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

i cannot even begin to express how pissed off i get EVERY DAY at people who do this.

i live in SE Portland, and no matter what road I take into the SW area, there is always some fucktard going 5-10 miles under the speed limit. i literally want to ram my car into theirs over and over and over again… it annoys me this much.

zoe- the preoccupation that most of us seem to have about not being slow is this: I have better crap to do than spend an extra 10+ minutes driving to and from every place I go just beacuse someone else wants to drive at a snail’s pace for no reason, and will not let me pass them. and as previously mentioned, it has also has a lot to do with common courtesy- not being a nuissance to the other drivers who would like to drive faster.
:smack: read: ** people don’t make you drive fast, but you make us drive slow.** it is agonizingly obnoxious and is an inconvenience to everyone behind you. if you want to drive slow, that’s great. just don’t do it in front of other people who clearly are not interesting in poking about on their way to work.

slow drivers indeed seem to cause more accidents, and definitely more road agression in other drivers. people who drive slow tend to not have confidence in their driving skills, and are more likely to create situations where an accident is likely.

honestly, people who drive the speed limit when they don’t have to annoy me as well. Please move out of the way and let me risk my speeding ticket. I would rather do that then have to crawl behind you, bashing my head up against my steering wheel in frustration.

i have gotten 2 speeding tickets in my life.
but
i have never been in a car accident in any way, shape, or form.

driving fast does NOT need to have a direct relationship to reckless driving habbits overall.

CanvasShoes realizes that the cause of someone’s road rage is her/himself, not some outside source. Don’t blame **me **for your inability to deal with vexing incidents. (“Me” as a generality; you won’t often find me going under the speed limit).

Sometimes I want to put a snow plow on the front of my car to ram people off to the right.

Other times, I imagine that I have a disintigration ray on my car that dissolves slow cars in front of me. Sorry, buddy, but you just forfeited your right to have a car. ZAP! I imagine the driver tumbling down the roadway after his car has been dissolved.

Dajah, I live in SW, and frequently have the same problem trying to go SE.

I imagine you get all of the fuckers who like to do forty on the 84, and then take the connecting ramp to the 205 at…oh…twenty five.

I swear I had that on Saturday.

I swear I almost rammed that damn truck at least three times 'cause of it.

Just for the record, the legal flow of traffic in my state is defined as ten miles above or below either the speed limit or the flow of other traffic. The legal (usually posted) minimum on interstate highways is 40 MPH.

In other words, a person cannot be cited for going 45 in a 55.

Typically, I tend to drive about 1-2 mph over the speed limit. I rarely exceed that. However it is impossible to constantly maintain the same speed indefinitely with some variation. I choose to err on the side of caution when making those variations. So, yes…my speed will occasionally creep below the speed limit. Not even my cruise can prevent that unless I set if for ten mph over the limit.

Furthermore, on roads I know well, I tend to drive as my experiences have led me to believe is safe rather than what some city engineer who has never actually driven the road thought ten years ago when the speed limits were insituted. I can think of three roads offhand that I regularly drive below the limit because I can see the danger of driving too fast. One involves a two lane road that traverses through the forested countryside. Over the 30 mile stretch where the posted speed limit is 55 MPH, I deem only two relatively straight stretches to be safe at that speed. The road is frequented by not only many deer, but also many speeders who tend to drive 40-50 mph over the limit. These people tend to go over the middle lane on curves. I firmly believe the posted limit on the road should be lowered on the curyed parts simply because it is impossible to avoid a collision at 55 mph when I can’t see the road more than a couple hundred feet ahead.

I will also point out that posted speed limits take no account for road conditions. Responsible drivers lower their speed limits at night or when the roadway is wet or potentially icy. I generally follow a very simple rule…I drive ten miles per hour under the limit when a rain storm initiates, and about five miles under once the rain has fallen long enough to wash the oily grime off the roadway (two adages in driving…the road is always the slipperiest just after the rain has started, and brakes always work best just before they lock). During the winter, I routinely drive 5-10 mph under the limit because I am all to familiar with the horrors of hidden or black ice.

Slow drivers do not cause accidents. Careless drivers cause accidents.

Yes, I hate getting stuck behind someone who is driving 10-15 mph behind the speed limit when I have no room to pass. However, I have a much bigger issue with people who drive carelessly.

I’m curious about the speed trap part. I live near one, and on that section of the road that is notorious for ticketing police, everyone slows down to well under the limit. Then, when they’ve driven out of that township, everyone speeds up again and goes on their way.

I wonder if this explains any of why people go faster once they’re in a multiple-laned road? These people might be saving you a ticket.

Total highjack here, but you’re talking about Oregon, right? Because since I moved to L.A., I subconsciously started using the definite article “the” in front of highway numbers, like “The 101”, or “The 405”, which is the custom here. And I have gotten no end of grief from the rest of my family in the Bay Area, where they think the practice is silly. So do they do that in Portland, too?

Blowero, yes, I’m in Portland, Oregon.

I don’t know what Oregonians do, though. I am an Arizonan - and in Phoenix, we do it there. The 101, the 202, the 60, etc.

Lived here almost two years, and still think of myself as an Arizonan. Wow…

</hijack>

Maybe gearboxes in US cars are different but driving at 35 mph in second gear in cars I have driven would involve some serious red-lining in terms of revs.

On the main issue, I couldn’t agree more with the OP. In the Irish driving test, you must keep up with the flow of traffic unless that involves exceeding the speed limit. Failure to do so constitutes ‘insufficient progress’ and will contribute to you failing the test. This makes sense to me - while bjohn13 is right in laying the blame for accidents at the feet of careless drivers, slow drivers can contribute to the conditions where accidents are more likely to occur. All drivers need to show consideration for other road users and slow drivers are as guilty as tailgaters in their failure to do this - the legislation in place in many jurisdictions reflects this.

