I think it is extremely discourteous to risk someone’s life by driving really close to their rear bumper. If I need to slow down suddenly, it is almost guaranteed that the car behind me bumps me, and this may make me lose contorl of the steering wheel for a sec, causing me to crash into oncoming traffic. Great time saver you have there…
For the record, if there are multiple lanes in a road, I will usually not be in the fast lane, unless I am actually going faster than people in the other lanes. Also, on single lane roads, I am quite happy to slow down and let you pass me. But if you persist on tail-gating and don’t even have the courtesy to pass, then you are putting both cars in danger, and I would feel perfectly justified in “stealing” your time by driving even more slowly than ever before.
Heck, the tailgater needs to know that there are consequences for his actions, and wasting his time to increase my safety level is a perfect way to do that.
Say for argument’s sake that I like to spend my time driving in my car and listening to music, and I don’t really care how fast I get where I’m going. Are you attempting to steal my time by trying to hurry me up, Billy Boy?
depends. Are we listening in the fast lane going slower than other lanes with noone in front, and many backed up behind you?
Or are we cruising along in the slow lane? I’m not above chilling to tunes just driving for the sake of driving now and then. It’s not all rush-rush. But when someone chooses to smell the daisys at the expense of others with time-concious priorities, it’s nothing short of mean-spirited.
Here in Ohio, we have a law called “assured clear distance”, means that if you rear end somebody you didn’t have “assured clear distance” and ar ehence at fault. This applies even if you’re sitting behind someone at a stoplight and you are rear ended, if you hit the person in front of you ACD…
I think that fast lanes should be awarded to the future organ donors since they are a very giving sort, let em speed, you may need a kidney. People who drive as slow as possible in the far right lane not only prevent merging, but endanger everyone trying to do so.
As for tail gaiters, sometimes I have some fun driving reeealy slow in front of them, but if they ride too close I might just see a "rabbitt"and slam my brakes on in order to avoid hitting it. I drive a POS, so it’s a bit more feasable for me. Brake checks usually result in either the tailgater offering cash, or accepting the damage to his car and steeming off.
If you tailgate me, you are probably angry, you will be much, much more angry when I done with you, I will do the slow down, the lane straddle, ignore the traffiic signals, stabbing both feet at my brake pedals at once (lots of smoke), and maybe ever booger-flicking (I’m serious) I will use dried mucous as a misile.
P.S. Driving down Alligator alley in FLA, I was tailgated by a Honda s2000. I was doing 135, and the other lane was wide open. Bet if I brake checked her, they’d be finding teeth for months. Guess she just had to show our '98 Impala that it was only “almost as quick” Little bit of rain and she would have been billboard art.
Bill H.: Nobody is stealing anything from you, time or anything else, by driving the limit. You, on the other hand, are chancing taking someone’s life at the worst, or at best, taking away their time when you both have to sort out all the particulars after the accident you’ve caused. & just out of idle curiosity, what’re your plans on when you get onto one of those roads with no shoulders and no passing?
I used to carpool with a friend. 42 miles each way. 37 miles of freeway and 5 miles of city streets. We had to be at work at 6:30. He lives in the same neighborhood I do and we left for work at 5:40. When I drove, we would drive 75 mph on the freeway. When he drove we went 85 mph. We arrived at work between 6:20 and 6:25 everyday. Freeway speed had zero bearing on our arrival time. It had more to do with traffic lights.
The biggest difference was that he spent a lot more cha-ching on gasoline than I did. I figured that it takes almost 1000 rpm more to go 85 than 75. He had to waste more minutes working to pay for his excessive fuel consumption. He also paid higher premiums because of his speeding tickets, resulting in more wasted minutes working to pay that. He also had to consider the extra wear and tear on his car that required more maintenance and shorter car life.
I had more precious time to sit in front of the PC and post on the SDMB than he did. Hahaha!
You may see it as such, but if you do so in front of me, you will be penalized. Eventually, I hope discourteous time-thieves get a clue, and the world is a little better from their lesson.
This bit of logic always annoys me as well. Yes it’s true that the difference between going 75 and 85 is 5 or ten minutes over the course of a short trip. But guess what? It’s my five or ten minutes!
If it’s your time and you don’t mind wasting ten minutes (in traffic no less, joy joy) that’s your perogative and I’m all for it. But I choose not to. Every minute in this life is precious, and you don’t have the right to tell me to throw it away because it’s such a paltry sum. And you especially don’t have the right to enforce your little smell-the-roses mentality by intentionally obstructing my path.
