I'm not what one might call "tolerant" or "remotely patient" when driving. Though I have mellowed slightly in my old age (seriously, I have), I still feel the urge to scream at people a lot of the time. For example, people who slow down to look at car accidents. If you're slowing down because everyone ahead of you slowed down and you don't want to hit them, fine. But if you're slowing down to satisfy your own curiousity, fuck you.
Same with people who are already going the speed limit, then slow down when they see a cop. What the fuck are you afraid of, exactly? The police might start cracking down on people who drive less than five miles below the legal limit? Assholes.
Then today, when driving home on the Beltline, I encountered a vehicle driving 47 mph in the passing lane. All alone. No cars ahead of him, plenty of room to the side. I pulled pretty close behind him, and he kept puttering right along.
As far as I'm concerned, you want to drive slow, fine. But not in the far left lane. They don't call it the "passing lane" because of all the other drivers passing the people who drive in it. In some states, you're not even allowed to drive in the left lane for a certain distance when there are no other cars around. Where I come from, you can get shot for less.
4 comments:
Alright, now, usually, I'm all about backing you up. But I've always thought that it's irrational for people to get all angry at someone for going a certain speed in the left lane. I mean, if there weren't any cars around you, you could have just as easily passed him on the right. That's not a big deal, and it would have saved you all that aggravation. I mean, why sit there behind him when you could just pass him and be done with it?
This is kind of like the breakdown of society in Seinfeld. It's the principle of the thing. There is an order, slower traffic to the right. Keep the left lane less congested. This is a safety issue. High pressure lane changes increase the risk of accidents.
Sure, when there isn't much traffic, passing the idiot on the right works out. But should we let that left lane loser get comfortable there?
What happens in heavy traffic when said loser clogs the left lane and everyone is forced to go slow or parade to the right? More traffic is compressed behind left lane loser. Patience and goodwill wears thin. Certain drivers get agitated and more likely to do something just stupid enough to work. What about emergency vehicles that have many more people blocking the left lane?
While I have been guilty of pointless internal road rage myself in the past, it shouldn't be condoned. Unless the rage is directed towards a psycho van that a) passes you, b) slows down to 10 under the speed limit in front of you until you pass and c) repeats a dozen times in Middle of the Night, Tennessee while you're on cruise control.
I back you up Vice on your feelings of frustration with left lane losers.
It's illegal to pass on the right! Besides, you can't always do that, depending on the traffic, and all it does is encourage them to keep being selfish and arrogant, forcing everyone else to drive at the same speed they do. Ok, so obviously tailing and going faster than the speed limit are illegal, too, but if they don't want someone following them, then they should move over. As far as I'm concerned, I'll be right behind you until you finally let me pass in the--get this--PASSING lane! If that happens to annoy you, then stop holding up the works by refusing to allow me to pass legally.
RPM, I SO know what you mean. It's like people just want to be first, and it's somehow an insult when you pass them. Of course, they don't want to actually go faster than you, they just want to be in front. So they speed up, cut you off, then slow down and repeat. It's ridiculous.
Well, I thought the same thing, but I checked and technically it is not illegal to pass on the right, under normal circumstances. If there are two or more lanes of traffic in the same direction, and you can do so safely, then passing on the right is legal. Thankfully.
But you're right, the people who pass you just to be ahead of you and then slow down are horrendous. I mean, if you feel you need to drive a certain speed because you're in a hurry or whatever, then fine. But don't drive fast just to be ahead of me, then slow back to your normal speed. You're just subjecting yourself to "Doom" style termination with extreme prejudice. Fair warning.
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