Fucktards who drive less than the speed limit on no passing roads.

The BBQ Pit
1

The Tail-gating thread brought to mind this road I have to drive on everyday, with a clearly posted speed limit of 45 mph. Yet every damn day, I get stuck behind some * moron * who simply has to do 35. Learn to fucking read.

This road is almost perfectly straight ( has one not very sharp turn), and is three lanes, one in each direction, with a left turn lane in the middle. There is absolutely no reason to slow down here. Even more mindboggingly, there is often a police-speed trap on this road, yet no one ever speeds. Hey dumbasses, the police aren’t going to pull you over for doing the posted speed limit. And Mr. Officer, perhaps your time could be better spent elsewhere.

Yet, these same people who drive incredibly slow on the road where you can’t pass them, suddenly find their accelerators on the next road( which is two lanes each direction for 1/2mile or so), where the posted limit is 40. And every one does 50 or higher, * just to keep you from passing them so that they can again go slower than the limit when the road goes back down to one lane*. Arrggg. Goddamn monkeys just need to piss on everyone around them’s day.

And, just to bring this post full circle, I don’t tailgate people, even those idiots on this road. Perhaps I should, or get a big flashing sign I can hang in my front window that reminds people what the speed limit is. Mirror imaged of course, just in case these people ever find their rear view mirrors. Or could understand what my sign says.

2

I had literallyno idea that posted speed limits were also enforced minimums in America.

3

Thaumaturge, I am one of those fucktards. I confess. It may not be on that particular road, but I do tend to drive slowly.

You don’t seem to understand the concept of “speed limit.” The posted number is the maximum speed at which you can legally drive – not a minimum. Unless there is not minimum speed posted, then that person has as much right to drive slowly as you do to go exactly the speed limit. Personally, if I have cars behind me, I try to stay right at the limit.

When I tell this to Type A personalities, they all groan and moan – so you are not alone. I am just more laid back probably.

May I ask you a couple of questions? Why do you need or want to go faster? (That is as much a puzzlement to me as my pokiness is to you – except that for the most part, I don’t get upset about someone else’s speed. ) What do you do with the time that you save?

4

The point is courtesy. As in, not making a general nuisance of yourself if you can help it. You know, not driving slow where people can’t pass, then not speeding up where they can…
I guess that was lost on you.

5

Zoe- it’s the speeding up to 10 miles over the speed limit once passing becomes possible, directly after driving 10 miles under the speed limit where passing is not possible, that pisses me off. These people are just being rude. If they truly had a hang-up about driving fast, they wouldn’t speed up later. People who go slow on the one road, but continue to go slow on the other road, do not actually bother me. But this is a minority. It’s like people have a hang-up about being passed. What is going through their minds I wonder. " Oh no! that person might get in front of me, and then I won’t be able to block all the traffic that was behind me!" ?? Are they even conscious of other drivers?

On a related note, this is exaclty the same as those people who speed up to pass you on the freeway, get in front of you, then slow down.

My previous post was meant for Mangetout.

6

You have my sympathies, Thaumaturge. I seem to get stuck behind the same kind of people, except there aren’t any passing lanes in this area, so I have to just sit and hope that they turn off soon.

Oh, and the main reason it bugs me when people go exactly 35, is that I drive a stick shift, and 35 is usually when I shift from second to third. So, it’s a dilemma - do I stay in second, but not be able to accelerate quckly if I need to, or do I shift into third, and worry about stalling when the person ahead slows down because they see a green light way up ahead?

7

It appears that I’ve misunderstood Thaumaturge’s point. Never mind my post, then - I don’t want to hijack your thread or anything.

8

Zoe, Get off the damn road at rush hour, k? See, we’re all rushing due to the fucktards making us late.

no offense Zoe. I just found you a handy target. :smiley:

If you ever happen to see clear road in front of you, and a parade of cars miles long behind you, please pull over for a bit.

9

I don’t know if the law was introduced, but in Canberra the police wanted to charge people with “obstructing traffic” for travelling at more than 10 kph under the speed limit, unless towing something. This was in response to research that indicated that slow drivers caused more accidents than speeding drivers but weren’t themselves involved in the accidents.

10

NurseCarmen, I take no offense! And, as I said in my earlier post, I do speed up to the limit when I see a car or cars stuck behind me on a narrow road.

There is a small town in western Tennessee that has the most courteous drivers I’ve seen. The shoulders on the highway are wide and if a driver sees that you want to pass, she or he will usually drive on the shoulder so that you can pass easily.

Thaumaturge, I think that you are right when you say that people seem to have hang-ups about being passed. If a car comes up on my rear bumper quickly and then passes with great speed and a roaring noise, I tend to get a little irritated to. The strange thing is that I often catch up with these people at the next stoplight.

Zoe – 42 years of driving and nary a speeding ticket. :smiley:

11

Oh my God, AMEN to that! I too, seem to get stuck behind these assholes. How about the jerks that need turn out right in front of you, forcing you to slow down or worse hit the brakes and then said fucktard proceeds to do 25 in a 35 MPH zone! Or how about the folks that need to block both lanes of traffic in the direction you’re going in so nobody can pass, and of course they are doing five to ten miles below the speed limit as well.

