Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
18 years in California will do that to you. I still ask for Soda at restruatunts too. they look at me blankly.
What is stupid is being requried to bounce back and forth between lanes when traveling at high speeds. pass a car get over, dirve 300 yards get back int he left lane (if you can) pass a car get over, another 400 yards back to the left . . . . Meanwhile you are contantly merging in and out of a very high speed traffic lane - dumb. Just stay there and get out of the way if you are holding someone up.
To me the sign should say: "Drive in whatever lane is safest and most courteous for what you are doing."
Soon we will nto need to worry about any of this. Cars already drive themselves. We can just talk on the phone ot type on CD while the car drives us. Kind of sad really. A whole culture is ending.
The "Typical" autobahn I was on was 3 lanes. The far right lane was used for trucks, some vans, delivery vehicles, etc. The next two lanes were used for vehicles. When you were in an unrestricted portion of the autobahn you'd cruise in the middle lane, typically varying your speed to stay with traffic, the far left lane was used for passing. It was actually pretty darn efficient. Yes, you'd have to really "work" to drive 150 mph, but even with speed limits removed most traffic works into an "average" speed of about 85-100 mph. When everyone is going that speed, you don't have to pass people that often. When I was trying to see how fast the car would go, I got up to 130 mph, but had to drive with significant more attention being paid, not because the car would go out of control at these speeds but merging into and out of traffic, plus watching your rear view for someone going significantly faster, and paying attention for closure rates and lane expectancy.
I personally LOVE the idea of "Stay right, except to pass" but the biggest issue we have hear is some folks are driving 55 mph, others 60 mph, plenty at 70 mph, and commonly at 80-85 mph too. When you have all those varying speeds, the guy going 80 thinks "i'm doing fast, and can ride in the left lane) until someone going 85 is on his butt...then we call that 85 mph driver an idiot, for flashing his lights as he approaches the guy driving 80 in the left lane. This guy going 80 is forced to either speed up, or slow down to merge and let the other guy pass, and if he doesn't do either, the other driver hops in the right lane and passes him up....It's annoying, and more dangerous to not know where the heck people are going to pass you at, how they're going to merge, etc...than it is to simply stay right, unless you're passing people. And if you're going to be passing 10 cars in a row, stay left until you've got a larger stretch open in the right hand lane, just don't hold up the flow.
well just where do they occur most. I have already ruled out the inner city driving where we have a 35 mph limit. Open highways arent always 4 lane interstates you know. Bottom line is people that speed make it unsafe and extra dangerous almost any place.
I assumed that you know since you made the claim. However, now I see you're defining the terms differently than I had thought.
I commute about 100 miles a day and I have done so for many years. I also take a lot of road trips when I am not working. Most of this time it is all highway driving and I have noticed, in my opinion anyway, that slow drivers are probably the #1 cause of traffic. I have a horrible commute on the way home everyday and most of that horribleness could be avoided if everyone drove in the appropriate lanes.
If you want to drive the speed limit then stick to the middle or the right lane. If you want to go under the speed limit, stick to the right lane. If you want to go over the speed limit stick to the left lane. Most traffic I approach on the highway is due to slow drivers that want to hog all three lanes. SOme of us have places we would like to be so please move over if you notice a line of cars behind you and no one in front of you, thats a little clue that you may be driving to slow.
I dont understand, if i see someone coming up on me I assume I am going to slow, so I merge into the next lane to let them go by. WHy is this concept so difficult to understand? People think that because they are going the speed limit that they are going fast, well they arent. You are the ones causing the traffic.
Theoretically, should the fast lane ever really slow down? WIth the exception of accidents and the occasional right lane on ramp. If people stuck true to the fast lane and used it for what it was I think traffic would flow much better. Lack of turn signals, lack of paying attention, lack of speed when merging into the fast lane are just some of the reasons that traffic slows down in the fast lane.
It also kills me when a cop has pulled someone over and all 3 lanes slow down....really...is he going to forget about the guy he just pulled over, hop in his cruiser and pull everyone else over? Again, a cause of traffic. Its fine for the slow lane to slow down out of respect but no other lane needs to.
Just a pet peeve of mine and I think there is a lack of experience on the roads these days which contributes to the unneccessary traffic.
