Tailgating in the left lane...there has to be a better way (slow lane, Rover)
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You can flash your lights here and they just won't move. Honking...dunno haven't tried it.
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Originally Posted by Patricius Maximus
Tailgating is dangerous and in my experience is usually ineffective in accomplishing anything except inspiring road rage. My standard practice when I encounter a left-lane slowpoke* is to maintain a safe following distance, then I flash my high beams. If the driver isn't part of the small fraction who know what that means, then I honk at the slowpoke. Believe it or not that works on a good chunk of drivers. If they're still clogging the left lane, I pass on the right at the earliest opportunity.
Keep right except to pass is a rule that needs to be followed, but when that rule is already being violated I have little choice in the matter. As for passing on the right on highways with 3+ lanes in each direction, it is not something you should do. "Slower traffic keep right" improves traffic flow on 6 lane roads as much as it does on 4 lane roads. On wider freeways there are more lanes intended for through traffic (i.e. traffic that isn't passing) so not mandating "keep right except to pass" makes sense there. However, just because something is legal doesn't mean you ought to do it. If you're not exiting soon and you're on a multi-lane highway and going faster than the lane to your left, you should move to the left if you can.
As for exceeding the speed limit when passing, that is actually a sensible thing to do on a two-lane rural road. Passing on those roads is very different from normal passing, since you are passing in the lane where opposing traffic has priority. For safety reasons it is best to minimize the time you are in that lane and complete your pass as fast as you can while maintaining full control of your vehicle. This can create situations where you are at very high speed for a brief time. A personal example is one time when I passed a car that was going 48 mph on a road posted at 55 mph. I decided to pass him and I reached a peak speed of 75 mph before completing my pass and decelerating to 58 mph. As it was I completed my pass just before I saw a car approaching about half a mile away. As it was it was no problem, but if I had executed a much slower pass me and that car would have been too close for comfort. I'm sure similar stories play out on roads worldwide every day.
*This assumes that it is feasible for the slowpoke to move to the right; sometimes congestion prevents one from moving to the right even if one wants to. In that case I just maintain a safe following distance.
I have a question to who "do" some stuff (or think it is justified) when they find a driver who is so-called "camping" in the left lane and is going at speed limit (or even a few MPH over):
Do you move over to right lane once you pass this camper?
The thing is....the average cop won't let you if you were telling them the honest truth in that you were passing.
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Originally Posted by blackhemi
No, that is how law works. I have used that argument and its holds up pretty well. There underlying laws to know about, such as reckless driving, or in my state, superspeeding.
You have not shown me any laws that says I cant speed while passing. The speed limit law is very broad. The passing law does not mention speed. If speeding to overtake is illegal, they would have to write it in.
Remember, for the most part, everything is legal unless a law is written for to make it illegal.
You all do realize that the tailgater and the person who is insisting that the person driving the speed limit in front of them should move over are trying to control other drivers' speed, too, and should stop it, don't you? Or does that only go one way in your world?
Yep....even if they do use turn signals it can be a bad scene.
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Originally Posted by mustangman66
How about when you are approaching someone in the left lane obviously going slower than you are and you decide to be proactive and pass them on the right because there is no one else on the road and you dont want to be an ass by tailgating or flashing lights. You put your turn signal on and begin to merge over and just as you get into the right lane they merge over without any turn signal and it now forces you to slow down drastically. You now have to merge back over into the left lane to get around the person you were orginally passing. If people drove in the correct lane according to the speed they are going it would decrease many problems on the road. So not only are these people not aware of their surroundings but they cause a blatent safety concern by not using turn signals.
I speed on the highway, in fact I was pulled over 2 weeks ago on my way home from work, but as far as tailgating I never purposely do it it but sometimes I end up slowly creeping up on someone accidentally and when I realize I have gotten too close I back off. Now when there is a tailgater behind me, all I want to do is get out of their way and merge over as soon as I can because all I picture is me needing to slow down and this yahoo slamming into me.
Left lane is for passing. If you ain't passing, move over. Why is this so hard? Why did this thread go for 12 pages?
Isn't it obvious?
This thread has grown to 12 pages so that a lot of guys could boast about their aggressive and potentially dangerous ways of dealing with people who annoy them on the road!
Last edited by Retriever; 04-06-2013 at 06:10 AM..
The passive-aggressive people who hold up the left lane don't just punish the speeders like they intend, they also punish people who are doing the right thing and driving in the right lane. I can't tell you how many times I end up trapped behind a semi in the right lane for miles because the "leader" of the slow parade in the left lane is doing barely more than keeping pace with the truck rather than just committing to actually passing it. Passing is not supposed to take miles, and those who self-righteously refuse to budge over the speed limit while passing cause problems for everyone on the road. Funny though how when a cop is behind them obviously wanting to go faster, they somehow manage to complete their passing in a timely manner and get out of the way.
So where I live in Virginia, about 90% of people will hog the left lane and not move. They will slow down and do exactly 65 or a bit less and the person in the middle lane will often play that game too.
I notice that this generates quite a bit of tailgating...
The only thing that "generates" tailgating are the idiots that choose to do it. With this wording, you make it sound like the guy being tailgated is at fault for the dangerous driving of the guy behind him. The only ones responsible for aggressive driving are the aggressive drivers themselves.
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