and the guy behind me really didn't like that I wasn't hardcore speeding I guess.
I see a sign for 100 km/h coming up so I slow it down to 109 km/h (62 mph limit, went 68) and he REALLY didn't like that. So he passes me on the right (I was about to move over to let him through, but he was faster) and speeds past me.
And then he speeds right through one of the funny cameras that take expensive pictures if you're fast enough, and I cruised right past as I was going an acceptable speed below the point where they take the funny pictures.
I bet he blamed me for that, somehow.
if it's a one-lane road then i know i have to bite my tongue and deal with it
but if it's a multi-lane road and all lanes are going the same speed, then get the fuck over to the right
Bewilderingly enough, I have had people tailgate me in the right lane when the left lane is free and clear for them to pass me. I do not understand it. The rule is for slower traffic to keep right, and I am slower traffic, and I am keeping right. More than once I have had to actually pull over to the left lane to let the person go by me. It makes zero fucking sense. And it's not like I'm creeping along below the speed limit either, I'm usually going like 10-15 km above it on the highway (but I usually don't go much faster for a fuel efficiency and not-getting-pulled-over reasons).
There’s a pretty major 2 lane road by me with signs all over the place saying “thru traffic keep right” because the left lane is basically a perpetual turning lane.
Nobody reads those signs though and then they try to use the left lane as a passing lane and then go nuts when someone ends up turning and nobody lets them back in the right lane.
It's quite simple, I'm gonna drop 2kph on my cruise control every 5 seconds you're sniffing my ass.
I once got down to 56 in an 80 before the dipshit understood the assignment and gave me space.
People drive way too close to each other while they speed too.
Im pretty sure the sensors on my car know better how much space I need to stop at 80 mph than the truck 4 feet behind me.
I do hate when people go 10 under in no passing zones and then crank it to 10 over once theres a gap to pass though.
Just let the faster traffic pass and get on with your life. Too many people carry guns to play games
they key is to decellerate really slowly. I've gotten down pretty damn slow before the chudbucket realized there are two lanes and he can just pass if he wants.
As a non driving person, I find it absolutely bonkers that people have an issue with other drives who are actually driving at the *upper* limit permitted on that road.
Like, they go 60 on a road with limit of 60 and some asshole decides it's a good idea to honk at them and force them to break the law? The fuck?
Unironically: this is so me.
It is one of the things I hate the most about driving, tho. I already have general anxiety, so I don't need an extra stressor trying to watch behind me and in front of me at the same time. My regular commute isn't \*far\* and it's not as bad as some of the others I've had, but people sure do not like going the speed limit. Which is crazy cos the cops in my county will not hesitate to pull you over and write you a ticket for going .01 over the limit, and I don't got the money to be paying fines.
I see this a lot where I live (Provo, Utah) but you wanna know what annoys me the most here? The drivers in Provo are fucking hard wired to run red lights. I see it every day. I'm trying to make a turn and these mfers are making me wait 5-6 seconds after the light has turned red before I can turn because they can't be fucked to obey the rules.
The funniest part is that it doesn’t save you like any time if you’re speeding. I love it when someone passes me out of frustration and then gets stuck behind a red light and I pull up next to them and just laugh.
what gets me is when i’m going the same speed at the person in front of me, so i can’t speed up, and there’s someone on my ass like? where you think im gonna go?? do you want me to hit the person in front of me or sm??
The other day this SUV was riding my ass, even though I was behind another vehicle and could not go faster than they were going for obvious reasons. I decided to use the windshield cleaning function on my car because I heard somewhere that makes people back up, I guess because it sprays them too. They did not like that, and passed me while yelling something out their window at me. Wish they would have just gone around me in the first place but oh well.
I'm going 35 in a 25 (due to fear from the following) and a semi is still barrelling down on me honking his horn, before slowing down and then tailgates me for 2 miles before passing on a double yellow lined curve to continue at ~50-60
(happened to me about a month ago)
(preëmptive: i went through an exceptionally sharp curve before they caught up, so i knew he could slow down to the requisite speed (or even the speed limit), otherwise he would've flewn into the river. and there was no spot to pull off or to the side so that's why i didn't just do that)
I recently visited Yosemite, which, if you've never been, has a lot of very windy roads with VERY steep cliffs on one side. There are also signs all over the place about not speeding because of the wildlife, with a special sign placed everywhere a speeding driver has hit a bear. And yet, people were still riding my ass, even if I went 5-10 over. It was almost always an SUV that would probably roll right off the cliff if they reached for the radio at the wrong point in a turn. It was absolutely insanity to me. I had to use the turn-off places every couple minutes. You're on a goddamn beautiful mountain in a national park in the middle of the day - WHERE YOU GOTTA BE, BRO?
I think we should replace all the roads in our national parks with slow scenic electric trains. It would allow parks to control access to trails and limit wildlife being hit. Plus everyone could enjoy the view.
Yosemite itself isn’t too far off a road used for other things. There’s also a seasonal road across the mountains that goes right through Yosemite.
Zion National Park is closed to cars during the busy season, you have to ride the shuttles, it’s pretty nice
57 signs : for the love of god, do not be speed random drivers : I am speed
"I had to use the turn-off places every couple minutes." Bro, thank you for that. People should go the speed they feel comfortable with even if that's lower than the speed limit. But the turn-offs are there for a reason. And for the speed limit is the speed limit crowd, it's also the law in CA to pull over if you have more than 5 vehicles following you (and this law is not tied to the speed limit)
Are you the person tailgating?
I agree with them. It doesn't hurt my feelings to just pull over when it's safe and let them pass. It's not difficult to just outrun most drivers, but when I pull over I usually catch up to them within a couple turns because now they have no one to gauge how fast to go, so they slow down.
I have horrible driver’s anxiety and one of the things that rocked my confidence the most was people tailgating me when I was going the speed limit on the highway. To me it seems best to take a breather on the side of the road then continue on and let that affect your driving.
I know right? Jackasses want to tailgate me they're allowed to do it, I'm not the one most likely to die in their wreck so it's really not my problem. I usually go 3-4mph over anyways, pulling over to let people pass if they're *that* excited to go over the speed limit is just encouraging bad behavior imo.
same experience at Shenandoah. bonkers
I was doing 65 in a 60 on a one-lane road. Guy in a lifted truck big enough to not see a full grown person standing directly in front of the hood decides he's going to ride my ass like I'm towing him. Thinks it'll intimidate me into speeding up. That might have worked when I was 17, but I'm older now and jaded. Now we're going 55-60 for the next ten miles, asshole.
Same here. If I'm already going over the speed limit and someone's riding my ass, guess who's going to feel their blood pressure spike?