Freeway driving...I hear ya. I agree, stay to the right except to pass. Middle lane should be 5mph over the limit, right lane at the limit. Left lane for passing or speeding.
I disagree about the traffic jams however. 99.99% of them are caused by people following too close and not allowing other cars to merge. If cars would stubbornly protect their space cushion between them and the car in front traffic would flow much better.
OP I also drive mostly highway miles, about 20,000 per yr. And I must agree with your post on each point. If drivers would bother to see how they play a part in the dynamics of traffic, things would flow much smoother.
By far the biggest issue I see around here is a near complete disregard for the passing lane, and for slower traffic staying in the right hand lanes. Those two issues alone cause a vast majority of all traffic issues I encounter.
Just today I was doing 70 in a 65 zone, keeping up with traffic in that lane. To my left is the passing lane, left of that the HOV lane. To my right most traffic was slower. But then a mini van in that slower decided to pull in front of me, and slow, to 55! What the %&/#? So now a chain reaction of brake slamming starts. Now traffic is passing me on the left and right. Why on earth did this lady feel compelled to merge left only to slow down and jam traffic up? And this happens all the time.
If I want to drive slower, I merge right. This allows faster traffic to flow seemlessly in the lanes to my left. It's just basic courtesy yet many seem to have no concept of doing this.
Freeway driving...I hear ya. I agree, stay to the right except to pass. Middle lane should be 5mph over the limit, right lane at the limit. Left lane for passing or speeding.
I disagree about the traffic jams however. 99.99% of them are caused by people following too close and not allowing other cars to merge. If cars would stubbornly protect their space cushion between them and the car in front traffic would flow much better.
Ouch...I think merging is what leads to traffic jams. Say the flow of traffic is going 75mph and you let the guy in the middle lane merge who is only going 65mph. Ive seen it many times where the guy will slow down slightly to let the guy merge and then the guy that merges continues to go 65 mph while everyone that was in front of this guy continues to go 75mph and pulles away. Meanwhile you and everyone else id now stuck behind the slow driver. Will he merge over to the middle lane again? maybe, but maybe he doesnt have room. Now your stuck driving 10mph slower than you were with a wide open road in front of you.
Merging would not be a problem if people kept up with the flow of traffic....used turn signals.....and merged back to the middle lane after they were done passing.
I have no problem with someone merging but I have seen it before when I was in the middle lane and I was approaching a car. As I am approaching, I put on my turn signal to pass...then this yahoo decides to merge into the passing lane as well and as I begin to merge he merges without any turn signals at all (this happened to me this morning). SO now I have to slow way down because the guy I was about to pass is still in front of me. Now I have to merge back over into the middle lane to pass this guy in the fast lane. In the end, there was no one in front of him. I dont understand people, all this lane changing could have been avoided if he just stayed in his lane or used his turn signal to let me know what his intentions were.
Bad drivers really annoy me but not using a trun signal makes my blood boil!
I think the main thing is to leave your aggression at home. The cars are driven by people just like you and I. Sometimes they are under stress for whatever reason, I figure if I can get to work or home without increasing someone else's stress then that's a good drive. My kids are grown up so I don't have 3 hockey games to get to a night like I used to. I always let people merge in and I have no problem with slowing down, but I stay in the right lane.
One thing I found, since I slowed down and stick to the right lane I have not lost any time at all. I get to work just as fast. Go figure.
I think the main thing is to leave your aggression at home. The cars are driven by people just like you and I. Sometimes they are under stress for whatever reason, I figure if I can get to work or home without increasing someone else's stress then that's a good drive. My kids are grown up so I don't have 3 hockey games to get to a night like I used to. I always let people merge in and I have no problem with slowing down, but I stay in the right lane.
One thing I found, since I slowed down and stick to the right lane I have not lost any time at all. I get to work just as fast. Go figure.
As far as letting people merge, you should never have to slow down for that. The driver wanting to merge should be able to judge your speed and if you are coming up to fast they should wait. That is what a respectful driver does. The minute you have to hit the breaks for someone who is merging means they are going to slow or they just cut you off. WHen you hit your breaks it is a chain reaction, even if there doesnt need to be. The guy behind you sees your brake lights and the guy behind him sees his....and it keeps going, which is one of the causes of traffic. If you need to merge but are not going at the rate of speed the flow of traffic is going you need to slow down and wait for an opportunity that will not **** anyone off.
