Says the same thing to people in the US (and elsewhere??) that drive in the freeway's fast lane holding everyone up for MILES. That is one of the most annoying things I face regularly on the road.
I hate people who do this, nd it is probably why my wife has such a reaction, it is more about me pestering her too much than her actually wanting to ride in the fast lane. Backseat driving is a bad habit of mine.
But one thing I have learned by driving 50k miles these past few years is that you never actually get there meaningfully faster. So really, everyone is better off if they just slow down and hit that cruise control.
> But one thing I have learned by driving 50k miles these past few years is that you never actually get there meaningfully faster. So really, everyone is better off if they just slow down and hit that cruise control.
Depends what you're driving on. If it's a freeway where you're going to hit stretches of traffic anyway or roads where there's stop signs and lights, sure. When I'm on the 5 going from SF to SD, though, yeah, the clown who's doing 60 in the left lane for miles while holding me up is very much increasing the amount of time I have to spend on the road.
I don't know, as a non-American, Tomah Wisconsin sound exactly like the kind of place you could get a nice grilled cheese or a decent hamburger at a diner unchanged since the 1950s, with a bottomless cup of coffee and a nice slice of apple pie from a friendly middle aged waitress called Flo or similar who would no doubt call you hon. I'd look forward to stopping there.
If it is like most of small town america, they replaced the diner with a soulless strip mall back in the 90s. You can stop at the Burgerking or Dollar General now.
What's the deal with a truck going 54 in the right lane being overtaken by another truck going 55 in the left lane? Does he not see him? Slow down, let him in, and the rest of us can get on with our day.
I agree with being measured and predictable; I take advanced driving and safety class every couple of years as a refresher and safety is a massive priority for me. And I'm a big fan of cruise control. But going fast in the fast lane IS measured and predictable :-)
As well, 20%, or say a difference between going 10km over vs 10km under on a 5hr trip, is an hour and that's not nothing :-/
Be glad you don't live in Texas, where using your turn signal is tantamount to issuing a challenge, and is seen as aggressive behavior: "Oh, you want that right lane? No, it's MINE!"
Or worse, people don't see turn signals enough to know what they mean, and just adds to the confusion.
Measured and predictable: definitely. Having different speeds in different lanes also helps traffic flow better.
Also, people seem to really bunch up in some regions. Having a gap that is several car lengths in front of you actually helps traffic flow smoother (and thus faster.) I feel like aggressive/impatient drivers who cut people off create this culture where I live and then ultimately end up slowing everyone (including themselves) down.
People here are commenting how it's wrong for long drives, so I'll chip in with how it's wrong for a short drive too.
South bay to Sacramento in a Chevy bolt. I can drive 55mph and do the round trip on one full battery charge. Or I can drive 75mph and save so much time that it more than makes up for the necessary mid trip charge up in Davis on the return.
I wish everyone would sit the fuck down, and do the math on driving faster. 10 mph, even 20mph hour more isn't going to get you where you're going much faster. Maybe you get there 5 min sooner. Was that worth being a complete dick and a danger to everyone else? Fuck off.
10-20mph won’t make much of a difference for a commute, but when you’re driving on roads with loads of RVs, it means that you’re probably doing bigger distances, and with those, 10-20 mph will absolutely make a difference.
For example, when you’re driving more than 6 hours in a day, which is not uncommon for Americans, especially ones living west of Mississippi, extra 10 mph of average speed means you’re getting to your destination 1+ hour faster, which most definitely is a significant difference.
Averaging 10-20mph faster is very difficult on anything but the least congested roads. We often set the cruise control to 75-80mph but find that the average for a journey is closer to 58-60mph (not including stops).
It's a heck of a lot easier to make up half an hour by making quicker stops than it is to make it up on the road IMHO.
You have no idea what you're talking about. Most major roads west of the Mississippi and outside of Southern California are not congested at all. They only get congested around major cities, but a 6-hour trip means you have to be away from a major city for the majority of the trip.
Do you mean it's not uncommon for Americans to drive all day to go camping on memorial day weekend or something, or do you mean we're driving 3 hour each way commutes? Because very very few Americans have that kind of commute: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio...
> Do you mean it's not uncommon for Americans to drive all day to go camping on memorial day weekend or something
This, for sure.
Those of us who live in the midwest are often hours of boring highway driving aware from anything, so a long weekend trip does require getting where we're going as quickly as reasonably possible.
Being stuck behind some nitwit who insists on pacing the semi truck next to them at 60 MPH rather than doing the 80+ everyone else on the highway wants to go is incredibly annoying.
