Pass-ive agggressive

This has been my observation when driving on freeways away from the cities. So I make it a point to get those six car lengths right away so that I can settle back into a comfortable pace.

I can remember once driving on a freeway in southern Idaho when there were several cars that just insisted on sticking close to me. I finally ran it up to 90 mph for several minutes to get far enough away from them that they couldn't base their speed on mine. I then settled back to the speed I had originally been going and never saw them again.

I've thought about that as well, but what happens to the passenger in the car? Is their phone unusable while moving? There's a solution somewhere, but I don't think that's it.

Interesting thread. Most of the time I agree with blowing right past and putting some distance between you and the driver.

A couple years back on my GT coming out of the Columbia Gorge on I-84 I go by some asshat in a suburban at a leisurely pace and he decides he's going to ride up my ass. Even at 90+ mph. So I back off and let him have it. No big deal. But no. He's an asshole and he's going to screw with me. So he backs off and rides my ass again. Down to like 55. So I slam the throttle and see him trying to keep pace in the mirror slowly fading well behind. At something like 130+ mph I go under an over pass with a cop blowing laser / radar. No time to do anything about it other than go "Oh shit...I'm screwed". Saw the lights come on but I was so far away so quickly that I quickly lost sight. I slowed to the speed limit for the next 10 miles or more thinking sooner than later he would catch up. Never saw the cop or the guy in the suburban again. I'm guessing that he probably got one hell of a ticket!

This is the scenario I am talking about vs Pacers on the slab.

So, you hit 130mph in an effort to put safe distance between you, not race.

While it may have been fun (?) and conditions permitted doing so, clearly it was not safe for you. This is the issue, a legal pass without or, frankly, with attitude putting the rider in danger because motorist now feels, what? Challenged, "Disrespected"? (I loathe that term).

Twisting the throttle has largely been my go-to option as well; what if you can't?

I've seen a rider hit by a car while lane splitting- it was no accident.

My thoughts too. It just punishes everyone, including passengers and I bet there would be an App that let's you get around that, so it wouldn't work anyway.
The real issue is that there are no consequences for poor driving behavior. As long as you aren't speeding, you can get away with shitty driving. People out here can NOT stay in their own lane. They wander and since the lanes are big, they don't hit anything, so the behavior continues...

I even do this on a DR.

I call 'em sheep. Watch a herd of sheep move. One sheep will lead and all the others will put their head alongside the rump of the one ahead and follow along.
These people can't (or won't) drive on their own. They use you for their autopilot, consciously or unconsciously.
I used to drive a tractor trailer. These knuckleheads would park the nose of their car alongside the last axle of my trailer, blocking my emergency escape route into the next lane. I came up with a way to get rid of 'em.
I would start a slow weave with the truck from dotted line to dotted line, staying within my lane. Sure enough, that car would be weaving with me....for 30 seconds or so, until it started making 'em dizzy. Then they'd come blasting by blowing their horn and throwing me the finger!

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Good work there, Offcenter.

And for the cellphone "must, gotta, absolutely have to use" by the passengers . . . aw come on now !!
Yeah, I know, there are a lot of people who fear dying a social death if they are not yakking continually on a cellphone, or texting. They really need to toughen up . . . before they contribute to a real death. It's not a big ask. If the conversation is really, really, really urgently important, then ask the driver to pull over and stop. Or if they're in a bus, then explain the situation to their neighbours, who will be happy to confirm that with a democratic vote ~ and that would filter out the "I'm too impatient to wait 20 minutes" type of calls.

Tens of millions of cellphone calls an hour . . . maybe one in 10,000 that are justifiably actually urgent enough to halt the vehicle.

I won't dwell on the annoyance saved (for the other bus passengers) or the distraction a yakking car passenger provides for the car driver (who's unable to avoid getting at least mentally involved with the phone conversation).
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Yes, their phone is unusable. So fucking what?

So fucking stupid suggestion.

Ok. People will just get a mobile wifi device from their cell company and make calls over wifi using Apps like Textnow (works on smartphones, tablets, regular computers - call or text over wifi).
This tech already exists so your solution is already obsolete.

Some of you apparently live in an alternate reality.

I'm not a heavy cell phone user, probably averaging less than two calls a day, but when I need to drive 200 miles to go visit my daughter, and my wife is with me, the cell phone is a great way to make plans for the rest of the day while we're on our way there. While were droning down I-5 it's also a great time to get caught up with other family members that we usually don't have the time to talk to. As the driver, I'm not doing the talking, my passenger wife is.

Although I feel strongly against using cell phones while driving, I'm even more strongly against trying to make the devices themselves police that behavior. You guys are proposing something that is unreasonable if more carefully thought through, looking at it from all sides.

I like other road users talking and texting while driving... It makes my rides more fun and engaging.

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Scottrnelson, It's far from unreasonable . . . and I hope you will drive on "alternative" roads to me.
But relax, you know that a cellphone block won't happen any time soon.


Silk, there's something in what you say.
The hi-tech desperadoes will chase down something so that they can keep on yakking . . . but 75% of clueless car drivers would be stymied by a cellphone block.
(I didn't specify how a block could be achieved ~ but there's usually more than one way to kill a cat.)


But it's only pipe-dreaming about a more sensible world.
We all know that no block is going to occur, because it would mean millions of votes lost.
What's a few thousand road deaths against a few million votes?
Exactly.


I was really just making the point (for those who hadn't given it much thought) that there's no good reason for opposing what OUGHT to be.

Yeah, there's a lot of things that "ought" to be, in this world of ours . . . but they can only ever have a chance of happening, if enough people get their heads on straight. The chances may be small, but if the issues are simply put in the too-hard basket and ignored . . . then the chances are zilch.



But this is getting further off-topic.
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What I see a lot of around here in Northern AR is the herd mentality mentioned by a couple others. I constantly come up on a train of vehicles. Obviously at some point they were all going faster then the jackass in the lead, but they just tuck in behind him, making it a real ordeal since you pretty much have to pass the whole heard because they are all riding right up on each others ass. They simply refuse to pass when they have the chance preferring to move along in the slow speed herd. The problem is, it's so hilly and twisty around here that passing lanes are few and far between, and most times they're very short.

The other issue besides distracted drivers is we've got a lot of older people that just drive soooo damn slow! they drop down to 35 or 40 MPH in places that I can easily do the 55 MPH limit in my damn truck pulling a trailer!

We have a pretty lightly traveled freeway near here and I always set my cruise (in the car) as soon as I'm up to speed. I'm amazed at how often I will go past someone only to have them pass me and slow down several times before I do the break away.

Yes sir. Learned this from my days riding a cb350f. The well timed sneak attack pass was the only way.

Because you or some politician wants to decide what's important to me? Not working for me. Sorry.

Easy solution to the cell phone problem:
- Make using a cell phone while driving a felony
- make texting while driving a felony
- enforce the hell out of these new laws and take peoples licenses away
- if you are involved in an accident, subpoena cell phone records, if the driver was on the phone: felony and license lost - same as a DUI
- you kill somebody in an accident, were on the phone, distracted driving manslaughter charges with serious consequences

The State of Washington, for example, imposes life imprisonment for homicide by vehicle with DUI. Iowa imposes a 25 year sentence for homicide by vehicle-DUI.

Is this phone call really that important, or updating your facebook status, or getting that text message off?

If it seriously starts affecting peoples pocket books, and their legal ability to drive things will get better. If people still choose to do these things they can pay the price...

Consequence........ I like it.