Unpopular opinion. But my experience has been that the people who have road rage the worst, are incredibly hostile, aggressive, reckless, and dangerous drivers.
they are always riding other drivers ass. Cutting them off. Refusing to let other drivers in. Whipping around fast any time anyone in front of them isn’t going 10 miles over the speed limit. Just the worst drivers.
They cause accidents too. I know two such guys. They both have a long history of car accidents. Whereas I, a non hostile friendly driver, have none. And I’m 40.
It’s because I don’t drive like an jackass. These are the same kind of men who insist women can’t drive. Yet my record compared to theirs says otherwise.If I see someone trying to merge. I make room for them.
I don’t drive right up behind people. I don’t honk if they are going a little below the speed limit. I mean there are speed cams all over cities.
It’s normal for people to be a little conservative with speed to not get those $150 tickets.
Sometimes people are new to the area. Or trying to follow a gps.
I doubt anyone is driving slow just to fuck with me. A stranger in another car. You know?
I also don’t assume people are intentionally trying to fuck up my day. No one drives perfect 24/7. We all miss our turn. Occasionally forget to check before merging. People make mistakes. Getting angry is not productive or helpful.
I don’t get mad at people for messing up one time. You know? But if they are driving aggressively and putting other people at risk I sometimes do use some passive aggressive methods to block them in so they can’t swerve like a maniac around other cars and cause an accident.
It’s pretty rare that I do that but I have. This comes from my opinions on anti-social behavior in society needing to be discouraged. You may or may not agree with my stance on this. ("Anti social refers to disruptive hostile social behaviors, not how much of an introvert someone is).
One time I did it, it was apparently an unmarked cop car. They kept using the shoulder to weave in and out of slow traffic. Very aggressively. Forcing themselves between cars. Not waiting for gaps.
So I slightly pulled to the right to block them from using the shoulder to keep doing it. Then they flashed their lights at me. I’m certain they were not on a cop mission. Just an asshole entitled cop. Otherwise he would have just drove on the shoulder with his lights on.
Being a cop doesn’t mean you get to drive where you put other people at risk because you think you shouldn’t have to sit in traffic. Everyone has places they need to get to. That’s why we are all in cars driving.
I doubt anyone is driving slow just to fuck with me. A stranger in another car. You know?
I’ll add to this that a lot of people are walking around with this fiction in their head about ‘good drivers’. In reality, driving is a skill and not everyone can be good at it. We really don’t want people like that driving fast, and maybe not as fast as everyone else at that.
So, I see someone driving slow and I honestly think “maybe this is the best they can do knowing that it would be dangerous to go faster, beyond what their reflexes can handle.”
Thank you! I honestly get pretty anxious, especially in my dingy little car, going the speed limit.
Completely agree around the “good drivers” fallacy. We’re all human - emotional, tired, thinking about other things.
And the risk and consequences of a crash increase disproportionately with speed while the time gain has diminishing returns. So I’m happy getting there 5 mins later after 2 h of driving safely and calmly
Live. Laugh. Losing my FUCKING shit now MOVE!
This the the guy two inches behind me when I’m already doing 15 over the speed limit
I think that looks like tailgating because you couldn’t have a sticker to scale with the cars at proper distance from each other. It’s just a model showing cars need to drive in the driving lane not the passing lane.
Same.
If I’m going faster than other traffic and already over the limit by a decent amount, I’ll move over once the middle lane is clear, but I’m not speeding up just because you’re impatient.
In fact, I’ll slow down just a wee bit.
I give no fucks.
But, the caveat to that is that I don’t loiter in the passing lane at ten under the limit. It’s the passing lane. I’m there because, you know, I’m passing people and not because I think I need to do 95 mph in a lifted truck just to assert my dominance over the morning commute.
The tailgater is always the asshole, if there is to be just one.
The tailgater is always an asshole. There may be multiple.
Says the bumper sticker on the giant ass pickup truck who blocks your entire view and always drives 5mph below the limit.
They can be an asshole and still be right.
Absolutely but I wonder if they appreciate the irony.
Kind of surprised by how many people are defending this shit.
If you tailgate people, you can go fuck yourself.
In my state it is law that slower traffic move to the right lane. That means if your hall monitor ass is running the speed limit in the left lane and you are holding up traffic that wants to go faster than you, you are not only the asshole you can be pulled over and cited and I have seen it enforced.
So it’s legal in your state to exceed the speed limit of you want to go faster than the guy in the fast lane that is going exactly the limit?
Im surprised by the people indicating that they don’t pull over on purpose, literally just to be an asshole… Tailgating is idiotic, but you can do something about it by getting out of the way. Its safer to have as much room around you as possible. Don’t tailgate, let people pass, and pass quickly. Who wants to drive right next to someone, in their blind spot or in yours? Use your controls to either speed up or slow down.
