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I've argued for a long time now that, regardless of the posted speed limit, driving at a speed lower than the rate at which traffic is flowing — particularly in
by rosser 15y ago
I've argued for a long time now that, regardless of the posted speed limit, driving at a speed lower than the rate at which traffic is flowing — particularly in an "inside lane" — should be a primary offense (that is, behavior that's probable cause for an officer to pull you over). While you may think you're making traffic "safer" by observing the posted speed limit, you're actually increasing the risk to yourself and everyone around you by causing eddies in the flow of traffic as people merge into normally slower-traveling lanes to pass you on the "wrong" side. Those local instabilities in traffic flow significantly increase the likelihood of an accident because they engender unpredictable (or at least less predictable) behavior in your fellow drivers. Yes, traffic probably would be safer if everyone drove at the posted limit, but so long as a significant enough number of people aren't, behavior that complicates traffic flow increases risk for everyone.
(Then again, some of the worst offenders in that regard tend to be the police, themselves, in my experience. I can't count the number of times I've been caught in some huge knot of traffic pacing a cop who's driving two or three MPH under the posted limit, as if he's daring people to pass him...)
Of course, I've also argued for just as long if not longer that one should have to pass a university-level course in fluid dynamics in order to get a driver's license, and I don't see that happening any time soon, either.
- younata 15y ago> I can't count the number of times I've been caught in some huge knot of traffic pacing a cop who's driving two or three MPH under the posted limit, as if he's daring people to pass him... I saw that all the time on my way into work (internship) this past summer. I just passed the cop. What annoyed me was other people who refused to pass the cop. I also saw, in equal amount to cops going too slow, was cops going too fast, oh well.
- zeteo 15y ago> regardless of the posted speed limit, driving at a speed lower than the rate at which traffic is flowing should be a primary offense One gets tailgated often enough for driving "only" 10 mph over the speed limit. I can only begin to imagine the extremes to which such a short-sighted rule would lead.
- rosser 15y agoI can't speak for anyone else, but I use the following rules of thumb to monitor my participation in traffic: 1. If you have more car-lengths of empty lane in front of you than you do cars backed up behind you, you're impeding the flow of traffic. 2. If you have no room in front of you and some asshole is tailgating you, he's an asshole. Exceptions apply, of course — they're only rules of thumb, after all — but they've served me well enough.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jemfinch 15y agoIf you have more car-lengths of empty lane in front of you than you do cars backed up behind you, you're impeding the flow of traffic. Bad rule. You're actually smoothing traffic by creating anti-traffic in front of you to absorb minor slowdowns. Drivers who keep distance in front of them are essential to dissolving traffic jams. See http://trafficwaves.org/trafexp.html http://trafficwaves.org/trafexp.html for more details.
- ericd 15y agoThanks for that link - besides potential mass transit solutions, waves are all I think about when stuck in traffic. One thing to note, though, the linked page is wrong on the point that outflow can't be changed from a jam - if everyone in the jam accelerated as quickly as possible with almost no lag between each other, the entire jam point could move and eventually disperse. This would probably take coordination from networked robot drivers to pull off, though :-) since one slow driver could ruin the whole thing.
- suivix 15y agoI get tailgated a lot for driving 70 in a 55. It's Rt 2 outside of Boston.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- shabble 15y agoAs I understand it (I haven't learned to drive myself), when overtaking, you generally want a fairly large acceleration / speed differential to minimise the time you're actually passing the other car. Exceptionally so on 2-lane roads where you're effectively driving into oncoming traffic. I don't know what constitutes a 'reasonable' differential though.
- Zak 15y agoGermany has such an offense, and drivers there are very strict about lane discipline. It does improve traffic flow under certain conditions. Germany also has sections of highway with no speed limit that rather suddenly run in to sections with a fairly low speed limit. The result can be a standing wave in traffic, often leading to complete stoppages on the autobahnen. The fact that many of their highways don't have enough lanes for the volume of traffic doesn't help either.
- Loic 15y agoGermany is not a good example, the highways are saturated, always under construction, speed limits are not respected and when you do not have speed limits, you have crazy people driving 190km/h+ thinking they can control their car and are driving safely. Really, cars and speed limits are very particular in Germany, if Germans are normally very rational in the way they manage their life, they keep all their irrationality for their behaviour with respect to their cars.
- Zak 15y agoGermany is a good example of a place with the offense rosser described. It is not a good example of how to design an efficient highway system. I think the main problem is the number of lanes. If there's a tiny crack in the pavement, they'll put up a sign saying strassen schaden (road damage) and rebuild the road for 1km in either direction, but it's rare to see an extra lane added. I don't really understand what they're thinking. I've driven in Germany quite a bit. I've never seen an accident on one of the unlimited speed sections; all the highway crashes I've seen were near towns, usually with a 100km/h speed limit.
- westicle 15y agoThis is interesting to me. I'm probably one of those "dangerous drivers" you're referring to. I almost uniformly drive at 5km/h under the limit (I do restrict myself to the "outside lane" however). My rationale is simple - I've been driving 9 years with 0 traffic fines. I'm in no great hurry to get from A to B, so when other drivers tailgate me I just smile and wave. Would it be systemically safer for me to drive at the same speed as everyone else? Probably. Do I want to blow 90% of my disposable income on traffic fines? Not really!
- azov 15y agoEven a minor fender-bender will probably cost you more then all traffic fines you can collect before losing your license. So, you're increasing the chance of blowing well over 100% of your disposable income on dealing with an accident (not to mention other risks).
- westicle 15y agoLiability for rear-ending someone lies with the rear-ender where I live. I am pretty effective at collecting debts too :) Whereas a speeding fine here can easily cost you between $300-$500.
- jtbigwoo 15y agoSeveral states have laws on the books that restrict slow drivers to the non-passing lane. So you can get pulled over for driving too fast or too slow!
- lucasjung 15y agoI've seen people get pulled over for driving too slow, but never on U.S. highways.
- argv_empty 15y agoSo you can get pulled over for driving … too slow! I would interpret this as "for driving in the wrong lane."