Christ, yes. I once got stuck behind somebody doing 60 klicks on a highway where the average speed is around 120. I was fucking terrified, and I was constantly getting passed on both sides so I had no chance to escape. Partially my fault for getting stuck in the first place rather than passing him while my speed was still high, but still. I’m of the opinion that anybody going 10 km/h less than the speed limit* on a highway in good conditions should be ticketed.
Here in Ontario, people regularly exceed the speed limit by 20 km/h, so if you’re 10 below the limit the speed differential is 30 km/h.
Also, if you’re paying so little attention to where you’re going that you hit a car that has come to a complete stop, you deserve prison time.
The story said that the Mazda was “stranded in the middle of the highway,” and on a busy freeway coming across someone stopped dead in the middle of the lane is highly unusual, and also might not leave you much time to react, especially if you’re going over 70mph and it’s the middle of the night…
Last year, just after moving to San Diego, we had a similar experience. We were driving north on 805 in the middle lane, at about 75mph. My wife was driving. I looked ahead, and up in the distance i saw that a car was stopped in our lane, and the driver had his arms out of the window waving traffic around. Even with a couple of hundreds yards notice, we were only just able to get into another lane in time. If my wife had slammed the brakes on, we could have stopped short of the stalled car, but the traffic behind probably would have slammed into us.
It’s amazing how quickly a completely stationary object comes at you when you’re doing 75 miles an hour. It’s not even like a regular delay in freeway traffic, because there are usually signs like brake lights and traffic build-up that give you some warning. In this case, all the rest of the traffic was moving freely, and there was just a single car stalled in the middle of the freeway. It was one of my scariest moments ever in a car.
Traffic speeds usually are +10 miles an hour over the posted speed limit around here. When you say highway speeds do you mean posted speed or traffic speed?
I ask because I always drive the speed limit and end up with annoying wanna be hemorrhoids right on my ass. If they get too close then I have to slow down to whatever would be the safe speed for their following distance till they either take the hint or pass me.
If they respect my space then I stay at the speed limit.
Another situation where it is dangerous to accelerate to highway speeds on the on-ramp is where the merging lane ends with no shoulder, i.e. with a bridge rail or abutment. You may not be lucky enough to find an open space or an understanding driver in the right-hand lane who agrees that you have the right-of-way and can merge at will.
“Merging rage” as outlined in the OP has a lot to do with anger at slower drivers in general. The highway could be nearly empty of cars, with no merge challenges whatsoever, but someone who thinks it’s his God-given right to be going 70 mph halfway up the ramp is going to be enraged at another driver who has the temerity to be slower.
I don’t even understand road rage in that situation. I’d:
a) be driving within my reaction time so worst case scenario is a hard deceleration
b) take it as a lesson “sometimes people drive slow here, better not approach it so fast in the future”.
Then I’d worry about something more important. Such as which was the best Power Rangers episode.
Like most people around here, i generally drive about 10 over the limit on the freeways.
But…
I think that driving at the speed limit is perfectly fine. If someone wants to drive at the speed limit, i have no problem with that, and will simply pull into an adjacent lane to overtake them. Sitting right on someone’s ass just because they’re going slower than you is a dick move.
But…
If you’re going to go exactly the speed limit, then please, for the love of all that is good and right, don’t sit on 65mph in the left lane causing traffic tp build up behind you. And if you do feel the need to overtake the guy going 63, then at least have the courtesy to speed up a bit in the fast lane so that you don’t inconvenience everyone else on the road.
I’m speaking about posted speed limits. I readily admit that I tend to drive 5 - 7 MPH above the limit, as I was always taught this was “accepted practice.” In my native NJ, if you drive at the speed limit on the Turnpike or Parkway, you’ll be passed like a moped in a NASCAR race. Since I moved down South I’ve met a number of people who’ve flat out told me they are scared of highway driving, so they drive a speed they’re comfortable with. When I ask why they go on the highway at all, they say it’s more convenient.
Hopefully The Tao’s Revenge is traveling in the right lane at the speed limit and is leaving room to pass on the left. It’s illegal and unsafe to pass on the right (in the U.S.)
People say this all the time, and it simply isn’t true. The rule varies from state to state, with some places prohibiting passing on the right, while others merely discourage it.
[quote]
Pass traffic on the left. You may pass on the right only when:
[ul]
[li] An open highway is clearly marked for two or more lanes of travel in your direction.[/li][li]The driver ahead of you is turning left and you do not drive off the roadway. Never pass on the left if the driver is signaling a left turn.[/ul][/li][/quote]
The first bulleted point indicates that passing on the right is clearly allowed on roads like freeways, that have two or more lanes of travel in one direction. This Seattle PI story suggests that Washington state has similar rules.
Since this was moved out of the pit before you posted, and you may not have noticed, I’ll be a gentleman and assume you divined I live in the lower peninsula of Michigan somehow by my safe driving, instead of doing what a real troll would do, and report you.
And yes to answer people’s questions, I do stick to the right lane unless I’m passing someone. Also to add to mhendo’s datapoints in Michigan passing on the right is common and not ticketed by any noticeable amount if it’s illegal.
However in many Michigan highways there’s only one lane going each way.
I may be that guy going 40 MPH when trying to merge into traffic from an on-ramp.
Where I live the on-ramps all seem to be uphill and short, and my crappy 1996 Escort can only manage 40 MPH there. I’d love to go faster, but I’m sorry that I slowed down your overpowered and low mileage SUV, I must be a horrible person.
I’ll take the back roads next time, if it makes your life easier.
Well, I was accelerating on an onramp yesterday, and thankfully the guy in front of me got his ass in gear. So here I am, in 3rd gear (if I need the horses), about to merge in front of a white commercial van. Right before I do, he inexplicably speeds up and (no kidding) gets within 3 feet of the bumper of the guy who was in front of me. Had to jam my brakes on to avoid sideswiping him; I can’ t see a single reason why he did that, other than to be a total and complete prick.
Seriously, your gas pedal is to the floor, and it won’t get anywhere near highway speed?
I can’t fault you if you (and your car) are making a good-faith effort to reach a safe merging speed, but so often I see people not even trying. The on-ramp nearest my house is similar to what I described earlier, i.e. the DOT has made it so long that even big-rigs can reach an appreciable speed by the end of it, but some drivers don’t understand why it’s so long: they hit 30 or 40 early on, and hold steady until they get over into a driving lane and THEN accelerate to cruise speed.
Same thing with cloverleaf interchanges that have incorporated the latest design, a separate collector/distributor lane that ends up giving merging traffic a REALLY long acceleration lane. Some people inexplicably think they should be at surface-street speeds at the end of this lane. :smack:
I drive a rather underpowered car myself, so I sympathize with you. What burns me is when there’s a nice long on-ramp and I could have had plenty of time to get up to freeway speed (which I NEED), but someone in an “overpowered SUV” in front of me crawls to the end of the ramp at 40mph, reaches the merge, and then uses their horsepower to instantly jackrabbit 30mph and I’m left struggling to get up to speed while hoping the semitrailer I see in my rearview mirror doesn’t catch up to me too fast.
Cause when you finaly get a chance to pass them, they seem to wake up and realized that they are going 10mph under the speed limit. Oooh… Don’t get me started.