Why do they do it? [back to the top] Because the anti-science, everything-is-politics skum who whine louder than us have won. The idea that slow=safe and fast=scary, most other factors being irrelevant, is now paramount. The people who flunked physics in school are now running things. It has been this way since the spawn of satan, the 55 supreme speed limit, was born. Its partial overthrow does not mean that the people behind it and the stupid mopes who bought into their anti-logic have corrected their thinking.
When I learned to drive, we were taught that it was dangerous to bunch up traffic. After the 55 evil, it became a good thing to bunch up traffic. It’s safer to be driving along bumper-to-bumper? Yes, these people actually believe that. It used to be in the Indiana drivers’ manual that you were to pull over to allow three or more cars behind you to pass (as has been mentioned above.) That was removed years ago!
It is reassuring to see so many intelligent drivers posting here. I wish you would all move near me, taking the place of the incompetent losers I get stuck behind every stinking day. Our time is considered worthless. Won’t one of you please calculate how much money (my time = money, even if these roadhogs can’t comprehend that) has been wasted over the years by all of us being stuck behind illegal, dangerous slowpokes? I figure it must amount to many billions of dollars easy.
Cops pull over people for under minimum speed? Ha. It really irked me to see a line of cars backed up behind a jerk exiting a 4-lane expressway at only 30 mph [It’s called a deceleration lane for a reason, people. Or it used to be called that.] extending well back onto the right lane just after a hill. People driving at highway speeds in the right lane came up on that blind. What was a cop doing? He was sitting, hiding in the weeds, waiting to nail people speeding (at over 62, lordy me) in the other direction.
Yes, I know of one person given a ticket from driving too slow.
Here in Texas we have something called a “courtesy pass.” If you are driving down a road with an improved shoulder you may pull over and drive on the shoulder (at your regular speed), and let the car behind you pass. The unwritten rule is that the person passing has to wave “thank you” at you after passing. You do assume all liability for accidents that may occur, but it is legal here. I’ve even let police pass me this way.
I have only seen two people ever pulled over for driving too slow…one gentleman on Rte 495 in Mass. who had a parade about a mile long behind him (he was going the same speed as the car in the slow lane for 15 miles). A state trooper pulled up behind me, I pulled over for him, and he continued on his way to the lead moron who was then pulled over. I smiled. The other was an elderly woman doing about 35 in the high speed lane on Rte 95 in Connecticut. Trooper pulled behind her and pulled her over. Again, I smiled.
Jeremy…
I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine - Kurt Vonnegut
I commute on the Pennsylvania Turnpike every day. What I like to do with tailgaters (when there are 15 cars in front of me and there’s noplace to go) is put my flashers on. I don’t know if it really makes them think my car is disabled, or what, but it’s pretty effective.
It’s also kinda obnoxious, but safer than tapping the brakes. At 70MPH, tapping the brakes with a car that’s 3 feet behind you would have me upside down in the oncoming traffic in no time. No thanks!
Never attribute to malice anything that can be attributed to stupidity.
– Unknown
My car has two rear fog lights - they look just like brake lights when they’re coming on. Hit them, and see your tailgater brake like there’s no tomorrow !!
Vengeance is ALWAYS mine 
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
Thanks, sunbear, for posting that. My wife is, like you, mildly night-blind and generally slows down when the sun goes down, in order to drive safely. (Normally this is on a four-lane highway except for the last half mile or so. If she’s on a two-lane road and she gets any kind of line-up behind her, she’ll pull over at the first available spot and let 'em by.)
That said, there are in fact idiots among us. My favorite is the individual who gets on our local Beltline (on ramp at right), cuts rapidly across four lanes of traffic to the left lane, drives at 70-80 MPH (speed limit 60, rarely observed) to about 0.1 mile before his off-ramp, and then cuts across four lanes of traffic in order to exit.
Satan? You responsible for this? 