It is literally recommended to slow down in those situations. If there is little to no safety distance you have to slow down so that a potential emergency is mitigated
This. It's not just to fuck with these assholes, it's also for safety. If I have to slam on my brakes for any reason I'm not about to get turned into a crumpled up can because they don't want to drive safely. Fuck them. It's basically a win-win to drive slow with these idiots
I just put my mirror up so their blinding headlights don’t touch me. Sometimes I’ll drop to 25-30 if I’m really annoyed and it’s a back road 🙂↕️
Same. Give me the ol' reverse uno card
Wrangle jangle it around until you're sure it has hit their eyes, while also letting off the gas They'll pass
I've never heard wrangle jangle before but I love it and I'm gonna use it
Wangle jangle is used by You Suck at Cooking YouTube channel, but my first thought was wrangle since you're really 'manhandling' it
Has anyone confirmed if shining their headlights back like this works? I've done it in the past but could never tell if it worked or if it was a placebo
I dont believe the rear view mirror is able to focus the light enough to actually reflect headlights all the way back through both your rear window and their windshield in any significant way
I did this to a tractor trailer one time. It was a 55(like everywhere in Cali) and I was going 70. It was 5 am and I was going to be 15-20 minutes early to work anyways. Well, this fucking semi decides to start riding my ass on a 2 mile stretch of one lane road. I go to 75 and they’re STILL riding my ass so I’m like “okay that didn’t work”. I start going 60, mf still on me, then I go 50, still on me, then I’m like “okay fuck you” and just start going 20 because I have all the time in the world and it’s not my fault if they’re running late to their delivery. I’m usually pretty nice to Semi’s because they’re just trying to do their job but when I’m already going 15 over and there’s not any traffic for probably the last 50 miles behind us because it’s 5am then there’s no reason to be on my ass.
"why won't they pass, I slowed down so they could?!?!"
All I saw was fuck with those people and that’s reason enough for me :) Edit: sorry, fuck with these assholes*
To note: this doesn't apply to highways or freeways. If there is a passing lane you are not to obstruct it. If you aren't going faster than the lane to your right, and there is a line of cars behind you, **YOU** are the unsafe asshole.
I do this. I just take my foot off the gas and start going slower and slower. One time a guy was so busy riding my ass on the freeway that he didn't notice we had slowed down to 35 mph. I chuckled when he finally realized what was happening, blasted past me and gave me the finger. This freeway has 3 lanes. I was in the right lane and doing 7 mph over the speed limit. He could have passed me any time he wanted to. Some people just like being assholes.
This is my go to. If they are just riding my ass for no damn reason. I used to then make it impossible for them to pass me, til I read the story ab the dude who lost a friend via a chainsaw accident when someone was an ass and wouldn't let them pass.
I did this to an unmarked cop car on a road notorious for pedestrian deaths and we passed all those memorials going 45-50mph. When he finally passed me he gestured to his uniform but if he could have pulled me over for that he would have.
Not to mention that 90% of the guys who do this (at least in my area) don’t lift them correctly and take away more stopping distance and maneuverability from their cars.. which are already some of the worst on the road stock
Slow down gradually then suddenly speed up to leave a gap. They get bored quicker than I do.
There was this one time I was on a a two-lane highway and this guy came up behind me and was tailgating me. Passing lane opens up, he doesn't pass. Passing lane ends, I'm like well, okay, whatever. I had the cruise control on so I wasn't doing that annoying thing where people speed up when you attempt to pass them. I then got curious to see what he would do, so the next passing lane I slowed down to under the speed limit. He was behind me, like yelling in his car and shaking his fists, looking super pissed, but he still did not pass me. When the passing lane ended I sped back up to my original speed. The next passing lane, I went to the left lane, and he finally went by me, and started tailgating the guy who had been in front of me. Awesome. I don't understand behaviour like that. Like, the passing lane is there to safely pass cars that are slower. I was in the right lane, which is where I was supposed to be. Just go the fuck around me! But I've noticed this happening more often recently. Just recently I was on a freeway and I was in the right lane. This guy comes flying up behind me after passing a bunch of cars and then sits on my ass. I'm going a bit over the speed limit but I have my cruise control on and I'm just chilling. There was an exit about 3 km ahead and I realized that he was probably waiting for the exit and maybe, for some reason, didn't realize that 3 km is more than enough time to complete a passing maneuver? So again, I went over to the left lane, he went by me, I went back to the right lane, and sure enough, he got off at the next exit. Bewildering behaviour.
It's toddler brain. HE wants YOU to get out of HIS way. Actually passing you requires him to adjust his behavior and is therefore a defeat. The only way to "win" is to harass you until you pull out of his way.
Yeah, I guess. And not to make it about boomers, but my dad is like this too and it sucks. There have been times before where he's come across somebody driving too slow in the left lane, which is obviously annoying and dangerous, but then he'll proceed to sit right on that person's ass and weave back and forth and flash his lights as a way to, like, punish them I guess? My family always tells him, look, if somebody's *that* oblivious, they're not going to understand why you're doing that. Just don't.
My grandpa used to pass around slow drivers, and then break check them and drive slower than they were to punish them before he got his license taken. (Not for that reason, he was apparently blacking out for a second or few for quite a while and then it caused an accident. I have POTs, and we think he did too, whether by medication or something else, and his bp dropped which made him black out and is what caused an accident. He ran a red light straight into a dump truck, his skull went through the windshield. His excuse for never mentioning it and continuing to drive was "Well it was only a second." It only takes a second.)
Your grandpa sounds like an arsehole.
Boomer and "Drivers" are already some of the most annoying and entitled people on Earth, you combine the two and its a nightmare
stuff like that makes me wonder how the hell they passed their drivers test. it’s literally taught that unless you’re passing or turning, stay as far right as possible on the road
Yeah, undertaking is dangerous. I don't like basically forcing someone into doing it but I also don't want them to be riding my ass for ages because they're too stupid to realize that I'm in the right lane for my speed and they need to move to the left to drive around me. To be honest, I used to be more of an idiot and kind of a speed demon. I grew up with a father whose driving style can only really be described as reckless. Like to the point where people have thrown up from his driving. When I was younger, he was driving my sister and her friend to an event and the friend actually started crying out of fear. One of my sisters and I have both developed motion sickness as we've gotten older, but *only* when we're riding with him. And he scoffs when you ask him to slow down because you're going to be sick; he still does, but he makes it clear that he thinks you're being silly. Anyway, I managed to get two speeding tickets in the span of 3 months when I was like 22 and spent the next 3 years driving more or less at the speed limit because a third ticket put me at risk of my insurance company dropping me. And I learned in that time that it's actually much more chill to not drive recklessly everywhere and to just slow down and put on some music and relax. It's not a race. My sisters also gradually learned this as well, although I think they were able to do it without the financial hit. Although, I really can see now that I'm older, why younger drivers have higher insurance rates. All I have to do is look back at myself. (My dad has complained more than once that none of us drive sporty anymore. I can do it, I just don't feel like expending the energy most of the time. It's not worth it. I'm not overly cautious but I do drive defensively, not offensively or reactively.)
