In recent years I have driven in all 48 of the contiguous United States and found that congested traffic results in a great deal of angst and rage from coast to coast. On any given day I wouldn’t want to bet which city was the worst to drive through although the DC corridor from from Towson, MD to Strasburg, VA is the most heavily traveled and seemingly never ending rat race that I have ever endured. Even at 4:00am on Sunday that route can be quite demanding for an old country boy.
I tend to try to leave a few car lengths in front of me, when I’m driving on the freeway
It’s more relaxing
However, it doesn’t last very long
Soon enough, some jerk sees “an opportunity” and suddenly cuts in front of me, forcing me to slam on the brakes
So much for my relaxing drive on the freeway . . .
Sometimes I have a feeling that the guys that tend to “cut in” in front of other drivers are playing a mental game. Perhaps they feel they are better than me because they just cut me off. Perhaps they feel they “are ahead” because they are in front of me.
I really do feel some drivers feel a need to “have a leg up” on the other drivers around them . . . at all times
I feel cutting people off is not only rude, but also a bad idea, as it can lead to road rage
@db4690 I’m not sure to what degree you are getting cut off, but I’ve seen lots of drivers “slam the brakes” like you said when somebody changes lanes in front of them, where it is completely unnecessary (i.e. if they didn’t hit the brakes, they still would not have hit the car). These drivers just get uncomfortable that there is a car closer to them now and end up causing traffic behind them because now everybody sees brake lights and hits the brakes themselves.
When I’m driving and I “see an opportunity” and change lanes, its simply because I reason that I desire to drive faster than the car that I am putting behind me. I’m not playing any game. Its not that I think I’m better than you. Its just a logical conclusion that since I would prefer to drive faster, I should be in front of the car that doesn’t want to drive faster.
And in cases where there is needless congestion on the highway, 2 or 3 “opportunities” later I am back on an open stretch of highway able to drive the speed I desire, and the other cars are back still caught in the random congestion.
“NH takes a lot of Fed money for highways…so does MA…and why aren’t they required to build an HOV lane.”
I don’t know, I’m not a fed, but maybe it had something to do with having 80,000 plus cars a day on that stretch of road. Believe me our governor would not have agreed to it if he did not have to.
“the tractor was going 25-30mph in a 50mph zone”
Consider yourself lucky!
In my neck of the woods, the farmers tend to drive their tractors at ~15 mph on roads with a 45 mph speed limit. I am patient, because with the advent of retirement, I tend to not be in a hurry, but the extremely slow speed of that farm equipment does tend to make some people do some very risky things in order to get past it.
Mass had HOV lanes on I93. They sound good on paper, but in practice they cause greater congestion on the non-HOV lanes and cost a lot to enforce.
MikeInNH I noticed the unexplainable hesitation when the signal turns green before I started driving (50 years ago). Unless vision is blocked by a large vehicle every driver waiting can see the light turn green and still proceed one at a time. Now days a long hesitation is usually caused by texting or other multitasking but the one at a time has been going on forever. When driving in foreign countries a 2 second hesitation will result in blaring horns. In many U.S. jurisdictions unnecessary use of the horn is now considered aggressive driving or even road rage! Of course this is not a traffic safety issue but like many modern traffic infractions is a revenue generator.
@starman1
I’m talking about AGGRESSIVELY cutting somebody off, at a high rate of speed, without looking, without using the turn signal
I’m talking about cutting off which is CLEARLY being done solely to make the driver doing the cutting off make himself feel better about his pitiful existence
I have no problems with somebody SAFELY pulling in front of me
Perhaps I’m misreading this, but it appears that you think there is no such thing as aggressively and dangerously cutting somebody off?
I sure hope I misunderstood . . .
Believe me our governor would not have agreed to it if he did not have to.
I’m not taking your word for it…because you think EVERYTHING is a Federal conspiracy.
As for 80,000 cars…I93 sees OVER 120,000 cars every morning and afternoon.
And HOV lanes…if done properly do work. I’ve seen them in Connecticut and Atlanta work very well.
