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My point is, it is my responsibility to operate at speeds that allow me to react safely to that jerk going 60 in the passing lane, or whatever other hazards may come up. If my choosing not to do so resulted in a wreck, that would be at least partially my own fault. I am responsible for keeping my vehicle under control at all times, as is every other driver on the road. Some of the hazards I regularly encounter here include slow moving farm equipment (often going no faster than 10 or 15 miles per hour), deer or moose (which can do significant damage to the car and its occupants) in the roads, people on horseback, Amish buggies, dumb teenagers playing in the roads. If I am unable to avoid colliding with any of them because I am going too fast, it is my own fault, even if the speed limit is 55 or 60 miles per hour.
As for my point about "xxx road," Many parts of the country don't get multi-lane roads leading everywhere. The best we get in my neck of the woods is an occasional passing lane when going up a steep hill, in which case I do move over unless I'm passing someone or turning left. The simple point I was making was that a lane change to get out of the way of a tailgater is not always an option, and around here, it isn't even an option most of the time.
Perfectly understandable, but you can't qualify a post with every possible eventuality, so generally speaking, if you can, just move over instead of being a jerk.
This took longer than I thought to come up. You aren't a traffic cop, and speed doesn't cause deaths. Move over if the traffic behind you wants to go faster. For one thing, it's almost certainly the law that you need to move over, and for another, impeding the flow of traffic is far more likely to cause accidents than speeding. Stop being selfish and a part of the problem and simply move over for faster traffic.
Yes, speed does kill. Whether or not it causes the accident, or simply makes it harder to avoid the accident, an accident at a lower speed is statistically less likely to kill you (maim, maybe, but we don't care about that, right, as long as we get to go as fast as we want to?) than the same accident at a high rate of speed. It's like the difference between jumping off a table and a two story building. The laws of physics just flat don't care how emotionally attached to speed you are or how eloquent you are on the internet, the results are what they are.
Ride my bumper and I'll do a hard brake check on you. If you hit me its YOUR fault
Yeah, and they just crunched the rear of your car and now you get to waste a bunch or your time cleaning up the mess. Who's fault it was is of little consolation when you get to deal with the problem anyway.
Yes, speed does kill. Whether or not it causes the accident, or simply makes it harder to avoid the accident, an accident at a lower speed is statistically less likely to kill you (maim, maybe, but we don't care about that, right, as long as we get to go as fast as we want to?) than the same accident at a high rate of speed. It's like the difference between jumping off a table and a two story building. The laws of physics just flat don't care how emotionally attached to speed you are or how eloquent you are on the internet, the results are what they are.
Sure speed is always a factor but to me it's more dangerous to be driving recklessly swerving in and out of traffic than it is going 85 in an open road on the highway
This took longer than I thought to come up. You aren't a traffic cop, and speed doesn't cause deaths. Move over if the traffic behind you wants to go faster. For one thing, it's almost certainly the law that you need to move over, and for another, impeding the flow of traffic is far more likely to cause accidents than speeding. Stop being selfish and a part of the problem and simply move over for faster traffic.
Maybe I should have been more clear. I'm in the rightmost lane, going the speed limit, and some impatient guy (or, sometimes, gal) who is exiting in a mile or two and doesn't feel like passing will instead ride my bumper until the exit. What would you do, exceed the speed limit just to satisfy them and somehow make yourself feel safer?
I'll tell you what, you are not making yourself safer; you are actually endangering everyone with reckless speed in the rightmost lane and any highway patrol officer whom you ask would agree with me. The rightmost lane is for travel; the left and middle lanes are for passing. So use them, and stop giving me a hard time!
On a two lane road as Maineiac points out, there is nowhere to move over to and in my part of the country (the Northeast), many of the roads are like that, most of the suburban major roads between towns for sure, and many if not most of the urban throughways except for a few 4-laners that they somehow squeezed in. Of course, the drivers here are also super impatient and rude, as befits the Northeastern temperament, and they tailgate and do other stupid things like speeding up to cut you off from changing lanes and the like, just because they are totally selfish.
I never look for trouble on the road; my top priority as well as my #2 and #3 priorities is to get where I'm going, safely and legally. I do not want to play games with anyone, or hold anyone up. I have often pulled off the road in spots where it's safe to do so, to let some jerk whiz by at 45 in a 30 zone. Let them get the ticket. There are however spots where you simply can't pull over safely, and of course there are times when I can't afford to keep stopping or I'll take an extra 20 minutes to get where I'm going, and they just have to be patient.
Just keep in mind: you're just one false move away from dying a horrible death, or perhaps even worse, surviving with horrible disfigurements, disability, or paralysis. Slow down, and stop lecturing the rest of us to speed up. We know. We'll let you go around us where possible. But slow down.
Maybe I should have been more clear. I'm in the rightmost lane, going the speed limit, and some impatient guy (or, sometimes, gal) who is exiting in a mile or two and doesn't feel like passing will instead ride my bumper until the exit. What would you do, exceed the speed limit just to satisfy them and somehow make yourself feel safer?
I'll tell you what, you are not making yourself safer; you are actually endangering everyone with reckless speed in the rightmost lane and any highway patrol officer whom you ask would agree with me. The rightmost lane is for travel; the left and middle lanes are for passing. So use them, and stop giving me a hard time!
On a two lane road as Maineiac points out, there is nowhere to move over to and in my part of the country (the Northeast), many of the roads are like that, most of the suburban major roads between towns for sure, and many if not most of the urban throughways except for a few 4-laners that they somehow squeezed in. Of course, the drivers here are also super impatient and rude, as befits the Northeastern temperament, and they tailgate and do other stupid things like speeding up to cut you off from changing lanes and the like, just because they are totally selfish.
I never look for trouble on the road; my top priority as well as my #2 and #3 priorities is to get where I'm going, safely and legally. I do not want to play games with anyone, or hold anyone up. I have often pulled off the road in spots where it's safe to do so, to let some jerk whiz by at 45 in a 30 zone. Let them get the ticket. There are however spots where you simply can't pull over safely, and of course there are times when I can't afford to keep stopping or I'll take an extra 20 minutes to get where I'm going, and they just have to be patient.
Just keep in mind: you're just one false move away from dying a horrible death, or perhaps even worse, surviving with horrible disfigurements, disability, or paralysis. Slow down, and stop lecturing the rest of us to speed up. We know. We'll let you go around us where possible. But slow down.
If you are in the right-hand lane, then the person tailgating you is absolutely a jerk and a menace and should learn proper road manners.
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