For the tailgater’s here, driving fast barely saves time on short trips. You might save as much as 2 minutes on your daily 20 mile commute driving like an absolute maniac. But who wants to risk a ticket or accident doing that everyday and then paying an increased insurance rate on top of potentially losing your car and spending time in the hospital with an insane medical bill?
I rarely if ever see a tailgater tailgate one car that’s doing something wrong, and then immediately go back to being cool.
You’re correct, but as a schematic the image is also correct.
You know what I do if someone’s tailgating me? I imagine that they’re a bomb disposal expert on their way to diffuse a nuke at a school for blind orphan kittens, I pull over and let them on their way, and smile at the thought of all those kittens who’ll be saved. Stress level 0.
I just think “dickheads to the front”. I’d rather have bad drivers in front of me, where I can see them and avoid their bad driving.
What do you do if they still stay behind you, refusing to pass?
There’s a minimum safe following distance that’s necessary to avoid accidents.
If they’re too close, I’m in danger of getting rear-ended.
The safe following distance depends on the speed we’re going.
I can’t control how close the car behind me is driving.
But I can control my speed.
So I blip the brake just enough for the brake lights to come on and get their attention, then coast without gas and slow down until my speed matches their distance.(They’ll pass me long before that)
Slow down until they do, or even pull over if it’s safe to.
shoot
If the car behind that is you, you’re also an asshole.
Stop fucking tailgating, no matter what the car in front does.Yeah, just stay back a safe distance and flash your brights until they move. Because the passing lane is called that for a reason and people need to get used to it.
I am the Sunshine.
If you’re that close to the car in front, you’re the bigger asshole and causing by far the bigger danger
That was my reaction too. The worst drivers are the ones who treat the highway like a race track, always looking to pass anyone in sight, swerving into any lane to do so, and tailgating people as a strategy to get what they want. I hate those people so much. Yeah it’s super annoying to get blocked by a car in the left lane but you’re right, the tailgater is the worse person here.
You close the gap gradually as a reminder to get the fuck out of the way. The sticker is correct. Get out of the fast lane.
Your desire to go faster than the car in front does not overrule rules of safe driving. If you think it does, or if you’re so impatient you are unable to think rationally in this situation, your attitude is not suitable for driving a two ton machine at 70-odd miles per hour.
The sticker is wrong. Get out of the driver’s seat.
Lol bro/sphene. Just move over. Your attitude really isnt fit for sharing communal resources.
There’s no such thing as a “fast lane”. “Fast lane” implies that there’s a speed fast enough to justify staying there, which is false.
It’s the passing lane. You use it to pass slower traffic in the middle lane before getting back into the middle lane. If you’re not passing people, you do not belong in that lane.
But people do go faster in that lane than the other lanes, because they have to in order to pass.
Fair point!
Incorrect in Wisconsin, FWIW. By law, we have the speed limit, and “slower traffic keep right.” And there’s no keeping-up-with-flow-of-traffic clause, either. So traveling at the limit in the left lane is completely legal, there’s no obligation to clear the way for lawbreakers.
So you’re the person who stays in the left lane with a mile of cars behind you?
Do everyone else a favor and stay off the highway.
Lol, no.
There’s legal and there’s things you should do. If the highway is three lanes, move the fuck over.
As I’ve been reminded, it’s not your job to police other drivers’ behavior. 😉
Nor is it yours. Even in your own comments you admit that the left lane is the passing lane. If someone is behind you, you’re slower traffic. You’re obligated to move over, and you’re in the wrong if you do not.
What is it with you power freaks that just have to enact control by fucking with other people? Find a better way to get a rage boner.
If you have slower traffic keep right, and there is no one to the right of the slower moving car, shouldn’t they keep right in that case?
No, not if they’re travelling at about the speed limit. It would be illegal to overtake.
It is also illegal to stay in the left lane when other people are speeding. If they are going faster than you, you are by definition slower traffic and obliged to keep to the right.
Your job as a driver is not to police other drivers’ behaviors. It’s not even to follow the letter of the law. It’s to operate the vehicle safely. Creating obstacles for other people because you don’t think they should drive so fast is not a safe action.
Really, we need to collectively get rid of the idea of a “fast lane.” The left lane is a passing lane. You should only be in it when you’re attempting to pass someone, and when the pass is complete, you should move over.
I’d just point out, as in my original comment, that is incorrect in Wisconsin. It is perfectly legal to drive at the speed limit in the left lane here. We don’t have any notion of a passing lane in state law.
