re: Tailgating - getting worse?

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a massive truck fly in out of nowhere

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If by massive truck, you mean class 8 semi, that's not my experience. Worst offenders seem to be:

1. "SUV" minivan-hatchback from the Karen thread about Infinitis, IE Nissan Pathfinder
2. small pickups, IE Ford Ranger
3. half ton pickup (usually driven by a man) who has doctored the truck with chrome wheels, Salt Life, trucknutz... etc...

So many cars are practically driving themselves nowadays, tailgating is pointless

Its prob because that person does a wide range of speed. they will be going 10 over then 10 under with the quickness.

Happened the other day. Car on side of rode and some how the left lane ends up dropping to 57. Why? Why the frick is the person up front dropping their speed like that?

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- The "dragonflies". Mostly attributed to cellphone use but not always. They will fly past you and then you catch up with them, have to pass, and then they fly past you again. Repeat for 15 miles.

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On the interstate people not driving at least a fairly constant speed ranks just behind tailgaters who ride your arse when you are the third car in a line of cars in the left lane.

Just pick a damn speed! Nowhere does it say you must drive either 90 or 65.....pick a fricking speed and do what you can to maintain it.

And to the a-hole riding my arse when I'm the third or fourth car in a line of cars passing multiple cars in the right lane, frick you and your whore mother for giving birth to you, you useless piece of shite!


Wow....I actually feel better after typing that.

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There's not any reason you shouldn't treat it the same as passing on a two-lane yellow-dashed highway.

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Sure, if you ignore the fact that there’s not actually enough capacity for everyone to drive in the right lane at all times.

Here’s a thought exercise - imagine everyone always stayed in the right lane and only got over to pass a single car at a time. Let’s take a two-lane freeway like I-10 in most (I think) of Louisiana.

At some point, the right lane will inevitably slow down to 10-20 mph below the speed limit because of some asshat. Since nobody is passing more than one car, only the car immediately behind the asshat can actually pass him. Traffic starts to back up. Since the right lane is also the merge lane, cars miles behind the asshat are moving even slower - otherwise nobody would be able to merge onto the interstate.

“But wait,” you say, “there’s nothing wrong with passing multiple cars as long as there’s nobody driving faster behind you!” Well that’s not what you just said, but let’s play that out.

Driver #1 is going 45 mph on the interstate and realizes that there are 5 miles of open left lane between him and the asshat. He decides “frick this shite,” gets in the left lane, and passes everybody at 75 mph. A few other drivers follow suit. Before long, about 25% of the traffic is moving along at 75 mph in the left lane while the other 75% is moving at 50 mph in the right lane.

But now Driver #2 doesn’t want to drive 75 mph. He wants to drive 85 mph. So by the logic of many on this board, the “correct” thing is for every single car in the left lane between Driver #2 and the asshat to slow down from 75 mph to 50 mph, cut back into the right lane, and cause further congestion, then pull back out behind Driver #2 and accelerate back to 75 mph - instead of just continuing to pass until it’s reasonably safe to get back over.

This is an extreme example, sure. But it goes to show that reality is not nearly as black and white as some folks would like to believe. You can use whatever speed differential or size of traffic jam you want, eventually it always comes back to “reasonably safe to get back over” which is subjective.

Yes, you should always merge back into the right lane when you can. But unless there is sufficient capacity for everyone to drive in one lane, the hard line rule of “get back over as soon as you see someone driving faster behind you” actually reduces the speed of the overall traffic flow. Call me crazy, but I would prioritize the overall traffic flow above Driver #2’s desire to go fast.

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That's good and all, but if you're impeding traffic in the left lane, you're in the wrong. If you're passing, that's fine. But speed up and finish passing and get the frick over as soon as possible. But even if you're doing 85 in the left lane, if someone comes up behind you doing 90, by law you're supposed to move out of the way.

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Wrongo.

It's the passing lane. If I'm going faster than traffic in the right lane, tough shite.

A dangerous practice in Baton Rouge. There’s a whole cottage industry of toe tappers that watch on their rearview mirror for someone in a nice car not paying attention, and tap their brakes. Little bump of fenders and before you know it, the “victim” is leaving the scene in an ambulance wearing a neck brace. One call that’s all, get it done, or I just want to help, whichever billboard is closest to the scene gets a call and the chosen shyster gets his settlement blood money.

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If traffic actually is heavy enough that you can't get back over then that's fine. The road actually is at capacity then. But it doesn't mean slow down and match their speed.The key for total traffic flow is never having cars match speeds in adjacent lanes.

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I don’t think anyone would disagree that driving along in the left lane at the same speed as the traffic in the right lane is a dick move. That’s easy.

Again, all drivers should make an effort to get into the right lane when they can. I’m not disputing that. But these threads always bring out some form of “if you’re ever in the left lane when somebody faster is behind you, you’re the problem.” Which is bullshite when you look at the realities of driving on congested freeways.

If you’re passing multiple vehicles in the left lane with a faster driver behind you, you may or may not be an a-hole depending on the specific situation. But the guy riding 6’ from your back bumper because he doesn’t want to wait 10 seconds for you to finish passing is always an a-hole.

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The key to fixing a traffic wave at capacity is to spread it out over a longer stretch of highway. You want to encourage separation. To do that, you want to encourage differential speed. You don't want everyone driving the speed limit +-5mph.

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You reach a point where the safety implications of that speed differential outweigh the benefits. If 90,000 cars traverse a given stretch of interstate at an average of 75 mph, but 10,000 cars traverse the same stretch at an average of 45 mph due to a wreck - is that objectively “better” than 100,000 cars at an average of 70 mph? I mean, it’s still a higher overall average speed. But the impact to those folks behind the wreck is much higher.

I honestly think the extremely slow drivers are a much bigger problem than the fast drivers. It’s not at all uncommon to see multiple vehicles driving 15+ mph below the speed limit on a trip from BR to NOLA. When you combine this with the drivers going 15+ above the speed limit, now you have a 30 mph differential. And I think that’s the root cause of a lot of problems. The difference, though, is that the drivers going 55 mph are slowing everyone else down.. the drivers going 85 mph are not.

I keep a container full of paint filled balloons. When someone gets too close I toss balloons out the sunroof.

The root cause is the big trucks ,too many on the road. They take up too much space and cars that normally travel in the right lane are clogging up the left lane trying to get by them