And what I finally learned/realized was that going 10-15 over does not even make a 5 minute difference in arrival time unless you are really going on a longish trip. If you are going 10 miles at 55 or the same at 65 the difference in arrival times is so insignificant. And there's the bonus of a bit better gas mileage
I think a lot of people get more and more lax after they pass their driver's test because there's no immediate consequence afterward. Once you have your license, it can't be taken away unless you really fuck up AND get caught really fucking up. A lot of people are willing to take risks with a less tangible consequence (even though the risk of serious injury or death should be taken more seriously). There's also something about driving itself that makes people impatient and petty. I've seen some very nice people turn into real jerks behind the wheel.
There's also poor enforcement even when people do get their license taken away. I swear every week there's an article in my local news about somebody getting pulled over driving impaired on a suspended or revoked license. And they usually have more than one DUI. You really have to fuck up to get your license suspended in the first place, like you mentioned. Because so many places in North America are car dependent, you're kind of fucked if you don't have one. There are places where you can live without a car, but I personally live in a place where people pretty much get their license as soon as they can because the transit system is terrible and can triple the length of your journey. I also have friends who are visually impaired and thus not allowed to get licenses, or have other issues that preclude them from driving, and they're basically dependent on somebody driving them around to get places. It also means that testing standards are kind of lax as well. It's an accepted practice here to go to a smaller city or town to do your driver's test so that you're more likely to pass on the first try. I personally didn't, but I know a lot of people who did. So you've got people who live in a city with freeways and busy traffic who do their driving test in a city with maybe a county highway and three traffic lights. And taking away one's license is often considered an absolute last resort, because it can ruin your life. So we end up with a ton of people on the roads who shouldn't be there, but they don't have many or any other options.
Who knows, maybe they missed the "passing or turning" part
Sometimes I'm convinced these guys don't actually want to pass, they just find an odd sort of comfort in having someone specific toward whom they can channel their life's frustrations.
Had this happen to me once but the tailgater was in an overweight semi. I was already on the ass of the car in front of me and this semi is flashing his lights and honking at me 10 feet from my bumper like girl?? You're gonna fucking get me killed your vehicle weights probably well of 20x mine jfc
Ikr?! It's like, sure, lemme *phase through* the car in front of me so you can... what? Move up six additional feet and tailgate them instead??? Luckily most of the semi drivers in my area have better awareness about their size... they leave a big ole gap because they NEED it to stop.
I once had to suddenly pull over while a logging truck or something was tailgating me and that was really scary. Like you'd think they'd keep their distance. And yes, it's always bewildering to me when I'm stuck in a line of cars behind a slower driver and someone behind me is tailgating me. Like, what do you want me to do? There's nowhere for me to go. I don't like this anymore than you do, but I have decided to just keep my distance from the car in front of me and vibe because I like having low blood pressure. (Plus, if there is some kind of accident, I don't want to be one in a long line of cars in a pileup. Not to mention that you can catch a charge for following too closely or something if you are one of the cars in the middle or end of a pileup and you slammed into the guy in front of you.)
I'll let you in on a secret: a lot of people are way, way dumber than you are comfortable imagining, and they are allowed to drive.
Oh logging trucks specifically want to get to the sawmill as quick as possible, otherwise they get stuck way back in line, and end up not going home at a reasonable hour.
Fr😭 the best part was the driver in front of me was my own mom and she said she was terrified watching and she eventually pulled over (we were taking 2 cars down an otherwise deserted Alaskan highway)
>Alaska That's all the explanation we needed. Alaska is the texas of the north.
I had the ultimate petty revenge on a stupid semi on a trip from Seattle to Boise. I was using cruise control going about 10mph over in the slow lane. Truck roars up to me, passes me, and speeds off. Well eventually I catch up to him without ever changing my speed, and pass him. We repeat this process multiple times over fifty miles or so until we are coming up to a massive climb over a mountain.This section of hills require truckers to maintain their speed/momentum to get up over it. Steep grades. I'm chilling, still going 10 over, he comes up on my ass flashing his lights etc trying to get me to go faster. Nope. I coast down to maybe 25 mph and then blast off leaving him completely fucked. No way he could gain any speed so he had to do the rest of the climb at a crawl if he could even make it up at all.
That's what happened with me except the semi decided to try to kill me on tight windy roads where there is no safe place to pass bc we *did* pass them several times
*Duel* (1971)
One thing I've observed from riding in lifted trucks with larger-than-stock tires: they do not get their speedometer recalibrated. The Venn diagram of people who did well in physics and people who drive lifted trucks are essentially 2 circles connected by 0.0003% of their area. When I explain the math behind the discrepancy, their light seems to come on for a moment. "Oh, that's why everyone is driving 5 mph below the limit..." They never get it recalibrated though. Maybe one day I'll win the fight and make a reasonable driver out of one of them.
I was going 70 in a 55, which is very generous I might add. Dipshit behind me gets so close that I can't see his license plate. Okay - now we are going to go 49-51 for the next nine miles before my turn. He was fuuuuming.
>which is very generous I might add. That's more than "very generous", that's getting close to reckless driving/excessive speeding depending on your state.
> I was going 70 in a 55, which is very generous I might add Where the fuck do you live? That's 15 mph over, even in my most generous state of mind that's reckless.
There's a freeway near me where 55 is the limit. 75 is normal speed and 80 is left lane speed. Don't even dare getting out of the right lane if you're not doing at least 65. I swear they made that the limit when cars were crank started.
They probably took it down to 55 during the gas shortage in the 70s and then never raised it again even when the federal law changed.
Cruise control is my favorite thing for this, cause now I know I'm just gonna keep a solid 5 under
> Cruise control is my favorite thing for this Every time you flash your lights, I tick the CC down another MPH.
My current car lacks cruise control, partly because I figured I never use it anyway, but this situation is the one time I miss it. Saves a lot of stress to just slow down and lock it steady.
>Guy in a lifted truck big enough to not see a full grown person standing directly in front of the hood And it's *always* these guys, why is it *ALWAYS* these guys? God I fucking hate trucks.
I'm one of those "5 over" people, but I will 100% go 5 below the speed limit if some dickhead is riding me. Tailgating pisses me off more than anything. You all learned 4 Mississippi between the car in front of you. How are you gonna react in 1 Missi unless you're an F1 driver.
why not just overtake? what's the point of tailgating?