Out of courtesy, I stay to the right, but almost every semi is doing 65MPH when the limit is 70MPH, the adaptive-cruise people hanging behind them are even slower. So, I pass them. Interestingly, by following the speed limit, I’ll encounter maybe one or two left-lane campers in a four-hour highway trip. It would seem that the people trying to police the behavior of slower (than they’d like) drivers in fast or passing lane are the greater problem.
Just a quick bit of searching, and I found a Wisconsin sheriff who is far less definitive on this than you:
According to state law, any vehicle traveling “at less than the normal speed of traffic” must be driven in the right-hand lane, or as close as practicable, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle.
So Wisconsin does acknowledge that anyone going less than the normal speed of traffic should only use the left lane to pass. But, as the sheriff points out:
“It describes normal traffic, so to say somebody going 80 is normal is going to be very difficult for me to say that. So normal being above the speed limit, you’ve got two conflicting sets of laws here.”
And it’s okay that traffic laws conflict with each other because, again, the point is not the letter of the law, but the safe and predictable operation of the vehicle.
Completely legal doesn’t mean you aren’t a dick for doing it
Sometimes you gotta pass speed-governed semis and adaptive-cruise folks; I’m not worried about criminals’ opinions of me.
I’m not worried about criminals’ opinions of me.
Lmao this would be a great bit if you weren’t serious
Thank you!
Atleast you make it easy to tag you as an entitled piece of shit
The people who are obsessed with this are also the people who seem to think any person in the left lane at any time gives them justification to aggressively weave in and out of traffic, ignoring the equally present laws against speeding and undertaking.
This is my impression too. The number of times I have been held up by someone hogging the outside lane, or had to change lanes twice around someone hogging the middle, is very low compared to the number of times I’ve been held up by a lorry overtaking another lorry on a two-lane road (perfectly legal, happens at least a dozen times every trip on such roads) or been aggressively tailgated while I’m overtaking traffic (not legal, happens about once per such trip)
So true. I can’t believe how often i’ve seen morons like this also say something like “actually driving too slow is dangerous too”
Because it is.
Don’t hangout in the left lane.
It is, but suboptimal driving behaviour of your fellow drivers is never an excuse to consciously make road traffic even more dangerous or behave aggresively.
Going significantly slower than the rest of traffic can be dangerous in a limited number of scenarios, but not frequently enough for people to bring it up in casual conversation.
Edit: Significantly slower is like the opposite of significantly faster, being wildly different is dangerous because of how it impacts merging between lanes.
It’s always dangerous on the highway. If you’re going significantly slower other drivers will not realize how fast they will catch up to you and can’t brake properly.
The one frequent scenario I can think of off the top of my head is merging onto the highway. At least once a week it feels like I’m stuckbehingd someone trying to merge onto the highway 10mph under the speed limit making it more dangerous for everyone stuck behind them.
Also going significantly slower than traffic and changing multiple lanes at once, slowing down far too early for an exit, going very slow in the middle lane so traffic flows around both sides, and some others as well. Basically if the car is going slow enough to be comparable to something stationary in the road it can be a hazard.
But it really does have to be wildly different from traffic, not just 10-15 mph different.
Yeah. And they rarely give a fully articulated reason why “driving too slow is dangerous”. Because they know that the real reason - “it makes other people drive aggressively” - is trying to place the blame on slow drivers for the actions of actually dangerous drivers.
Of course, you should drive at an appropriate speed. But in terms of safety messaging, it’s not the thing to focus on.
For the rear I would put something more meaningful, like the right lane full of cars and the red car (you) behind the 1st car.
And I would write: If this is you and you are blinking your lights and having your left blinkers on, you need to stop… and fucking wait…
Isn’t this a message that the intended recipient will never see?
He’s going to go around them and make them read it.
if this is you, you’re probably me
Boof the sunshine
If you drive normally I’ll let you pass. But if you’re up in my ass flashing highbeams when I’m still overtaking? Grab a snack buddy cause we’re going nowhere and we’re not going there fast either.
Edit: Some salty fucks in here dogpiling a silly comment on the internets. Sure is reddit in here
Though I read a story (I think on lemmy, though it’s been a while) of someone trying to meet an ambulance in the middle of nowhere (Texas, I want to say?) as their friend was bleeding out, basically.
A lady did what you describe and it took critical time away. The friend ended up dying just before they met the emts.
Not everyone who looks like they are a dick, are one.
Thats what emergency flashers are for.
Emergency flashers… on your typical like Nissan Altima (or whatever)?
The two vehicles were headed to a central meeting point to save critical time, in the actual middle of nowhere.
Yes, it’s the red triangle button, give it a shot sometime!
That’s not an ‘emergency flasher’ button, it’s the hazards, and it’s for when you’re broken down or crashed, or (illegally) stack your home depot run 17 pallets high.
