Quote:
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Originally Posted by Coppertop
There are two pertinent rules of driving:
- Slower traffic yield to faster traffic
- Slower traffic keep right
These seem so simple, and yet are so seldomly adhered to. I think these two things need to be more emphasized in traffic school. Driving would be so much more enjoyable and safe for all if these freeway courtesies are followed. A pipedream, I know. |
He's right, that simple or not by argument these are the rules that you should follow. I once heard a state trooper (I live in Utah) make a comment that I found to be very relevant "It is not your job to enforce the law." Therefore is somebody wants to be going faster than you get the hell out of the way. If you can't move over, speed up, you're in the left lane use it!! Otherwise regardless of your intention you're making yourself the catalyst in an increasingly unsafe situation where you're becoming hostile, making the person behind you violent, and often times you're paying so much attention to the jackass behind you that you have no idea what's going on in front of you. I don't get aggravated when I know that the cars in front of me have nowhere to go, high traffic is always going to be there, what pisses me off is that a very mojor portion of the high traffic started out as a single inconsiderate asshole that would follow these rules and created a ripple effect that takes hours to dissipate. Look at the one idiot slowing down to look at the cop with a car pulled over "rubbernecking" because he slowed down now everybody behind him has to compensate, initiating the chain reaction that turns into traffic jams. Quite often around here the accident isn't even impeding traffic!
My last point is that not every car is the same, for instance most of my driving career I've driven smaller cars and more powerful sedans for my commute, but I'm now driving a large pickup and there are remarkable differences. I avoid the left lane in the truck because it doesn't have the power/speed to accelerate and stop quickly, I also leave more space in front of me than I usually would because the truck is damned heavy and takes a little longer. Regardless of the vehicle that you're in you should be aware of it's capabilities and drive accordingly, the flip side being that there is no excuse for people in modern cars to be merging on the freeway down a 1/2 mile onramp at 30 miles an hour! We'd all be a lot better off if almost all of us just paid a little bit more attention to what's going on around us. Like StephenSa said, don't just ride behind the wheel, drive.