Anecdotally, my wife and I feel as tho we have recently encountered more drivers than usual driving significantly below the speed limit. I’m not talking about 60 instead of 65 on the expressway (although that CAN be mildly irritating if everyone else is going 65-75). But instead, I’m talking about people driving 10 or more MPH below the limit on non-expressways.
I imagine some such drivers are unsure of where they are going, tho I would think they could pull over and check their directions instead of inconveniencing other drivers. I imagine others are unsure of their abilities, or feel driving slowly is safer. But in many instances, it strikes me as unsafe for someone to drive significantly below the limit.
I realize that my (actually pretty mild) frustration greatly exceeds the actual inconvenience. For example, the other day, someone VERY slowly pulled in front of me during a local errand, and drove 10 MPH for the last 3 blocks of my trip. I don’t even know what the limit is on those residential streets. Might be 20 - which I think ridiculously slow. I would generally go 30 or so. But even if it is 20, this guy was going 1/2 the allowed speed. Probably didn’t even add 30 seconds onto my trip. I find it curious that my frustration so outweighs the inconvenience.
Do you feel you encounter a lot of VERY slow drivers? Does it piss you off, or do you just roll with it?
Slow drivers are a road hazard and are more likely to be rear-ended. They’re especially dangerous when changing lanes.
I find it frustrating when people drive very slowly in the centre lane and get passed on the left and the right. That should be a clue they need to get off the road.
Every time I’m on the interstate, say 3 or 4 lanes; and all cars are zipping along at 65-75 mph, except that one guy/gal right in the center doing 50 mph–that person is playing with a phone, or GPS, or a texting gizmo. EVERY TIME. There is a 100% correlation between oblivious slow driver and “on the phone/texting.” These folks are gonna kill someone one day.
I teach driver safety to seniors and warn them about the dangers of driving too slow. I live in a fairly rural area and my housing development exits onto a 70 mph two-lane road. There are lots of homes that have driveways that are also connected to this same road. Because of an abundance of deer in the area I tend to drive 60 or 65, but I am aware when there is someone behind me that wants to pass and I make sure they get around me safely.
The really dangerous part is when I am driving 60-65 and someone just pulls out of their driveway onto the road at 1 mph when I am bearing down on them. They can’t accelerate fast enough and I have to step on my breaks hard to avoid hitting them. They are either clueless or inconsiderate or both. Slow drivers used to bother me a lot when I was younger, but now I just slow down and wait for a good time to pass or just drive slow for a while. It’s not worth risking your life over or getting stressed out about…
I had an uncle who refused to exceed 30 mph under any and all circumstances. Residential streets, major roads, highways, it was all the same to him. I’m talking about the DC metro area, where everyone is perpetually late, and drive and behave accordingly. People honked and rudely hand gestured at him all day long and he didn’t give a shit. He routinely got pulled over on the highway and ordered to either keep up or stay off the highway but he didn’t give a shit about that either. He was going where he was going and he was going to get there the way he wanted to get there: slowly.
I don’t know why they didn’t just revoke his license, but he was driving right up until the day he fell into that coma and died (not while driving).
I dunno. I mean, if there WERE an accident, I can imagine the faster driver getting a ticket under the “last opportunity to avoid the accident” theory. I haven’t checked my “Rules of the Road,” but there sure oughta be a requirement that folk merging into traffic have to check to make sure traffic is clear and to get up to speed promptly.
I encountered the guy I was talking about at a 4-way stop. He cgot there slightly before me, so had the right-of-way. He had out of state plates, so likely did not know where he was going. But there was NO ONE else at the intersection or behind either of us. If he wanted to putz, he could’ve waived me through, instead of slowly turning in front of me.
Shit - I was just in MI last weekend, and we often vacation there. I can’t recall ANYONE driving under 65 on the 2-lanes.
I am NOT a slow driver, but when I commented on the guys getting right on my ass, my buddy - who lived in MI for years - simply said, “You’re not doing anything wrong. That’s how they drive in MI.”
If you get out of the way then I don’t care, drive as slow as you like. If there’s only one lane in your direction then pull over and let people go by. I don’t care how fast or slow you are going, don’t hold up traffic. I don’t mean you have to pull over all the time if you are going the speed limit, but if it’s clear someone wants to get past you then just let them.
Slow drivers, especially in the left lane, frequently test my opposition to the death penalty. My morning commute involves a freeway interchange in which the ramp makes a 90 degree turn before becoming the left two lanes of the new freeway. Obviously you need to slow down on the ramp, but just as obviously once you’re back on the freeway, you need to speed up and, if you’re not going to speed up all the way to the limit, move right. At least once a week the cars in both lanes do neither, and the rage takes a couple more days off my life.
When I complained about that once, my friend told me, “They’re not your problem, You’re theirs.” Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten.
Just the other night I had to deal with a motorcyclist going 45 (45!) on a 70 mph freeway, right at the intersection of two other major freeways. Scared the bejeebus outta me.
One of the main roads going through my town is 40 mph the whole length of it except about a quarter mile of it in front of a shopping center. Rarely do I get to go 40. Usually it’s 30. I know I shouldn’t complain much, it probably safer, but come on! Get going!
Based on my limited experience driving on (Southern) CA roads, I woulda thought California bikes INCAPABLE of driving slower than 75 - and THAT while splitting lanes! :eek:
And as my SoCal kid tells it, the common saying around there is that the average speed is around 55 MPH - it is just that it is either 30 or 90, and never 55!
I see very few although its sort of relative. There are a lot of roads I drive on a regular basis posted at like 25 where you never see anyone much under 40 and 35 zones that are defacto 55; you actually do the limit and people (including me) will often blow past you. But 10 under posted? Really rare unless someone is having mechanical issues and trying to limp home.