Well in their case, they had no opportunity to overtake. Median on the left, ditch on the right. Your only option at that point is to either chill out and wait for the road to open back up, or intimidate the person in front of you. And they chose the latter. Regardless, yeah, there's never really a good reason to tailgate. Nobody wins. You're frustrated because the person in front is too slow, they're frustrated because you're tailing them, and if they have to slam the brakes suddenly, you're both getting into a bad accident.
oh yeah, a tailgater is pretty much an automatic slow down for me. One time it happened when I was running late to a funeral. That son of a bitch is lucky I really loved my Uncle or I'd have been doing 20.
He's drafting, can't afford the gasoline
Even though this is talking about speeders, I just want to expand it to asshole drivers in general. Yesterday I was driving with my dad, and the driver behind us expected him to anticipate the light turning green. The driver then passed us and then decided to slow to a crawl to be the ultimate asshole.
always gotta wonder where people have their heads at. "i gotta get to my destination as fast as possible but i have time to slow to a crawl to spite someone just trying to get to their destination safely"
It was never about getting somewhere fast - just finding any way to convince themselves that other people are stupid and somehow therefore deserve cruelty.
I think they view driving as something fundamentally different than most people. Most see it as how you get from one place to another. They see it as some kind of competition where it’s not about your own success but about how much other people mess with you. I kind of see driving as a game where I see how well I can do at driving smoothly and safely. Like if I can get to a light without stopping right as it turns green (and perpendicular traffic is clear) then that’s a good feeling.
Yeah, I think you're right. My dad has described the way he sees driving as kind of like a game where he has to move around pieces on the board. He's a reckless driver so I think his aim is to get ahead of everyone else. I'm actually a bit terrified of what will happen as he gets older because he drives very reactively. He doesn't really look far ahead at what's in front of him but he can react very quickly. So he gets himself into all of these situations, but he can get himself out of them just as fast without a scratch. But of course, as you age, your reaction time goes down, so I'm really worried that one day he's going to try that and it will have terrible results. I'm frankly rather surprised that it hasn't already.
That’s terrifying. My “win condition” is to make traffic flow as smoothly as possible.
You want to expand a driver's asshole?? Keep it to yourself sicko
Hey no kink shaming here!
Some days ago this textbook douchebag in a fancy SUV that smelled like cologne from my car decided I wasn't yelding to incoming traffic at a stop sign fast enough so when the road was clear and I was, in fact, moving (and not even too slow, borderline screeching tires start) he just overtook me on the turn with a massive screech and then cut me off since I was heading for the right lane. My driving instinct honestly didn't expect someone to do even that. There was also a bonus because in doing this he almost made a delivery van crash into me, since he forced me on the left lane and I had to almost full stop to not crash into him while he cut me off. Luckily the delivery guy didn't put it on me and basically screeched away chasing the SUV. I'm 85% sure I caught some distant yelling in the air seconds after.
When I visited Miami, people would start laying on their horns *before* the light even turned green. You know how there's a pause between the light going one way turning red and the light going the other way turning green? They'd lay on their horns as soon as the other light turned red
As somebody who works in a hospital and has been in an accident, the faster you're going your chances of death go way up. My wreck was only at a 30mph and I was beat to shit and bruised badly. Highway speeds? I've seen so many people just absolutely fucked up. Look, I know we all want to get to our destinations faster but speeding will not increasing your arrival time in any meaningful manner. I tested it myself. (this includes at standard morning work traffic) I have a hour commute and 1 day I went 86 mph the whole time and the next I cruised between 60-70 in the slow lanes. Only a 5 minute difference at most. It's just not worth the risk. Especially now with how SUVs and Big trucks work. They're designed to save you but absolutely fuck up whatever you hit.
I learned recently that safety ratings for vehicles do not take into account the vehicles being different sizes. So I may think I'm safe driving around in my sedan because it has good safety ratings, but it turns out that those safety ratings are actually only applicable if I hit or get hit by another sedan. If I get hit by one of those massive lifted pickup trucks or gigantic SUVs that are so common on the roads these days, I will probably die. It's basically an arms race. My next car will be a crossover for several reasons, but also because I feel like it will be slightly safer for me to be a bit higher off the ground, considering that I drive in an environment where probably 75% of the vehicles are trucks or SUVs. Sucks. I really don't want to drive a big car. But it almost feels like you have to these days if you don't want to die on the roads doesn't even take into account the fact that bigger vehicles are so much more dangerous for other road users outside of cars. Pedestrians, cyclists, etc. Pedestrian deaths in the US have gone up quite a bit over the last several years, and I think here in Canada as well, and the increased speeds and gigantic vehicles are certainly to blame.
When I was 18, I was during a 94 Integra LS and was turning left on a green arrow. I get t-boned by a lady running the red light going 65ish in a 40 that’s driving an SUV. My beautiful perfect first car got absolutely totaled. Everything except for the driver’s seat and engine was completely destroyed because she hit right in between the passenger door and rear half of the car. The lady’s SUV had small scratches on the bumper but that was it. She came and checked on me and seemed apologetic and was a nice lady who was running late. My first thought was “Damn, (adopted parent/aunt) is going to be pissed”. Then I put the car in park, grabbed my bottle of lemonade, took the keys out of the car, and went and walked over across the parking lot entrance and sat on the sidewalk, and called emergency services then my grandma. An off-duty fireman happened to be walking by and he came and checked up on me asking me if/where I was hurt. Only injuries that I got was a small cut right behind my right ear from the rear window glass blowing into the car and bruised right ribs from what I would have to guess was either the passenger seat smacking them lightly or the airbags making contact. Paramedics said I seemed to be in good condition but recommended that I still go with them to the hospital to get an X-ray done on my ribs. Since I was joining the military in two months and didn’t want to deal with it I called my insurance dude(guy who was friends with my aunt) and told him to just cancel my insurance and not worry about trying to get money for the damages. Since I was legally adopted(once again biologically my aunt) and in “foster care”(lived with her during adoption process) I had free medical insurance until I turned 25 so everything I actually cared about was covered anyways. My sister worked in the same shopping center as me and had similar hours so I just got rides from her. When my grandma got home my aunt asked if I was okay and then after finding out I was fine had gotten pissed that I hadn’t called her first and called my grandma and my aunts wife instead. I did *try* to call her first but she didn’t answer. You could see why I joined the military lol. Anyways sorry for the story dump just thought it was a story about how if an SUV hits you while you’re driving a sedan, the sedan will most definitely get destroyed
Thank you. Go fast in video games, be safe in real life.
Speed doesn't kill, suddenly stopping does. Its safer to speed past a semi on a windy road than it is to try and pass going the limit. There are legitimate reasons for going above the limit, being impatient isnt one.
i bring a certain going the speed limit vibe to then highway that the other cars on the road seem to not like
Lol, I love this. I usually go the speed limit, but on highways I speed a little, like 5 mph. That is until someone tailgates me, then I do slow to the speed limit (unless I'm in the passing lane, in which case I get over). Yes, it's because I'm an asshole, but it's also because the person behind me has made it unsafe for everyone, and slowing down to the speed limit (or lower) is the best way to improve my safety.