80+ sounds too high. 80 is good. Stopping distance is not linear with speed, damage in a crash is not linear with speed (hello deer), gas usage is not linear with speed. No one who drives over 80 has grounds to complain about gas price, especially in large suvs or pickups.
Being able to pass allows me to create separation from other vehicles which means I can establish a good following distance. When selfish assholes block the passing lane, it creates a big moving traffic blockage that will turn into a multiple car pile up if anything goes wrong. The ideal highway traffic density is less dense, not more dense.
Safest speed is maintaining the same speed as the traffic around you.
Deliberately driving at a faster or slower speed than traffic for no good reason is the definition of unsafe driving. Please surrender your driver's license before you kill someone with that attitude.
What do you mean by "holding everyone up?" I'm constantly self conscious about this.
I refuse to drive more than 5mph above the speed limit after a particular incident a few years back. I drive quite a bit on a 3 lane 75mph highway. Consistently, I'll end up behind someone who doesn't know what speed they want to go in the middle lane, something between 65mph and 75mph. They're mostly 18 wheelers. I'll usually move over to the passing lane and go between 75mph and 80mph until I pass them.
Inevitably, there's some asshole that wants to go 90mph that appears out of the ether as soon as I start passing. They always want to be less than a second behind me, and never seem to understand that I want to keep at least 3s between me and the car in front. I always imagine they're saying the same thing you're saying in their heads.
The US version (varies by state) of the fast lane is garbage which is why nobody follows it. If you want a passing lane then you need a non passing lane and I don’t think US drivers are willing to make that concession.
Typically, you stay out of the left lane unless passing in the US. It's that easy. In many states, the person failing to yeild to faster traffic is ticketed, but not all.
It's easy in theory. In practice on many busy freeways such as I-5 through California the right lane is often clogged with heavy trucks for miles at a stretch, and the road surface is in terrible condition due to wear from those trucks. All the car drivers, even the slow ones, then hang out in the left lane so as not to get caught behind the trucks. I'm not defending this poor driving etiquette but the road conditions make it inevitable. The only real solution would be to add a third lane.
>All the car drivers, even the slow ones, then hang out in the left lane so as not to get caught behind the trucks.
Most of them go back to the right/slow lane when they're done passing any trucks and other slow traffic. Even on the I-5 it's not like the right/slow lane is an unbroken line of trucks from Mexico to Canada, you know.
But you can still pass in the right lane. So a slow driver in the left lane has someone riding their tail and are also getting passed in the right so they can’t even change to the slow lanes anymore. Add in left exits, moving over for vehicles on the shoulder, and speed limits that adjust based on road conditions and you have the perfect storm of it only being enforced in the worst cases.
> So a slow driver in the left lane has someone riding their tail and are also getting passed in the right so they can’t even change to the slow lanes anymore.
> If it's the fastlane, then there are other lanes.
In these scenarios it's usually two lanes in each direction, and the slow lane is filled with a line of semi trucks that have hard limiters set somewhere in the 65 MPH range and can not go faster no matter what, even if the highway limit is 70 or higher. Those truck drivers will do anything they can to maintain their max speed.
Some utter jackass then decides they don't want to be behind the trucks, but they also don't want to go faster than the trucks, and we end up with a line of annoyed traffic led by one dipshit.
> I suspect the person is doing the speed limit, maybe a bit over, in the fast lane -- and you're just and ASSHOLE.
Your position assumes the posted speed limit is set reasonably. Here's a hint: It's usually not on highways. I mean ffs there are eight lane divided highways with 55 MPH posted limits. You can't possibly defend that nonsense.
Most controlled-access highways the speed limits should start at 75 and as proven by the Germans beyond any doubt ∞ is a perfectly reasonable limit for rural stretches with good visibility and quality pavement.
Beyond all that, you are not the cops. It is not your job to enforce posted speed limits. If you are intentionally choosing to get in the way of a line of traffic when you have a reasonable option to not do that, YOU are the asshole.
I just can't even contemplate the level of selfishness it would take to be in the passing lane, looking at a line of annoyed drivers behind you and open road in front, thinking "man all those people are assholes for wanting to get past ME".
The last few times I've seen this happening (> 1 vehicles blocking anyone passing) behind me I've slowed down in the fast lane, let the "blocker" catch up to me, and then slowed down even more so the blocker has to also slow down, breaking the wall of cars and allowing people to switch into the passing lane to get by. I get a real kick out of it. Dunno how safe it is, but w/e.
But one thing I have learned by driving 50k miles these past few years is that you never actually get there meaningfully faster. So really, everyone is better off if they just slow down and hit that cruise control.