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Y’know, I’ve noticed some of these tailgating threads are right up there with creationism, circumcision and what-is-a-human-right the fervor and sense of righteousness of the parties (This one so far is refreshingly mild and sensible). Someone oughta do a sociological study…
[/aside]
It is?
JR, you’re a dork.
WRONG
Pay attention. These people are doing fine UNTIL some jackass causes then to be uncomfortable!
It is not typically JUST about time. It is about doing the right thing and being comfortable about doing it. If you are not comfortable doing the speed limit which is typically already painfully slow, then you probably do not have the skills for driving. GTFOTR = get off the road!
EHHHH! Wrong answer.
The interstate speed limit in my state is the typical 70 mph. That is a very dangerous speed. Anyone hitting a stationary object at that speed is probably going to die.
Of course, one has to wonder what kills more people every year in the US…auto accidents or firearms.
AMEN, Thaumaturge! 
I can’t stand slow drivers, either.
Oh, absolutely and proudly so, Jonathan, m’boy. But beyond the initial “fucktard” reference, it has been only five more (not counting quotes), nary an “asshat” to be seen until now, just one “jackasses”, and there’s even an actual legal quote. And it’s still on its first page…
These are probably the same dumbasses who just sit there and pick their nose when the light turns green. They finally start to mosey along once the light is yellow! :rolleyes:
This thread brings back fond memories of my grandfather, a man who didn’t give a flying fuck what anyone thought about him. I remember the caravans he created by driving his 64 Chevy pick up 40 MPH in a 55 MPH single lane road. When I rode with him as a teenager, I would literally slide down my seat in embarrassment when I looked out the rear view window and saw what looked like a mile-long funeral procession.
I quit pleading with him to please, dammit, speed up because his answer was always, “Nobody made you ride with me.” My sixteenth birthday was truly liberating.
To quote my driving instructor - “The speed limit is not a goal. It is a limit”
Meaning - you are not supposed to drive at the speed limit. You are supposed to drive slower than it.
I guess one should feel obligated to drive at speeds they are not comfortable driving…after all, you wouldn’t want to be a nuisance.
It does get annoying being stuck behind someone who is driving slow…but then I ask myself if I would rather share the road with people who felt obligated to drive faster than they are comfortable, and I calm right down.
Lobsang, that may work where you live, but not where I’ve lived. I learned to drive in the L.A. area. Egad.
What REALLY scares me are the idiots who do 60 or 65 over the Huey Long bridge here – it’s an old one, from the 30s, and was originally one lane each way until they made it two lanes by painting a line down the middle. It’s NARROW. Trucks can’t pass each other on it because they will get stuck. It’s happened.
The limit on that bridge is 45 and there’s a damn good reason for it. Sometimes going too far over the limit is just as bad as going under it!
An extra ten minutes? How fast and how far are you driving?
I used to speed to work all the time. I lived 16 miles from work, almost all of it interstate highway (speed limit 60 or 65 as it is in a city). I used to drive about 80 MPH every day. Then I sat down and did the math to see how much time I was saving by driving so fast…
3.6 minutes saved by averaging 80 instead of 60.
If three and a half minutes is that important to someone, they need to grow the fuck up and stop waiting until the last minute to leave.
There is no logical reason to be upset by someone driving slow in front of you, unless they are clearly being unsafe (i.e. driving 30 on an interstate highway). Some people just don’t like being behind someone - ever been passed by someone who promptly dropped down to the same speed you were going afterwards?
What is the “exact” meaning of “Fucktard”?
It is the new name for salt and peper shakers.
You should use this term when asking for those items to be passed to you.
i hate those fucktards too. especially ones that, when you are behind him and approaching an intersection with a yellow light he has to apply the brakes ( for no reason ) so that he just passes under red but you have to stop.
i try to let people go as fast as they want. i will let them pass me even if i am speeding myself. the only time i block people on purpose is when they’re trying to cheat me. like when on a ramp towards a highway a car is behind me but is clearly trying to get on the highway AHEAD of me - then i block the fucker.
i even saw a comedian talk about something similar on comedy central. he said that on a left turn all the cars in the front of the line always go as slow as possible because they know they will pass before red anyway, but you sitting in the back want to kick their teeth out 
of course, i hate those fuckers too.
We’re not asking them to drive fast, we’re asking them to PULL OVER and let us pass, and not to speed up when we do pass them.
Yeah, WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THAT? It was cool when Jim Rockford did it to shake the bad guys, but you hacks ain’t no Jim Rockford.
I have to chime in on this one.
I’ve seen any number of people in my driving days who will travel through the 'burbs at around 40 km/h (the limit is 50), then continue through a playground zone, still at 40 (the limit is 30). This, to me, has nothing to do with driving a speed at which you’re “comfortable,” as some of the slow drivers in this thread have suggested – it has everything to do with driving sloppily and is at least as dangerous as the fast drivers.