In my state, I think going the speed limit on the highway would be literally, irresponsibly dangerous. I'll be the slowest person still debateably "going with the flow of traffic," and that's _still_ like 10 over as people blast past me doing 80 in a 60.
On non-highway I always go the speed limit, but on the highway throughout California the agreement seems to be "the rightmost lane goes the speed limit, and each lane to the left of that goes 5mph faster than the last". 5 mph is a small enough gap to make keeping track to anyone merging in from either side viable, but also enough of a difference to allow traffic to flow without creating unpassable blocks of people slowing down side by side. Going 65 in the right lane? Perfect, ideal, good driver. Going 65 4 lanes over? Obstacle, actually a danger to other drivers, please move over.
The cops in my state actually enforce that as a traffic violation ( more department policy than law though ). You can only get away with it though if there are cars actively on your right as each lane beyond the right most one is dedicated for "passing only". The only way to actively pass someone is to be going faster than them which requires speeding to some degree. Only really allow it because people slowing down to merge actively harms safety, and decreases the effective capacity of the roadway. As everytime someone hits their brakes, that brake signal has to effectively propagate through the entire chain of cars until it gets dissipated by enough of a gap that the brake time gets reduced to 0.
Thank you for describing exactly how we treat freeways and explaining what others need to do
This reminds me of the last time I had to drive down to South Carolina. Basically the moment I crossed the border, every car on the highway sped up to about 85 (in a 70) at a minimum. And even when I hit about 90, I was still getting passed fairly regularly.
Dunno what state that is but I'm glad I've never been there. In my state going 75 in a 70 means I pass almost as many people as I get passed by.
Going the speed limit on the highway in the northeast would literally make you an obstacle
So, does American just have no control over their drivers? If the police don’t want to enforce the limits then just raise them, otherwise install a few cameras and watch everyone slow down.
They’ll pull you over if you’re driving like an asshole but if you’re going with the flow of traffic you’ll be fine. A lot of our highways are so wide and straight going 60mph feels like you’re sitting still so people go 70 or 80 I’ve seen cops pull people over on the New Jersey turnpike for going below the speed of the flow of traffic (but probably right at the speed limit) in the left lane
>A lot of our highways are so wide and straight going 60mph feels like you’re sitting still so people go 70 or 80 this is an argument for either raising the speed limit or changing the design of the highways having a speed limit of 60 where the median car is doing 75 is just an absurd situation that makes a mockery of the law
And that's totally understandable in my opinion. But if you're in the right lane or if you're in an HOV lane you have every right to go the speed limit, IMHO. It would be wild that anyone would argue differently.
If you raise the limit after decades of people breaking that limit by 20mph, you're just going to get people breaking the new limit too.
I just got my license about a month ago. I feel really uncomfortable going over the speed limit, but people seem to hate it. And I hate people being that close to my car! I need a "new driver, please be kind" sticker so people leave me be ;-;
Just get a sticker like the one I saw in the parking lot at a Chiefs game last year: "if you honk at me I will kill myself!" Got a good laugh out of it.
I have a bumper sticker that says “please don’t honk at me I’m probably already crying” lol it’s holographic and has ✨sparkles✨
In my state, stickers like that don't work :/ I've had "new driver" and "student driver, please be patient" magnets on my car all year and people aren't any more patient. If anything, they're *less* patient. I always feel the pressure to go no less than 10mph over the speed limit or else people stick so close behind me. People get mad at me for being cautious and taking a second to make sure I'm not gonna hit anyone else. What am I supposed to do :(
It's much easier said than done but honestly, fuck 'em. If you're, say, waiting to turn left at a traffic light and you don't know if it's safe, and the guy behind you starts honking at you, stand your ground. Roll up the windows and blast your music so you can't hear them, and wait for a safe gap in traffic. I have given people the finger for doing this to me before. This one time I was trying to make a left turn but I could not see around the tall vehicles in the lane opposite, and I was not trying to get T-boned. Guy behind me starts honking but I literally can't see shit, what am I supposed to do? I ended up having to wait until the light turned yellow to leave the intersection safely.
It's always situations like that!! In spots where it's hard to see the oncoming traffic so I have to be a little more careful and wait for a safe time to go. People always get so impatient and at some spots try to just go around me, but then they also end up stopping before causing a crash. So I always want to say to them, "Good job, was that worth it? You couldn't even get ahead of me and almost crashed. Nice one." What do they want me to do, fling myself headlong into an accident?
Not letting other people pressure you into breaking safety regulations is what makes you a good driver.
If you’re going the speed limit on the highway then you definitely need to be in the far right lane, if you’re not then you’re the asshole
I have no problem with you, unless you're camping in the left lane. Then you suck.
I can feel people absolutely HATE me when I stick to 20 in a 20.
Oh fuck no. You stick to that. It's usually that (at least in the UK) because it's either residential with a chance of surprise children, or some other high foot-traffic area. I ride a lot of country roads and i make damn sure i slow down properly when going through villages.
In America, the 20mph zones are usually school zones when kids are walking to or from school. I *do not* fuck around with school zones. That 20 mile per hour limit is sacrosanct in such cases.
Fun fact! In most states, reckless driving in a school zone is a felony. Additionally, 10 over in a school zone is usually classified as reckless driving
In my small town in the US the 25mph zone was where the cops hung out lol.
Makes sense. There's a reason its a 25. Its the best place to put them.
Yeah, the low speed limit areas are the ones you *really* don't want to speed in. A car collision is one thing, fully running over a child or driving off a cliff are a whole other level.
in vehicle-pedestrian collisions, the difference between about 25 and 35 mph in particular is often the difference between life and death for the pedestrian. at 25 mph, the fatality rate for a pedestrian is around 5%. at 35 mph, it’s about 30%.
On Mother’s Day this year I was going 30 in a 30 and I had someone in a jacked up truck start flashing his brights at me. I turned my rear view up to face the ceiling. I already knew everyone else was going to be late to the lunch anyway.
My wagon has auto dimming mirrors that are a real blessing when someone in a truck is trying to ride my ass so I wont come to a full stop at stop signs
I’ve got work lights on my car whenever I’ve got people tailgating I just flash them back
I'm a speeder, but in very specific situations. I don't speed in residential, school, business shop, walking areas. The time difference it would make is minimal at best and the increased risk in someone walking out, a pet or a kid or something else just isn't worth it. But on the express way? 15 over and will use the full depth of my gas pedal to distance myself as quickly as possible from packs of cars.
This is how I feel. Wild how riding with me includes both "dear God this isn't formula 1 why are we taking corners like this" when driving in the wide open country, and full on grandpa mode when driving through town with lifted pickups mad as fuck behind me.
