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I'm a "get from A to B" sort of driver. To me, the extra effort required to save maybe 2-3 minutes on my commute isn't worth it. If other people enjoy this, and in the process do not tailgate or cause me to unnecessarily swerve/brake, then I'm fine with it.
One thing I really do not appreciate, however, are folks who expect to go 10 over the limit until the last opportunity to brake at a red light. In cases where I know the intersection, I witnessed the light turn red, and I can see there are cars already stopped at the light... well, I'm going to start coasting at a point where I know I won't be slowing anyone down at the light. Here there's zero argument that driving faster will save time.
Just this week I had someone behind me that apparently thought I was slowing them down upon approaching an already-red traffic light. He changed to the other lane before stopping with other cars at the light. Then before that light turned green, the pickup in front of him abruptly accelerated in reverse for no reason and hit him. He should have stayed behind me, haha.
It's not really about time, which I and others said before but everyone seems to prefer theorizing than actually listening to answers. It's the frustration factor. Think of it in terms of walking. Say you're walking through a city at a nice brisk pace, not speed walking, but not strolling. Then a group of old ladies comes out of a store and they are walking slowly right in front of you, so now you have to walk at their pace. EVEN if you have no where to go and no time concerns, you're probably going to pass that group, just to walk at the pace that feels most natural to you and which you were enjoying prior to them exiting the store. You don't need to get there faster, you were just enjoying your brisk walk and now you're not, so you pass by them.
That is the main reason I pass people, and why I get annoyed at being slowed down. It feels the same to me as walking behind a group of slow walkers would feel to many people. Now I am a person who moves fast naturally. I walk fast (my ex used to shout "Will you please wait for me???" when we were just strolling on the boardwalk), I talk fast, I eat fast. It's just how I am, and I find moving very slowly to be frustrating.
It's not really about time, which I and others said before but everyone seems to prefer theorizing than actually listening to answers. It's the frustration factor. Think of it in terms of walking. Say you're walking through a city at a nice brisk pace, not speed walking, but not strolling. Then a group of old ladies comes out of a store and they are walking slowly right in front of you, so now you have to walk at their pace. EVEN if you have no where to go and no time concerns, you're probably going to pass that group, just to walk at the pace that feels most natural to you and which you were enjoying prior to them exiting the store. You don't need to get there faster, you were just enjoying your brisk walk and now you're not, so you pass by them.
Sure, I "get it". Pass them, or the car, when you get the chance. But don't walk up from behind so close that you trip them (i.e., tailgate).
If I'm in the left lane and someone obviously wants to get past me, I'll yield the lane as soon as it's safe. But sorry, someone who wants to drive a lot faster than the traffic flow will inevitably need to figure out how to deal with their frustration.
Sure, I "get it". Pass them, or the car, when you get the chance. But don't walk up from behind so close that you trip them (i.e., tailgate).
If I'm in the left lane and someone obviously wants to get past me, I'll yield the lane as soon as it's safe. But sorry, someone who wants to drive a lot faster than the traffic flow will inevitably need to figure out how to deal with their frustration.
I never tailgate, that isn't the topic. People tend to take things quickly to extremes on these boards. "Why do people speed, or pass" assumes those of us who answer drive crazy or go 20 MPH over the limit. It's usually not the case. You don't need to apologize, I'm simply answering a question with an answer from my perspective.
Again the faster you drive the faster people behind you can drive its just being courteous with as much traffic as LA has its appalling to me when traffic clears up that people drive slow.
Not all the time that you don't get places faster. Once you start driving fast and you see just how much faster you beat your GPS it can be kind of hard to stop you're literally wasting your precious time by driving slow. Imagine driving across west Texas going slow, logically that does not make any sense.
Some people don’t care about the speed limit laws and could care less about other drivers on the road, they think they are above the law and it doesn’t apply to them. These morons are the most likely ones to have road rage problems. Because it’s all about them and they think they are intitled to drive anyway they want. They is no more courtesy drivers anymore it’s a all about me world we live in and screw everyone else. But if they do get into an type of trouble they always blame someone else because they can’t accept responsibility for their own actions.
Some people are even worse being extra sensitive, and not just letting people drive how they want, and get buthurt when someone tries to go around them, these people cause more traffic then the speeders.
Trying to dominate the road is not thinking about others if someone is driving faster do the world a favor and get over.
Old people drive slow for a reason it's because they are losing competence, some people are just more competent than others so driving fast is not as bad for them.
Here are a few examples. A few cars have sped and passed me, even cutting me off, yet we arrive to the same traffic light at red.
I've even had drivers driving erratically and speeding past me, and I still get to the same location as them, like a supermarket, BEFORE they arrive.
So why do those drivers do it?
I would expect that it's some type of brain chemistry that leads to a strong aversion against being behind someone who is going slower than one would like. Walking behind someone on the sidewalk, if the person is going slower than I was, drives me INSANE, even if only costs a few moments of lost time.
Freeways? Go ahead and blow past me with all your might while I do the speed limit in the proper lane. Plenty of room for all the NASCAR wannabes over there in THE LEFT. I'll mind my own speed and keep the cops off of my tail.
Now the rinky dink, country garbage, one lane roads I have to put up with on some of my travels? This is where the speeding thing gets to me. The roads are narrow enough, hills and blind curves blocking any view of any oncoming traffic. And yet there's still some speed demons that want to take what works on a multi-lane freeway and punch it out in the sticks.
Questionable cell service coverage and distance from civilization already make these areas unrelenting. Last thing needed is some hot-shot having a head on and causing an hours long, traffic snarl for the cops and the clean up crew to arrive. I say "clean up" crew due to the aforementioned distance making the difference between a serious injury getting treated or one succumbing to it before help arrives.
-@60mph, you can drive 5 miles in 5 minutes
-@45mph, you drive the same 5 miles in 6.5 minutes---you save 1 min 30 seconds of your precious time....and as you point out, if there's any traffic lites involved, the slow guy usually catches up to the fast guy several times along the way.
Most courses in calculus usually have a standard problem about how much a driver should slow down as he approaches a red light with cars waiting so he can give them time to accelerate as the light turns green in order to minimize his own travel time. Smart driving.
OTOH- traffic flows like any other fluid, and any given car is like a canoe in a river--> if you're not going faster than "the current," you're not in control of the vehicle and it's just a cork floating along at the mercy of the current.
I guess it's best to speed, but not too much.
Hmmm...this got me to thinking. I drive 45 miles to work, five days a week. Rural driving. It takes me close to an hour. Let's be more conservative and cut your figures in half. Let's say I save 45 seconds per five minutes on the road each. Over that hour drive that is 45 seconds x 12 = 9 minutes. That's 18 minutes per day, which translates to 90 minutes per work week, which translates to 360 minutes per month, and then to 3,240 minutes per year (I teach, so nine months). Now, I'm not a math guy, but I believe that translates into over two fewer days spent in my car over the course of only one year. Doing this for years, we're then talking about weeks of my life not spent in my car.
Getting back weeks of their lives isn't particularly important to many people. They move slow in their cars, they move slow as they meander down the grocery store aisle. I get it, but it is important to me. The very marginal safety benefit in going 55 versus 65 is far outweighed by the time I get back to my life, so much so, that I've referred to speeding tickets in the past as a "cost of doing business." Is it worth getting a $200 every 5/6 years in exchange for the time I get to spend outside of my car? Absolutely.
People who drive fast and recklessly feel weak and powerless without their cars, so they push them beyond a safe level, to feel strong and important.
I can literally tell that you are professionally-trained in recognizing and diagnosing such things. The only thing missing is mention of how speeders secretly lust for their mothers.
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