You're Not Speeding Fast Enough

[HawaiianShirts]

Took a short family vacation last week. The drive involved going over a mountain pass. The road is two lanes (one uphill and one downhill) for a very long stretch and only has a few short passing lanes. Other passing opportunities are rare due to the frequency of blind curves. In short, it's not a good place to get stuck behind a slow vehicle.

That wasn't my problem this time. In fact, it shouldn't have been anybody's problem. But some lady in an SUV behind me made it a problem.

I was going uphill. Except for the sharper curves, I maintained a fairly constant 60 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. Next passing area was at least 20 miles ahead. SUV pulls up behind me. She got right behind my car, at a distance of about 6-8 feet between my back bumper and her headlights. At 60 MPH, to say that's an uncomfortably small gap is to say that winter in Antarctica is "kind of chilly."

I didn't want to just slow down to force her to slow down. Something about her behavior suggested that she wouldn't react fast enough and would rear-end me, and I didn't want to wake up Little Shirts or Baby Shirts from their car naps. So I rolled my window down a bit, stuck out my hand, and gave her a firm but polite "back off" wave.

She stayed right where she was.

I put up with that for another five miles or so until a point where the road narrowed a bit, putting a steep slope down toward a lake on my right. I put my hand out again and gave her a firmer "BACK OFF!" gesture.

This time she responded. She stuck her hand out her window, flashed all five fingers at me twice, and pointed at the road ahead of us. This was clearly her way of reminding me that the speed limit was 55, as if I wasn't already going faster than that.

I gave her a shrug and just kept going. After another tense ten miles or so, she turned off onto some side road.

Seriously, lady? I'm already going five over the speed limit. Why do you think you have to remind me what the speed limit is? At that speed and that following distance, your reaction time is NIL! Back OFF!

[dalesys]

Time for used diaper ejection...

[Minflick]

I live on a 2 lane steep and twisty road where the speed limit varies from 10 mph (a particularly nasty hairpin turn) to 30 (the long straights). It has a TON of turn outs for those who don't wish to go at the prevailing speed can pull out and let the rest of us speed demons get on by them. Those of us who drive it twice a day get up a lot of speed on the straights, and know just how fast we can push our cars on the curves. The ugly stuff happens when somebody who chooses to go slowly also refuses to use the turn outs, and builds up a caterpillar of angry cars chugging along behind.

One day, on my commute to work, I got stuck behind a big Dodge truck for 6+ miles. At about the 6 mile mark, after I'd been tapping my horn and lights to ask/beg/demand he use the next GD turnout, the guy in a dink Honda sedan behind me zoomed around me on a blind tight curve, (cleared me) and tried to zoom around the truck. He nearly cleared him, but then found himself face to face with some poor soul coming up the hill. He swung back into our lane, where he clipped the nose of the truck. The speed at which the Honda clipped the truck meant that the truck did a 360, shedding crap from the bed of the truck, and came to a rest in our lane, facing somewhat up hill. The Honda, after clipping the truck, bounced off him, hit the hillside on the uphill side of the road, bounced off, and went off the shoulder off our side, and down the hill out of sight, on a pretty vertical hillside. I have no idea where he ended up.

The guy going uphill kept going, untouched. I sat in shock, having nearly peed my pants. I sat there for nearly 5 minutes. I didn't call the cops (did that later). After I calmed down a bit, all I could think of was that I had to get to work, dammit, so I inched around the truck and went on my way. I understand that the Honda was at fault for attempting to pass on a blind curve, but I really believe that if the truck had only pulled over and let us all pass, it wouldn't have happened at all. The rule is that if you have more than 5 (I think) cars behind you, you need to pull over and let them pass, and he didn't do that. He's lucky the Honda didn't bounce him over the side of the road also.

[Sliceanddice]

we had this problem all week!!!

we drove up to flagstaff and decided to take the back highways to stay out of the triple digit heat as much as possible. The highways all along this way are 65-75 with it only getting slower through towns and on tiny mountain roads, by which i mean going down into a canyon with blind hair pin lanes where the speed limit goes from 55 at the top of the canyon all the way down to 15 in places.

And the whole time when i drove i stuck around 8 mhover the limit my mom 5. We had people acting like we are going 10 mph under! Seriouslys nothing but blind turns littered with crosses and the like? zip past at the first pasting lane going a good 20 mph over the speed limit.
Tiny 2 lanes highway with a surprising 75 mph limit but little to no passing lanes? be right on my ass until the one passing lane comes up and risk almost getting nailed my a semi just to past me when im going about 80.

the rule is that if you have more than 5 (I think) cars behind you, you need to pull over and let them pass, and he didn't do that. He's lucky the Honda didn't bounce him over the side of the road also.

this may be a rule of common courtesy but is probably in no ways a law. Seems to me you had no way of knowing of he was going that slow because he had a cop escort or what. If he was with the speed limit parameters all you can do is moan and curse him following the law and have some patience. Sounds like those speed limits where properly set based on that story.

[EricKei]

Cops have a certain amount of discretion when it comes to requiring people to (more or less) match the speed of other drivers in order to keep people from becoming a road hazard (even if that means *everybody* is doing 70 in a 55), but that mainly applies to multi-lane highways. I have met cops in the past who have stated that they can and will pull over someone who's "only doing the limit" in the above "70 in a 55" situation.

She stuck her hand out her window, flashed all five fingers at me twice, and pointed at the road ahead of us. This was clearly her way of reminding me that the speed limit was 55, as if I wasn't already going faster than that.

"Oh shit! Thanks for letting me know! I wouldn't want to break the law!" *slows down to 55*

[sstabeler]

I have no idea where he ended up..

I hate to say it, but I'm guessing the mortuary.

seriously though, WTF is wrong with some people ( both the Honda who tried to zoom past- which is pretty stupid on a road with hairpin turns anyway- and people who won't et people overtake when they're causing an obstruction?)

[Minflick]

we had this problem all week!!!

we drove up to flagstaff and decided to take the back highways to stay out of the triple digit heat as much as possible. The highways all along this way are 65-75 with it only getting slower through towns and on tiny mountain roads, by which i mean going down into a canyon with blind hair pin lanes where the speed limit goes from 55 at the top of the canyon all the way down to 15 in places.

And the whole time when i drove i stuck around 8 mhover the limit my mom 5. We had people acting like we are going 10 mph under! Seriouslys nothing but blind turns littered with crosses and the like? zip past at the first pasting lane going a good 20 mph over the speed limit.
Tiny 2 lanes highway with a surprising 75 mph limit but little to no passing lanes? be right on my ass until the one passing lane comes up and risk almost getting nailed my a semi just to past me when im going about 80.


this may be a rule of common courtesy but is probably in no ways a law. Seems to me you had no way of knowing of he was going that slow because he had a cop escort or what. If he was with the speed limit parameters all you can do is moan and curse him following the law and have some patience. Sounds like those speed limits where properly set based on that story.

In this particular case, I DO know he had no police escort, please believe me. I'd followed him for the better part of 10 miles along one skinny-ass mountain road. There were a few spots where I could see several car lengths ahead of our 'train' without actually having the opportunity to get up speed and pass him (lowly inchworm '98 Rav4 here...) I KNOW there were no cops anywhere near us.