Here’s another factor that hasn’t come up yet. There are streets in this city where the traffic lights are synched up to turn green in sequence to allow traffic travelling at the speed limit to continue unimpeded. If you have the misfortune of getting stuck behind someone who is driving less than the limit, you will hit virtually every red on the road and that’s when you really do start losing time. Of course, there are also some yo-yos who like to race to the next set of lights, then screech to a halt and race to the next set, because they haven’t figured this out yet. And, Calgary roads being what they are, some lights are just set up stupidly, such that the only way to get through two lights in a row is to race 'em. Again, if Mr. slow driver is in front of you, you can forget making any of these lights.
Finally, and here’s my real pet peeve, the pokey drivers in the fast lane drive me fucking nuts. Regardless of a person’s legal right to pick a lane and travel at whatever speed they want, undertaking (ie. passing on the right) is dangerous, made even more so by people who force other drivers to undertake. I have no problem, in principle, with drivers driving slowly or cautiously, but for God’s sake, the wisest, safest thing you can do is stay out of the path of the fast drivers who probably are more likely to have an attack of road rage and do something stupid to get one or both of you killed. Extreme case in point: I’m driving home a couple weeks back on John Laurie Blvd (limit 70 km/h). Most drivers tend to be up around 80-90 on this road because it is wide open, quite long and straight, with one long section that has no traffic signals. I’m in the fast lane (as usual) behind a convoy of 15 cars doing 60 while the “slow” lane steadily passes us. Once the right lane cleared, the cars in this procession begin racing each other to undertake the leader (a guy in, IIRC, a Buick). I grab my chance and accelerate to the speed limit and begin flying by, when I see the stuck on the slow guy’s bumper, a Jeep, flash the high beams at the slow guy to chase him out of the fast lane. The slow guy responded by slamming on his brakes, nearly causing the Jeep to run right over him and almost causing a multi-car pile-up as well. Was Buick guy driving slowly to be cautious? Obviously not, if his life means so little to him that he’d try to cause a major accident. So he was just doing it because he felt entitled to that lane and screw everyone else.
I am all about road safety. I say to you all, fast drivers AND slow drivers, that you must drive in the real world, with all manner of idiots and maniacs and the safest way to do so is to stay the hell out of the way of the people who are travelling at speeds that do not jibe with your own. If you drive slowly, stay to the right. If you drive fast, stay to the left. PAY ATTENTION to the drivers around you and adjust your driving accordingly. This is not about your right to do things your way; it’s about everyone getting to their destination alive.
Another SE Portlander here…
As a person who’s clocked well over 250K miles as a professional driver, I gots to weigh in here… Those poky people can be not just annoying but an absolute hazard, not because of road rage but because of simple physics.
We’ve all seen the itty bitty Honda car putt putt out into the road doing 10 under the limit, right in front of a semi or other large vehicle travelling at the limit. Those big vehicles CANNOT stop as fast as a small vehicle, and the itty bitty slowpoke gets crunched.
Then there’s the fucknut who gets out onto a downhill winding road (cough Germantown Road cough) and proceeds to RRRRIIIIIIDDDDDEEE those brakes for all he’s worth, twenty miles an hour on a thirty five speed limit. No, I’m not a road rager, I just drive an older, heavy van with drum brakes in the back and if I try to ride them like that stupid asshole in the tiny car (with four wheel disc brakes, usually) does I’ll overheat my brakes and might suffer catastrophic brake fade at the bottom of the hill, which could very well cause me to smash the crap outta that little tin box car in front with the oh-so-cautious-and-scientifically-challenged driver peeping so minutely over the steering wheel. Goddamn it, people, can’t you just get over to the side and let us drivers who know how to drive our vehicles get on with it?
I’m sure these self appointed traffic monitors feel they’re racking up the brownie points in heaven by self righteously enforcing their ideas of proper vehicle operation on the rest of us, but quite frankly I’m not impressed enough at their ability to drive their own vehicles first hand to let them drive mine by remote.
Soon as I get that inoperable brain tumor diagnosed, I’m goin’ on a major rampage!! The van will get armor plating, and drivers camped in our left hand lanes with Washington plates are the first target… 
The speed limit posted is the max you can go - however, if you go any lower than about 20 mph below the speed limit ( depending on road conditions), then you can become a danger as well.
My rule is - go the speed of traffic. If the roads are relatively clear, I go the speed limit. However, if it the speed limit is 45 mph, and everyone is going 30…well, I go 30. The same goes if everyone was 70 mph. It’s safer that way - especially on the freeways.
Alright Aleq, I was with you until the end…er, um excuuuse me, but it’s the other way around pal. It’s usually those Oregonians who poke along in the left lane when they should be in the right lane. What IS it with you folks anyway? You pretty much do fine down there in OR-E-GONE on the highways, then you come up north and hijack our left lanes. It as if you’ve forgotten how to drive once you cross the Columbia and you all think 60 means 50 and not one friggin iota faster!