Some of those other drivers may be pace cars but they mustn't look at their rearview mirror, meaning if they are not passive aggressive they are certainly cretins.
Posted on 12/10/2008 8:53:48 AM PST by Smogger
In these days of longer commutes and simmering tempers, nothing seems to set off already-testy motorists like the left-lane camper -- the guy or gal who drives in the passing lane and bars faster drivers from easily passing. Web sites have cropped up to educate other drivers, or to vent. There's a (somewhat painful) YouTube song called "Keep Right."
Even bigwigs get frustrated. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell, weary of having his limo slowed down by such left-lane pokies, ordered an aide to have the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission install signs a few years ago reading "Keep Right, Pass Left. It's the Law."
And now some states are cracking down on left-lane campers, both to keep traffic moving and to tamp down the road rage that goes from zero-to-60 faster than ever before.
That's not just a pretext. Last year, a driver was arrested on Interstate 79 outside Pittsburgh after allegedly brandishing a semiautomatic pistol at a driver who was on his tail.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.moneycentral.msn.com ...
Some celebrity got pulled over by Spokane here a year or so ago in a large SUV. Drugs or alcohol or something was involved so they impounded the vehicle. On inspection it turned out he had wired his headlights so that at a flick of a switch they would alternately flash like a police car’s.
I’d like to do that. :)
“Passive-aggressive drivers will also hook up with slower drivers in the other lanes to create rolling roadblocks. “
Not always. Some people “pace” other cars. They will zoom along until they get alongside someone and then instinctively they will stay at the same speed as that car. When they “wake up”, they will speed up again and find another car to pace. I think they just have trouble paying attention. It’s easier just to stay with someone else than pay attention to your speed.
My BIL always drives 5 mph below the speed limit. No matter the speed limit, he is always 5 mph below it.
You said — “All of which means that many who “think” they’re going the maximum posted speed limit may be as much as 5mph above or below it.”
I’ve checked mine by means of my GPS unit and my laptop. I’ll put the GPS on, fire up the laptop and put on the program that takes the readings and I’ve got a very accurate speedometer on my computer. I’ll refer to it, once in a while, in the passenger seat. It’s big enough to read clearly and quickly with a glance.
I’ve found out that my speedometer will vary in its speed reading anywhere from 3 to 5 or 6 MPH (over the actual speed), depending on the actual highway speed that I’m going at the time. Now I know how accurate my speedometer is, thanks to the GPS.
I’ll set the cruise control at perhaps three or four MPH over the limit, and my speedometer may read 78 or 79 MPH for doing 73....
Troopers driving like that, we’d have to rely on the civvies up front to knock them off.
And I routinely go 80 MPH with no issue whatsoever.
Of course USUALLY people who block traffic in the left lane think they are saving the world and enforcing the law, when USUALLY they are just being sanctimonious A-Holes.
If this doesn't describe you then don't get mad at me, I'm not talking about you.
You said — “Troopers don’t like idiots blocking the left lane anymore than we do.”
My only problem with a trooper coming up from behind me is that I don’t know how much faster I can go to get around the traffic on the right — without — having him give me a ticket... LOL...
If it were anyone else (other than a trooper), I would just *step on it* and buzz around the traffic and get out of the way. But, it would be just my luck to pass some “magic number” with that trooper and he would give me a ticket for speeding... :-)
I installed a very loud diesel truck air horn in my Escalade.
Its amazing how a blast from that thing clears the way.
I’ve been told by Cops that the number one cause of road rage is slow drivers in the left lane. I think they would want you to speed up and move over, but, there is always the one guy (or gal) who rigidly enforces the law without thought.
Had a dark blue Ford, the one the FBI used before the 500 came out. He was doing about 95 MPH. We could see a trooper in the median strip way up the road.
The dep reached under the middle of the front seats and pulled out a blue light. Put it on the dash and flipped the switch. He waved at the trooper as we went by without slowing down.
Nice accessory.
Ever notice that when there’s a long line of cars and you get past them they’re always being held up by an old lady driving a green Plymouth?
I agree. When you are several cars back there is no point. For most people it is force of habit I think.
I’ve had drivers play games with me quite a bit. Back in the mid-1970’s I had a Vega with 60 series radials. Not a fast car, but it cornered better than most. I had a guy in a GTO slow down and when I tried to pass him he would speed up. I finally laid about a quarter mile back and then accelerated to the point I was going about 30 mph faster than him. By the time he realized how fast I was going it was too late. I passed him. He rode my bumper right up to the next intersection, which I took as fast as I could. He ended up sliding across the road and embedding his car in an embankment on the other side of the ditch.
Less remarkable was the guy in the 64 Ford galaxy that, in downtown Renton, as he tried to follow me around the corner at speed, simply slid over the curb onto the sidewalk, took out a stop sign and ground to a halt in a parking lot on top of a couple of parking barriers, his front wheel laying on it’s side and steam everywhere.
Both cars were full of teenagers out to rase Cain. But then, I was a teenager too, but I just wanted to be left alone.
I hate the California drivers who treat the speed limit as a minumum in ALL Lanes...particularly the right hand slow LANES
Some of those other drivers may be pace cars but they mustn't look at their rearview mirror, meaning if they are not passive aggressive they are certainly cretins.
Yep, and it would be my luck to get one of those... LOL..
I remember one time I was coming out of Dallas on I-30, going East, just past Rockwall, and a trooper came up real quick (at dusk) and I was passing cars, which were on my right. I was going the speed limit when I was passing them, and did not have any traffic behind me. That trooper came up real fast, so he was really traveling.
So, I stepped up my speed just slightly, about three or four MPH, just to let him know I was moving out of the way, and I put on my right turn signal, also to let him know I was getting out of the way. It wasn’t real fast passing those cars, but that’s how I did it...
That’s how those troopers travel down the freeway, at about 15-20 MPH faster than the speed limit (sometimes even faster...).
>>I make it a point to put the hammer down and pass these special idiots by using the right lane.<<
I’ve actually done that, gotten in front of them, then slowed down to keep them in the “gap” between the two lines in the right lane. Eventually ALL the cars that were behind them pass us on the right. I then accelerate to the speed I wanted to go.
>>The 4-lane highway was fairly empty. This chick comes down the ramp onto the freeway and goes all the way over in one motion to the left lane. Then just cruises there. NOBODY AROUND!<<
Sounds like I-5 between Tukwilla and Seattle.
I see that a lot.
Seriously, I think I know why they do that. I think they see the left lane as the “cruising lane”.
And frustration at car after car passing in the right and forcing everyone in the left to hit their brakes ...
Plus, the left lane is usually smoother.
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