A while back, I registered on the Cartalk forum just to pick a fight on this issue. On one week’s show, it was revealed that Tom never violates the speed limit, 'cause it’s illegal.
I started a thread to, well, berate dear old Tom. My argument is that the proper goal of a driver is not to obey the law, but to do all that he/she could to ensure the safe arrival of him/herself, as well as the other cars on the road, at the destination.
And the way to do that is to obey my grandpappy’s first and only rule of driving, “do what the other drivers expect you to do.” If the flow of traffic is 70 in a 55 mph zone, then you should do 70, not 55. If the flow of traffic is 25 in a 35 zone, then you should do 25, not 35.
I could not believe the resistance that this concept received in that debate. I’d say a majority of posters agreed with me, but there was a strong minority that felt that going over the speed limit was illegal, therefore unsafe, full stop.
Sua, I wonder where all these “never over the limit” people were on my old commute. The average speed on the highway was 15mph over the limit, 70 in a 55, and next to nobody went as slow as 60. Honestly, I think I would have seen at least a handful of them every morning, but I never did. :dubious:
I can’t possibly imagine how bad you must think most drivers are, if they can’t reasonably be expected to be able to deal with a car doing 55 in a 55 zone. After all, most road rules are there precisely so that we do have the safety margins to enable us to deal with the unexpected. Somebody who can’t deal with a car doing a slightly different speed surely can’t be trusted to deal with a kid running into the road, a blowout, ice, dazzling by sunlight, a motorbike going past at 100, or whatever.
When you are on surface streets consider how you would like people to drive through your own neighborhood. Personlly I deeply resent it when people speed through my neighborhood.
Your grand pappy is certainly a smart man, then. I have never thought of it like that. Why do car wrecks happen? People do things that aren’t expected. Sure there’s single-car accidents, but with multiple cars, its almost always someone doing something not expected. I remember the two wrecks I have been in. They were both because I didn’t expect something that happened. Both were my fault, but if someone were to magically knew what I was expecting they wouldn’t have happened. Ways to show intent are signals, etc. If the traffic is 70, then people expect you to go 70. if you are alone, you are expected to go near the speed limit.
Its one of the reasons that I always loved driving in Europe. The traffic there is much worse, but there are many more rules of driving that people tend to follow (pass on the left is a good example that seems to be much more hard-wired into European drivers). This is from Germany though. I realize that in Italy, its much crazier, but I imagine that those drivers know what to expect and follow the rules as crazy as they may be. But in Germany on the Autobahn, people tend to follow much more closely, as it is generally expected that people aren’t going to slam on brakes for no reason and be, generally, more alert.
Well, that brings us to my Great Uncle Melvin’s rule of traffic safety.* “Always assume that the other drivers are idiots. Do everything you can to make driving as easy as possible for the idiots on the road.”
The fact of the matter, GorillaMan, is that there are scads of drivers who cannot deal with a kid running into the road, a blowout, ice, dazzling by sunlight, etc. The evidence of that is in the fact that kids are often hit when they run into the road, many cars flip over when there is a blowout, lots of cars end up in ditches due to ice, etc.
So, given that our drivers license procedures do almost nothing to weed out poor/idiotic drivers, and given that the evidence strongly demonstrates that there are poor and/or idiotic drivers out on the road, what should we do? Everything we can to make the drive easy for those idiot drivers, so that they don’t hit us or anyone else.
And that includes driving at the speed of the flow of traffic.
I’m glad you brought this up, because it reminds me of my Third Cousin Eloise’s* rule of traffic safety: “What other drivers expect you to do doesn’t have to make sense. Just do it anyway.”
I acknowledge there’s plenty of idiots out there. But by joining them at driving well above what has been judged safe for the road, you’re making yourself less likely to be able to safely cope with unexpected scenarios.
I drive on a tollway every day. Typically commuting traffic flows about 70mph. Twice I have been passed by a police officer when I was driving over 80mph. In the morning on many days the left lane goes even faster, often 85mph. Drivers usually drive fairly sanely during the commute*, and though it is busy and fast, since I have been driving this route, I have seen fewer bad accidents than on the surface streets during the same time.
My mother, who thinks she is a safe driver, once drove 40mph on this tollway, in the middle lane. She sped up to 45mph when we passed a sign that labeled the minimum; she had refuse to do so before the sign. Since we were traveling slower than cars in even the right lane, cars were passing us on both sides, darting in front of us so quickly that several times cars from the right and the left tried to get in to the same opening at very nearly the same time. To this day she thinks all the other drivers were driving badly and she was the only one driving safely.
*In direct contrast to how they drive on the Dan Ryan.
What do they do if they encounter an unexpected traffic hazard?
When I drive, I try to keep at least a two-second gap between myself and the vehicle in front of me. I see many other drivers who ignore this rule and seem to be operating under the assumption that nothing can go wrong.
I grew up in a tiny, touristy, coastal town which was connected to civilization by a narrow, twisty two-lane highway with two passing lanes for the entire 60 mile stretch. Against all logic, these passing lanes were always put on the steepest uphill with the most dangerous curves.
Therefore, the smart drivers (or those with engines that can’t accelerate up steep hills) wouldn’t be able to safely pass the convoy of RVs that would inevitably form in front of you.
Also, most of the inhabitants of this town were retirees. My hero for ever and ever was a policeman that I heard about from said retirees. Apparently he told the Little Old People that whenever someone was trying to drive faster than they were, it was because they (the other driver) was a crazy person on drugs. The safest- nae, the only- thing to do was to pull over and let them pass.
Never mind that there may be as many as 10 “crazies” behind you- just let them all pass and don’t make them angry.
So whenever I would pass a Blind Phesant (one of the little old ladies with those huge wraparound sunglasses to protect her glaucoma drug-dilated eyes) I would offer a silent prayer of thanks to My Favorite Policeman.
They’re not passing lanes, but crawler lanes. Not an opportunity for the fast vehicles to pass, but a refuge for those which will be unbearably slow up the hill. (Not a justification for a lack of doubling elsewhere on a route, but an explanation of their being on hills.)
I was addressing my comments to the OP who had shown signs of stress:
He referred to his aggressiveness and his eventual heart attack. He said that the experience pisses him off, inspires curses and is a f*ing drag. He refers to the slower drivers as asses, jackasses and morons. I don’t think that I’m reading too deeply into his post when I say that these situations are stressful or that they are a result of impatience.
Whimpering, although temporarily cathartic, doesn’t seem to solve his problem.
Lee–happens all the time on the Harlem River Drive, which I will drive the length of about three mornings a week, at 5 a.m. There’s always some clueless outofstate ditz going about 28 MPH in the center lane, one about every mile or so, making himself (or usually herself) into a traffic hazard for faster- moving traffic.
What is it about these goddamned people that keeps them from driving in the right hand lane–or better yet keeps them from surrendering their licenses in the first place?
When I first learned to drive, I tried to do this on the expressways and tollways as well as on the surface streets. Cars usually fill the gap at 1 second or so and if I slow to leave a gap it gets filled and I get to go slower and slower, until I am being an unsafe slow driver.
Instead, I try to leave as big a gap as will be tolerated by my fellow motorists. Often bigger than most other drivers, but not as big as I would like it.