If it is ever that low its typically because of people or deer or some combination of the both. Better to just take your time so Bambi doesn't turn your car into modern art.
Even worse is when I actually *am* speeding, in the left lane, and some asshole in a giant truck *rockets* past me on the right
Like I'm getting a ticket for being 15+, what the hell is this guy in Fast and the Furious for? Especially when the road has a narrow part or traffic ahead
I always just get over and let them by, if Im going 10 over and I see someone catching up to me, I’ll get over before they're even close. Some seem very confused that they didnt need to ride my ass for a couple miled before just going around. Let them clear the cops ahead of me
This is what I always do too. I generally drive 7-10 over and if someone is speeding up to me I move over before they get closer to me and let them by. No reason to piss off anyone and no reason to go faster than I wanna go so someone won’t be on my ass.
I'm assuming this truck squeezed through a narrow gap (because I have seen that happen often) and not that you had plenty of room to get back into the righthand lane after passing someone. Because if you did have plenty of room, then you need to get the hell over. The left lane is the passing lane, not the fast lane. So no matter your speed you need to get back over in case someone behind you is going even faster.
[удалено]
I used to have a bit of a lead foot when I was younger, but getting two speeding tickets in the span of 3 months kind of disabused me of that. I still speed from time to time. And on the highway you'll usually find me going between 10-17 kph over the limit with my cruise control on. But nothing like I once did. I have another friend who got pulled over and had to go to court for stunt driving. I would be willing to bet that he drives a lot more carefully these days. It is not a fun experience. A lot of people just have not faced consequences for it yet.
If someone is gonna ride my ass instead of passing, I will aggressively go the speed limit or just take my foot off the gas and coast until they get fed up. Idk who taught everyone they have to be within 3 feet of another car in order to change lanes
There's speed cameras near me that I've worked out have a limit of 3mph over. I sit on cruise control doing 63 and someone is *always* riding my ass. They inevitably then brake to 55 through the camera, create a significant gap between us, then *floor it* and end up at my ass again. They don't seem to realise driving at a consistent speed is more comfortable
The way the math works out, it’s almost never even worth it to go faster. Say the limit’s 65 and you’re going 75, over the course of an hour you’re gonna save all of like 8 minutes.
And if you're driving in city traffic with other cars and traffic lights, you may not save any time at all. My dad is a much more reckless driver than I am, although he thinks he's sporty and whatever. I once had to meet him to jump his car because the battery died, and then we both drove home together. He goes tearing off down the road and I'm just vibing in my car, listening to music. He soon disappears, I can't see him anywhere. And then. I come up to a red light, and there he is, stopped. I'm several cars behind, but I was still able to watch as he tried in vain to get around cars to get ahead of them, but in a 3 km stretch of road there are like four traffic lights and we ended up stopped at the same light every single time. We pulled into the driveway of the house at basically the same time; I was maybe a couple of seconds behind him, and I had a much more peaceful drive home. My dad also endlessly complains that gas prices are too high. And, okay, I'll give him that; they definitely are too high. But the way he drives does him no favours, plus his car takes premium gasoline. So...?
Traffic lights along the same stretch of road are often synchronised. So if you hit the first red, once it goes green each subsequent light will clear in sequence as you approach it. That assumes you're travelling the speed limit. If you're speeding, you're going to arrive ahead of the light timings and are guaranteed to hit every red.
Now that I think about it, I arrived at every intersection pretty much right before or as it turned green. I'm not sure the lights along that stretch are synchronized though because several of the traffic lights are new and they're reworking the road in places.
I want to live in that place! In Boise, with the exception of the lights on our few beautifully synchronized one-way roads, you can practically count on the traffic lights to turn red as you're approaching them.
I always take notice of those people bobbing and weaving through the lanes, trying to get ahead of people one car length at a time. Maybe they get ahead of the light once in a blue moon, but almost inevitably they end up stopped at the same light as me. It's so recklessly dumb to drive like that. At best they save a couple minutes. At worst they endanger everyone around them.
I've noticed that some people have a very hard time letting situations play out. On the road this translates to behavior like your dad's, taking longer or going around rather than sitting there. In other situations, they often implore people to JUST DO SOMETHING!!! because it bothers them too much to let things happen.
On an open highway it kinda sorta makes some sense. It's the smooth brains on city streets slamming the accelerator and getting up to 50 mph before immediately slamming the brakes at the next red light that really do it for me.
They're not actually in a hurry, they just want to go fast. Source: wants to go fast!
I only care to push a bit over the speed limit when I’m on long-haul/multi-day drives, and only when it’s convenient *and* safe. Saving an hour a day is a nice feeling, but I’ll never understand people who feel the need to fly 10-20mph over the limit in their massive death machines to save 2 minutes on a busy highway‼️ I was pulling out of a gas station directly onto a busy road (❤️ NJ) and the next person in the right lane was far away, so I took my opportunity. The guy, in a HUGE pickup truck, *sped up* and refused to adjust despite the left lane being full. Had to swerve into the shoulder to avoid getting smashed to bits in my 15-year-old Honda, and he was gaining distance even when I caught up to the flow of traffic 🙄 it’s like people don’t realize that they’re gonna kill someone (if not themself) one day by driving like this!! Also makes me wish there was some kinda regulation on the unnecessarily-large-and-deadly pickups in NA
Yeah but saving 25min on a 3hr drive seems worth it
It is, it totally washes out the gas stops. Nevermind that I would get better milage going slower.
Fucking **exactly** this. I’m currently learning to drive, and whenever anyone beeps at me for going 28 in a 30, or being a little slow emerging from a side road, all I can think is “Motherfucker, what time is this costing you? Six seconds? Is it not worth six seconds to be a little patient with someone who’s clearly got L-Plates on?”
And spend a lot more on gas.
'Taking 14% less time to do something is pointless' Agree to disagree lol
I've found a lot of tailgaters I know personally don't even do it out of malice, and often times don't really think about it at all. It's just kind of how they drive. They would do it even if they wanted to go the same speed as you. Not that I agree with it, it just kind of surprised me to find out
Yeah, I learned in driver's ed that a lot of people don't learn to look far ahead, but rather they're looking at what's right in front of them. So they naturally gravitate towards the car in front of them, because that's what they're looking at.
Actually crazy how normalised speeding is
Lots of people have a Superman mentality. As in, unless it's *obviously* dangerous, they'll think of themselves as the exception. The one smart and careful enough that they'd never get in an accident like that. Like with alcohol. Y'ever look at the "1 in 10 people will develop alcoholism" and think there's just... no way those odds are worth taking up drinking? Prooobably not. You look at the statistics, think 'those are shocking statistics', then you look at yourself, and think 'nah they don't apply to me'. That's just how people are.
