Road rage: expert level

[teapot]

Watch out! The self-righteous safety brigade are out in force. Don’t you dare suggest that the roads are actually a giant exercise of cooperative collaboration not a venue for everyone to be their own rule-enforcing vigilante.

They are not going to get where they are going any faster by tailgating

They’re tailgating you to get around you. Once they get around you they will get where they’re going faster.

There are slow shitty drivers and there are lead-foot dickheads who are just going too fast. If someone is tailgating you in a situation where they could go around then they’re just being asses… unless you’re in the fast lane when you don’t have to be, then you’re being an ass. The people who are complaining pro-tailgate are whinging about drivers who are driving like shit. The anti-tailgating commenters are also whinging about drivers who are driving like shit.

One last thing that grinds my gears that people seem to embrace without consideration is that speed limits seem to be going down while cars constantly improve in safety features and braking performance. That’s fucking nonsense.

Also re the video: You cannot for a second claim that stopping on a highway is a safer thing to do than tailgating.

[Singedrac]

“I don’t understand the negative reaction to non-honking, non-light-flashing tailgaters. They’re doing what to interfere with your drive?”

If you are tailgating me, even if you aren’t honking or flashing your lights, you are risking causing me problems if I need to stop suddenly and your stupid car crashes into the rear of mine because you don’t understand the need to keep some separation between cars.

[Singedrac]

“This. It’s the polite way of saying ‘please go the speed limit’”, or ‘I need to pass you’. 99% of the time I tailgate or witness tailgating it’s because the driver in front is going well below the speed limit."

The speed limit isn’t the minimum speed cars are allowed to drive at. Learn some patience.

[Singedrac]

“My livelihood depends on at least going the speed limit.”

My life is more important than your “livelihood.”

[Singedrac]

@thirdworldtaxi

And I do it not to punish them, but to remind them "Hey, pay attention, there are other people on the road besides your phone. Even though it might be hard to imagine, as someone who spends 50+ hours driving all over the place, city, highway, freeway, rural, etc, I have a thing or two to say about driving, and am pretty knowledgable about sharing the road and what works and doesn’t.

You’re a cab driver making about minimum wage, as you said.

Your job is to drive people from point A to point B. Your job is not to tell other drivers on the road how you think they should be driving. Mind your own business.

[Singedrac]

@thirdworldtaxi

I certainly don’t enjoy having to tailgate.

You don’t have to tailgate. If you don’t enjoy it, then don’t do it. Clearly on some level you do seem to enjoy it.

@thirdworldtaxi

Do you fail to see how alerting a driver who is causing a bottleneck know that he should speed up? I don’t tailgate often, and I always honk first. If there was a way to speak to the driver, and ask politely if he could speed up a little< I would certainly prefer that.

It’s not your job to speak to the other driver how you think he should drive.

[Singedrac]

@popobawa4u

I don’t know why the video of the OP is referred to as any kind of road rage. On the contrary, the driver seems quite calm.

I think that’s why it’s “expert level” road rage. He showed his disapproval in a dramatic yet calm way.

[Singedrac]

@RHD

I had several tail gaiters and people honking in anger with me in the last week because I was hauling un-fired pots (super fragile)

So much this. I frequently transport house and garden plants from one place to another, and have to be careful about cornering, braking, and accelerating. Tailgated every time.

[thirdworldtaxi]

@Singedrac

Your job is not to tell other drivers on the road how you think they should be driving.

But it is yours ? Can’t tell, irony? It is unlawful in my state to impede to flow of traffic.

[wrybread]

@thirdworldtaxi

It is unlawful in my state to impede to flow of traffic.

I’m pretty sure you’re misinterpreting the law when you say ergo everyone must drive at least as fast as the speed limit, but if you post exactly what state that is, I’m sure someone will be happy to eviscerate this particular part of your argument too.

[chgoliz]

I don’t know if that’s what’s actually being argued or not.

