So many people seriously supporting breaking speed limits is insane.
Guys, these rules are there for a very good reason, and this reason is spilled in blood all over the roads.
No, you're not "competent enough" to break those limits. You're overstimating yourself, and this is a fallacy many people have. And every day some of those overconfident people get straight to the grave, taking normal people with them.
And if they all go 73 where the limit is 65, it's still their bad - we shouldn't move the blame on drivers doing what they should and driving by limits.
Adjusting to people going 73 is supporting unsafe driving practices for the sake of immediate gain.
If anything, I support any programs that encourage installs of speed cameras and enforcing stricter rules to force everyone to go 65 and not a mile more, unless overtaking. But until then, any accidents involving such speed differences are to blame on the speeders, and not the other way around.
Technically, with the speed of traffic. But you're also technically safer driving a big ass truck, for example. It's the same fallacy.
Personally, you are safer driving with the traffic. Collectively, it is better to follow speed limits.
Personally, you're safer driving a giant truck. Collectively, they lead to much more lethal outcomes for pedestrians/cyclists/everyone else.
Any attempts at blaming those going by the limit are picking the wrong people to blame and shifting public opinion towards practices that are bad for road safety. We should all drive by the limit, not all drive above it. That's the safest way.
And if someone driving by the limit is causing inconvenience to speeders, yes, the speeders are to blame. It is them who sacrifice the safety of us all to get to their destination 12% faster.
Do increased speed limits and better infrastructure go in as well? The reason people speed is generally because the limits don't match the road and cars of today's day and age.
It's just that your car's brakes are not the only factor at play here. So is your reaction time, unexpected conditions, and more. At elevated speeds, you may be unable to properly monitor the conditions on the road and react in unexpected situations in due time. Driving a straight road can make a driver overconfident, by it takes one wild deer or one accident in front of you to quickly come back to reality that you don't have it all controlled.
While I understand you deserve to pass in the passing lane, I do to. The cars to my right are going 55, I'm going 60. I would love to get over but I'm passing the people going 55. If I were to get over, I would be doing 50.
As soon as it is safe, I will allow you to pass. Sorry about the delay.
Road traffic isn't a game. Having to drive five miles per hour slower for thirty seconds isn't going to meaningfully add any time to your commute. The road is a stupid thing to get mad over.
I've learned to flip it the other way. If there isn't anyone coming, sure, pass going 60. If there is, i'm probably doing 65-70 just long enough to pass the 55. It minimizes the time I spend in someone's way and allows me to return to my comfort zone as quickly as possible. It also allows the 55 to not have anyone riding them and the 70+ to sail on past.
Is it legally correct? Nope.
Is it effective? Yup.
Does it allow me to set my cruise at the speed limit and ignore most people most of the time? Hell yes.
Cool man, definitely pass, but maybe before you do look in the rear view. If someone is coming to pass the 55 at 75, maybe you wait 8 seconds? If not, kinda YTA.
That's like when you see a chain of traffic and pull out in front of the last guy in the group: they have to brake because you couldn't wait a few more seconds to actually have enough time and space.
I had one of those a while back. We were stuck behind a line of like 6 cars so there's nothing to be done but he's behind me flashing his lights and all pissed. Eventually there was a gap in the right lane and he used that to pass me and then cut off the guy in front of me hanging out his window and flipping me off the whole time. He then cut off the next person in the right lane and immediately get stuck behind the person in front them and all of us in the left lane passed him again which was pretty funny.
Same rules, but I use the 1/2 headlight in rear view mirror. 1 for person cars, 2 for semis.
I also try and speed up to not hinder flow. However, I often refrain of going over 20%. I am not made of money like some, and your gas per milage goes up the faster you go.
Depends on where you are, traffic, and driving conditions. Generally though yeah, you stay out of the left lane unless passing when you're outside of urban and suburban areas.
See, this is the problem. You either risk getting a ticket by keeping up with the 15mph+ people in the left, or you deal with grandma and grandpa doing 10mph under on the right. So a lot of us end up having to leapfrog back and forth. I just want to maintain my socially and legally acceptable 4mph over.
But they do. The assholes who want to go fast will weave in and out of traffic which increases the chances they lose control. Blocking traffic won't suddenly make these people good drivers, it makes them irritable and impatient and more likely to pull even riskier manoeuvres.
Seriously, I can personally attest to seeing people doing batshit crazy things such as passing on the left, off the road, on uneven grass, with one of those decapitate-ey looking cable barriers within 2ft of their vehicle, all over traffic going 55MPH in a 55MPH zone.
