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.
People tailgate; people change lanes too close to other drivers; people don't yield the right-of-way when changing lanes or merging; people drive way over the speed limits; and people don't pay attention.
What do you think is going to happen when someone is less than 20 feet from the car ahead of him at 75 miles per hour and the lead driver stops as fast and as hard as he can because a 1,000-lb. moose just ran out in front of him?
Distracted drivers are one of the bigger causes of accidents on freeways. I always felt the freeway is a lot safer than city driving. But with all the yahoos texting on their iphones I don't think so anymore.
The biggest reason accidents occur on interstate freeways is because people insist on following too closely and when another vehicle in front of them must slow or stop, they hit the rear end of it.
Such accidents are inexcusable. They simply result from someone wanting to go too fast. Often, the result is a traffic jam and delays for the drivers of hundreds of cars.
I have a solution to propose: Whenever someone is responsible for such an accident and a traffic delay results, the state should charge their insurance $500. This money could be used for road improvements or to pay officers who enforce traffic laws. I believe drivers who cause such an accident should bear the full amount of costs resulting from the collision. Compensating the driver they ran into is not enough in such a situation.
Well... we already have LEOs on the roads, but they usually just sit and try to catch speeders vs patrol the roads and pull people over for violating the other driving laws (signaling, staying right unless passing, aggressiveness, tailgating, etc.)
Sometimes the car in front is the cause of the problem too. Sudden lane changes, brake checking, not respecting the flow of traffic, etc.
Outside of congestion (too many cars for the lanes available), traffic only piles up when there is a slow car holding up a faster car. This is when you end up with dangerous situations like close-proximity lane changing, speed differentials, tailgating, etc.
In metro areas, congestion requires that cars follow more closely - there just isn't enough space and if there is room, a car will soon fill it.
I apologize in advance, the o.p.'s post has really hit a nerve and I have skipped, most of the responses... maybe some of my points will have been made already... I doubt it... that's part of the problem! The o.p. is guilty of a very American sense of entitlement. "My mission is more important than anyone else's mission. When the brake lights come on in front of you do you at least lift off the gas? I'll bet money the o.p. does not. On the gas hard, or on the brakes hard, is how the average American drives a car. Nothing in between, coasting with the right foot covering the brake is an arcane concept. It shoudn't be.
Americans have no intuitive grasp of physics! A speeding car (you are a speeding car by definition on the freeway) has billions of foot pounds of kinetic energy to be controlled by less than a square foot of contact patch! The sideways acceleration of a lane change puts immense loads on tires already near the limit of adhesion. Since Americans are as likely to change lanes to the right to pass, as to the left...... it often is the case that someone in the far left lane attempts to occupy the exact same spot in the center lane as someone in the far right hand lane. The average American goes for the horn but takes no other corrective or evasive action. A smaller number bury the brake pedal in the footwell. A still smaller number attempt to jerk their car back into the original lane... jerk being the operative word... at freeway speeds ALL corrections have to be done quickly, but gently, without over-correction and without ego.
It really doesn't matter what the other guy has or has not done! Everytime a thread like this gets rolling you hear all about what people do or don't do... what about what you do??? Or, what you can do when the other guy/gal does or doesn't do what "they are supposed to"??? Anyone who can ask a question like "how can anyone wreck on the freeway?" clearly doesn't recognize freeways for the incredibly dangerous environments that they are. For themselves they have trivialized the magnitude of the task and they have taken their car and its performance and their competence in operating it for granted. Bad idea! Very bad idea. Never allow yourself to become complacent or smug about yours, or others' driving!
I have been driving for a long time. Even so, I never take my eyes off the road for a second! Not one second. If I have passengers, I talk to them without looking at them! Ever! If it is a long trip and my wife hands me something to eat, I take it without taking my eyes of the road. I put my sippy cup back in the cupholder without looking... if I can't find it... I stick it between my knees, which I can usually find by feel. I am usually driving rental cars so they are always new to me and I can't just locate things like temperature controls by feel.... I freeze or burn or whatever, until I can stop, but I am NOT taking my eyes off the road at 70 mph to turn up the A/C, not even for a nanosecond!
If you think that this is overcautious, you will one day be in a road wreck. The odds are very much against you if you think that the hallmark of good driving is comfort and ease with the task. FWIW.
