People who drive like they have a freakin' deathwish...why?

I kind of wish the U.S. would move to the metric system just because it makes everything sound so much faster.

This morning, I drove to work at 30 m/s.

A few days each week, I drive from my house north of Milwaukee to our company office near O’Hare airport. A 25-mile stretch of I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago is currently under construction as part of a project to make the highway four lanes in each direction all the way between the two cities. It’s needed, but it’s making the trip a nightmare for the next couple of years.

The construction area is three lanes in each direction, but the lanes are narrower than normal, the surface is uneven in many spots and there’s no shoulder, with concrete barriers right up against the outside lanes almost the entire way. The posted speed limit in the construction zone is 60 mph, but – of course – that has had no effect on the crazies. They zoom and cross lanes just as if everything is normal. The result is an accident on average every other day in the construction zone. I try to stick to the middle lane as much as possible, but it’s still white knuckle time until I’m through the construction zone.

Many, many years ago when I was in my early 20’s, a girlfriend told me to take a hike. It was well past midnight, and I was quite beside myself. Being a stupid, overwrought doofus I decided to get in the car and drive off to the place we first met as a way to bring things to an emotional full circle. It was about 150 miles away.

I didn’t have a deathwish persay, but … I made it there in a little over an hour, averaging around 125 mph (that’s about 200 kph to those living under the “tyranny of the metric system”).

I drove normal speeds on my way back, and never did anything quite so dumb behind the wheel again. Years later, I reflected on how fortunate I was to not get caught by the cops and I brought up the story to a friend in law enforcement. He explained with someone driving that speed at that time of night all alone on the highway, the cops likely just hope you don’t kill yourself and the odds of a wreck go up significantly if they give chase (this was at least the logic used many years ago, which may have changed since).

It’s exactly this way in Detroit. If you leave a safe cushion ahead, someone will fill it and in the meantime you have someone else riding your ass. You end up getting sandwiched all of the time and its nerve wracking. And this is at 70 mph plus.

The best maneuver in all cases where some asshole is tailgating you and it’s not viable (or perhaps it’s dangerous) to move over and let them be someone else’s problem is this:

Just slow it down. Gradually. Not so they are going to hit you, even if they’re really riding your ass. But just gently, a tick on the speedometer every 5-10 seconds.

Apply the bird as necessary.

Fuck them, they get nothing.

Agreed. I follow closely in some situations and I’d rather a car slow down; it lets me know they’ve no plans to keep up with traffic or don’t get that people will fill in the gaps, so I should get around them.

First I’ll give them a headlight double flash to let them know as politely as possible that they are going too slow in the fast lane.

If they don’t get over, or even try to, then I’ll either pass or I’ll sometimes be a tailgater myself if there’s no way to pass them and they aren’t doing a bloody thing.

A lot of times, I’ll notice that the brain dead driver isn’t just slowing down traffic in the fast lane, but also having a ripple effect to the other lanes, which makes even more people drive less safely to try to get around.

I used to do this all the time. If someone was tailgating me, I’d just take my foot off the gas. Did it once about a decade ago when I was talking to my (now ex-)wife on my cell phone. This guy was right behind me. All I could see was a windshield in my rearview mirror. I took my foot off the gas, got slower and slower and I was a bit distracted from my phone conversation, got down to about 45 mph on the freeway. Then the guy behind me turned on the red and blue flashers on top of his prowler, which I hadn’t even known were there because he was so close (and I was distracted by the phone conversation.) I nearly shit my pants. He didn’t pull me over, just took off while I pulled completely off the freeway to breathe for a few minutes.

I used to do this too, but then one day stuck in my daily 45 minute, 6 mile, drive home i hit a bit of a zen moment. I realized that you make traffic worse by not giving people room to cut in front of you: face it, if you don’t give them room, they’ll eventually stop and cut in behind you somewhere anyways - and when they do stop (or cut) that’s two lanes that are now stopped. If traffic is moving at 6 and you’re bumper to bumper, slow to 5 and just coast. Plus you don’t stress as much…

back on topic though, my fun driving moron story: driving in the slow lane at about 65 mph and about to exit on a well-moving, but pretty packed highway, and someone passes me on the right, in the breakdown lane, doing maybe 75 or 80.

It’s funny you say it’s polite, because besides the “I could die due to this idiot tailgating me”, the thing that riles me up the most when I’m going +5 or +10 in the fast lane in heavy traffic is some prick coming up on me doing +20 and flashing their lights at me. Immediately I do whatever I can to piss this person off the most, usually trying my darnedest to box them in with whatever traffic is next to me.

I don’t stay in the left lane at all if there’s any space to my right so I feel pretty good about myself too.

Edit to add: the people who come up on me and leave me space while I pass the traffic in the middle lanes, I get right out of their way as soon as I can and give em a wave. Safe driving is good for everyone.

My wife is from Serbia and she used to drive in the left lane always…no matter if she is going the speed limit, or 20 over …drove me nuts…after getting honked at and given the finger by so many drivers over the years she now drives correctly and is a lot better about staying in the right lanes.

Of course, I’ve told her she now drives like a grandma so she is now speeding excessively…in the right lanes…OMG.

IMHO, the light flash is the most polite way to try to get the driver’s attention, as long as you aren’t being a jerk about it and already tailgating and generally exhibiting signs of road rage.

It definitely can be a jerk thing too.

I could see how that’s the case for sure, but I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone do it without the rest of the angry tailgating driver bit happening too. I guess it’s good you’re out there, doing the right thing. :)

I can remember in years past when the Illinois State Police would set up enforcement vans and nail people driving like toolbags in construction zones. I wonder why they stopped?

I agree. I will love it when we are all passengers going 10MPH slower then we do now and never having accidents and we can use our tablets or shut our eyes. Let the AI guide our cars. If I want to “drive” I’ll ride a bike. Bring it.

Honestly: I understand why you decided to give him space, but not in a million years would I have risked my own safety just to accommodate someone like that. I probably would have slowed down, gradually, until he got fed up with it and had no choice but to overtake. What an ass.

Other than that, I can only say that the OP should not try driving in (the western part of) the Netherlands: during rush hours pretty much everyone drives like that here. Not because they are annoying pricks, just because there is no other choice: the road is full and if you leave too much (or rather: enough…) space, it is filled up immediately. To add to the fun, the left lane is a continuous mix of going from 130 down to 40 back to 130, with cars weaving in and out whenever it slows/speeds up, keeping you on your tows. I tend to stick to the middle lane in those situations because I don’t want to be in the mess to the left, but I don’t want to get stuck between lorries on the right either.

Sounds like a mess, is indeed a mess sometimes, and yet I love it: I absolutely love driving and as such would really hate self-driving vehicles!

The construction zone is in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin actually has more speed patrols and traps than Illinois does nowadays. However, it’s tough to set up speed traps in the construction zone, because there are very few spots within the construction zone with any shoulder for the squad car to sit on. There’s mostly just the three traffic lanes hemmed in by concrete barriers right up against the outside lanes.

In the US you are at fault for rear-ending someone, except in the rare cases you are stopped and someone plows into you and pushes you into the car in front of you.

Oh I’ve been there. It was not fun.

Double bonus: I had literally just picked my car up from the shop for a tune up, and this totaled the car.