If the entire left lane is rolling out at 15 over, cops aren't going to pull over everyone. They'll get you though if there isn't much traffic and you're by yourself out there getting it.
If someone comes up behind you, you should move to the right, even if there is a car to your right. You should just push them over to make way for the more important people who are speeding because they have important things to do and most get where they're going 15 seconds faster by speeding.
Yes. If these two things are true: 1. A car is stuck behind you. 2. There is no car to your immediate right. Then you should move over. You should obviously not merge into a car, you would use your turn signal and then change lanes like a normal person.
This is because you are not so important that you get to break a common state law in order to inconvenience hundreds of other drivers on the road, because you don’t like that they want to break a different law that doesn’t inconvenience other drivers.
If you’re asking me these questions, you should just tear your drivers license in half right now. Are you telling me that you’re a current licensed driver and yet you don’t know how to change lanes? Jesus dude.
Gladly, just make sure they get the message to not ride my ass or try to zip around me on the right. Also if I'm still actively passing people, I'm not going to move over to a small open space on the right.
Even if you’re passing people, you’re probably still obligated to move to the right, by law. You’ll have to check your state laws for your specific obligations.
If somebody is riding your ass or going around you to the right, they absolutely should not be doing that. However it also means you’ve likely been camping in the left lane, impeding the flow of traffic for far too long by the time you reach that point, and you’re considered part of the problem if you’re causing other drivers to pass you on the right to get around you. When you’re driving on public roadways, it’s not about you. You need to do your part to ensure a smooth flow of traffic, so that everybody can arrive at their destination safely.
If you want to drive slowly, just do so in the rightmost lane. They literally have a lane just for you to do that, where you can be free of tail riders, and it’s impossible to be passed on the right.
I don't camp the left lane, pinky promise. I pull into the left lane to pass and someone coming up behind me going 90 rides right up on my ass until I'm done passing, or they squeeze into the bit of stopping distance I've created before merging back right. If I'm passing and already going over the limit, they can damn well wait a few seconds.
I'll pass a semi and have someone fly up behind me going 15+ over and ride my ass. If I don't get back over to the right immediately, they will cut off the truck to pass me on the right. Those are the people bitching about "left lane driving." Very rarely have I ever seen someone just cruising in the left lane with nobody around. It's often impatient assholes who think they are the main character.
If people are passing you on the right, you are in the wrong lane in the first place.
There's a reason they say "keep right except to pass" and "left lane for passing only" and "trucks trailers rvs and busses prohibited from left lane". There's a reason they don't say "don't pass on the right" anymore. Passing on the right isn't the problem, being passed on the right is the problem.
If you are going slower than the lane to your right, you are causing a rippling effect in the traffic behind you. People camping in the left or center lanes when they are going slower than the cars to the right of them are one of the biggest causes of congestion, and it's quite evident if you watch who is at the lead of pockets of congestion.
I don't know how to be clearer, I only pass on the left and otherwise stay right, just not always at the speed people want me to. I like to allow the car I've passed some distance before getting back in front of it, which not everyone seems to like.
Because I think it's important to make sure the car behind me has enough room to stop should it be necessary? Because they can't wait 2 seconds for me to make a little space?
I don't understand how cars that are supposedly going slower than you are passing you. Both cannot be true.
Unless you are slowing down to yield to non-emergency vehicles on your right, in which case you are a worse and more dangerous driver than I could have imagined.
I'm driving in the right lane. I come up behind a car going slower than me. I wait for the left lane to be clear without any nearby traffic that's going faster, then I pull into the left lane to pass. As I'm passing, say, a string of three slower cars, someone comes up fast behind me and sits on my butt as I'm passing. I finish passing the string of cars and put on my signal to merge back right, waiting a few seconds to build up a bit more space between myself and the car I'm about to merge in front of so they have a safe stopping distance should they need it. Butt-sitter behind me zips into the right lane just before I merge (sometimes as I'm actively merging), goes around me, and back into the left lane. I then merge right.
Where the hell is butt sitter coming from? If the left lane was clear then you should have had plenty of room and time to safely pass three cars.
Otherwise the left lane wasn't safe to enter. You entered slower than the car behind you. You essentially cut him off. I don't blame him for passing you on the right and cutting you right back off. You damn near killed him.
The important corollary of "left lane is for passing only" is that you should never see a lit brake light in the left lane. If he's riding your ass, you forced him to use his brakes.
I'd say allowing other drivers to drive dangerously does cause inconvenience to others.