Bill H., you quote me out of context. Allow me to finish it for you.
Very often, I was the one getting us there closer to 6:20.
Consider this, my friend. Allowing oneself a few extra minutes is a proven stress reducer. Lowering stress is known to extend your life. Longer life means more minutes. Isn’t that what you’re after?
I understand you’re blowing off steam, and I doubt you are the homicidal maniac you present yourself to be. Sounds more like and obsessive compulsive thing to me. You really wouldn’t murder a family in a minivan because of their apparent lack of road decorum, now would you?
I respectfully suggest looking into some kind of anger management program. I’ll bet you end up with more quality minutes.
Am I to understand that in the US, if a nearside lane is clear, you are not required to drive in it ?
In the UK, there is no such thing as a ‘fast’ lane or a ‘slow’ lane, what we have is the inside lane, the first overtaking(middle) lane, and the second overtaking(outside) lane, you are required by law to move over to the nearest inside clear lane, you may not occupy the middle lane if the inside lane is clear, numerous cameras will quickly moderate this behaviour, as will the increased insurance premiums from traffic points.
Hmmm… I’m guessing that you don’t have as many tailgater in the UK as in the US.
To be fair to the OP, the situation she described was on a single lane road and not on a highway, meaning she couldn’t just move to another lane to let the fast driver pass. She’s not refusing to move out of the way; she just refuses to go any faster (or pull off the road temporarily).
The fact that in many cases the person behind her can’t pass, even if he wanted to (i.e., it’s not just a matter of not wanting to cross the yellow line), matter not one whit to her, in spite of her exhortation in her original post to “pass me.” In other words, she’s a hypocrite. Her original post was a rudely written command for tailgaters to just pass her, but then she later says she doesn’t care if they can’t pass her. All she really wants is for them to stop tailgating her, and she refuses to go a single mile per hour faster to accomplish that result.
To which I respond: Actually, if you tailgate me and touch my vehicle with yours, then you will be penalized by both the appropriate police force and your insurance company as you will, of course, be the one at fault. And, just maybe, you’ll have garnered a clue from that experience.
If it is, in fact, your method of driving, you should, IMHO, hie to the DMV and surrender your driver license. You are a danger on the road. It’s really very sad that you don’t have the sense to see that.
If you have a 37 mile commute, which is fairly long, and you AVERAGE 75 mph, it will take just three minutes longer than if you AVERAGE 85 mph. One extra red light will take just as long in most cases.
BTW, Bill H. If I was tailgated and I knew the person shared your attitude, I’d wait until you were nice and close and then, I’d stand on my brakes with both feet to avoid hitting the “dog” that ran out in the road.
Sorry 'bout that, bub, maybe you shouldn’t follow so close.
How’s my '75 Chevy pickup look as your new hood ornament?
I learned from riding the subways when I was a kid that it ain’t the speed, it’s the number of stops. So between two equal routes to get to a place, I’ll take the one with fewer lights because, on average, it’ll get me there quicker.
For most trips, the speed at which you’re going, assuming it’s close to the speed limit on either side, makes very little difference in how fast you get to the place you’re going because if it includes some local driving, you’re going to have to deal with traffic and traffic lights for a good part of your trip. Only on those long trips of an hour or more does the difference in speed mean anything at all. Choosing the best route to get where you’re going is way more important.
So, Bill H, if you’re actually thinking there’s some consistent way to make a 17 minute trip a 15 minute trip by going faster, you’re wasting your time. Literally.
What some people don’t seem to realize is that many traffic ligthts are timed, and that being able to go fast enough means that you can actually avoid hitting as many red lights, depending on your route. This is certainly the case on the route I travel to work – all it takes is one pokey driver in front of me and I hit every damn red light, whereas if able to travel at my desired speed I hit mostly green lights.
Another thing that some people here don’t seem to realize is that not all roads have many traffic lights in the first place. The OP is from Massachusetts, and often you can drive 5-10 miles on a twisty back road here without going through a single light. Being forced to drive that route at 30 MPH instead of 55 MPH can and does make a difference, even if only a few minutes.
Bill H, are you such a big man when people waste your time when you are out of your car and face to face with them? Do you get physically close enough to them that they understand you are trying to send them an intimidating “move it along” message, one that’ll teach them a lesson?
Or are you just a tough guy when you’re behind the wheel? Just curious.
After a post like this, I don’t get it. Why is everyone dropping the hammer? Is it really too much to ask that you do not drop below the speed limit in the left lane of a highway?