First of all, thanks to everyone who has emailed me
off list and expressed their thanks that I vented on
this subject.
Now on to Steven Newell's rant :-)
> If losing control at high speeds and crashing into
> another car, or causing an accident through
> aggressive driving, were examples of personal
choice,
> I'd agree. But if you kill my wife and children*
> because you want to drive 90 mph on I-25 through
> downtown Denver -- MOVE TO GERMANY AND DRIVE
> THE AUTOBAHN!
First off, if I wanted to drive 90 through Denver I
COULDN'T DO IT ON THE AUTOBAHN!!! The geography just
doesn't work...
Now Steve, before you go off half-cocked about
"aggressive" driving and "speed killing" and making
pointless examples about roads I've never seen nor
heard of and injecting this emotionally charged drivel
about killing families into the thread, let's look at
what I said versus what you're blathering about:
Please! Have a Coke and a smile and read on...
What I said--plain and simple-- was this: If
you're in the left lane and someone wants to pass,
MOVE OVER. That's it. You said:
> And high speed driving on U.S. highways isn't a god
> given right, nor is it part of the social contract.
>
I never said it was! NOBODY IS ADVOCATING DRIVING
FASTER THAN CONDITIONS ALLOW FOR SAFE TRAVEL. I
believe in so called "natural" speed limits. If it's
not safe to exceed "x" mph, on a given road, on a
given day under current weather conditions, in your
vehicle in it's present condition, DON'T EXCEED THAT
SPEED!
By the way Steven, define "TOO High a speed." I sure
can't, as it's a relative quantity. The way I see it
55 mph in a 70 zone might be highly unsafe during a
driving rainstorm. Breaking 25 in a school zone in
the morning when the street is full of kids is
foolhardy & unsafe. But when I'm doing 100 or better
across Alligator Alley in the mid-day sun with ten
miles fore & aft visibility, I assure you I am not in
any way driving unsafely.
I believe rural Montana Interstates for example, have
no speed limit. Do yo have a problem with that?
> While on open interstates it is generally both
> reasonable and required by law that slower
> drivers stay to the right, it is not either
> practically or ethically neutral to tailgate a
slower > car stuck behind another slower car
Steve, if you MOVE OVER there is no reason to
tailgate.
Seriously, I agree tailgating is poor etiquette at
best and potentially fatal at worst. No argument.
But when you're done passing Steve, MOVE OVER.
> I'm frequently in the
> left lane, moving slower than other cars, because
> that's what I have to do to get to work. Sometimes
> I'm in the left lane because I believe I'm least
> likely to be hit by another driver changing
> lanes. This is actually legal on urban interstates.
I'm sorry Steve, but IMNSHO, people who hang out in
the left lane because their left exit is four miles
ahead should still be tarred and feathered, for not
knowing how to execute a proper lane change when their
exit comes around. And if you really are fearful of
being hit, I daresay you need to work out your fears.
Bottom line is this: IF YOU ARE BEING PASSED ON THE
RIGHT, YOU ARE A HAZARD TO NAVIGATION AND A DANGER TO
THE PEOPLE WHO MUST GO AROUND YOU ON THE WRONG SIDE.
MOVE OVER!!!
> Not infrequently, I'm in the
> left lane because it's fastest, and I'm driving with
> traffic.
By rights, in most cases "traffic" should not be
traveling in the left lane. Passing yes, traveling,
NO!
> While I've read that on the Autobahn, emergency
> vehicles are dispatched with a coroner on board
since > they often don't expect to find a living
driver or
> passenger in a high speed crash.
> Sorry, but that simply isn't the expectation when
> driving I-70 through Kansas.
I hear that is sometimes true. But consider that
emergency teams responding to a plane crash almost
always come with a coroner in tow too, yet we deem air
travel as "safer than driving," do we not?
Regardless, statistically you're still more likely to
assume room temperature via a car accident in the USA,
than in Germany, and statistically there are far more
auto accidents per mile driven here than there. The
lower frequency of accidents in Germany is largely
attributable to better trained and skilled drivers,
the majority of whom MOVE OVER when they're in the
left lane and someone wants to pass.
> *the wife and kids are fine, thanks. Ocassionally
> they are in the left lane, though. Dark green/blue
> Discovery SE7, please give it room. <g>
Will do. But if _my_ wife comes up behind her, tell
her the polite thing to do would be to MOVE OVER!
Thanks. No hard feelings Steven, but all's fair and
all that :-)
Fred
Probably speeding somewhere to fetch more GT6 parts
:-)
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