But it has four doors. How can it be a sports car if it has four doors? 
What always annoyed me was the “followers” on the highway.
I live a bit out of town, so there wasn’t a ton of cars on the highway most times, so I would merge onto the highway, set in the RH lane and do 65-70mph in a 70mph zone. Getting on the highway, I would look behind me to see if I needed to yield to anyone, and there would often be somebody a quarter mile or so back, seemingly doing about the speed limit.
After traveling a mile or so, the car that was far behind has zipped up and is now sitting about 3-4 car lengths behind me, now matching my speed and following.
There is no other appreciable traffic on the highway and plenty of room for them to pass and go by me.
But no. Having caught up to me, they just sit there, a few car lengths back, following. I can speed up or slow down 5mph or more, and they just match my speed. After being in a big hurry to catch up to me, they are now content to slow down and follow.
Other traffic may come up and pass us, but my follower is content where he is at. If I come up on slower traffic and pass, as soon as he can, he passes the slower car also, waits patiently in the LH lane for there to be enough room between me and the passed car for him to fit, then pulls back over behind me, tethered by an invisable rope to the rear bumper of my car.
Once I pull off the highway onto another or an access road, the follower will visably speed up faster than the speed he was following me at, until he gets up to the next car in that lane, after which he will slow back down and stay 3-4 car lengths behind - maybe clear across America for all I know.
I don’t think these people actually watch the road when they drive, they just stare at the back of my car and it becomes their whole point of reference for their speed.
Sounds like an average trip to me, what’s your problem?
I didn’t go out of my way, and I didn’t accuse you. It just sounded to me like that might have been the case, and in keeping with the theme of the thread, it reminded me to bring it up as an example of a behavior that greatly annoys me. And the reason I thought that might have been the case, is because it’s the most likely explanation for the RV driver’s behavior - but I guess he is just a candidate for your Idiot Driver of the Year award.
OP, I’m sorry for your pain but I am glad to hear that the recent rash of Freestyle Driving isn’t confined to just California! :eek:
Bolding mine. If it was mostly empty why weren’t you in the slow lane?
I’ve had drivers licenses in 6 different US states and the UK and agree that the UK testing is better. Not necessarily harder, but more thorough. A better test still doesn’t weed out all the idiots however.
I call this one the “West Kansas Stroll”
##: The speed limit is 70 mph. You are traveling with your cruise control set to 65.1. You are passing a semi which is traveling at a constant 65.0999. Do you
a) place your foot on the accelerator and speed up to 70 to pass the semi quickly
or
b) why bother. The cruise will eventually take you past the truck sometime in the next 25 or 30 minutes. It may make the truck driver a bit nervous to have a constant companion in his left lane for the next 20 miles and the three miles of cars backed up behind you might be a little irritated but you can save yourself the fatigue of moving your right foot 6 inches.
bonus question: You’ve finally passed the semi. do you
A) move over to the right to let the 3 miles of cars behind you pass or
b) stay in the left lane and make them all weave past you. Give your self style point if you keep a tally of all the one fingered salutes you recieve.
I got this one! Only the left lane is designated for passing. On an empty multilane highway the middle lane is the better choice so you don’t need to weave in and out when the right lane exits or when a car needs to enter the highway.
In the next paragraph lanes are numbered from left to right starting at one.
There is a section of the 407 across the top of Toronto where you can start in the lane 3 (of 5) going west and by the time you end up at the 410 exit you’ve been all the way over to the far right (still in lane 3 but 4 and 5 disappeared) and are back to the middle again and need to move over at least 1 to exit. When it’s very late (the only time the highway isn’t packed) I stick to the middle for minimal lane changes.
I almost explained this in the original post, but then I thought it made it too long. The right most lane has the entrances and exits, and Austin has many places where the freeway has “local” traffic, so cars are frequently getting on and getting off at the next exit, without ever coming up to speed. Even at 3am. Driving in that lane is a needless exercise in slowing down and speeding up, when one lane over I can set the cruise control and not touch the brake for 20 miles. That still leaves one or two lanes to my left for faster vehicles to pass me.
