Jetfire

iTrader: (3)

i hate people that go the speed limit in the farthest left lane in the vancouver area.

dunnojack

that gave me a chuckle.

i see these all the time. They're the same people who get 10mpg.

dumb people just don't get it. you don't save time by swerving in and out.
and even if you saved 1 minute, your savings were offset by some other loss.

CDNROCKIES

I think we both know why driving in the Van area is so bad....but would probably get in trouble for saying so on here.

syzygy

Personally I find the biggest problem on the roads to be tailgating.

Usually, when somebody is tailgating you, the implication is that the tailgater feels as if you are going too slowly.

This is never the case when I am being tailgated. That is, every time I am tailgated, it's never the case that I am going too slow for the lane and traffic conditions that I am in.

First off, if I am in the fast lane on a major highway with a formal "passing lane" (along with periodic signs saying slower traffic keep right), I'm never tailgated because I'm one of the few willing to routinely cruise at 90, 100 MPH+ in a (technically) 65 MPH zone while "normal" fast-laners tend to go 75-85. I also certainly don't tailgate as well. If I am cruising at 90 MPH in the fast lane and come across somebody going 75 MPH up ahead who is unwilling to move, I will gradually slow down until my speed drops to 75 MPH and I am maintaining a distance of 2 seconds behind the left-lane blocker.

Anyways...

I'll tell you where I am tailgated and why it infuriates me to no end - I'm on a relatively congested 60 MPH freeway with traffic in both the left and right lanes clogged up for at least a 1/4 mile. I am cruising along with traffic in the right lane maintaining a distance of 2 seconds behind the car in front of me, who in turn is maintaining a distance of 1/2 second with the car in front of him, who in turn is also maintaining a 1/2 second distance, and so on. You guys get the picture right?

It's basically like this -



To be honest, I drew most of that picture poorly because I made it look like everybody is tailgating everybody, but it'll do.

Basically, the road is heavily congested and moving at a snail's pace (relatively) at, say, 50 MPH in a 60 MPH zone. Most cars up ahead are maintaining a relatively unsafe distance of 0.5 seconds amongst themselves.

I am the black car in the bottom right, maintaining a distance of 2 seconds behind the car in front of me, leaving a nice cushion of safety in case somebody up front brakes hard unexpectedly.

The red tailgater, however, doesn't appear to like the fact that I am leaving such a large cushion despite the fact that I am maintaining that cushion exactly and I am going exactly with the flow of traffic.

Speeding up so that I'm just 1/2 second behind the car in front of me is not going to get you to your destination any faster, it's simply going to put more people at potential risk for injury/accident should an emergency braking event occur somewhere up ahead. And yet, the fact that the red tailgater is leaving literally 1/10 of a second between his car and mine seems to suggest that he thinks I'm going too slowly.

Am I? I'm following traffic and maintaining that 2 second distance throughout. I'm certainly not letting the cars ahead of me gain on me, if I was then I would understand the tailgater's frustration, but I'm not.

This type of tailgating infuriates me to no end, and I can't do anything about it. I can't slam on the brakes to "brake check" the guy because that would be thoroughly irresponsible and stupid and would put both of us at risk for accident. I already know he's situated at an unsafely close distance behind me, I don't need to "test" it out by braking hard and intentionally causing an accident just to "show him up." That would be thoroughly retarded.

I can't gradually slow down and hope the tailgater passes me in the left (passing) lane out of frustration/impatience because the entire left passing lane is clogged up in front and behind us for at least 1/4 mile each way.

I can't lay the horn on him because he's behind me.

Tailgating to this degree, to me, is the second most egregious traffic crime one can commit next to driving under the influence of alcohol or any drug that comparably impairs one's ability to drive safely.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

hahaha... interesting, i know what you are talking about. it's hard to tell from picture, but i guess to me it highly depends on the speed and what you refer as 2 second distance.

here in LA, people drive close to each other, just a "style" in general. in traffic situation, when all lanes are occupied, i don't mind people keeping distance, like you said that's safety. but some people they maintain such a great distance (maybe 2 car lengths) and that annoys me. it does nothing except giving chances for people from other lanes to cut in. when that happens, the car in front of me decides to slow down even more to "get back" the 2 car lengths. in the end it seems like i am going "backward". that's no-no.

but of course, at the same time, i don't mean to drive like an ****, so close to the car up front, so no one can cut in if they need to. maintaining a reasonable distance with the car up front according to the crawling speed is the key

syzygy

Very valid point, I'm glad you brought this up.

Certainly I will not let something like that happen. Believe me, I want to get out of that congested traffic just as much (perhaps more) than the agitated tailgater behind me, and I certainly don't want cars piling up in front of me by leaving a "cushion" that is too large.

I think the major problem is that in this very specific scenario (traffic being so congested in front and behind and me driving with a relatively larger cushion compared to the cars in front and behind me), the tailgater perceives me as being a "grandma driver," and that mere perception is enough for him to get agitated enough to tailgate me.

