A rant - Driving on the Shoulders

[steveklein]

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

LOL! I'm pretty sure that line of cars I saw on the shoulder recently had "carefully evaluated the situation". Let's be serious...the vast majority of people who do this do it on impulse. They don't sit and plan it ahead of time.

The dangers of driving on the shoulder have already been discussed in this thread so they don't need to be rehashed. I guess you could take it up with law enforcement when you get pulled over for it. Maybe a citation would help explain it better than I ever could.

Do you know how far a couple hundred feet is? It's like 12-20 car lengths. Doing this is not any more dangerous than speeding.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by steveklein

Do you know how far a couple hundred feet is? It's like 12-20 car lengths. Doing this is not any more dangerous than speeding.

It's reckless and arrogant. This is the same mindset that makes being a pedestrian or cyclist so dicey.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by JMatl

It's reckless and arrogant. This is the same mindset that makes being a pedestrian or cyclist so dicey.

(speaking as a pedestrian) half the diciness, they bring on themselves. I see so much bad behavior from pedestrians as a fellow pedestrian, like jaywalking, crossing against the signal, darting out from between cars, it's hard not to get irritated as a driver. I'm not a very avid cyclist so I can't speak as a fellow cyclist very well.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by MattCW

(speaking as a pedestrian) half the diciness, they bring on themselves. I see so much bad behavior from pedestrians as a fellow pedestrian, like jaywalking, crossing against the signal, darting out from between cars, it's hard not to get irritated as a driver. I'm not a very avid cyclist so I can't speak as a fellow cyclist very well.

Oh, I agree. Just saying....

I've worked all over town as a MARTA commuter and a driver. I've seen it all!

[JoeTarheel]

Originally Posted by steveklein

Do you know how far a couple hundred feet is? It's like 12-20 car lengths. Doing this is not any more dangerous than speeding.

Oh, please explain to me how far a couple of hundred feet is!

You're only thinking of yourself here...imagine how dangerous it might be to someone who has had car trouble and is walking that couple of hundred feet up to the next exit - when you come driving up behind them. Or to the ambulance that gets stuck behind all of the cars who have "innocently" decided that can't wait that extra 5 minutes in traffic and now they're blocking the shoulder. It's extremely dangerous to other people.

[ElleKaye]

Originally Posted by pollen

The worst is when people drive in the shoulder to pass a bunch of cars, then merge back into the slow traffic they just came from. I've seen people do this on the collector/distributor lanes at 10th/14th/17th in Midtown, and also on the Buford Highway connector.

The bold is the absolute worst to me. It is not just the shoulder but when we all see the signs that there is road work up ahead and need to merge into one lane, most people start letting one car from the other lane in front of them. You then have those who ignore this common courtesy and drive at the speed of light to the front of the line and barge in which makes it even more annoying for those who patiently merged earlier.

It's aggressive driving and does not bring out the best in anyone. Bascially, it's skipping in line. At first, it didn't bother me, but it occurs so frequently that I have let it affect my personality. Before I let someone merge in front of me using those tactics, they'd have to hit my car. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not having it/able to tolerate that level of selfishness.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by steveklein

Similarly, the law is very clear that you are not allowed to drive over the speed limit, so I sincerely hope you are pulled over and ticketed each time you exceed the speed limit by 1 mile per hour or roll through a stop sign at midnight with no traffic anywhere in sight, etc, etc.

It isn't like driving a tenth of a mile on the shoulder when you are exiting is an attempt to get in front of all the people ahead of me. And it isn't like I'll do it if there are emergency vehicles using the shoulder or something.

Local police forces aren't even allowed to assess speeding fines for violations under 10 mph. I agree with the sentiment of rolling stops and speeding under 5 mph over, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Originally Posted by JoeTarheel

Some offenses are much more serious than others. Murder is a much more serious crime than shoplifting, much as driving on the shoulder is much more serious than driving just a bit over the speed limit. The two are not comparable.

Exactly.