[JohnHuang2]

Friday, August 2, 2002

Quote of the Day by Libloather

[stands2reason]

This became law in Texas recently, with a pretty good publicity campaign behind it. We took a trip across Texas and everyone behaved wonderfully--it was a pleasant drive. Then we crossed the border to Louisiana...ughh.

[Conagher]

Yes, Yes, YES!!!

Morons putting along in the fast lane ought to be considered as driving in a hazardous manner and fined!!!

(And drug from their mother-loving cars and beaten within an inch of their pitiful lives!!!!)

[Neanderthal]

"The claptrap taught in most state-approved driver's-ed courses suggests that it's sound policy to occupy any lane on the freeway — provided you are doing the lawfully posted speed limit."

This is news to me but it's been a few years since drivers ed. There certainly are many ignoramuses out there cruising in the left lane, making everyone pass them on the right.

I had no idea that this was caused by liberal PC. Can someone explain why it is PC to block the passing lane? The best I can come up with is that getting passed might hurt your self esteem. Or that its not fair that some cars are faster than others. Or that passing cars are going too fast so they use more than their fair share of fossil fuel thereby hurting Mother Earth. Or that passing causes global warming . . .

[rockfish59]

I agree. Idiots are everywhere, but I got a speeding ticket last week after passing two morons! lol!
They should just get a G**dammed horse & buggy!!

[Nitro]

Aside from the proper left/right lane courtesy...

we must instruct the American Public in the "zipper effect!!"

It can be explained with a Chinese Menu...

one from column A and one from Column B...!!

[Jeff Chandler]

Great Article!

[daler]

Interesting read.

My wife rides me constantly about my tendencies toward "road rage" (which I don't deny), and this article illustrates what I've said for years: it's the SLOW drivers, not the fast ones, that create carnage on our highways, because they force frustrated drivers to take unnecessary chances.

Has anyone also noticed the frequency with which slow-pokes (on two lane highways) seem to find the gas pedal once you try to pass them?

[Mr_Mayor]

It would be easy for them slower drivers to move over but them guys on their bicycles are always in the way.

[Caipirabob]

If you see a guy on the road who always signals, never hogs the left lane and clears out of it as soon as the right lane is free, it's me. I go out of my way to be courteous on the road. If only because I'm most likely to aggressively counter road-rage. At any rate, I don't give anyone a reason to be upset.

The thing is, I'm usualy pretty cynical about the people down here on the road, but my actions almost always turn out positive results and in my commute to work I find that most of the people around me are either signalling for me as well or yielding. This is South Florida, too. At any rate, I try not to get too worked up, avoid the creeps and things go well.

Please people, take the two nuerons it takes to fire the impulse to use the damn signal lights. A split second of courtesy may save you from a bad encounter some day.

[Looking4Truth]

Good article.

In the mid-80's on I-64 going thru Newport News, VA my ex-wife and I came upon a little Toyota station wagon with middle-aged couple in it going exactly 55 in the left land. They had a license plate that said Y-SPEED and were smugly riding along as the self-appointed representatives of the nanny-state knowingly pissing people off.

We were in our early 20's at the time so when I finally got pissed enough to illegally blow by them in the right lane, they got a few not-so-polite yells and gestures. I wonder if someone hasn't 'capped dey ass' yet.

Re: Europe. The German Polizei will bust you for 'obscene' and threatening hand gestures and while I was living there, a judge fined a German driver 4000DM for flipping the bird while driving. That was about 2 grand American at the time. They already have very effective 'snitch' lines and will track someone down even days later to bust them for a traffic offense turned in by a snitch. We in America are getting the same crap with the new crop of 'road rage' laws coming out.

[TN4Liberty]

Granted, slower drivers should move to slower lanes. But just because you (the generic you) want to drive faster than I am, doesn't necessarily mean I am in the wrong. If I am in the left lane going 75 and passing cars on my left, I am not going to slow down and move into the slower traffic lane so someone going 85 can get through.