Controlling “time” and when things happen when driving is a good thing. Potentially, a fast car is safer just like one with good brakes is potentially safer. When you can control where your car is at some point in time, it is always better. Good brakes can be misused if you slam them on too fast with someone behind you. Safe merging is one of the reason I prefer AWD cars over fwd. They can accelerate faster from a dead stop while turning, especially in bad weather. So essentially, they are a faster accelerating car in special conditions which is a good thing. It’s the people who drive them that create the problem.
Remember too, if you want 0 to 60 in 9 seconds, you want it all the time, even when loaded. That translates into 0 to 60 in 7.5 seconds perhaps when not.
Rod Knox, you even missed the worst roads in DC/Baltimore. I-270 from Frederic, MD to DC and I-95 south of DC are the worst. There can be stop and go traffic all the to North Carolina. I drive I-95 between the Baltimore and DC 5 days a week. It is quite crowded all day, even at 5 AM.
HOV lanes can be a lot of the problem. There are two HOV lanes going south on I-95 out of DC. When they are in operation, they clear traffic out of Northern Virginia quickly. But they cause a big traffic backup near Quantico where the HOV lanes blend back into the rest of the traffic. I’ve write a half hour or more to get through that mess.
I think all these recent posts have pretty well poked holes in the question about wanting fast vehicles since …no matter how fast your car COULD go…too many highways will simply not LET you no matter how badly you may want to go fast.
Traffic is just one speed bump.
Out here in the wide open spaces where you can set your snooze cruise on 90…the road SURFACE will not let you for very long.
I’ve often noted to whomever’s listening that they purposely do not repair the roads as an intended ‘‘speed bump’’ so as not to need the state cops so much. It just takes care of itself.
Case in point ;
In New Mexico, NM371 n/s from Thoreau to Farmington. Geological movement has made the road…let’s call it ‘‘wavy’’. As you look down the length of the roadway in front of you , you can see up and down waves about two or three per mile.
At 65 mph these can spill your coffee. Faster that that you can catch air going over some of those.
The state has no intention of rebuilding 100 miles of two lane road. '‘just leave it alone and speed enforcment is a given.’'
To flatten it would be a major engineering project, not just repaving
hmm … I wouldn’t have thought it to be the case, but maybe it is the slower vehicles on the road that is causing traffic back up. I wonder though, if every vehicle could do 0-60 in under 7 seconds, would that result in much time savings getting to work in the typical urban traffic setting? Or would it just be a case of hurry up and wait? In other words, you don’t get there any faster, just more waiting? It’s an interesting speculation anyway.
I really do not care about speed, but less and less vehicles can tow a boat.
@bd4690
I hear you. It doesn’t take a genius or someone with the vision of Ted Williams to see you are going the same seed, not slower, then the guy in front of you. Just because you choose, as I do all the time,to leave a safe distance between the two of you, does not automatically entitle some one to drive like a jerk and fill the space between you. As always happens, the guy pulling in for no reason often does resulting in a few feet of space and expects you to slow down even more to give him following room. It’s especially egregious when there is an entire line of cars in front of you and the dufus playing car tag has no hope of advancing any farther.
around here they have a habit of re surfacing perfectly good roads. only tax money I guess,
@wesw and what state might that be? Coming from wi the tea party darling gov walker destroyed the unions, cut shared revenue to cities, screwed up badger care, reduced recycling credit, changed the mining bill from allowed if proven safe to allow sulfide ore mining with the ability to fill in lakes and streams that will cause sulfide ore when mixed with water (ie rain) turning into sulfuric acid that will destroy native rice beds along with any associated ecology, Nd it was the head that was arrested in spain. http://www.jsonline.com/news/gogebic-mining-president-accused-in-spain-of-environmental-crimes-b99215710z1-247895871.html And now the republicons have decided not to succeed from the union to avoid federal regulations because they would look stupid. more by request
"around here they have a habit of re surfacing perfectly good roads. only tax money I guess"
I have a theory that the owners of the private companies that repave our county roads must be related to people in authority at the county level. That is the only way that I can explain repaving the roads every 3-4 years, whether they need it or not.
@Barkydog
Must be working from the same playbook as our Gov.
I live directly on the Maryland/Delaware border. I was referring to Maryland tho. the Delaware govt is actually efficient. no idea about the other stuff you mentioned or why you did. I m not affiliated with any party. they are both obsolete, IMHO