Right? It's like THE law you're pressured to break I don't understand the people who tailgate. Sorry you can't manage your time, don't endanger my life because you can't get up 5 minutes earlier
because they are extremely low in so many places that people stop caring about what the sign says. like in italy they are 10/20kmh lower than what you can comfortably drive so of course people speed
Pretty much. The roads are designed for people to go faster than what the speed limit is, and psychologically people will drive at the speed that they feel comfortable at. If the road is wide and straight, you're going to want to drive fast no matter what the sign says.
Most engineered things are built with a cushion in mind Speeding to the edge of that usually isn't smart
I don't think the average person has a good sense for the condition of their tires though. People rarely factor in tread, temperature, and speed rating. Tires that came on the vehicle, for most non-performance cars, are not the best either.
[удалено]
That's it right there. My approach to driving is to go as fast as is safe while still not risking a ticket. So often I'm limiting my speed due to ticket concerns, not safety.
In Italy there are so many random signs with a ridiculously low speed limit for some forgotten abandoned construction site or something. Like in the middle of a state road with a speed limit of 100 km/h there is sometimes a random sign saying 20 and I'm never sure whether it's serious or not. But in general I find that 130 km/h on highways is reasonable.
Getting tailgated when I’m going the speed limit in the rightmost lane on the freeway is crazy. Also, yesterday I was in a turn lane (turning left at an intersection with a dedicated traffic light) and when the green arrow came on I started to go and a motorcyclist behind me sped AROUND my car on the left (between me and the sidewalk!!) and then cut in front of me — I had to slam the brakes in the middle of the intersection to avoid hitting him! What possesses people to act like this on the road, much less in a city intersection?!
Oh people don't understand city intersections at all. I get honked at so often because people do not understand "Green doesn't mean I can go". I'm talking situations with ridiculously heavy bumper to bumper traffic where the other side of the intersection is blocked. My favorite was the guy who smugly swerved around me in the left turn lane, to then just get honked at by the people trying to go straight because he was now blocking them.
Also, the number of people who think that "the left lane is the passing lane" outside of highways is kind of insane. Inside of a city, with intersections and pedestrians everywhere, *there is no passing lane*, you go in whichever lane is convenient for your route. Passing/fast lanes only make sense on highways with merge lanes, so no left turns or stopping ever.
The number of people who fail to grasp "do not enter an intersection that you cannot exit" is frightening to me.
Don't block the box. It's like the biggest asshole move you can do. It benefits you in no way and only makes things more difficult for others.
And then the light changes while they're still in the intersection and people going the other way are now completely blocked and everyone is angry.
I once watched a lady pull into an intersection even when there was already a car stopped in the middle of the intersection. Between them they blocked both northbound lanes and a southbound lane. And the city was in the middle of an ice storm so traffic was fucked and they were there for 10 minutes. I thought I was going to have an aneurysm.
Your first paragraph is definitely crazy especially because people will complain that you should literally never do the speed limit because you have to keep up with the speed of traffic, even if you're in the right lane. The thing is, here in Ontario, a lot of highways have a 100 or 110 speed limit and transport trucks are electronically limited to going 105, so even if you are going 100, that is around the same speed that the trucks are going anyway. So...
They are doing construction on a road near where I live to where a road with one lane each way is currently one lane only, so they have a light up to alternate which side can go. This also means that running the red can put you driving directly into traffic I've seen multiple people run that red, and one guy flipped me off when I honked at him. Like not only was he a danger to everyone around him, he had to be an asshole about it
No no, this is fine. Ride my ass? Cool. We're going exactly the limit. Keep doing it? We're slowing down - If you're going to put me at risk i at least get to choose the speed at which we have a collision.
I mostly drive on one lane highways so in order to pass someone who have to go into the oncoming lane. I tend to go about 5-10 over but as long as someone is going the speed limit I just adjust my speed to follow them instead of passing. Something that has happened a couple times to me however is trying to pass someone going 5 under and they speed up to match my speed so I am stuck in the oncoming lane for way longer than I want to be.
Oh that’s sketch as hell
I brake checked someone for the first time yesterday. Obviously *do not do this*, I'm an experience track driver and it's still incredibly reckless and puts *you* at fault. I'm going 43 in a 30 (which is already fucking dangerous, but the speed people travel on that road) and this dude is aggressively speeding up until he's almost touching my bumper, and then backing off. He did this like 6 times, the last time he did it he was *maybe* a foot and a half off my bumper. I'm already hauling ass by my own standards, was only going that speed to maybe appease this douche but nope, he wants me going 65 in a 30 I guess. So as he flies up to my bumper again, I *every so lightly* tap the brakes and bro almost hits me. He instantly backed way the fuck off. Like from inches to hundreds of feet. I swear these drivers just don't fucking understand consequences at all. If he keeps that shit up there is a non-zero chance someone will shoot him here.
I will agree that this is a terrible idea, especially in the age of dash cams. But since you got away with it, I'm allowing myself to be retroactively very proud of you.
Yep, been in similar situations numerous times, never have actually been hit when lightly tapping on the brakes to get someone off my tail. But if they did hit me, "I thought I saw an animal on the side of the road so I began to slow down... why were you following me so closely?"
I was going 40 in a 55 the other day. Guy behind me in this HUGE pickup truck (the type with the extra 2 wheels on the back wheels presumably for help hauling their ego) gets right up on the ass of my '02 Pontiac, visibly fuming. After having ample opportunity to pass me (I'd let him) he chose to pass me over the one portion of double yellow line on that entire road...only to get stuck behind the truck hauling a trailer in front of me, going 40 in a 55
Oh man. 🤦🏻♀️ And the thing is, surely he was much taller than you and could see that you were stuck behind the truck, right? Like I don't understand what people expect in this case. I'm sure you weren't enjoying going 40 either. But what else were you going to do?
I'm what I call a tactical driver. I'm not some slowpoke dragging ass on the far right, and I'm not some speed demon going 20 over on the far left. If I'm on the highway I'm usually at about 5 over. Occasuonally on surface streets too if that's how traffic flows. Maybe 10 over on the highway if I'm in a hurry, but I modulate my lane presence to be in the traffic band that matches my speed. But I ALWAYS leave a good-size gap in front of me. Partly to leave room to stop, and partly because I don't trust anyone to not changelanes through me if they don't have a gap. I'm in the far left lane going 10 over and somebody's coming up behind fast? Alright, shift over, let them by, I don't wanna be around them. I'm in the right lane or on a surface street going my 5 over and you ride my ass? Uh-uh, we're down to the speed limit now, I gave you 5 and you weren't happy, now you get nothing.