What this "slow driver" discussion leaves out is the fact that it's the fast drivers that end up behaving dangerously and causing accidents. Fast drivers are the problem here.
That’s a very common misconception. Driving fast isn’t actually very dangerous absent outside factors like poor weather conditions, balding tires, bad brakes, aggressive driving, etc. Cars are designed to drive straight very well, and their ability to do so is unaffected by a metal sign with some paint on it beside the road they’re driving on. This is why countries like Germany with its Autobahn aren’t decimated by crashes every day.
Beyond this common sense, the data backs this up as well. Speeding is a factor in less than a third of all car crashes resulting in injury or death, and the it’s the cause of such accidents even less than that. Much bigger causes of accidents are unpredictable driving, driving too slowly for the flow of traffic, and aggressive driving (Which impeding traffic in the left lane falls under).
On top of the common sense and the crash data that backs this up, I also worked in EMS for over a decade and in my personal experience, the vast majority of incidents I’ve been involved in were due to somebody turning into traffic and failing to get up to speed, driving too slowly for the lane they’re in, or slamming on their brakes at a yellow light. In 10 years I’d seen 2 fatalities due to speeding, and that was on a residential road, the car involved was a rear wheel drive muscle car they accelerated too fast in without the experience to handle it. The overwhelming majority were caused by “defensive drivers” who made poor “defensive” decisions that other drivers couldn’t predict, or people becoming road hazards in order to self police the roadways.
According to Der Spiegel, German motorways that don't have speed limits feature 17% more crashes leading to severe injury and 76% more crashes leading to death.
That's despite the fact those sections have a lot of measures undertaken to additionally improve road safety.
German motorways are much safer than the US, despite their high speeds. The reason a higher rate of accidents are caused by speeding in Germany compared to the U.S. is because their standards for driver training and licensure are much stricter than in the U.S. You actually have to attend a driving school and pass exams to become a licensed driver in Germany, unlike the almost total absence of driver education required in the US. They simply don’t have the issue of unpredictable ignorant drivers, or slow lane campers in Germany the way we do here. They successfully mitigated the risk of dangerous traffic flow impeding drivers like yourself, leaving high speeds as one of the only factors left when it comes to accidents. The high speed driver looks like “the problem” in Germany because the much bigger problem driver, including the lane campers, simply don’t qualify for drivers licenses there and are kept off the road entirely. A good problem to have, and one we should implement here in order to save lives.
It is true that Germany has lower fatality rate on the roads, and it is true that it is due to the various policies they implement, including stricter licensing. Speeding is also severely punished, by the way, which is why the definition of a "slow driver" will change a lot compared to the "I don't give a damn about rules" America. A driver following speed limits is not "slow" by any German standards.
But in no way stricter licensing and control negates the fact that fatality rates on German motorways that don't have a speed limit are 76% higher compared to the ones that do, in the absolute very same Germany, not compared to any other country.
The safest motorways of Germany, with a great margin, are speed limited.
Speeding is not the only factor for road safety, and it's important to address this multifaceted issue in many ways. But speed is a very, very big part of it.
the fact that fatality rates on German motorways that don't have a speed limit are 76% higher compared to the ones that do
A very clever misrepresentation of the data, I’ll give you that. While it’s true that if you get into an accident on a non-limited section of the autobahn , your odds of the accident being more severe or even fatal are relatively higher than it being a minor accident. However what you’re very strategically leaving out is that your odds of getting into an accident in the first place are lower on non-limited sections of the Autobahn.l, with some outliers based on rarity of the various speed limits. The most common speed limit on the autobahn being 120 (substantially higher than the average speeder in the U.S.). Here’s some data from a 2022 study on the effects of speed limits and their effect on accident frequency on Autobahn. It lists several different speed limits and crash results, with the primary comparison being between 120 and none. With the other speed limits being rarer outliers.
TL;DR It’s not that severe accidents happen more often on non-limited sections of the autobahn, it’s just that the smaller amount of accidents that do happen are more likely to be severe. It’s hard to compare these results to accidents caused by traffic impedes, because as previously mentioned that’s a particular problem that Germany seems to have eliminated. An argument could be made that it’s be a prudent decision to add a 120 speed limit to the rest of the autobahn, and trade a higher accident rate for fewer fatalities, but that’s a luxury that Germany has because they’re not dealing with more dangerous behavior like in the U.S, such as uneducated, unpredictable, and slow drivers impeding the flow of traffic.
I know you want what you’re saying to be true, but you’re wasting a lot of energy that you could spend on becoming a safer driver instead. Take all this effort you’re making to find numbers that almost look like they’re supporting what you’re saying, and put it into learning about your states driving laws instead. I’ve at this point put a lot of good faith effort in educating you, but I’m not going to continue poking holes in the logic of your responses.