One thing that has always bugged me--wrecks on the Interstate. Now, I will admit, first and foremost, with the exception of the "rat running" practice which I oppose (and thus don't practice myself), I view all roads as a means to get where I'm going and dislike any delays, ANY. To me, the roads are for one thing--moving. Period. If it's not about that, I want it out of the way. Funeral processions, stopping traffic and telling people to pull over "out of respect"--phooey, to heck with it, someone died whom I don't know, what do I care? If I want to pay my respects I'll go to the funeral itself. People who drive slowly in the mountains--you see a line of cars behind you, move over. You can't drive the speed limit because you're too old or frail--sorry, but you can no longer drive at all.
All of that being said, I understand how wrecks happen in the city limits, but I've never understood how people wreck on the Interstate. Understand--I'm not talking about very crowded LA freeways etc, I'm talking of Interstates where there's a 70 mph speed limit and everyone is moving right along. It makes no sense to me how people wreck in those situations. There are no school zones, no stop lights, no points of interests (malls, shopping centers, schools, places of work, restaurants etc) which people are pulling into (they will exit off the freeway to do so), no people making turns--everyone is just moving. The roads are straight, typically not icy or such, and with all of those complicating factors not being a part of the situation, it would seem very easy driving that would not involve wrecks.
And yet, people wreck on them, ALL the time. It makes no sense to me.
I will admit that it bothers me, yes, mainly because of how it inconveniences me. When these wrecks happen, they create a HUGE amount of traffic backed up and I'm thinking "how can you people wreck on such easy roads? Now thanks to your incompetence I'm stuck here for an eternity." That also brings me to another problem--they don't do enough to detour people around the wreck many times in terms of sending someone 2-odd miles ahead of the wreck with detour signs to route traffic away from it. If you happen to have someone as a passenger who is "co-piloting" with Google Maps or the like running in "bird's eye" view with the traffic "layer" enabled, often-times they could warn you of an impending log-jam and then re-route you around it. Otherwise, you will go right into it not aware and find yourself in an awful mess.
Yesterday was a good example of that, I was riding with someone but thank goodness I knew ahead of time, due to looking at a local news site, that there was a wreck on the Interstate. Thus, I activated "Road Warrior" (an alternative maps app that, nonetheless, seems to "piggy-back" off the Google Maps engine) on my phone in "bird's eye" view with the traffic "layer" enabled, and was able to see the areas highlighted in red indicating huge traffic. I was then able to use the "routes" option on Google Maps to quickly find other ways to get where we were going (whereas, otherwise, Google Maps will always direct you to the Interstate). Had I not known, we'd gone right smack dab into it, most likely.
Of course others call bs on it. They own a pickup or SUV and want to pound their chest about it. They want to think they can drive a box on wheels with horrible handling characteristics like a good car. They can't. Avoidance is key to driving success. You aren't going to avoid anything in an SUV/pickup. They just plow forward with little control and really no handling to speak of. Just simple science at play, but it is the psychological part that causes these countless accidents. SUVs/pickups kill due to there lack of response. Shame there are so many of them. I do agree many of these accidents with boxes on wheels are in rain. They really are all horrible in rain and really bad in snow.
Well, let's see. I've driven, over the years, pretty much everything from a sports car (MGB) to a Dodge Cummins Ram extended body pickup with an 8 foot bed and pretty much everything in between.
I call bs. First, I don't know of anyone who tries to drive their pickup like a sports car, and, second, pickups handle a lot better than you apparently think they do. When's the last time you actually drove one? What kind and year was it?
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.
... it often is the case that someone in the far left lane attempts to occupy the exact same spot in the center lane as someone in the far right hand lane. The average American goes for the horn but takes no other corrective or evasive action. A smaller number bury the brake pedal in the footwell. A still smaller number attempt to jerk their car back into the original lane... jerk being the operative word... at freeway speeds ALL corrections have to be done quickly, but gently, without over-correction and without ego.
. I am usually driving rental cars so they are always new to me and I can't just locate things like temperature controls by feel.... I freeze or burn or whatever, until I can stop, but I am NOT taking my eyes off the road at 70 mph to turn up the A/C, not even for a nanosecond!
You must have small children or grandchildren.
