251–260 of 577 posts
Enough events should show clusters where potholes likely exist. You would think cities would love that kind of data.
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It's frustrating because someone is taking your safety buffer as their opportunity to travel faster. And it results in you having to travel slower and slower to maintain the gap that is constantly consumed, tragedy of the commons style, by opportunists.
It seems like a tragedy, but actually it can be a boon as long as you travel in neither the leftmost nor rightmost lane . The majority of the traffic entering your buffer will be exiting your buffer out the other side as soon as they can, so you can just chug along at a (greatly reduced, but) consistent speed. Meanwhile, the traffic to either side of you is in standstill, paralyzed by your bow wake.
I've had times where the right lane ends up being the fastest. On I-5 near Woodburn, OR, it's 3 lanes. So many drivers, including truckers, will often stay out of the right lane entirely to avoid being caught up in traffic coming on/off. Meanwhile, the left lane is going 5 mph under the limit because there's a left-lane camper somewhere miles ahead. So I can fly past everybody in the right lane because there's actually barely any traffic coming on/off and everybody is avoiding the right lane for no reason at all.
I got one of those dongles from my insurance company that plugged into the ODB2 port and reported my driving habits. I was a bad driver. It would frequently beep at me to let me know that I had braked too hard. I was mystified. "What should I have done differently," I'd think, as I raged at the objective machine that judged me so. The next time my brother came to visit, he called mom. "Oh, and presidentender is a goo…
Maintaining a safe following distance is incredibly challenging on busy freeways where hard braking is often 'required'. Most people have likely found themselves in this situation: vehicle changes lanes in front of you; you slow down to maintain a safe following distance, another car sees a gap and changes lanes in front of you. Repeat for your entire commute. Incredibly frustrating, and I've driven all over North Am…
I just put adaptive cruise control on max distance and call it a day, gives me 4/5s to react, and also it starts beeping hard if intervention is required.
It has saved my bacon a couple of times.
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In the Atlanta area I've experienced a few times people FLYING up on me in the right hand lane while I'm cruising along at a conservative, gas sipping 55 MPH in my old truck, blaring their horn at me like I'm some kind of maniac. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
That's easy to deal with: They're behind you. Ignore them. Setting the side mirrors based on the AAA method works for a lot of reasons, and it helps with this too. So does flipping the center mirror over to the dark side. Out of sight, out of mind. They can be elect to stay back there behaving however they want, or they can go around be however they need to be somewhere else. If you just can't stand it anymore, then…
The solution is just to stay out of Atlanta, or drive faster. I'm OK with that.
Not really sure where you were going with all this. Sounds like pretty extreme, weird behavior that you are advocating.
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I live in a place that has harsh winter conditions with ice, gravel and the occasional loose tire stud flying into people's windshields, warranting frequent expensive replacements. Somebody on the radio said that "just set the adaptive cruise control to max distance and your windshield will last way longer". It does feel overprotective at times, especially in slow and dense traffic, but I think there's a nice point i…
Wow, I didn't know that was a thing. Been driving nearly 30 years, and never had a windshield chip.
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Tailgating is against the law. Tailgating causes hard braking. I recently pulled my travel trailer from OK to Charleston, SC and back. I never drive over 65 MPH for safety and MPG reasons. I always stay in the right hand, slow lane except if I have to take a left lane exit. Since I was always driving slower then everyone else, not once did I have to hard brake. Tailgating is a choice and a dangerous one. I was never…
Even that can be tricky, with the indecisive behavior people use when merging.
Speed is a very dangerous thing when pulling any type of trailer and it always amazes me when I see a truck pulling one at break neck speeds and somehow thinking they can maneuver normally when someone causes a situation where they have to make a split second decision.
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That's easy to deal with: They're behind you. Ignore them. Setting the side mirrors based on the AAA method works for a lot of reasons, and it helps with this too. So does flipping the center mirror over to the dark side. Out of sight, out of mind. They can be elect to stay back there behaving however they want, or they can go around be however they need to be somewhere else. If you just can't stand it anymore, then…
It's all fun and games until one gets rear-ended by one of these mental patients. The solution is just to stay out of Atlanta, or drive faster. I'm OK with that. Not really sure where you were going with all this. Sounds like pretty extreme, weird behavior that you are advocating.
Advice for when someone is following closely in anger that summarizes to "try getting off the highway for a minute and if that fails call the cops." is suggesting you perform "extreme, weird behavior"? I don't understand your reaction at all.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Atlanta area I've experienced a few times people FLYING up on me in the right hand lane while I'm cruising along at a conservative, gas sipping 55 MPH in my old truck, blaring their horn at me like I'm some kind of maniac. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Driving and living in Atlanta after living in Charleston and Raleigh felt like transitioning from a modern cooperative society to an island of cannibals. The amount of aggression needed to change lanes largely regardless of attempts to signal good faith and politeness is baffling. Driving is a fascinating ritual with vastly differing norms across regions. It would be interesting to learn if anthropologists have studi…
And Psychologists!
Reading the comments in this thread is quite amusing.
As a driver in India, i can tell you anything goes as long as you don't get into an accident (which may/may-not kill you) or get caught by the police.
No rules matter and the only goal is to "one-up" everybody else on the road and if they are trying to "one-up" you, then prevent it by any means possible. It is a "game of chicken" in its purest form; game theory in action. Rules are mere suggestions only followed by the meek and the weak.
You have no idea how invigorating it is to drive in India.
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I'm one of the faster drivers and I maintain a safe distance. (I usually have the most distance in rush hour.) It's very easy with adaptive cruise control or the other self-driving technologies that are on the market. The only people who cut too close to me are driving recklessly. That being said: If you're in the mode where people are constantly changing lanes in front of you, think a bit about how you're driving: O…
> and you're expected to keep up with the flow of traffic. This is very state dependent, if we are talking about legality. In WA state, for example, there is no "flow of traffic" law or similar. The limit is the limit, and any excess of the speed limit is illegal regardless of what all other drivers are doing. So even if the right/slow lane is going 100MPH through the 70MPH zone, you are legally expected to still go…
This has nothing to do with the expectation that slower traffic stay in the rightmost lanes, which is what GP is addressing.