So you would make a decision to drive at a slower, less fuel efficient speed, and hit every red light rather than greens so that you spend more time on the road … because of gas? What about gas makes you want to do that?
Partly because of the increase in gas prices, and partly because I’m paranoid about accidents, I make a conscious effort to stay at or just below the speed limit. I also moderate my speed on nights like last night, when it was raining heavily and the streets were slick. I’m sorry if my attempts to lessen my chances of death and dismemberment inconvenience you.
The last sentence of the above paragraph is a filthy lie.
Ain’t no lights onna Interstate.
And engine efficiency peaks at 40-55 mph.
I’m talking about surface streets also, where people (including my drives on topanga canyon road today) literally peak at 30-35 mph between lights, for 4 or 5 lights in a row. The speed limit is 45mph for most of that drive, and 40 for another part, but I only reached 45 once today in 10 miles of driving, and hit about 90% of the lights.
On the way back home from physical therapy, I did notice an accident involving a cop car. It looked like he hit someone from behind. I’m wondering if they were just driving too slow.
I busted out with my high definition camera and took some video of the carnage as I waited at the light, I will upload it tomorrow and link to it.
I bolded the above portion to better highlight its remarkable–well, this isn’t the Pit, so I’ll stop there. Anyway, if driver A rear-ends driver B, it is not because Driver B is driving too slowly; it’s because driver A was FOLLOWING too closely. If the driver in front of you is moving too slowly for your taste, then you can pass him and speed to your heart’s content. If the traffic in the adjacent lanes does not permit you to pass, then you don’t need to be driving faster anyway. I write this as someone who has been at fault in such an accident.
You’ve opened two threads this evening to complain about drivers you think over-cautious. Perhaps you should try allowing yourself more time to reach your destination.
The remark about the cop hitting the driver because he was going too slow was tongue-in-cheek, I should have put a 
or something after it I guess.
Is it really cautious to drive 30 in a 45? Is it really cautious to drive 50 on a 65mph freeway?
I’m asking questions because I want to know the answer, not just to complain. I put this here instead of the General Questions forum purely because I figured people would think I’m “just” complaining. I honestly want to know the answers - do people think they’re being cautious by driving 30 in a 45?
I don’t drive 30 ina 45. In a 45 mph zone, if the streets are entirely dry, I drive from 40-45 mph. On a 65 mph freeway, I drive 60 to 65. If there is water visible on the ground, I shave a bit off what I wrote above. If you don’t want to wait behind me, PASS me. If you can’t pass, you should probably reconsider the speed you’re aiming at. Unless you’re Batman, where you’re going can probably wait, and if you are Batman, just use the Justice League teleporter or something.
As long as you stay in the far right lane, OK by me.
I do. If I must move to the center lane, I accelerate accordingly. I avoid the left lane for reasons left as an exercise for the class.
Again with criticizing my driving when I’m asking about other people’s reasons for doing what they do - do you have issues?
I’m talking about southern california where it rains about 3 days a year. I’m talking about a bright and sunny afternoon that is perfectly clear (well, as perfectly clear as it can get in san fernando valley, kinda muggy but no clouds and it’s bright all around). The roads are perfectly dry.
There’s two lanes. There’s a couple of cars not exactly pacing each other but going very close to each other’s speeds about 5 cars ahead of me. Every time a light turns green, they accelerate to 30mph. I sit and watch the sight that says “Signal Sync” go by - it’s begging traffic to drive at 45MPH so that they can reach a green light.
I watch the green light ahead of us turn red, and the cars slow down and stop. When it turns green, again they accelerate to 30 or 32mph, and drive to the next red light.
When I’m lucky enough to stop at a red light myself, I can accelerate to 45 or 48 and make it through the next 3 or 4 greens, until I get behind another pack of cars which is being slowed down by a couple of drivers doing 30 in a 45.
So, can you please reconsider attacking my driving, and instead focus on the question I’m asking? Why do people feel it necessary to drive 30 in a 45? Why are you trying to make me feel like a criminal because I want to drive 45 in a 45?