The reason I think that is due to the following scenario that I frequently encounter-

I'm driving in the left lane at 85 - 90 MPH in a 60 MPH freeway. Up ahead, I see a grandma driver in the right lane doing, say, 50 MPH, and a clearly agitated driver who is tailgating the grandma driver (also in the right lane, obviously) who wants to get into the left lane (he has his turn signal on) but is waiting for me to pass. (I mention this initial tidbit for one primary purpose - to establish the fact that the guy behind the grandma driver is a generally aggressive driver prone to tailgating if he feels obstructed)

Ok, I pass at 85-90 MPH in the left lane, the tailgater gets into the left lane, accelerates up to 85-90 MPH as well, and maintains good, safe inter-car distance from me (i.e. he does not tailgate as we both cruise along at 85-90 MPH).

We travel along happily for the next 2 or 3 minutes until boom, we encounter heavy congestion up ahead, similar to the above picture. Cars are going an average of 50 MPH, so I slow down to go with the flow of traffic and I tend to keep a larger inter-car distance between myself and the car in front of me, just as the picture shows.

The car behind me - the car that 3 minutes ago was heavily tailgating the grandma driver in the right lane - this previous tailgater now has no problem with me keeping that relatively large distance. In fact, he also keeps a similarly large distance between him and myself. It's almost an unspoken gesture of respect, as if he's saying "I know you're not a grandma driver and were it not for this heavy congestion, you would have no problem keeping the passing lane flowing at a a sufficiently fast speed, so I'm going to respect the fact that you are keeping your distance from the car in front of you by staying well behind you as well."

I know, that's quite a mouthful and quite the presumption. I'll be the first to admit that it's mostly a guess.

But, the point is, I have a hunch that, hypothetically, if this guy behind me hadn't seen me going 85-90 MPH in the fast lane prior to this heavy congestion (let's say I was already up near the traffic jam and he came up behind me much later), and he saw me keeping such a relatively large cushion between myself and the car in front of me, I have a hunch that he'd be more prone to tailgate me out of frustration, merely because he perceives me as a grandma driver, all despite the fact that I am very meticulously making sure that the cars in front of me are not gaining on me.

Yes, yes I know none of this is even remotely scientific or analytical. It's presumptions and hunches up the wazoo, I know, but you must admit it does sound reasonable. I can't be the only one who comes up with elaborate "What's the driver behind me thinking" concoctions like this

Anyways, that's my hunch and I'm sticking with it. To summarize, I think that aggressive drivers are more prone to tailgate you if they perceive you as being a "grandma-type" driver, even when the circumstances are such that traffic is virtually at a standstill (or going at a snail's pace of 50 MPH in a 60 MPH zone, as described above).


If there's a car in the right lane going 60 MPH in a 60 MPH zone, and a grandma driver in the left lane going 60 MPH as well right beside the car in the right lane (so that both cars have effectively blocked off faster traffic from passing either one of them) and the entire road is completely clear in front of them, then I can understand the rationale for an aggressive driver tailgating the grandma in the left lane. It's an unspoken way of saying "Please get the **** out of the way, if you want to drive at 60 MPH, go drive at 60 MPH in the slow lane to your right, you're blocking miles of wide open road ahead of you when 10 cars behind you, including myself, want to pass at 75 MPH+"

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

Well your best bet was to slow down and let the idiots keep driving like idiots.. Not worth mesing up the M3...

mmarshall

This is a perfect example of the lack of "speed discipline" I was mentioning in an earlier post.......on a 60 MPH highway, some people going too fast and others too slow. If, instead of drivers paying tortoise-and-hare, most of the traffic was doing, say, 65 (maybe 70 at most), you wouldn't have these kind of problems....and, in most places, troopers don't ticket you (and speed-cameras don't click) until you are doing more than 10 MPH over the limit.


You make the mistaken assumption that driving the speed limit is "Grandma" driving. Obeying the law (or staying close to it) is not a matter of being "Grandpa" or "Grandma".

mmarshall

Exactly. And slowing down to a reasonable (not excessively slow) speed can also help keep one from driving like an idiot as well.

primecut

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a typical SoCal commute to me. When I'm not in a hurry, then I'm willing to let it go and not pay attention to it. But if I'm trying to get somewhere on time, then it really annoys me.

I noticed that whenever I take road trips, the drivers get nicer as you get farther away from SoCal. The exception is the drive to/from Vegas, since all those peeps are from SoCal. lol. Whenever I drive to Vegas it feels like a road race. Everyone is jockeying for position and no one wants to move over.

RX300-BV

To me the worst offense, next to the DUI's, are the people who cut in and out (and vice versa), over the double yellow of the car pool lanes. These drivers are really putting a lot of people at risk with these highly dangerous lane changes. A couple of weeks ago, a co-worker of mine had her 328 totalled when a Prius crossed over the double yellow causing a bad accident.

My other pet peeve are cars in the carpool lane who intentionally try to block a motorcyclist from lane striping. I don't drive a motorcycle, but if I am in the carpool lane, I always scoot as far over as possible to allow the motorcycle to pass safely. (Keep in mind lane striping is legal in CA.)