Did I ever say high-speed autobahns feature more accidents overall? No, I said they have more accidents that are lethal or lead to severe injury, and that's what we should care about the most.
It's pretty weird to compare scratched bumper to death in this case.
And your very statistics shows exactly what I say - removing speed limits does indeed increase both lethality and a chance of severe injury.
They say offence is the best defense. You've done just that - went personal instead of admitting being wrong. I'll leave you at that with sincere hopes you would understand that speed limits, even on motorways, exist for a reason and not because regulators are dumb.
You can try and try to twist the facts all you want, and yet the facts remain. Despite having no speed limit, unlimited sections of the Autobahn are safer than speed limited segments, and both are much safer than American highways, all of which have speed limits, and all of which are slower.
You tried your best to spread your misinformation, but in the end you were proven wrong. You may never learn, but at least you’ve given others the chance to see your assertions proven wrong by cold hard data. So at least it wasn’t all for nothing. Thanks for playing.
What people like you miss is that you should actually move to the right before someone comes up behind you. There is literally no value to staying in the left lane when not passing.
You're missing the point of the op. People who speed and tailgate while other people are trying to drive normally and pass safely are assholes. They're not talking about the odd person who is just in the left lane for no reason. In my experience, this is pretty rare anyway. If I'm passing multiple vehicles, I'm not dipping over to the right, because that car that was just on my ass will sit there with their dick in their hand instead of accelerating and passing me. I'll finish passing the 2-3 trucks and get over when there is adequate space to do so.
Nothing wrong with using the passing lane for passing and I never indicated as such. Everyone should drive at a speed comfortable to them...in the right lane, unless passing.
The people who complain about left lane camping really mean anybody going slower than they want to go. Sure, is the right lane is clear, then move over. But moving over just to let one person pass and then getting back in the left lane to pass is what causes traffic problems. It's better if nobody changes lanes, than it is to speed.
It’s a great argument actually. Speeding on the highway is generally expected. Going 20 over in front of a cop is unlikely to get you pulled over in most of the U.S. The cops are more than likely doing the same thing. Passing on the right on the other hand is very likely to get you pulled over if a cop sees it. It’s a very dangerous move to pull because it’s not something other drivers can predict that you’ll do. The last thing you want to do is turn a middle or right lane into a passing lane. Then the slower drivers that just want to cruise will be pressured to move, possibly into the left lane which is now no longer a passing lane which compounds the issue, and you just get chaos where different lanes are all going different speeds at random.
Its legitimately unsafe. Having traffic on one side consistently faster than you and the other side slower greatly reduces the chance of accidents because you can have have some relative assurance that speeding up while merging left is safe and slowing down while merging right is safe. It also keeps faster traffic out of and further away from onramps/offramps.
Drive safe, don't be an asshole, its not that complicated.
I'm just going to go ahead and assume that both of you are taking into account that not everywhere has the same roads - IMO (and I think it's just proven logically) the middle of the road should be where the fastest cars are.
On a 4 lane road (with a divider like 2/2) those middle two lanes should have the fast drivers. This way the people who want to go fast do so, and they don't have to deal with people merging onto the road. Neither do the people merging have to deal with the fast drivers.
Having the middle lane/lanes be the "passing"/speeding lanes is less safe though, because both outside lanes then have to worry about faster traffic merging into them to pass people in the middle lanes, rather than just a single lane. Also the people merging absolutely would still have to deal with fast drivers, when drivers in the faster middle lanes try to pass each other on the right. Doing so would put them in the same lane people are using to merge onto the highway.
Edit: also people in the slower left lane would have to merge into and out of the faster middle passing lanes in order to exit the highway, which just sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Edit edit: are you talking about 4 bidirectional lanes, with, for example, two going north and two going south? If so my bad for the misunderstanding, we actually agree
This is a good philosophy, not just for traffic flow but for safety. If a drunk or disoriented driver is going the wrong way they're usually going to be in what is to you the left lane, which to them is the right lane. So they'll just go past you instead of into you.
I've seen so many wrecks because of assholes trying to go 85-150 MPH on a god damn road. The comments here enforce the idea that people are just selfish, self centered motherfuckers when it comes to driving on the highway. There is a posted fucking speed LIMIT for a god damn reason. Leave earlier if you want to get to your fucking destination on time.