Its funny you say that because we have a new Passat TDI and my wife and I try to see who can get the better mpg's so I occasionally drive between 60 and 70mph which where I live is slower than the flow of traffic. I do drive in the right lane or middle lane if so be but I have noticed my stress level is way down on the days where I take my time.
With that being said I still enjoy driving fast, I enjoy the way the car handles, and trying to beat a previous time to get somewhere. Its like I said though, when I drive at slower speeds I have no business in the fast lane and stick to the lane where my speed is appropriate because I surely do not want to be that guy that people want to get around because I am driving to slow.
We all had our own rules when it comes to highway driving, I think the most common ones is the left lane is the fast/passing lane and the right is the slow lane. I do tons of cross country driving mainly for work but also for my own pleasure. My main concern is not getting pulled over. I love going fast but if the limit is 70, I'm not even going to go 5 over. That's my rule(when the limit gets lower, this rule may have to be tweaked a bit.). I ride the middle lane if there is one, mainly due to its a lot of lane changing I have to do if I do ride the right lane. My biggest peeve is people that can't maintain a speed, is it so hard to put the cruise on? People would pass me and I can do a countdown before my bumper is riding there tail end. Come on why you passed me doing 75-80 and now you are doing 65 or less! And ofcourse when I pass them they are riding my tail end now, thinking I'm the a** when they actually are. Again I like going fast and if the limit is 75 I'd go it, if 80 I'd do it, if it was no limit I'd probably do 90-100.
When it comes to cross country driving there's really no traffic unless theres an accident, there may be spurts of drivers all jumbled on top each other generally found on 4 lane expressways. Now city rush hours are diff. I think because we all have diff driving styles it just blows up at this point of time. Like in my base of Atlanta different parts of the city-metro people drive diff. Speed limit could be 55 here and everyone is doing 65-80 and than you can go to another part of the city-metro where the limit is 65 and many drivers are barely doing it even in the left lane! Needless to say that slow driving part of town does have one of the worse if not the worse commutes in metro ATL. Slow drivers and the fact that bulk amount of drivers are going to/leaving work at the same time is what causes traffic. And when Mister or Misses impatient got places to go, get out the way meets with got nowhere to go driver during rush hour, that's what causes a real mess...the dreaded accident.
My pet peeve is people do NOT use proper following distance. You should leave one car length for every 10 MPH. I have no problem going 80 MPH on a freeway, but I always make sure I leave a good following distance for the car ahead of me. When I'm in the left lane, people behind me get pissed, that I have ALL the room in front of me, tough. There's tons of cars ahead of me, passing me isn't going to get them to where they want to go any faster. Most accidents on the highway are NOT caused by slow drivers, but by drivers that tailgate. There's no way in hell I'm going 60 or 70 MPH with only 1 or 2 car lengths between the car in front of me.
Actually the 1 car length is an old rule of thumb. The average car length is 13 1/2 feet, so If I'm going 65 mph, I have about 90 feet in front of me. Your suppose to use the 3 second rule, which is find a statutory point on the side of the road the car in front of you passes and count three seconds until you pass the same object. With the 3 second rule, it's about 220 feet, guess I'm still tailgating even with 90 feet in front of me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ReblTeen84
If your car can't make highway speed for whatever reason, stay off.
I'll admit I occasionally have trouble with this. My 4 cylinder Honda Civic takes a good distance to get up to speed. I occasionally have to stop on short entrance ramps until I see a break in traffic where I can safety merge with traffic.
Last edited by TechGromit; 08-20-2012 at 10:20 AM..
We could learn a lot from the Germans about highway safety.
First of all, in Germany cars don't have cupholders. Because the drivers keep two hands on the wheel at all times.
Digital speed limit signs. When it rains, they lower the speed limit. When it's dark, lower. When it's snowing, much lower.
Electronic traffic monitoring. Nobody tailgates on the Autobahn. Because if you do you get a huge fine. They monitor following distances electronically. You get one warning, and then you are sent a ticket. Get more than one ticket in a year and risk losing your license.
And DWI? Forget about ever driving again if you get one of those.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