I’m sorry you feel that I am attacking you; such was not my intent. Partly because I don’t feel like fighting, and partly because I feel like bailing, I’m bailing.
I had some jerk honk at me because I didn’t accelerate fast enough. I pulled out of the city from a 40 mph zone to a 55 mph. Well I started accelerating to the cruising highway speed of 55 mph when this jerk starts honking and floors it to pass me. I had to slam on the breaks so he could by me in time to not nail an on coming car.
I didn’t floor it but I was accelerating. It’s easier on the engine and easier on the fuel costs to do it that way.
There was much honking and flipping off from my car at the fool now ahead of me after that. Some people are nuts.
And if you’re doing around 40 in the 40, and are accelerating to around 55 in the 55, I’m fine with that. But if you’re doing 25 in the 40, and accelerating to 40 in the 55 over the course of three minutes while I’m boxed in behind you, I won’t honk … but I will curse at you in my car where you can’t hear me 
Yesterday I’m driving uphill at about 70mph in a 65 (yes, criticize me for speeding 5mph all you like) in lane 1 (the far-left lane) and someone ahead of me in lane 2 scoots in front of me between 55 and 60. I saw them look in their rear-view mirror and look right at me - why would they then force me to depress my brakes to avoid hitting them, and then drive 5-10 mph for 2 minutes in the “fast lane” of the freeway before reaching 65mph?
If you want to drive at 50 or 55 in a 65 zone, can’t you drive in the far right lane? Or at least wait until a car doesn’t have to step on his brakes for you?
It gets on my nerves when I’m driving 40 in a 35 and somebody is riding my bumper. I want to ask them “Just how much over the speed limit do I need to drive to make you happy?”
That’s when I flash my lights. If that doesn’t work I begin ever-so-slowly decelerating.
I’ve found for persistent high-speed tailgaters if you carefully let your wheels drift off the shoulder a few times, they back off. You’ve gotta be sure of course that the shoulders don’t have a big dropoff, and you run the risk of getting reported as a drunk driver. But it’s worked for me the few times I’ve did it.
In other words, you act drunk and hope the other person leaves you alone?
I’ve also noticed people who take the onramp to a freeway very, very slow. The traffic is doing anywhere between 55 and 70, they’re on the onramp at 30 and trying to merge at 40. I’m behind them like, also trying to get on to the freeway, unable to go faster than the 40 mph they are. If freeway traffic we’re trying to merge with isn’t slamming on their brakes, they’ll be hitting us. And. He’s. Using. Me. As a shield!
This was my drive today. Go to maps.google.com, click directions
Start location: CA-27/Topanga Canyon Blvd
Destination: Topanga Canyon Blvd & Sherman Way, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 91303
That’s a 5.4 mile trip, which it says takes about 10 minutes.
If I’m driving 45mph and hit 2 red lights along the way, it takes about 10 minutes.
Today it took me 25 minutes because I was in a pack of cars which very rarely drove faster than 40. Most of the time, when a light turned green, they would accelerate at a painfully slow rate to about 32 mph (in a 45 zone) and fluctuate between 30 and 32.
We hit all red lights except for 2 which were green. Why were they green?
The pack accelerated so slowly, that sometimes the entire pack (of maybe 8 cars per lane) couldn’t fit all the way through the intersection during a green, so there might only be 3 or 4 at the next red. We’re now at a longer light, and we see the pack in front of us sit at a short light, and then move on.
When our turns green, we leave the intersection at a normal pace, accelerate to 45-50 mph, and drive through the next light while it’s still green. Unfortunately, we must quickly slow down to 30 because we’re now with the pack again, and we can watch the next light turn from green to red. We would have made the green light if we’d kept up at 45, but now have to sit through every single cycle for the rest of the drive.
So … some people will respond, “So leave 25 minutes early instead of 10 minutes early.”
I’m wondering why it’s OK for other people to affect me in such negative ways. Why should I have to sacrifice 30 minutes of my life per day (I need to drive that route both ways) because of other people’s bad driving habits?
I think it’s because people are increasingly less likely to be able to afford a ticket.
And higher insurance.