Bullshit. If you’ve got that big a medical emergency call an ambulance and let the professionals handle it.
St. Urho
Paramedic
By the way, driving too slowly can be dangerous as hell. A relative of mine was killed by driving too slowly. He was pulling a combine on a hilly road, going about 25 mph on a road with a 60 mph speed limit. He was moseying down a hill at 25 when a big truck came over the hill behind him at 60 and could not slow down in time. He hit the combine, the rig jacknifed, and my relative was thrown from his pickup truck and killed.
Not only that, but going too slowly causes traffic jams behind, and causes people behind to drive recklessly. I’ve seen several near accidents in the mountains where someone finally blew their top waiting behind someone going 20 mph under the speed limit and attempted a dangerous pass. Last year I had to veer off onto the shoulder of the road because another care came around a blind curve in my lane, passing someone moseying along enjoying the scenery.
Of course, the fault lies with the idiot passing around a blind curve, but needlessly slow traffic just encourages people and makes things worse. Everyone should drive as close to the speed limit as they safely can. You are not improving road safety by trundling along at 55 on a 75mph highway.
Nope, no you don’t. You’re stubborn idiotic selfshness slows down traffic for lots more people and makes the overall driving conditions much more hazardous. Pass or stay slow, make up your fucking mind, loser. Or take the two at a time instead of puttering around trying to pass all eight at once. You are exactly the sort of jackass who should be pulled over by cops for impeding the flow of traffic.
Which brings me to another pet peeve of mine: USE THE CRUISE CONTROL, PEOPLE!
There’s nothing more annoying than having to pass someone, then 5 minutes later having him pass you, then having to pass him again because he’s slowed down, then having him pass you… Cruise control keeps the flow of traffic smooth, and it improves fuel economy. Almost every car has it nowadays. If you don’t, then keep an eye on your bleemin’ speed and keep it consistent.
And I agree - if you are overtaking someone really slowly, and pull into the left lane to pass, don’t just sit there in the left lane closing at 1 mph. Pass as quickly as possible within limits, then get out of the lane again.
Oh, and as a matter of pure safety, NEVER sit in someone’s blind spot. Especially a big rig’s. If you find you are driving along and you’re sitting in another vehicle’s blind spot, either slow down or speed up, and get out of it. A large number of SUV accidents happen because someone lane changes into a lane with an SUV sitting in the blind spot, and the SUV swerves and loses control and rolls. I’ve seen it happen.
Well said on all points. Cruise control is a mixed blessing though. Use cruise control when cruising, hit the accelerator hard when overtaking, don’t overtake under cruise control. A lot of times someone relying too much on rcuise control will overtake slowwwwwly and hang in someone elses blind spot.
Yeah, but you have to drive on one side or the other to avoid the crack.
Let me get this straight, fool; you think it’s my responsibility to help you drive at 20 over the speed limit? And you think a state trooper would rather pull me over for driving 78 than you for driving 95, thinking you’re Matt fucking Kenseth? :smack:
Interstate speed limits here are 70mph, and troopers start passing out tickets at 80 or 82. I can drive at 8 over nearly anywhere without getting popped. Speeding tickets make your insurance premiums go up. I have a feeling you know that already, dimwad, but maybe you can afford it.
You think I ought to pass a string of slow leaks two at a time, squeezing dangerously in between them, because zoomboy back there doesn’t have any patience? Can you show me anything in your cheesehole traffic regs that even faintly supports that?
Grow up, you slagbagger. The road is a community, and you are not a special citizen just because you like to drive much faster than the law allows. Here’s a shocker for you; The Fast And The Furious is fiction. If you want to drive that way, go find a race track.
An equally-bad habit does exist, however, among the ‘keep it below 60’ brigade, which is sitting in the middle lane. Sure, it’s still possible for the cars travelling at a realistic speed to overtake, but they are an obstruction for coaches, which aren’t permitted to use the fast lane.
Are you really suggesting, even if there’s safe gaps between each of the eight cars, a procedure of ‘speed up - overtake - brake to match speed - fit into gap - accelerate as pulling out again - overtake another car - brake again…’? You really think this makes more sense than one thirty-second overtaking manoeuvre? It certainly isn’t backed up by the Wisconsin Driver Handbook.
This is a matter of courtesy in most places (I do it regularly), and a matter of law in others. But if you’re the one behind me, stay back until I have room to pull over. I can’t safely slow down and pull into the pullout I just spotted if you’re three inches from my back bumper!
“Impeding the flow of traffic”? At 8 mph over the speed limit while getting around some cars in preparation for pulling back over and letting you by? I’m glad I don’t drive on the same roads you do, Dan.
Oh, this one frosts me. I’m climbing up the hill, stuck behind someone at 40mph in a 70mph zone. We crest the hill. It’s a passing zone! I can go around! But the twit in front of me accelerates to 80mph going down the hill so I can’t get around. End of passing zone. Back to 40mph again. If you can’t keep up, then let me get past you!
In Tennessee it’s actually a law that if more than five cars are backed up behind you on a two lane road, you need to pull over and let them pass.
Not that that is ever enforced, of course.
There’s a similar law in California, or at least there was back when I lived there. I knew a highway patrolman who gave out tickets for that all the time. His favorite was when somebody had four cars behind them. He’d pull up at the end of the chain, follow until they’d passed a pullout, and then nail the slow driver. When they complained that there were only four cars behind them he’d say, “Nope. I was number five.”