The West Kansas Stroll has certainly made it around North America. Bonus bonus points if they manage to do this on a busy two-way highway for the entire length of a passing lane.
John, Your blue car’s a beauty! Probably not supposed to admit this in the Pit, but I was just posting blue = blue for the banter.
Mr. Beata and I take 94 from MN to WI some Thursday or Friday mornings. Either there are tons of trucks, or the highway is fairly empty. The trucks haven’t been a problem. The sedan drivers usually have the worst. You have the whole highway, miles and miles of empty road … and you have to pull in 10 feet ahead of us? What’s up with that?
I love that color.
I’ll play.
You are at a highway interchange in a cloverleaf pattern. You are entering the highway; I am exiting. Because it is a cloverleaf, your acceleration lane is also my deceleration lane. You need to go faster to match highway speed; I need to go slower to successfully navigate the rather sharp curve of the exit. You are currently about 3/4 of a car length ahead of me and going the same speed. My turn signal is on and I am clearly slowing down.
Do you:
A) Continue to accelerate so I can smoothly pull into your lane behind you as you pull into mine in front; or:
B) Slow down (at the exact same rate as me), forcing me to either slam on the brakes and risk a rear end accident by going too slow in a travel lane or stomp on the accelerator to get by you, then slamming on the brakes to avoid losing control on the curve.
If A, congratulations; you can merge. If B, welcome to St. Louis. You’ll fit right in.
>> Are you a candidate for Idiot Driver of the Year?
I don’t know, is there a limit on the number of nominations I am allowed?
Are you sure some of this bad driving isn’t due to the hilly nature of I-77?
Did I click on a pic of a sedan, and not the coupe that I do indeed own? :smack:
There is one reason to be a bit circumspect here-say instead the truck is doing the limit (70), but you can smell a speed trap coming up. I’ve read far too many stories from people who sped up to get around the truck, and then got nailed for doing 85 in a 70 (even if they were only in fact doing 77) by a cop who isn’t the least bit interested in hearing your reason (note I didn’t use the word “excuse”) because his boss told him they need the revenue, and fuck common sense and fairness. Just saying. I will speed up in such a situation, but always then will be looking around nervously for the cop to appear over the next rise.
That excuse doesn’t really fly-sorry. Plus 2 of them were in flat Georgia/Florida, and #3 was completely independent of any hills which might have been present.
I ran into (no pun intended) a similar situation yesterday - I was in the far right lane because I was turning off shortly, and people were merging onto the high-speed road I was on. One car merged in front of me, no problem. The second vehicle tried to merge right into me, then waved his arm at me when I honked as I slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting him. Dude, you have to pick a spot and make it happen - your spot is not right where I am driving.
OK, that makes sense. Here in the UK you’ll get people sitting in the middle lane when there’s hardly anyone in the slow lane and a steady stream of traffic in the fast lane. It’s actually illegal to pass in the slow lane (it’s called undertaking) so you have to wait for a gap in the fast lane to get past them.
We also get the “West Kansas Stroll” but it would more accurately be called the “Speed limiter shuffle”. Some trucks and commercial vehicles will have limiters that top out at 60 or 65. They’re not super accurate so you’ll get the truck doing 60.01 overtaking the truck doing 59.95.
On my recent trip across NYS I became trapped in a line of cars behind two tractor-trailers riding side by side on the NYS thruway. Both were going just about the speed limit and neither one was making much headway against the other. This went on for quite a few miles frustrating the hell out myself and I assume a number of other drivers that were stuck with me. The entire entourage crested a hill and lo and behold, there was the State trooper waiting on the other side. The left lane truck then promptly completed his pass and pulled over into the right lane. A little ways on I saw the exact same scenario coming towards us in the oncoming traffic lanes.
Bless 'em.
I found my driving stress lowered a few notches after that.
The worst for that is I-95 in the Carolinas – definitely SC but maybe parts of NC as well. Whenever I take I-95 through SC I can reliably hit a pair of semis riding side by side, for miles, at least once.
I’ll support any time someone gives the troopers a little “fuck you”. I’m happy to be stuck behind a pair of truckers that are doing that.