Sigh, and everybody wonders why there is so much road rage…

For the record, at least in this state, if you are in a no passing zone and there are five cars behind you and you’re obviously impeding the flow of traffic, you are SUPPOSED to pull over and let those people by. Of course, these dimwits with no damn place to go, and all damn day to get there, can’t get this through their foggy brains.

Or what about the idiot that slows down to 10 MPH below the speed limit when a cop car is going in the OPPOSITE direction? WTF is that?! They ARE NOT GOING TO PULL YOU OVER for doing the speed limit for God’s sake!!

I will admit to being a bit of a “frustrated grand prix driver”. However, I DO NOT tailgate and I DO NOT swerve in and out of traffic lanes. I value my car and my life too much for that. In addition, I can’t really bitch if someone is actually doing the posted speed limit, but if the asshole is doing 32 in a 35 MPH zone, the tenth car back is lucky to be doing 29 MPH.

The biggest jerk-off though is the asshole who will not, under ANY circumstances, let you pass. He/she needs to have the whole damn road in front of him/her. I just do not understand these people. There ought to be a special place in hell for these MOFOs.

Finally, what about the jerkwad who is busy talking on the cell phone, lighting a cigarette, and trying to paw through his briefcase, all while driving, and all at the same time! They are all over the road and speed up and slow down as the conversation ebbs and flows. If the phone call is THAT FUCKING IMPORTANT, PULL OVER! You’re going to kill someone. I seem to see these ignorant fuckers every day and was run off the road by one. Another one almost hit me head on, but thank God I saw him first so I could react.

Well, I feel better and am glad to know I am not alone in my travails during my daily commute.

12

if you are driving on a one lane road in the mountains, and you stack up 5 cars behind you without using a turnout to allow them to pass, you can get ticketed, regardless of whether or not you were doing the speed limit.

13

Mmmm, courtesy, that means other people having to do what you want, but not you having to do what other people want, doesn’t it?

14

What bugs me in these circumstances is the driver’s apparent lack of interest in the actual speed limit. They just judge the road personally and assign their own speed limit to it, regardless of what the traffic engineers decided. The one lane road is 35mph, and the 2 lane road is 50mph, even though the municipality assigned 45 and 40 respectively.

This is a dangerous habit, because the driver is not accounting for changes in the road that suggest different speeds. One area that comes to mind is when a mostly commercial road enters a residential area. The road surface might not change, but your speed sure should, these drivers just go along their merry way, ingoring the signs. Just a suggestion, if the speed limit goes UP, you should feel free to accelerate, if it goes DOWN, you should reduce speed, not the other way around.

15

That is not my take on this thread. Cars piling up and offenders speeding when there is the possibility of being passed - that sounds like the type of maggot that causes road rage, not a safe driver.

BTW if cars are piling up then there are many others that want - not just Thaumaturge.

Those asses should be “run off the road, beaten, and their cars burned in the ditch” - C&D Magazine
This also reminds me of the jackasses that will change lanes right in front of you as they approach a red light just to be the first car in line. Then when the light turns green, they are the last off the line and slow - I would love to hear them explain why they do what they do.

16

I’ll take back my comments; I didn’t notice the bit about it being straight roads; I had a mental image of straight sections of dual-lane-per-direction road, intersperesed with winding conventional roads with blind corners etc (where slowing down would be sensible). Sorry for the interruption.

17

I’m not picking on you, Taters. I swear. :slight_smile:

That’s the second time this has popped up in this thread. Is there a cite for that? It smacks of urban legend.

In general, I agree with you here. But I did get such a warning once for blowing down the Shenandoah Parkway by an officer of the Park Police. He practically did a bootlegger reverse to bring me down. Had a good sense of humor about it when I was still laughing at his turn. Got off with a warning, as I said.

I agree that it’s a matter of courtesy. If you’re on a no-pass two-lane then go the speed limit. It’s an acceptable safe speed on clear road conditions.

At the same time, no one should get pissed at you for not exceeding the speed limit. That pisses me off.

18

Sorry, that’s wrong:

From CA Vehicle Code:

In other words, you can’t just drive slow and block traffic 'cuz you feel like it.

I’m afraid that’s not good enough. If you have a line of cars behind you, you should pull to the right and let them pass. It’s not up to you to enforce the speed limit.

Notice that you are required to pull over, NOT “increase your speed to the limit”. The standard is the “normal flow of traffic”, not the posted prima-facia speed limit.

Bully for you that you’re so laid back, but why do you have to enforce it on other people? I don’t get behind you and push your car down the road, so don’t get in front of me and slow me down.

19

Well, for me, it’s not so much “the time I save” as much as why I’m in a hurry.

a.) It’s really cold and my car isn’t warming up
b.) The coffee I had earlier is telling me to find the nearest little girl’s room
c.) I AM actually almost late for something, and if that car going 15 miles under the limit will get OUT of my way it would make the difference between whether I make it on time or not (with my schedule this happens a lot
d.) I forgot to eat again, or bring any food with me, and I’m about to have a hypoglycemic crash, rendering me cranky and “road raged”

But those are just my reasons, next time someone is behind you and seems in a hurry and is “pushing you” maybe they have to pee REAAAAaaaaaLLLYY badly or need an orange juice before they keel over. :smiley:

20

[apropos of nothing]If someone is tailgating you and there is nowhere to pull over (to let them pass) and you feel that there is a risk of collision, surely the right thing to do is to slow down (not sharply though, of course); a collision is likely to be less serious at lower speeds.