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And yet incredibly annoying to the people you're hovering beside. The saying, "***** or get off the pot," is always what comes to my mind as I'm in the right-hand lane, wondering why you made an unnecessary lane change when you had no desire to pass, and why you're so in love with my blind spot.
Failure to follow the rules of the road certainly does make you a nuisance to everyone else on the road. That means ALL of them, not just the ones you like. They're there for the safe and orderly movement of traffic as a whole, not for the benefit of any one individual.
Well, I didn't intend to call the OP a nuisance like you did. But I'm not necessarily disagreeing either. Glad to see you agree with me and we're on the same page.
That's why adaptive cruise comes in handy. The car keeps a set following distance (on my car you can select three distances) and when traffic slows down the car slows down for you and when the car in front speeds up the car speeds up until it reaches your desired maximum speed.
I would NEVER use such a thing. NO ONE else on the road is ever going to dictate how I drive my vehicle!
This is just my 2 cents. I travel frequently between NJ and Florida. In my experience if I averaged 63 MPH for the trip versus 68, the difference in actual travel time is a little more than an hour total. Also if I travel a bit slower and keep right it seems like a whole bunch of less stress compared to being left and having to monitor who's behind me, moving right to get out of the way of traffic moving at 10-20 mph over the limit then moving back left to get around slower traffic.
This is why we need strictly enforced minimum speed limits no less than 5 MPH BELOW the speed limit. If you "don't feel comfortable" driving FAST, then STAY OFF THE FREEWAY!
I have cruise control, but I only use it on the outstate freeway. I do not use it on a heavily traveled freeway system within the metro area, simply because traffic speeds up and slows down.
I have cruise control and use it often; but I'm also perfectly capable of maintaining just as steady a speed WITHOUT using cruise control. For many years I never had cruise, and I learned to hold my speed with my foot.
My 12' fiesta doesn't have it. My RAM has it but I never use it. It's an 07' and the the cruise has never been used. Personally I don't even know, or care, whether it even works or not. I rarely am on a long and traffic-less highway with my RAM to even consider using it. Personally, with other cars around I like having control of the speed by easing up or pressing down on the accelerate as I come upon traffic that is not going the EXACT same speed as me.
That's great for the traffic in FRONT of you, but what about those behind you? Maybe they don't want to have to speed up and slow down all the time....Learn the art of WEAVING thru traffic as you maintain your steady speed.
This applies everywhere not just the freeway. I decided to drive the speed limit from now on, seen too many people getting tickets and decided if I want to open up my car I'll take it to the track, last thing I want is my money going to the gov't.
When I drive down a residential at 35 mph and see cars blazing past me at 50+ mph and some riding 2 inches off my rear bumper it only makes it apparent how the US justice system/police forces have become so fat.
The answer is simple. People drive with emotions. They are lazy, late to something, drive with anger, drive with emotions. These emotions ultimately land these people a nice fine or worse jail time.
I've been Speeding for 37 years and engaging in Road Rage battles that have left many people in the ditch, wrecked, or shaken to the point of pulling off the road. I've been forced off the road myself and beating to a pulp, and I've also been in several Road Battles with off duty cops who have later called my house and threatened me. I've had my cars trashed while parked on the street and my windows of my house shot out while I'm sleeping from sore losers in my Road Rage battles! I've flipped my car in the ditch upside down, and tore up two public parks in chases through public recreational areas after dark. I have a list of license plate numbers over 100+ long on my sun-visor, and maintain a continuous watch for these drivers every time I'm on my daily commute. I've also run three semi-truck drivers off the road, and had a couple of battles with snow-plow drivers who tried to run my 4x4 into the ditch during a snow storm. I've broken through road blocks in construction zones and made my own road to my destination. My vehicles have been entered into a State criminal watch database called "CrimNet" and I've had two moving violations in my younger days. I've been arrested twice and booked once, and I've paid one $1,000 file for "Criminal Damage To Property" involving my vehicle. There was even one time when I used my car to push another person's car over an embankment (while they were still in it) while screaming obscenities at the cops who were trying to stop me (that was 1979, things were different then).
However I have NEVER spent a single second in jail, and I have a perfect driving record as well as a perfect performance record at my Driving Job!
I think many people just don't pay attention to speed.
I've done my share of long distance driving and have found that the people that I pass over and over typically don't adjust their speed for speed limits. They adjust based on what's going on around them. Car passing = speed up, passing a semi=slowdown, open road all alone foot slowly backs off the long skinny one.
I wish people paid more attention. After all they are operating a few thousand pounds of steel at 50+ mph.
Is that the same thing as the person who drives incredibly SLOW, but doesn't stop for red lights or stop signs? You'll never know how many people I've seen do this. They have a huge line of cars behind them, until they run that red light, then they are all alone for awhile until the long line catches back up to them again.
I personally like to see how quickly I can go between the traffic control points and it's the most fun if lots of sharp curves are involved!
One is a symptom of the other. Many people are simply incapable of driving competently, the inability to maintain a consistent speed is a sign of incompetence.
And these people should be banned from driving, or perhaps their vehicles should be outfitted with a device that monitors their driving, and as soon as they cause someone else to remove his foot from the gas pedal their car automatically pulls over and stalls and they are stranded!
I found this same conclusion. I have a 28 miles freeway commute. 10-15 years ago I was going 75-80 quite often. For my own sanity I decided to go the speed limit of 65 and keep right. Road rage incidents dropped from about one per week, to one every 6 months if that. My commute only took a few minutes longer. And I was far less stressed. Still doing this now with speed limts at 70 on half the route. I set the cruise at 68, crank up the tunes and get to work and home with way less stress. I somtimes look at the speeders and tailgaters jockeying for position in the left lane looking like they are on a NASCAR track and just shake my head.
No matter what road I've been on, and no matter how slow I've traveled it, I ALWAYS end up coming up on someone's bumper! I once was driving a disabled car at 30 MPH BELOW the posted limit and low and behold I ended up behind some "Lil' Ol Lady" putzing along even slower!
Furthermore, after my heart-surgery, I had to drive really slow for awhile while I was healing up. I had the line of cars behind me, and I used to get just as angry that none of them would pass me, as I did when I was behind the slow-pokes! Can't win.
I personally hate when cars are riding perfectly parallel to each other, blocking anyone that may wish to get past them. If you all want to drive the same speed, you can do that driving in tandem and let others get on to where they need to be.
Until they build highways where you can rely on the car and the roadway to do the driving for you, you shouldnt be relying on cruise control.
I agree 100% with the first part of your answer, and am 100% against the second part of your answer. No machine or road is going to "control" ME!
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