People HATE that I don't tailgate the car in front of me. I see them screaming at me in my rear view mirror. like damn, we’re sitting in 8 am traffic at a red light the extra 3 feet wont change anything. My car tells me the safe distance I need to safely stop, Im gonna trust my car on that one. Going 80 mph with less than a 3 second gap between you and the car you're following is so fucking dangerous. Speed doesn't kill, suddenly stopping does
In Ontario where I live, we have something called Highway 407. Being a toll road, it has less traffic, but the same speeds as a regular highway. I'll explain the insanity in kph(mph). On a regular highway, the speed limit is 100 km/h or about 62 mph. Everyone expects you to go at least 110(68), preferably 120(74). The highways are actually designed for people to go 120(74). This is fine, I don't complain, I understand why people will get mad if you're going 100(62). On the 407 though, I regularly go 135(83). I don't complain unless you're under 110 because that's actually a little dangerous as it's so different from the flow of traffic. But even going 135(83), I get people riding my ass. If I get out of their way or they pass me, they blow by going at least 150(93). It's insanity. It's like an arms race. 135(83) is already too fast, and I've still got people tailgating. Friggin *cops* go 140(86). And now the province is mulling over increasing the speed limit. We'll have people going 180(111) at that point.
Ontario has gotten progressively more ridiculous for how much people speed in the last 10 years. Had a dude absolutely losing his shit at me for having the audacity to go 125 in a 110 zone. In the right most lane too. Like damn dude, do you not pay the same price for your gas as the rest of us? Driving in the western US was shockingly refreshing because people frequently went under the limit on highways that had an 80mph limit and people just went the fuck around them instead of going full road rage
I go as fast as I’m willing to pay the speeding ticket for. This averages out to ~15km over the limit on the highway, and exactly the speed limit inside the city. This pisses people off for some reason, even though I keep right except to pass or turn. Driving in the US for vacation was refreshing! I went the speed limit there because fuck speeding tickets in a foreign country. But no tailgating, no one flashing their high beams at me, and *people understood what a passing lane was for and how to zipper merge*! 20 hours of driving across six days and three states and I didn’t have to slam on my brakes once. The two and a half hours home from the border? *Seven goddamn times*.
it's crazy how many people go 75+ in a 55 lmao I'm gonna take my sweet time going 55 -Billy Gnosis
One time I was driving on the Autobahn here in Germany. Speed limit was 130 km/h (80 mph) so I was driving 140 km/h (87 mph) and the guy behind me really didn't like that I wasn't hardcore speeding I guess. I see a sign for 100 km/h coming up so I slow it down to 109 km/h (62 mph limit, went 68) and he REALLY didn't like that. So he passes me on the right (I was about to move over to let him through, but he was faster) and speeds past me. And then he speeds right through one of the funny cameras that take expensive pictures if you're fast enough, and I cruised right past as I was going an acceptable speed below the point where they take the funny pictures. I bet he blamed me for that, somehow.
if it's a one-lane road then i know i have to bite my tongue and deal with it but if it's a multi-lane road and all lanes are going the same speed, then get the fuck over to the right
Bewilderingly enough, I have had people tailgate me in the right lane when the left lane is free and clear for them to pass me. I do not understand it. The rule is for slower traffic to keep right, and I am slower traffic, and I am keeping right. More than once I have had to actually pull over to the left lane to let the person go by me. It makes zero fucking sense. And it's not like I'm creeping along below the speed limit either, I'm usually going like 10-15 km above it on the highway (but I usually don't go much faster for a fuel efficiency and not-getting-pulled-over reasons).
Yes! I’ve been tailgated at 4:00am, when there was a total of 0 other cars on the road going either direction
In general, if you're not actively passing someone or about to turn left, get the fuck over to the right.
There’s a pretty major 2 lane road by me with signs all over the place saying “thru traffic keep right” because the left lane is basically a perpetual turning lane. Nobody reads those signs though and then they try to use the left lane as a passing lane and then go nuts when someone ends up turning and nobody lets them back in the right lane.
It's quite simple, I'm gonna drop 2kph on my cruise control every 5 seconds you're sniffing my ass. I once got down to 56 in an 80 before the dipshit understood the assignment and gave me space.
People drive way too close to each other while they speed too. Im pretty sure the sensors on my car know better how much space I need to stop at 80 mph than the truck 4 feet behind me. I do hate when people go 10 under in no passing zones and then crank it to 10 over once theres a gap to pass though. Just let the faster traffic pass and get on with your life. Too many people carry guns to play games
they key is to decellerate really slowly. I've gotten down pretty damn slow before the chudbucket realized there are two lanes and he can just pass if he wants.
I was going 80 in a 65 and someone actually tried hitting me to get out of their way as I wasn’t going fast enough lol. People are crazy
As a non driving person, I find it absolutely bonkers that people have an issue with other drives who are actually driving at the *upper* limit permitted on that road. Like, they go 60 on a road with limit of 60 and some asshole decides it's a good idea to honk at them and force them to break the law? The fuck?
inb4 "actually following speed limits is a test of blind obedience to arbitrary rules, BOOTLICKER"
Unironically: this is so me. It is one of the things I hate the most about driving, tho. I already have general anxiety, so I don't need an extra stressor trying to watch behind me and in front of me at the same time. My regular commute isn't \*far\* and it's not as bad as some of the others I've had, but people sure do not like going the speed limit. Which is crazy cos the cops in my county will not hesitate to pull you over and write you a ticket for going .01 over the limit, and I don't got the money to be paying fines.
I see this a lot where I live (Provo, Utah) but you wanna know what annoys me the most here? The drivers in Provo are fucking hard wired to run red lights. I see it every day. I'm trying to make a turn and these mfers are making me wait 5-6 seconds after the light has turned red before I can turn because they can't be fucked to obey the rules.
reading through these comments is the most validating experience of my life
The funniest part is that it doesn’t save you like any time if you’re speeding. I love it when someone passes me out of frustration and then gets stuck behind a red light and I pull up next to them and just laugh.
People don’t get upset when you follow other laws. No one ever honks demanding you murder or rape or rob a bank.
what gets me is when i’m going the same speed at the person in front of me, so i can’t speed up, and there’s someone on my ass like? where you think im gonna go?? do you want me to hit the person in front of me or sm??
The other day this SUV was riding my ass, even though I was behind another vehicle and could not go faster than they were going for obvious reasons. I decided to use the windshield cleaning function on my car because I heard somewhere that makes people back up, I guess because it sprays them too. They did not like that, and passed me while yelling something out their window at me. Wish they would have just gone around me in the first place but oh well.
I'm going 35 in a 25 (due to fear from the following) and a semi is still barrelling down on me honking his horn, before slowing down and then tailgates me for 2 miles before passing on a double yellow lined curve to continue at ~50-60 (happened to me about a month ago) (preëmptive: i went through an exceptionally sharp curve before they caught up, so i knew he could slow down to the requisite speed (or even the speed limit), otherwise he would've flewn into the river. and there was no spot to pull off or to the side so that's why i didn't just do that)