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[kaijyuu]

Statistics disagree with you that slowing down causes more accidents, road rage included. And besides, the point of slowing down isn't to prevent accidents (though that's part of it), but to make them less deadly. Your chances of survival get exponentially smaller the faster you go.



Ultimately, if you can't stand other drivers, take a deep breath and start taking the bus instead. If you can't take the bus since the public transportation where you live sucks, welcome to my world. Let's mourn crappy transportation together.

[Flying Dice]

Most of the lanes on a major bridge closed during rush hour turns a 10 minute drive into a 45 minute drive. At least I didn't take the bus today; I'd still be on the road if I had. At least I got to follow some guy in a Crown Vic who was absolutely wasted, weaving back and forth across three lanes for the five or six miles I was behind him.

[SalmonGod]

Frumple just doesn't understand. Go speed limit, maybe leave two-three minutes earlier at most. Get there at same time or near enough it doesn't matter. Don't break law in process. Why go faster when it doesn't make particular difference and is somewhat less safe? If in hurry, already late. Not point rushing then. Late is binary, more late still late.

Two-three minutes early doesn't cut it.

When I am able to drive my entire commute without anything preventing me from going the speed limit the entire way, it takes me exactly 10 minutes.  I only get stopped by one stoplight, and every subsequent stoplight is timed to allow me through if I am going the speed limit, so I don't get stopped again.

But I get stuck behind people driving 10-15 miles under the speed limit every single fucking day.  Most days my commute takes 16-18 minutes.  I'm not really safe unless I give myself 25 minutes, because that's how long it takes on those days where I get stuck behind people going 15 miles under the speed limit in both lanes the entire way. 

In other words, slow people almost double the average time of my commute almost every day, and waste over two cumulative hours of my time every single week.  Even worse, if any hiccup in my day prevents me from giving myself +150% the amount of time it should take me (according to the LEGAL speed limit) to get to work, slow people put me at serious risk of losing my job.  Losing my job is more likely to ruin my life than having a car accident.  I've survived multiple car accidents without injury to either party.  I've survived a motorcycle accident at 40 mph without injury.  Losing my job is guaranteed to fuck up my life.  This is not safety.  It is disrespectful bullshit.

[MaximumZero]

The speed limit on the major highways here is 70. The flow of traffic is usually 80-90.

[SalmonGod]

Also worth mentioning:  The vast majority of slow drivers are very obviously not driving slowly to be safe.  It's because they're messing with their cell phones.  I would estimate this to be the case in 80% of my personal experience.

[nenjin]

Statistics disagree with you that slowing down causes more accidents, road rage included. And besides, the point of slowing down isn't to prevent accidents (though that's part of it), but to make them less deadly. Your chances of survival get exponentially smaller the faster you go.



Ultimately, if you can't stand other drivers, take a deep breath and start taking the bus instead. If you can't take the bus since the public transportation where you live sucks, welcome to my world. Let's mourn crappy transportation together.

I rode the bus for 5 years before getting back on the road. I'm not going to avoid the road because fucking inconsiderate morons think every day is a Sunday drive in the country. I'm going to pass them. Most likely with my finger stuck out the window. They get their 3 blocks to prove they're not a moron. And I'm being generous with that. The people that drive 30 mph or less in a 35 mph zone are the same people who never check their rear view mirror, because behind them is "someone else's problem."

I check my rear view about every 45 seconds. And if someone is riding my ass, the first thing I do is check my speed to make sure I'm doing the speed limit. If I'm not, I start driving the fucking speed limit. It's not a hard concept to grasp, and if as a driver you can't grasp that very simple rule of the road....YOU should be the one riding the bus.

Or to put it another way....if you're too timid to drive the speed limit, you're too timid to be on the road and are a danger to other drivers.

[scriver]

You're severely overestimating your ability, Salmon. People like you are the reason so many die or get injured for life on the roads, and you're more than likely to cause an accident one day. Hopefully you'll have the self distance then to not blame the other driver, and victim, for your mistakes. Pre-edit: Oh, you already been in several, and learned nothing from them. Great.


@Nenjin - 5-10 miles below? You have no sense of scale at all, man. 25km-upwards below, sure. Then you're being a problem (not that anyone would ever drive that slowly without a reason). But 5-10 miles? You're just being ridiculous, not to mention showing off what a bad trafficant you are. Driving at that little below limit doesn't cause any accidents unless the people driving into them is extremely careless and self-absorbed. Not being able to "suffer" people going 5-10 miles below just shows that it is you who have no "respect or situational awareness". They're not the ones being "inconsiderate morons".