Driving is a system, not a competition. If the slower cars would speed up a little and the faster cars would slow down a little, it would all be better. But to lay the responsibility for road rage at the feet of slower drivers is silly. I'll pull over when I get finished passing people, thank you very much.

[NYpeanut]

How about the brain dead drivers who drive 42 no matter what--42 in a 55 zone, 42 in a 30. Would it kill them to move to the shoulder when they can see they are holding up someone with a place to go?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Fantastic article, and dead-on accurate, too.

Ever notice that the left lane hawgs always drive those gray Volvo station wagons---the ones with the "Think Globally, Act Locally" bumper stickers on the back?

[Johnny Shear]

As a sales rep who puts on a LOT of miles, I can say this article is EXACTLY right!!! I CAN'T STAND these morons!!!

I'll also add this...

WEENIES who don't enter and exit roadways AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH are a problem!!! Numerous times I've seen little old ladies or just plain IDIOTS who don't "Pick their spot and GO"!!! They try to ease into traffic slowly. Well, many times the make numerous other drivers HIT THIER BREAKS at the last minute because this IDIOT is running out of room to merge.

No, the problems is NOT with "Agressive Drivers" it's with IDIOTS who REFUSE to act decisevly and therefore put NUMEROUS drivers around them in danger.

And yes, they put in in a RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Publius6961]

Lane courtesy is simply this: moving to the right and allowing faster-moving traffic to pass.

Oh oh.

Expect the inept, the senile and the incompetent to have their usual fit about how so long as they are doing the speed limit they are entitled to drive anywhere they want.

This should be fun.
We have our share of them on I5 in the Central Valley of California, and they will do everything from flipping you off to pacing the car in the other lane. They enjoy the power to hold up a mile of other traffic.

They don't know they're clueless.
The only drivers who get pulled over and cited are the truckers who manage to (heh heh) speed and obstruct traffic at the same time.

[Wm Bach]

At least on highways, there is the possibility of passing. On the quickly-becoming-suburbanized country roads of New England, you get some pokey old fart, driving 30mph in a 45mph zone and twenty cars full of glare-eyed drivers piled up behind him, like it's some kind of sadistic funeral procession for a corpse in a plaid shirt and fishing cap sitting way up on top of his head at a slight angle.

California has a great law wherein, if you are holding up 5 or more cars on a single land road, you must pull over and allow them to pass.

We need that law!

[Billthedrill]

It works both ways, though - I'm usually the guy in the slow lane and it really jacks me to watch some moron using that lane as his personal racing lane to get by drivers clogging the fast lane, coming up in my rearview mirror at a relative speed of thirty mph...what the heck am I supposed to do, drive on the shoulder?

[dighton]

Worst of all are slowpokes on freeway on-ramps. Why not merge at 45 into 70 mph traffic?

Some day, one of those jokers will get me killed.

[Entropy Squared]

Some people just can't figure it out. Slower traffic keep right means you are in the way of anyone coming up behind you. Move out of the way. If someone wants to drive faster than me I want that person in front of me, not behind me, so I have the sense to get out of his way. It is every drivers' responsibility to facilitate the flow of traffic. There is nothing in the concept of slower traffic keep right that says unless you think you're going fast enough or it's raining or it's Thursday.

[BADROTOFINGER]

Among the worst are the husband and wife old fart duo in the newer model luxury car that insist on passing you in the left lane (fine, nothing wrong with that), then cutting in front of you and dropping to 5 mph under the speed limit. You then have to pass them, speed up a bit to make some distance, then resume travel in the right lane. Then Mr. Old Fart somehow feels that he has been showed up, so he proceeds to speed to catch up to you and start the whole damn thing again. I have had this happen to me more times than I can count driving through Washington State on I-90. If I had a cell phone I would call 1-800-22-DRUNK on them, but I dont care to pay for the stupid things...JFK