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Its “Blue Cool Dude”. I expect my nicknames to be respected.
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You’re right about it being a high-speed, egotistical shoving match. Once again, I didn’t say it was a good thing. But it was funny at the time, and thats why I wrote about it. Please, no preaching about “its always funny 'till someone gets hurt”. I already know.
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Kids, don’t try this at home.
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I’m leaving town today, and will have no internet access until Sunday night. That is why I won’t respond any more for a few days. I’ll be back to defend myself then.
What do you do for a living? State trooper? Deputy sheriff? Police officer? If the answer isn’t any of these, then it isn’t your job to try to enforce safe behavior on the part of others on the highway. If everybody worries about his own driving, drive defensively, and leaves it at that, fewer people will end up in in plastic-lined nylon bags. I guarantee it.
Do you honestly believe that SUV woman is going to change her driving habits because of this?
On the contrary, I think it lessens the dangerous situation created by the tailgater.
But hey, do as you like. I just don’t recommend tailgating me if you’re trying to get somewhere fast.
And if I were actively trying to pass her, get in front of her, slow her down, this might be an accurate analogy. And to be fair, Gabe did say he had that idea. That’s not what I’m doing. Me, I’m just not cooperating with her. It’s like passive resistance.
You still haven’t explained how it harms anybody to simply let somebody who is hell-bent on passing do so. Whether actively preventing it or through what characterize as “passive resistance”, I don’t see the overall level of highway safety increased. What I do see, is you have somebody behind you who is likely getting increasingly angry. The angrier that person gets, the higher the potential for somebody needing scraped off the highway becomes.
To this, I will add that interfering with the “aggressive” driver presumes perfect knowledge on your part. How do you know why that person wants to pass? Maybe it’s ego. Maybe it’s a trip to the emergency room because s/he just found out a spouse has been admitted. I’m not psychic, so I can’t tell those things. When somebody is driving agressively, I just get out of the way as safely as possible and let them rush to meet their fate.
Somehow I failed to notice any high-speed shoving match or two jackasses swerving in and out of traffic mentioned anywhere in the OP. All that people did was either speed up or slow down to teach a lesson to one jackass. Everyone else involved was described as driving sanely and within (or nearly within) the speedlimit. (70 in a 65 is a normal speed near me although I don’t know if it is where ever the OP took place). The only one doing any dangerous driving was the ESM by tailgating and driving much faster than 70 in a 65 zone.
We’re back to the idea that “teaching lessons” isn’t part of safe driving. It’s ego.
As dangerous things that really should not have been done go, this one’s pretty awesome. Go Blue Cool Dude.
On the contrary, I always act as if everyone would do the same as me.
If everyone who tailgated was blocked from passing, then they would learn not to tailgate.
… Uh, so Yes, I agree with you. I am teaching a lesson. Where I disagree is that my doing it is dangerous. I would never doing anything reckless while doing it. Pacing the guy to my right usually involves slowing down to the speed limit (as I said, I’m usually 5 MPH over it), I would not swerve or suddenly change lanes, or do anything else unreasonable.
As for the jerk recieving the lesson, ze was already driving recklessly, speeding and tailgating.
As much as I sympathize with putting dangerous drivers in their place, this kind of activity has no place on the highway. When I buckle my kids in the car, I don’t want people playing games like this on the highway. Let her pass, and perhaps you’d have had the greater satisfaction of seeing her pulled over.
Is there such a term as “passive-aggressive driver?” I think we need one if there isn’t.
It encourages aggressive driving. If aggressive driving is a successful tactic - IE, people get out of your way - then more people will do it.
That’s an explanation. Not one that I’m buying into, but an explanation. Thanks.
It’s not your job to be policing the speed limit. If I’m in the fast lane, and I see someone barreling up my ass, I just move over. Then again, this rarely happens to me as I’m never in the fast lane unless I am actually passing traffic. That’s what the leftmost lane is for. The only time I ever get pissed off is when I’m passing up a semi-truck and somebody hugs my bumper. There’s no place for me to fucking go!. That may warrant me taking a little longer than usual to pass.
I was all set to bash the OP but I was disarmed by its resemblance to a modern day faerie tale. I’m afraid all I can muster is a finger wag.
How? Did the maneuvers in the OP stop this woman from tailgating and driving dangerously? No. They only prodded her on to greater speed, more tailgating, and more aggressive driving. Soon, everybody’s going faster than they ought to, jockeying for position, switching lanes back and forth, and all because some idiot with her hair on fire is late to pick her brats up from soccer practice and some assholes don’t want to let her get around them.
Do you think she left the encounter thinking, “Oh, my! Slower drivers did not let me pass and that man gave me the naughty finger! Oh heavens, I shall never tailgate again!” Probably not.
It’s a darn crying shame but there is no sure, safe way to serve justice to rude drivers, but life ain’t fair. If you think someone’s reckless driving is dangerous to others on the road, make note of their license plate number, pull over in a safe area, and call 911. But that’s not nearly as fun or macho as playing games with them, is it?
I don’t tailgate. I just hope that you don’t hurt yourself or anyone else when you decide that it is your duty as a citizen to punish aggressive drivers by driving dangerously yourself.
Who said that what happened is being touted as the solution for tailgaters?
I read it as the OP relating a story about an incident that he was involved in.
I doubt that anyone is advocating playing ego games with other drivers at high speed. That would be irresponsible, no?
My take on it was that cynicalgabe was pleased that Cool Blue Dude worked with him–they were on the same wave length–and brought about a result that warms all our hearts: the foiling of an asshat driver.
Am I missing something? Where does it say: do this, be like me, take risks behind the wheel?
Why do these threads turn into arguments? I don’t get it.
I stopped back home briefly after class to grab my duffel bag and get my fix of Dope for the weekend, so I am in a hurry and will jsut say this:
How is refusing to facilitate the breaking of the law by others “policing”?
Interesting variety of offenses.
Let’s see, if we leave out driving attitude, and consider only driving maneuvers in the abstract, which is worse: tailgating, or not passing in the passing lane?
I think tailgating is worse. The tailgater puts you at risk, and you have no control over the risk. By comparison, a car clogging the passing lane generally does not put you at risk, unless you (or somebody else …) do something stupid.
But I bet ESM still has no idea why she got the gesture.
I hate to tell you this but what you and Blue Cool Dude were doing is also agressive driving.