I’m a first responder (at least, used to be) and that button is known in the states as the ‘park wherever you want’ button and nothing else.
Fun fact, using the hazard indicators while moving on a public road can be a cited offense. But you have fun going wee-woo and playing pretend emergency man. Maybe lose the snappy attitude though, it’s indicative of your age and knowledge.
Yeah if they aren’t using the emergency lights then it means there’s no emergency. Pretty sure the first comment was talking about normal road users anyway…
Anecdotes aren’t data.
Ride my ass so closely that you put me in danger, and I’m taking my time.
Just move the fuck over and don’t subject everyone to this bs. My husband does this and twice now these psychos acted erratically and followed us home. How the fuck is it worth it? Move over let them pass and get pulled over if it’s that bad.
What I’m hearing is “don’t dress like that if you don’t want to get assaulted”. Is that right?
I’m going to move over. But if you’re up my ass then I need to have much farther stopping distance from the car in front of me, to account for the decrease in response time from the follower. Which means I can’t pass as quickly or get over as fast.
“Instead of letting the dangerous driver past me and away from me I am making the situation worse by attempting to intervene”
‘data points aren’t data’
Okay but they’re not. Right? Data points by themselves aren’t data. That’s why they have a different name.
If you look at one data point, then everyone with red hair is a billionaire because I saw one once.
Anecdotes aren’t data points either. For data points to become useful data they have to be standardised across parameters to create valid correlations. Anecdotes are not that.
Shit happens and sometimes you won’t be there for it and that’s just life. It’s not a justification to put everyone else on the road in danger.
Easy to say when it’s not you bleeding out, but alright fam
If you do what the comment describes it’s fine. But if you do it to an ambulance you deserve to be shot as I do think we can all agree there is a distinct difference between any regular car and an ambulance.
I think the story goes that the ambulance was driving towards a car containing the patient, and the car containing the patient was also driving towards the ambulance.
It’s tragic but that is an infrastructure failure more than anything else.
I’m my tiny country we have trauma helicopters for stuff like that. You should never get into your own car with stuff like that.
Secondly how did it is to have a alarm line operator tell you to get into your own car to meet the ambulance half way. How did that work?
In rural areas they Will communicate with both of you.
Once again, move the fuck over. You aren’t the police.
Way to miss my point. Have better ambulance coverage.
That makes more sense. Thanks
Then it’s an educational failure because they didn’t use emergency lights.
You don’t know that they didn’t use emergency lights, and it ultimately doesn’t matter either way. Someone died a preventable death because of people like you trying to police others’ behaviour.
Edit: made my comment a little less mean
No one here remembers them saying this in the post it seems, and no that death didn’t happen because someone wouldn’t get over. I’m not policing anyones actions here any more than saying “there is a standard procedure for this that could’ve also impacted the death.” Fwiw that person in the example pic here doesn’t have enough clearance to switch lanes at 70+ mph safely, which would be 6+ cat lengths and would be risking lives moving over.
Yeah, play chicken with a maniac driving a 2 ton vehicle. Good luck.
Driving at the speed limit is not ‘playing chicken’
‘Legally right’ means dick to these people.
Let them pass lest they do something reckless and take you with them in the process.
This sign is legally binding.
What I’m hearing is you require other drivers to drive deferentially in such a way that caters to your ego in order for you to drive safely and avoid conflicts, otherwise you drive like a sociopath for sport?
Someone hit a nerve
I must have.
My wife is an anxious passenger. I usually set the adaptive cruise control to whatever matches prevailing traffic, and stay in the outermost lane unless I have to pass someone. Most of my driving is honestly trying to make sure if someone does something stupid, I’m reacting to it in a calm way.
A lot of people have big feels about controlling the road.
The adaptive cruise control is interesting - if I’m a few hundred feet behind someone long enough for it to “lock in”, I know their speed because my car is pacing them.It’s fascinating to see people suddenly accelerate after miles of the same speed on a relatively empty road because I moved into the passing lane, or (conversely) slow down because they’re alongside a slow vehicle and not in danger of being under-passed by another driver. The ego and herd mentality is something to behold.
Jesus fucking christ calm down you lunatic
Oh, sorry. Comment snuck up on you too fast? Put you ill at ease while you thought you were the only person on the internet?
What are you gonna do, claim personal offense and use that as justification to return the offense ten-fold?There is another option. It’s minding your business.
We can’t know the justifications or dispositions of others, but we can choose not to pick fights with strangers. In fact: choosing to avoid confrontation could save a life! Someone else’s, or even your own - you don’t know who you’re messing with on the road. 🌈💫Keep sniffing your own farts bro👍
No response of substance.
Welcome to Lenny. No one cares
*Lemmy
If you’re that car in the first place, you’re blocking traffic. Get the fuck out of the way.