Look, I'm not going to budge. I do not think people need to be going over 90/100 MPH on the road, with many other people driving, with animals also in the picture. I think it's reckless, stupid, and just not necessary in any capacity. Again, I have seen too many fools driving way too fucking fast, hurt other innocent people because of their stupidity.
Sure you can believe that as much as you want but it doesn't change that fact that some percentage of people are still going to drive entirely too fast, not to mention the much larger number of people who will drive a little over the limit. Study after study has shown the best way to move people going different speeds is to pass in the left lane and use the other lanes to go progressively slower as you move left. If you don't think people should speed that's fair and I agree, but that doesn't change the fact that people will do it anyway.
You can all move over for them if you want. When I am in a lane, it is because I need to be in that lane. I guess I can at least say I am passing people, so.
"Selfish, self centered motherfuckers" would also describe those in the left lane while not passing with others behind them. No numbers needed. If someone is on your tail in the left lane and the right is open, move right. Everyone is safer, even people dumb enough to go 150, when passers aren't forced to weave between lanes.
I disagree. I think that just emboldens the fools who think they can drive over 100 MPH. If I am in the left lane, it is because I need to be in that lane. Point blank. I don't care where you live, and what your states laws are, mine do not have those stupid ass laws.
Drunk drivers who enter the freeway going the wrong direction usually drive in what they think is the right lane, which is actually the left lane. Camping in the left lane increases your chances of a head-on collision.
So... to mitigate that, you encourage people to drive faster than they can reliably react to a situation such as this exact scenario....? Yeah, okay. Sound logic.
I've never seen one of those in my state. I DO see plenty of SPEED LIMIT 70 MPH signs though. I think the keep right is fucking stupid, because it just causes drivers to swerve in and out of traffic, which is dangerous for multiple reasons, but will also cause congestion on the on ramps on to the interstate itself. It just goes to show you how each state having it's own laws for driving is fucking stupid also.
It is the law in all 50 states for slower traffic to keep to the right when driving on the highway, regardless of the speed limit. So you just clearly don’t know how to drive, and have never bothered to learn, or even educate yourself in your own states driving laws. Keeping right also isn’t stupid at all. A lot of people, much smarter and experienced than yourself, armed with decades of data have decided that keeping right is the safest course of action. Obstructing the flow of traffic by driving slowly in the left lane continues to be far more dangerous than speeding ever could be.
After many years in EMS I’ve seen the disastrous results of self righteous speed keepers and unpredictable drivers like yourself first hand and I really have less than zero sympathy. Stop worrying about the speed of other vehicles on the road and start worrying about your ability to drive predictably, in a way that keeps you inside the flow of traffic, in the spot you’re supposed to be.
EDIT: And for someone who was supposedly in EMS, that means you would have seen the direct consequences of what going TOO fast can do to the human bodies, and their vehicles involved. So, therefore if you were a sane individual, you would encourage people to follow the posted SPEED LIMIT. Also, I'm worried about what other drivers are fucking doing dangerously, BECAUSE I HAVE TO SHARE THE SAME FUCKING ROAD WITH THEM, YOU IDIOT.
Oh, no. you hurt my feelings by saying shit you know nothing about! I might just cry. :(
No, I learned what NOT to do from idiots who think they can safely drive over 90-100 MPH. Get the fuck over yourself, and just realize that going faster than 90 MPH DRASTICALLY increases your chances of colliding with something, someone, or LOSING CONTROL OF YOUR FUCKING VEHICLE.
seen the direct consequences of what going TOO fast can do to the human bodies, and their vehicles involved.
At highway speeds, whether you’re going 55 mph or 75 mph makes little difference to your survivability. Crashing your car at highway speeds is going to hurt. The difference is somebody who’s speeding in the left lane is a lot less likely to cause an accident than somebody going too slowly in the left lane. People like you are a much larger danger to yourself and others than somebody going over the speed limit by a marginal amount, in an appropriate lane. And the fact that we have to share a road with people like you is infuriating. In my eyes you’re no better than drunk drivers. At least they were impaired when they made the poor decision to drive drunk. You make the choice to put everyone on the road at risk fully sober, because you just don’t care.
Oh, no. you hurt my feelings by saying shit you know nothing about!
Evidently I do, since I had to send you proof of your own state’s driving laws that by your own admission you were completely unaware of and also apparently don’t mind breaking. I guess it’s not about the law for you, just control over other people.
The worst thing about scumbags like you is it’s not just simple ignorance that drives your self-centered, life threatening behavior on the road. You also just refuse to learn.