Oh, and by the way? If everyone slowed down a little and kept calm, rush-hour traffic wouldn't result in the same kind of jams, which would make you get to your destination faster.

Seriously, both of you, go back to school and learn how to behave in traffic.

[kaijyuu]

If the rage in this thread isn't exaggerated, then the timid drivers aren't the only ones that are a danger to other drivers



I stopped driving because I don't want to deal with all this shit. Also, I'm a horrible driver who should never of been given a license. But here I have one, and often I'm forced to use it due to having no other way to get myself from point A to point B. I risk my life and other's because... I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps because most the other terrible drivers are on the street due to valuing some sort of personal independence or something, rather than on a bus or train where they can't infuriate or hurt anyone. No one rides the public transport, so it's not a priority, so I'm not provided with the options I need to be freed from taking unnecessary risks.

[Scelly9]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/14151849/virus-threatens-internet-blackoout/

So. Stupid.

[Sirus]

There are times, however, when you should drive less than the speed limit, and I'm willing to forgive slow drivers in these circumstances, up to a point:

A) Beginning drivers; I was terrible when I started and hated driving. Now I love it, but back then...
B) If they have a heavy or bulky load. Big rigs often go slower than the limit, or have their own separate limits. Considering the stuff they might be carrying, a little extra safety is a good thing, so long as they aren't in the fast lanes.
C) Bad conditions. I consider myself a good driver and I constantly scan for danger. That said, if there's heavy fog or slippery roads, slow down! I remember driving home late one night through a heavy storm that left the sides of the highway flooded and had my wipers going full speed. I was going nearly 20 mph less than the limit, and even then I was passing most people. That shit is dangerous. Fun drive though.

[Mono124]

You're severely overestimating your ability, Salmon. People like you are the reason so many die or get injured for life on the roads, and you're more than likely to cause an accident one day. Hopefully you'll have the self distance then to not blame the other driver, and victim, for your mistakes. Pre-edit: Oh, you already been in several, and learned nothing from them. Great.


@Nenjin - 5-10 miles below? You have no sense of scale at all, man. 25km-upwards below, sure. Then you're being a problem (not that anyone would ever drive that slowly without a reason). But 5-10 miles? You're just being ridiculous, not to mention showing off what a bad trafficant you are. Driving at that little below limit doesn't cause any accidents unless the people driving into them is extremely careless and self-absorbed. Not being able to "suffer" people going 5-10 miles below just shows that it is you who have no "respect or situational awareness". They're not the ones being "inconsiderate morons".

Oh, and by the way? If everyone slowed down a little and kept calm, rush-hour traffic wouldn't result in the same kind of jams, which would make you get to your destination faster.

Seriously, both of you, go back to school and learn how to behave in traffic.

5-10 miles is a big deal. Most of the places around where I live at least are 25-40 mph zones, and if you go 5-10 mph lower, it takes FOREVER to get anywhere. Getting stuck behind someone on a 2 lane road with oncoming traffic so you can't ride past them, and they are going 25 in a 35 is extremely frustrating. 5-10 mph lower on say, a highway, or a road where the normal speed is 50 or higher is less of an issue. Going slower than normal when the speed is already slow is ridiculous.

[scriver]

No. Below 90 km/h, you loose roughly 1 minute for every 10km/h you drive slower per 10km you drive. You do not loose much time at all unless you're driving for hours and hours at a time. You're getting frustrated for no reason.

[Mono124]

I failed to mention that the area around my house is full of stoplights. Everywhere. Hitting all the stoplights because someone is going too slow is also time consuming.

[MaximumZero]

It appears that Scriver doesn't understand that IN AMERICA, time is money. Every minute is extremely valuable. Every minute that you're late to a job is a chance that you will lose that job. Every minute that you leave early is wasted time, because you could have been doing something more important than waiting on some jackass who won't drive to society's standards, like checking stocks or reading important news. You also have to realize that distances between urban areas in the US are fucking enormous. The US takes up about 1/16 of the entire Earth's land surface.

[Sirus]

The US takes up about 1/16 of the entire Earth's land surface.

While it's true that the US is fairly large in comparison to some other countries, that seems a little big to me.