Get your driving gripes off your chest here...

[Mako]

Something very strange has started happening over here on the motorways which I really don't understand. I wonder if anyone has any insights?

Say two trucks - both limited to 62.5MPH as they are over here - are overtaking each other. One is laden and the other not, so the overtaker has maybe a .5MPH advantage. A fairly common occurrence...

Anyway, this means that the faster traffic is obliged move into the outside lane to overtake. What I've noticed recently is that people passing the trucks are actually slowing down (from 70 or 80 to maybe 65) as they pass. The result is horrendous tailbacks.

Can anyone see any valid reason why people might be doing this? I mean, I get that highway accidents are often bad because of he speed differential at impact, but even if you were scared of the truck, surely you'd want to complete the overtake as quickly as possible? Who wants to be next to a semi for any longer than is necessary?

[Solfy]

Brother's car's bodywork is done. Brother's rental car was rear-ended while parked last night.

[Taur]

Originally Posted by THespos

Rather than turn this into a pissing match, I'll just admit to being a part of the problem and let Board Taurus flame me if he/she feels my actions merit such a thing.

Also, I like doing donuts in the street outside my in-laws' house.

I just find it terribly ironic that you complain about other people's shite driving while relating stories of your own.

Originally Posted by Solfy

Brother's car's bodywork is done. Brother's rental car was rear-ended while parked last night.

Jesus H. :headdesk:

[KidVermicious]

Originally Posted by Mako

Something very strange has started happening over here on the motorways which I really don't understand. I wonder if anyone has any insights?

Say two trucks - both limited to 62.5MPH as they are over here - are overtaking each other. One is laden and the other not, so the overtaker has maybe a .5MPH advantage. A fairly common occurrence...

Anyway, this means that the faster traffic is obliged move into the outside lane to overtake. What I've noticed recently is that people passing the trucks are actually slowing down (from 70 or 80 to maybe 65) as they pass. The result is horrendous tailbacks.

Can anyone see any valid reason why people might be doing this? I mean, I get that highway accidents are often bad because of he speed differential at impact, but even if you were scared of the truck, surely you'd want to complete the overtake as quickly as possible? Who wants to be next to a semi for any longer than is necessary?

By truck you mean TRUCK, right? I've noticed the same thing over here. I don't think it's that everybody wants to slow down next to the semi, necessarily, just that once one person does slow down, or passes veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slooooooooooooooooooooowly, everybody else is forced to go that same speed until a gap develops big enough that somebody doesn't have to brake.

Originally Posted by Solfy

Brother's car's bodywork is done. Brother's rental car was rear-ended while parked last night.

I'm laughing, but that's really not funny... brother could find his insurance company dropping him.

[Solfy]

Originally Posted by KidVermicious

I'm laughing, but that's really not funny... brother could find his insurance company dropping him.

That would be nasty, seeing as the last accident he was 100% not at fault (her insurance covered the work), and this time he wasn't even in the vehicle.

[Revs]

I don't know if they're putting something in the water down here or what but everyone seems to have forgotten that gas stations have actual parking spots. People just kind of stop where ever they feel like it. They'll block the entrance and exits of the lot, stop short of pulling up to the pumps so its impossible to get around them and just hang out in the middle of the parking lot being in the way of everyone.

While I'm here I want to give a hearty fuck you to certain gas station customers. If all you're doing is lotto get the hell to the back of the line. That pack of cigarettes you buy every day is the same price as it was the day before, get your money ready and quit acting like its a surprise when the clerk tells you your total. And if all you're doing is buying papers and/or blunt wraps, get the fuck out & go to a head shop. Goddamn stoners take forever. "What flavor blunt wraps do you have? How much are they? Do you have White Owl blunts? What flavors? How much are they? Do you have Zig Zags? Whites or oranges? Do you have Jokers?" Gah! just buy a bong already!

[Mako]

Originally Posted by KidVermicious

By truck you mean TRUCK, right? I've noticed the same thing over here. I don't think it's that everybody wants to slow down next to the semi, necessarily, just that once one person does slow down, or passes veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slooooooooooooooooooooowly, everybody else is forced to go that same speed until a gap develops big enough that somebody doesn't have to brake.

Yes, I do. As a side note, I tend to Americanize my language here to avoid translation problems, (and I grew up in the States, so I find the word "lorry" a little bit twee). So I'm talking about semis/18-wheelers/big rigs, or at least the UK equivalent of them.

What it seems you're saying is that it takes one person to be scared, and then of course everyone behind is naturally blocked. The trouble with that is;

1) It's got worse recently - within the last 6 months.
2) The sort of people we're talking about includes big Beemers and such. People who aren't noted for being timid on the motorways.

I'm not dismissing your suggestion - it's probably valid sometimes - but I'm starting to wonder.

[DogMom]

Mako, I have noticed lately that if I go blowing by an 18-wheeler at speed (eg: 70 mph) that the crosswinds are horrendous and I damn near get blown off the road in my teeny little Ford Focus. Slowing down to even 65 mph or 60 makes it far easier to deal with. This is only if it's already kinda blowing around, tho, so I can't speak for everyone. However, I do try to pass them at speed just to get AWAY From the problem, but if I start getting a bad crosswind I will slow down.

Maybe that's why?

[Mako]

Originally Posted by DogMom

Mako, I have noticed lately that if I go blowing by an 18-wheeler at speed (eg: 70 mph) that the crosswinds are horrendous and I damn near get blown off the road in my teeny little Ford Focus. Slowing down to even 65 mph or 60 makes it far easier to deal with. This is only if it's already kinda blowing around, tho, so I can't speak for everyone. However, I do try to pass them at speed just to get AWAY From the problem, but if I start getting a bad crosswind I will slow down.

Maybe that's why?

Funny you should say that. Most of the cars I see doing this are modern ones with Edge Design - something that started with Ford and which has infected every car manufacturer I can think of. My own car was the first in the world to have a light version of it, as an experiment.

I'm not an aerodynamics expert, but I wonder if these people have been blown off-course by the bow wave of a truck* and not known why, and have since been cautious? And if so, have we seen the triumph of form over function...?

*My tear-drop-shaped Rovers never suffered this, ever. On the other hand my edge-design Cougar does.

[Solfy]

I swear there's something in the water. I was almost in two accidents on the way home tonight. First asshole decides that it would be a good idea while exiting a parking lot to stop, look both ways, start to pull out, see me coming, stop for a sec, and then pull out right in front of me. I had no stop sign - it wasn't even an intersection, just a parking lot entrance. Thank goodness I saw him contemplating stupidity and was ready to stomp on the brakes. Also it was raining and snowing at the same time. Charming.

2nd asshole was behind me. Car in front of me was waiting for a chance to make a left turn at the intersection. I was going straight. Car behind me decided he's much too important to wait and tries to go around us such that when I did go straight, he almost drove into the passenger side of my car. (There are no turn lanes here. It's worse because if you're coming from the west, you're cresting a hill as you get into the intersection and can't see what you're driving into. People going straight who think they're invincible/special go around those who are waiting to turn north This results in frequent accidents because the cars waiting to turn north block the view of the people coming from east who are trying to turn south. I've been honked at for not going around. People would rather die than wait 15 seconds for the right of way.)

ALL YOU ROAD HAZARD PEOPLE GET OFF THE ROAD.