You're so fucking stupid. You know nothing about how I drive. Just because I complained about people who are obviously putting themselves, and others, at risk because they want to go above the posted speed limit. Don't worry, asshole. The feeling is mutual. I hope you don't drive too fast to be able to react in a timely manner the next time you are on the road. Others lives might be in danger with speed demons like yourself on the road.
Yes. I'm perfectly fine. I just don't understand these idiots who think they have the right to go over the posted speed limit, when, as far I am aware, there is a limit for a reason, correct? So, when you are going over that speed limit, and especially at the speeds of 90+ MPH, you are at the mercy of those same idiots losing control of their vehicle due to a number of different reasons. They are just too fucking thick to understand they are putting way more people at risk of injury and death, than the people who are going slow. I'd much rather have safer, slower people on the roads, causing less and less accidents, than these fucks who are so far up their own asses, they can't see the idiotic shit they are spewing.
I know that you hyperfixate on speed limits and yet you don’t know your own state’s driving laws. That tells me all I need to know about how you. You don’t know how to drive, you don’t care that you’re putting people’s lives as risk over your perverse power fantasy. You think you’re more important than everyone else on the road. Being confronted with your own ignorance doesn’t even move the needle towards some introspection and actually learning how to drive safely with other people on the road.
People like you are responsible for so many preventable deaths on the road and then when somebody loses their life because of the bullshit head games you want to play while in control of a 2 ton hunk of metal, you’ll cry and sputter about “how did this happen” and “I didn’t mean to”. I wouldn’t even call you stupid because it’s more likely you just don’t care, as long as your fragile ego gets what it wants then fuck everyone else, right? Disgusting.
Jesus Christ the fucking projection here! Look, I get it, getting behind the wheel and going vroom vroom really fast makes you feel really cool or makes you feel alive, but I guarantee there are safer ways to get your adrenaline going. Get the fuck over yourself, and drive safer. That's all you gotta do, mate. Who is more unpredictable, the asshole like you going 90+ MPH on the road, bobbing and weaving between traffic to keep their speed going, or the person who is driving the posted speed limit, if not 5 more MPH higher? You're truly stupid if you don't think the reckless speeding vehicle is the unpredictable one.
People like me, who drive safely, are the exact reason I have never been in a car crash, at all. So, for fucks sake mate. Think of the others instead of being a selfish little cunt who thinks they have a right for some weird fucking reason to go above the legal speed limit. That's all I have left to tell you. If you want to keep driving recklessly, I pray for the people around you, but your stupid ass should slow down and think about each and every person you are putting at risk by trying to go faster than you are reasonably equipped to handle. You're not a NASCAR driver, buddy.
You can sit there and type out your fantasies until your fingers bleed but you can’t change reality. People like you kill innocent people on the road, and it was on people like me to deal with the fallout of that, and I absolutely resent the hell out of you for it. All the wishful thinking in the word and your total denial of reality won’t help you. You can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it. You can only change.
At the end of the day it’s scum of the earth like you who are the problem. I’ve never once seen a car randomly lose contact with the ground and careen across a roadway because its wheels spun just a few more times per second driving in a straight line. Cars are designed to drive in a straight line after all. It just doesn’t happen. It’s people like you who treat the roadway like your personal playground, who choose to drive recklessly, erratically, becoming an obstacle in the roadway, all so that you can exert control over other people in the road to get your little Karen rocks off. At least a drunk drivers usually regrets their behavior, but you relish it. Brag about it. Really makes me sick.
speeding cause less wrecks than driving 'slowly' in the left lane?
yeah, you're the scumbag speeder who refuses to learn. not someone who passes left but isn't going fast enough for you. you're gonna kill someone some day. psycho.
Yeah if you think a 75mph crash will kill you but you get to walk away unharmed from a 55MPH crash, I have really bad news for you.
speeding cause less wrecks than driving 'slowly' in the left lane?
That is correct. Speeding is involved in a minority of accidents, and is the cause of even less. Over the course of a decade, I’ve seen two fatalities due to speeding, they didn’t harm anyone but themselves in the process, and both were on residential boulevards, not the freeway. I’ve seen far more caused by erratic unpredictable driving, driving too slow for traffic, and turning into traffic.
I’m a man who’s been fortunate enough to have saved dozens of lives that were almost ended by people like you that become road hazards on purpose, and less fortunately the witness of far more innocent people losing their lives because of drivers like yourself. People like you have caused far more injury and death than any speeders could hope to. Speeders are nothing more than a convenient scapegoat. As long as they themselves are not driving erratically or switching lanes unpredictably, they’re of minuscule concern. There are countries with freeways that have speed limits more than twice the U.S. and they do just fine.