A wise man once said to me, “I don’t want to burn up the road, but I do want to poke along at my own speed. If that guy in front of me is going two miles an hour slower than I want to go, that really pisses me off.”

Here in the Twin Cities we’ve got some speed limit signs that confuse the hell out of me. “Speed Limit: 55. Minimum: 35.”

Who the hell gets onto the freeway and says, “Yep, 30 mph, that’s my speed. Movin’ on down the highway…” putt… putt… putt…

has anyone ever sat down and done the math on what driving say the speed limit or a little over it does vs a little below to your commute time? I did…about a 24 mile commute in which I take back roads the whole way to avoid the interstate just to avoid the merging and tailgating aggravetion, not to mention daily accidents that back it up for miles. Anyways, the answer was a little under 3 minutes including red light time. There’s a patience factor some people have to grow into or get in a accident to acquire.

One variation on this theme: I tend to go under the speed limit on a two-laner near my home (closer to 35 than 45 mph), because (a) the road is narrow with no shoulders and I have concerns about sideswiping oncoming drivers, and b) it’s woodsy with deer occasionally darting across the road. Some other drivers can’t comprehend this and I get tailgated on occasion.
When I get to the road that has four lanes and shoulders I go the speed limit.

I’m not the world’s smartest guy nor am I even within rock-throwing distance, but there came a time when I realized that all the worrying about how slow other people were driving was a total waste of energy.

This hit me after the umpteenth instance of me passing “Mr. Pokey,” only to have him pull up beside me at a red light down the road a bit. Really, how much time are you saving over the long haul, and is it worth all the bother you put yoursevles through?

If you want to stress yourselves out fighting for every scrap of pavement, insisting that others drive the way you want them to drive, and taking every slight as a personal affront out there on the roads, have at it – there’s a lot of grief in your future.

Unless someone’s driving in a manner which is an immediate and serious danger to your personal safety, relax and listen to something entertaining on your stereo.

Why are you allowing other drivers so much control over your hapiness?

Good point, and of course the same applies to stubborn drivers who think they have a God-given right to go slow, and rather than pull over and let others pass, grit their teeth, let their blood pressure rise, and curse at the people tailgating them.

This is a reply to Jonathan Chance regarding the cite for pulling over if you’re impeding traffic. I am still trying to find the actual RCW, I live in Washington state, but the actual quote from the Department of Licensing Drivers Guide is:

Driving slowly - When you have to drive so slowly that you slow down other vehicles, pull to the side of the road when safe to do so and let them pass. There are turnout areas on some two-lane roads you can use. Other two-lane roads sometimes have passing lanes.

There are actual signs on our mountain highways that direct drivers to do this.

Slower traffic should remain to the right if there are two or more lanes going in the same direction.

Again, I cannot complain when someone is actually driving the speed limit (though I may grumble slightly to myself. //wink// I don’t get worked up over these folks. I also should have caveated that there are times when road conditions do not allow you to travel the posted speed limit; i.e, rainstorms, black ice, etc. I think most people recognize this, I certainly do.

My gripes really concern those who think they are unofficial traffic cops and really do impede traffic. The “I’ll show these people and thing or two” types. They are generally the same idiots who will not let you pass because they are going to teach you lesson.

Really, it all boils down to common courtesy.

In a related, but slightly different rant, why do people pull out in front of other people at the last second (effectively pulling out in front of them) when there is not ONE SINGLE VEHICLE behind the person that they’ve just pulled out in front of??? (caution, a very ungrammatical sentence, I’m sure).

Also to whomever said to the effect that at least I don’t blame other drivers for my road rage. I wish I were that noble, but there are many times that other driver’s get called nasty things by me (as a fairly well known dance instructor I perform and teach at many charity events, as well as the local university, so I can’t take the chance on making faces at, mouthing nasty comments at or flipping off someone for whom I either work or have done charity work), so I’m not. :slight_smile:

i agree with the original point (another OP acronym?) about going slow in a 2 lane road , then fast when it opens up to 4. I’ve been the guy in back a lot (shaddap ;))

But regarding the other point about turning in front of someone, only to slow down, it also happens to me a lot. However, most of the time it’s because there is a car in the left hand lane tailgating the other car, creating a dangerous situation. So the car either has to speed up or slow way down in order to get in the right hand lane, and it chooses to do the former. then once it is in the right lane, it slows down to the speed it wanted to be at originally.

Sorry, I wasn’t very clear in my post, I meant someone waiting to pull out of a side road onto the main stretch, they wait to pull out until you are almost on them, and then pull out right in front of you (and then proceed to go slowly) and when you look in your rear view mirror, there’s not a soul behind you.

Why do they so need to pull out in front of that lone car approaching them? What? they couldn’t have waited ten more seconds til the car is past?

FYI, in California, it is strictly illegal to speed up when another car is passing you.

I agree too with the OP - these folks really are annoying. And IMHO they do what they do in no small part because it gives thems a sense of satisfaction to assert power and control over other people.

For what it’s worth, when dealing with these people, I try to conceal the fact that I want to pass them. Because if you blink your lights and stuff, that gives them the hard-on they are looking for and makes them more interested in impeding you.

Instead, I wait patiently for an opportunity to pass. When the opportunity presents itself, I blow by them before they have a chance to react.

Oh and if these losers really had a laid back, “what’s your hurry” attitude, they would pull over now and then and let cars pass. After all, what’s their hurry?