Thank you for your honesty. Assuming that this isn’t a sarcastic response, I have learned alot. I always figured that this would be the verbal response I would get from many tailgaters.
To restate what I am reading - “I am the most important person on the road. The speed I have chosen is the correct one and anyone who disagrees is a problem. It is everyone else’s responsbility to adjust what they are doing (even if it reasonable or legitimate) to accomodate me.”
…what a man says speaks volumes about his personality, intellect and mindset…
I have about the same commute as Keith and a similer driving style. In my experience, the vast majority of vehicles i encounter that exhibit the shitty style of driving he is talking about are pickup trucks…
I will tailgate if someone pulls in front of me and causes me to slow down. I could give a rats ass if you are going 40mph over the speed limit in the fast lane, if I come up on you, move the fuck over.
And big truckers can lick my balls. Almost every time I am on the highway 2 big ass trucks get beside eachother going 20mph under the limit up a hill so noone can pass. I will then purposely get in front of one of them and stay there until the next hill and then slow down, just hoping they burn extra fuel trying to get up the hill and to make their trip just a little bit longer and worse. God damn I hate 18 wheelers on the highway.
So you won’t hit the gas, to expedite passing because of you’re religious use of the cruise control, but you’ll spike the brakes to “teach someone a lesson.”
I have been trying to understand people of your mentality. I am not the police, I don’t care if people speed, so if someone runs up on me, or flashes the high beams…I get my ass out of the way.
Interesting perspective you have…
We’re on the same road, we have to share it, you don’t have to speed up if he goes past you, but if you and grandma jane are blocking the highway in a game of “who can use the cruise control the longest”, by default, anyone and everyone behind you 2, must now accommodate you.
So don’t be quite so sure of yourself when you say that you don’t have to suit others. By choosing not to drive more than 9mph over the speed limit, you are forcing them to suit you. It doesn’t revolve around you either, but you think it should, because 9mph over is reasonable to you, so it should be to everyone. Get off the soapbox, and get out of the left lane, maybe his dad just had a heart-attack, you don’t know.
Personally, I don’t think it’s a matter of tailgaters and non-tailgaters. There are considerate people, and inconsiderate people. Some days I am in a hurry, these days I would be considered a tailgater, because dumbass PA drivers don’t understand how the lanes work, and they drive 20mph under the speed limit if it’s raining, snowing, dark, or she is on her cell phone.
On other days, I am not in a hurry, I don’t speed (as much) and I make an effort not to block people who want to go faster. Maybe his grandma is in the hospital, maybe his wife is in labor, maybe one of his kids is sick, maybe he has to take a raunchy deuce, I don’t know, so I don’t judge, let the guy get where he is going in such a hurry.
And I make it a point to go the speed limit on no-passing roads. If I manage to daydream myself into a sub-speed limit stupor, and someone tailgates or flashes the high-beams at me…I get my ass moving. I do not play the asshole game, and try to see who can be the biggest one. I was going to slow and impeding others on road that we must share, clearly I was in the wrong.
Sharing the road means getting out of the way of faster moving vehicles… if someone is approaching you at 100, isn’t it safer to stay in the other lane, or speed up / slow down to stay out of the way? what if that same person is on the phone, or checking e-mail on their blackberry as they are booking down the road… I tailgate in a hurry, and otherwise stay out of the way, try to keep traffic moving fluently
I’d sacrifice my life before cause death to someone. Would not even think twice, Just react. Sadly your just a moron and creating more frustration on the highways …
You will never learn. I’m sorry your mis-informed on how to be a safe competent
driver.
OK, I see what is being said. Correct this statement if it is incorrect:
Even if the car ahead is in the passing lane, passing, regardless of rate of the pass, if the lead driver doesn’t speed up to suit the following car, he DESERVES whatever behavior that the following driver choses to engage in.
im such an ass when it comes to tailgating, example is when im in my big truck and get tailgated i throw on the engine brake and down shift and slow down if i was going the speed limit but usually im speeding and need to back it down a little( 15 mph over the leagal limit is a 60 day suspension for cd) but in my car i pass big trucks and tailgate them till i get around them. i know how long it takes them to get goung after a stop and i dont have that much time to wait.
If you are in the passing lane, you should be there no more than a few seconds to pass. If you are passing someone at 2 more mph than the person you are passing, you should be in the slow lane.
And I bet the big trucks are the cause of a ton of highway accidents. Big trucks should have their own lane and should not be allowed to get out of it.
I ride the left lane CONSTANTLY! Basically because it is usually smoother and less bumpy than the right lane. HOWEVER, if someone comes up behind me and obviously wants to pass me, I move right the fuck over and let them by. Then I drift back out into the left lane and continue on my way. I know it’s against the law, so don’t bother to tell me about it. Never been pulled over for it and never will be.
When I was younger I used to drive 20-25 over at all times. When I would come up on slower traffic i would usually tailgate just to let them know to move over. Usually they would move over right away.
Here in VA traffic is so messed up because there are police everywhere, 20 over is a felony, no radar detectors, and for awhile we had 2500 dollar speeding tickets. The fastest drivers rarely use the left lane because that is where the cops are in the median. People routinely weave through traffic to avoid running for any distance over the speed limit in the far left lane.
When people speed up when you try to pass them it is usually one of two things. They aren’t paying attention to their speed and you passing them is a reminder that they are going slow, or you are in the passing lane drawing LE attention so they figure they can get away with speeding since you would most likely draw the ticket.
I get a lot of tailgating around here because learning to drive in PA with their empty roads and spending a large amount of time driving way over the limit I learned not to consistently follow very closely. I still very rarely follow closely but do maintain speed with flow of traffic. These clowns down here think that since I have a 6 car space in front of me I am going slow so they get over in the right lanes to pass and end up going the exact same speed a few car lengths ahead.
I drove 150 miles yesterday. I used my cruise control. Duh. When I went to pass a genius that couldn’t decide what speed he wanted to drive, I accelerated past him then let off the gas and let the car roll back to the cruise speed. This is ridiculous but I did it to try it. I also increased the probability of getting a ticket. I’m not going to do this long term.
Yeah, I guess I am a “pompous ass” described above. In going OVER the speed limit, initiating and engaging in a legal pass, if someone rides my tail then I will get what I get because, hey, I’m the problem. Regardless of rate of the pass, I am neither breaking the law nor inviting the, err, non-pompous tailgater to follow me closely - nothing wrong with that behavior.
Remember, in the situation I just described, the only “problem” is that I am not breaking the law at a rate that suits the driver following car. So, my payback for not breaking the law at the “proper” rate according to the other driver is being tailgated. I guess I am the pompous one. Thanks. (Funny that both of us are exceeding the speed limit but only one of us is breaking another law - reckless driving - but I guess the lead car is still the problem.)
I just checked my PA driver’s handbook and found this passage:
When driving on the highway in the left lane, if a driver pulls up closely behind you, you have a legal responsibility to adjust your speed to suit the following driver. This is the law and the following driver’s chosen speed is the correct one. Accelerate as quickly as possible and move to the right lane. Once this driver passes you, adjust your speed to match his because clearly the other driver had made the correct choice of speed for this particular highway.
I guess I missed this passage in driver’s ed.
I guess I was able to read what I figured I would by posting this.