Oh. Like the people who just ram right into people because they were too busy going too fast to be able to properly control their vehicle...? Yeah, no shit.
I’d say from experience that that is how it works. If they weren’t driving so fast, they could reasonably react in time. Highways aren’t for playing on.
Most accidents I see are from dumb fucks trying to merge into a fast moving lane from a dead stop because they were tailgating the guy in front of them too much and instead of waiting til they had enough speed to match the lane they were going into they just cut them off instead.
Right. So, if you’re going a reasonable speed, say, the posted speed limit of 70, you will be able to mitigate as much carnage as possible even when that person was doing something pretty dumb, because you will be able to slow down quicker and you’ll be able to keep control of the vehicle.
Even doing the speed limit won't save you if someone swerves into your lane from a dead stop 200 feet in front of you. By your logic everyone should be going 15mph everywhere so we don't get hurt.
By my logic, you should paying attention to your speed, because the speed limit is posted at 70. The benefits that come with going 70 and not 90+ are that you will be able to mitigate as much damage as possible, while on the interstate going the posted speed limit, by being able to either slow down quicker or react in a manner that allow you to prevent as much damage as possible.
Going 60 would mitigate even more damage, 50 even more, 40 even more, and so on until we might as well be commuting in bumper cars. Why is 70 the arbitrary line? Who are you to decide what an acceptable level of risk is for everyone else?
Well, yes. You are not wrong, at all. We are talking about 70 though, because it is the most common posted speed limit. If you look on the sides on your local interstate, you might see one of them. It says speed limit on it, has a big 70 MPH. Pretty easy to spot.
Well, that depends. Have humans gotten smarter where that speed limit is 95? Can I trust that most people will know to keep their hands on the wheel, and focused at all times? Sure! I’m perfectly fine with that. The CURRENT most common posted limit is 70. That’s all that matters in this conversation.
Look. This is the last time I will be replying unless you say something actually substantial. We are talking about people going over the speed limit of 70. I’m even okay if you go 80. I refuse to get pulled over for such a silly reason, as you will not be getting to your destination but maybe a 1 or two minutes faster. It literally doesn’t make sense. But going 90+ MPH is just fucking reckless and beyond stupid. As I told the other person, you are not a fucking NASCAR driver. Drive safer, and everyone wins. Why are we even having a fucking argument? It’s that simple.
The speed limit isn't always set to what's safe the fact that people regularly exceed it without issue proves that. Many places drop it lower than it should be so they can collect ticket revenue. Safety is about paying attention to what's going on around you and leaving enough space to stop. You can do this as easily doing 90 as you can at 70 just leave a bigger gap. If your concern is someone doing something stupid unexpectedly and causing an accident then you might as well be going 15 in the right lane all the time, that's the only way you're going to be going slow enough to be totally safe if someone cuts you off. Unfortunately stupidity is just something we are forced to deal with by the nature of sharing the road. You just have to take the level of risk you are willing to accept. Stupid drivers are a fact of life. No one is forcing you to drive faster than the speed limit. They are just asking you to keep to the right if you are not passing to allow faster drivers to pass by.
Look, buddy. Get this through your thick skull, okay? Going faster = not being able to react in a timely manner when something goes wrong. It is truly that simple. I pray for the drivers around you when you decide to be a fucking dumbass and drive way faster than YOU are reasonably equipped to handle. Good luck out there. I pray you don’t get in an accident.
I drive as fast as I judge is safe I know my limits and the limits of my car. On a lot of highways that is well above the posted limit. I leave myself enough space to stop and I stay aware of my surroundings. If traffic is congested or road conditions necessitate it I slow down, often to less than the limit. It's about judgement and I haven't caused an accident in 20 years of driving so I trust mine. Having an arbitrary limit is stupid and causes more congestion than there would be otherwise. Proper lane usage is the solution to traffic problems, not speed limits.
And here we have it! The actual crux of the issue! People like you who are just SO confident in their abilities! It doesn't matter if you've been driving for 100 years, buddy, all it takes is some wild animal or some other driver to fuck your shit up, which will cause an even worse chain reaction. Go forth, little NASCAR driver. You're too dumb to see reason anyway.
I once went to a conference as a vendor and they hired a temp to go with us to do a lot of the grunt work and had him drive the van there and back. He would drive under the speed limit in the left lane. When I couldn't take it anymore and finally said something, he said, "I like driving in the left lane!"
They had to practically hold me back from strangling him.
I've heard that a society governed purely by logic would be one that never takes emotion into account, one that only sees the cold logic.