It is technically unlawful (police don’t give tickets for it, but traffic engineers say they should) to go slower than traffic in the far left/passing lane. I can’t speak for the other poster, but there is a difference between demanding that everyone drive at the speed limit or above vs. following the actual rule stating that slower traffic should keep to the right. (In the U.S. obviously; flip the directions for UK, Australia, Japan, etc.)

[SteampunkBanana]

I once had a great conversation with the police chief of a small town about this when he informed me that my biking was holding up traffic.

“So everyone needs to do 25 on this road or they’re impeding traffic?”
“Well, yeah, or faster.”
“So you’re saying that you recommend that people go faster than the speed limit.”
“Well, we give some leeway.”
“But not to anyone going slower?”
“…”
“Bad news anyway Chief, non-motorized vehicles such as bicycles are exempt from that part of the code. Did you have any actual citation that you wanted to hand out?”

Surprisingly, he did not. I thought he was going to look for something in his book that he could use but we’d been at it in conversation for about 45 minutes and I suspect he just wanted to go to the nearby diner for coffee as his original intent had been.

[daneel]

The guidelines on HOVs in WA:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/HOV/FAQ.htm

Should I get out of the HOV lane if the vehicle behind me wants to pass?
There is no law requiring either one to move over in such a situation, and you do not have a legal obligation to move out of the HOV Lane to allow speeding vehicles by. However, the Washington State Patrol suggests that it is usually best for a vehicle in the HOV lane to move over, when safe to do so. This allows the aggressive driver by and could prevent a road rage incident.

The HOV lane is a separate facility from the rest of the freeway and is not the “fast lane.” Since the HOV lane may be the only one moving during congested periods, however, some drivers do consider it to be the fast lane and think they should be moving at the speed limit or faster. It is usually not worth risking a road rage incident by blocking faster-moving cars, even if you are going the speed limit. Use common sense and pull over into the adjacent general purpose lane (not the shoulder) only when it is safe to do so.

It is best to drive in the HOV lane only when you are able to keep up with the flow of traffic. Patrol officers will sometimes pull a legal HOV over to suggest this action if they see that the vehicle is not keeping up with the flow of traffic or has several vehicles queued up behind it. This is usually for educational and safety purposes, although a ticket may be issued if you are impeding “normal and reasonable movement of traffic” in the lane per Revised Code of Washington 46.61.425.

And [Revised Code of Washington 46.61.425][1] states

No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law: PROVIDED, That a person following a vehicle driving at less than the legal maximum speed and desiring to pass such vehicle may exceed the speed limit, subject to the provisions of RCW 46.61.120 on highways having only one lane of traffic in each direction, at only such a speed and for only such a distance as is necessary to complete the pass with a reasonable margin of safety.
[1]: http://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.425

---

So, you can drive in the HOV lane at the speed limit, and you don’t have to let people past (try it! It’s fun!), but you might get pulled over anyway for ‘education’ if enough people are trying to speed behind you, and the advice is to pull over to the right (into the general purpose ‘fast’ lane!) to let people past you.

Reads to me like (funnily enough!) you can only ever be ticketed for impeding the normal flow of traffic if you’re going below the maximum speed limit. i.e. the maximum limit is really the recommended speed for the road.

This is interesting. Speed limits appear to be defined so that 15% of people are speeding.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Operations/Traffic/speedlimits.htm

[SteampunkBanana]

Washington State be crazy. Here in the NE we put big dividers or at least solid white lines and some space between our HOV and regular traffic. Once you’re in, you’re in for miles, no passing or moving over allowed.

[thirdworldtaxi]

@wrybread

I’m pretty sure you’re misinterpreting the law when you say ergo everyone must drive at least as fast as the speed limit

That’s quite a leap from what I actually said, which was:

@thirdworldtaxi

It is unlawful in my state to impede the flow of traffic.

God, sometimes I hate the internet.