That sounds bad. That being said:
We live in a society where people actively enjoy becoming road hazards, subsequently becoming dangerous to others whilst staying relatively safe themselves.
Idk, maybe we meet somewhere in the middle? Cuz I feel like those feelings should not be respected.
No. Just no. The middle lane is the lane to use for your trip. The right lane is for allowing people on and off. If everyone is in the right lane, entering and exiting is painful or dangerous.
You, sir, have clearly never driven a car in your life if you think there is nothing painful or dangerous about entrance and exits. The idea is simple, the execution by about 80% of existing drivers is just dreadful. Both the ones using them and the people who refuse to acknowledge that someone is using them.
He's right, and you're probably American, meaning you're not entirely wrong either. You two are just talking about different systems.
Here in Europe it is taught you drive on the right most lane, as entrance and exit lanes are built separately. So if there are two lanes, there will be a third one at exits and entrances, or if there's three lanes there will be a fourth lane for when there's an entrance or an exit.
So it'd be rare to drive to a highway ans and be able to keep the lane you entered on, as it will merge with the normal amount of lanes, and then begin again when there's an exit coming up.
I'm a taxi driver in the third gen, btw. Or "was"? Hard to say.
I'm in the US, and that sounds like most highways here. Sometimes, the road gets larger and a lane is added for now than just an exit or entrance lane, and sometimes the road gets smaller and a lane becomes the exit lane or otherwise has to merge left. When that happens, you're obviously not expected to remain in the lane that is leaving the highway. That's not "the rightmost lane" any more
Holy shit I think you're right on that 80% figure for onramps. The onramp is for accelerating to highway speed. Not 20 under. Not 10 under. People don't realize how dangerous going slow really is.
Highways in my region (western USA) are not always designed with separate exit lanes. Often the right lane we've been happily traveling down suddenly becomes "Exit Only" and anyone not exiting must move to the middle lane. The lane will be replenished after the exit, sometimes miles down the road, but will often go Exit Only again. And again.
Staying in the right-hand lane is literally impossible in certain freeways in North America. Other areas of North America are similar to what you're used to with exit lanes being created for the purpose of exiting and entering so commuters can stay in the right-hand lane but it isn't everywhere.
Staying in the right-hand lane is literally impossible in certain freeways in North America.
The law says you should keep as far right as possible. This doesn't mean at all cost, if the right lane is completely occupied you're allowed to drive in the middle or even left lane (if the middle is also occupied). This often happens during rush hour.
Unnecessarily driving in the left lane is the #3 most irritating thing in traffic, according to surveys, with tailgating at #1 and phone use while driving at #2. You're not only blocking those behind you, but everyone on the lanes to your right as well. (Overtaking on the right carries an even heftier fine than not driving in the rightmost possible lane).
I didn't say the alternative was left lane driving or condoned left lane camping. Your response to the other person sounded like you were only used to one type of freeway/highway configuration.
I am pointing out your experience may be a bit local to your area and middle lane driving for through traffic (also called commuter traffic sometimes) is the safest option that minimizes risky lane changes on some roads. But this does contradict the edict of staying in the right-most lane which is different from keeping-right-except-to-pass I think.
I'm the u.s. they put the highway through the middle of cities. The right most lane is an exit and entrance lane as on and off ramps are usually a mile or less apart. There are usually 4+ lanes in these situations, so the first 2 left lanes are there for people to merge on and off. If you're just passing through, then it makes Sense to stay in the third or fourth lane and leave the farthest left lane for the crazies. Go look at Atlanta Georgia, Chicago, or the East side of the Mississippi River going into St.Louis.
For fun, look up US Route 60 where it meets Chelyan Bridge just outside Quincy. The through lane is on the right, and the exit lane is the left lane because fuck all reason.
Except for when they put left-lane exits. Then it's Mad Max rules.
For example, there's a major highway junction that I drive every day where there are four lanes. The left two lanes become one two-lane highway, and the right two lanes connect with another two-lane to become a four-lane highway.
In this instance you have two slow lanes sandwiched between two fast lanes.
Yeah if there's solid traffic, there's no need to go weaving around, but just planting in the middle lane for your whole trip sounds like selfish behaviour.
Trucks, my dude. A single truck enters the highway and slows down the entire right lane until it can get up to speed. Do this for hundreds of trucks per day across a handful of exits, plus all the other traffic, and right lane congestion is nearly constant. I don't know where you are, but in the US middle/left lanes are sometimes signed for "Thru Traffic Only" to avoid additional congestion and slowdowns in the right lane.
