Oner of the reasons why traffic is so bad has to do with so many drivers being so bad at passing it.
Passing used to involve something called acceleration – a thing now frowned upon as “aggressive.” Instead, passive is taught as the very apogee of “safe” driving. It is a safe bet that whenever you hear that word uttered, safety has as much to do with it as “vaccines” that neither prevent the getting or giving of sickness immunize the receiver.
Arguably, it is passivity that’s not “safe.”
For what could be “safe” about not accelerating sufficiently so as to reduce the amount of time one spends passing – in the opposite lane, facing oncoming traffic? Even if it’s not there right now it could be at any moment. It might be just around that curve ahead – and if you’re still in their lane because you’re trying to passively pass the car ahead in your lane that’s doing 52 in a 55 and you aren’t doing more than 55 – then you might end up in a very not “safe” situation indeed.
Yet passive passing is precisely what “safety” mavens – and Driver Miseducation literature produced by the state – proclaim to be “safe.”
The same state warns of the illegality of other-than-passive passing. It says you must not ever “speed” (which is always “unsafe” according to the state) while passing. Which is to say, you must not pass – because you probably won’t be able to, without “speeding.”
How long does it take to pass a car ahead of you doing 52 on a road with a 55 MPH speed limit if you limit yourself to not exceeding it? Too long to attempt, given the amount of time it will leave you “safely” loafing along in the opposite lane, with oncoming traffic probably headed your way.
So, many times, people don’t even try. It is understandable. They do not want to die in a head-on collision. And they do not want to be issued what is styled a “ticket” for “speeding.” That is to say, hounded to curbside by an armed government worker whose job is to hand out extortion notes demanding money – or else – under guise of pretextual “offenses” such as driving even a single mile-per-hour over whatever the arbitrarily posted maximum allowed speed happens to be.
So, instead of passing they become passive altogether and queue up behind the slowest poke at the head of the line. Everyone then drives the same (low) speed, including the drivers who have the bad luck to be two or three cars behind – because now it would take a whole lot of “speeding” to clear the conga.
Thus is traffic agglutinated.
It would be less so if more people broke the yoke of Safetyism and engaged in active driving – to include passing that isn’t passive.
The act ought to be performed decisively – and quickly. When an opportunity opens up – as when the opposing lane of traffic is clear of oncoming traffic – do not turn on your turn signal and then sit there for a second or two in vapid contemplation before acting. You ought to be in the act of passing as soon as you begin signaling. Signaling is a perfunctory action, anyhow – as the driver ahead is going to know your intentions as soon as you begin passing him and anyone behind you (or in the oncoming lane, where there hopefully isn’t anyone) isn’t going to be usefully informed by you signaling.
Instead, what you ought to be doing is “speeding.”
In order to get past the car you are trying to pass as quickly as possible. So as to be out of the oncoming lane of traffic as soon as possible. Use the accelerator to accelerate. It is what it is there for. And the passing gear – a thing that used to be touted by car companies proud of the passing power of the cars they sold. It meant that when you pushed down affirmatively on the accelerator, the transmission – if automatic, as almost all are nowadays – would kick down to a lower gear to make the most of the power produced by the engine, as demanded by your right foot.
Use this power – and the leverage of the passing gear – to complete your passing maneuver with alacrity rather than tepidity. It may be technically “illegal” but it is much safer.
Some tepidinians, thoroughly marinated in Safetyism – will cry out that one should just Obey the Law – and if a lawful pass is not possibly to execute “safely” – i.e., without “speeding” – then ought not to pass at all. Just be patient, they will often say. As if it’s ok to just throw away irreplaceable time for the sake of mindless obedience to the doctrines and legalisms of Safetyism.
Especially given how unsafe it is to be passive – and not just as regards not-passing. Passivity fosters more than just unnecessary traffic agglutination. It makes driving in such agglutinated traffic less actually safe for everyone, due to a concatenation of frustration, boredom and resultant inattention.
The latter “killing” far more often and effectively than “speeding.”
If more drivers were less passive – and there were more safe passing – it’d be a lot less frustrating to be driving in traffic and that would be a lot safer for all concerned.
. . .
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The vacant lot up the street was finally sold and a house built this summer. While the foundatation was dug the one neighbor put out a sign that read “Drive like your children live here.” Apparently some of the construction crew was driving recklessly, or perhaps it was coincidental. Either way, there’s a sign now. The default speed limit in the neighbood is 25 MPH, but on this particular street it is impossible to go that fast due to the cars parked on the narrow roadway, and swooping curve and how busy it is. But a sign was necessary. I’ve never even seen children in the yard… heck, I never see kids on that street at all, but sure, if you think that’s an effective deterrent to perceived poor driving, OK.
I was taught in 1982 in Fairfax HS (The Rebels at the time) to always establish a 15 MPH minimum speed advantage before passing. This advice has always served me well even when passing a whole string of vaxxed and diaperes snow flakes. God help them as thr hard times begin.
Hi John,
Oakton High grad here (for whatever that’s worth)… and I was taught the same. I wonder what they teach now?
Passing lane ‘tech tip’ -when a passing lane is available, don’t move to the left passing (center) lane. (I’m assuming three lanes of traffic, L= on coming traffic lane, C= the ‘left passing lane’, R = the slow lane.) get your downsides done b4 the passing lane, lift your revs, just slingshot past that slow driver(s) in the center lane, remember, you’re still in the far right lane. If you follow then up the center, passing lane, they’ll use that whole stretch b4 they move right, out of your way.
Gasoline Alley in the 21st Century is here now and alive.
If I am driving the speed limit, what’s the problem?
If you driving faster than the speed limit and want to pass, you’re the problem, you’re speeding. Speed limits are there for a reason, if you are driving 90 mph in a 65, you are the road hazard. You’re asleep at the wheel.
The highway patrol will pull you over for speeding, buy the ride, pay the ticket.
It is no longer safe nor a desire to drive at night, the super bright headlights obliterate the line of sight. You’re blinded by the light.
Solves a problem, I don’t worry about hitting a deer after dark.
Biden makes the dark seem like a light at the end of the tunnel. The darkest dark age you could ever imagine, Biden takes us there now. Damn!
Black is Biden’s favorite color, dismally blue and all of that nonchalant jazz. Harshes your mellow.
Super bright white is going to make everything look black.
You have to slow down and be extra careful when driving at night with the brighter than the sun headlights bearing down on your narrowed pupils.
I’ll drive forty miles of empty gravel and blacktop roads at night at 45 mph to avoid too bright of headlights and deadly collisions with some poor deer out there.
You drive under the road conditions right before your lying eyes.
I will respectfully disagree with you drumphish. I believe driving the speed limit while the majority pass me is putting them in control. I will not allow them to be in control at 65mph+. NO way am I trusting any other driver, especially today.
So I go slightly above the majority so I have more control. Not a perfect solution, but way better.
This is especially important while riding a motorcycle.
Did an experiement with my wife on the back. I asked her to let me know which method was safer, to her. I did the speed limit in the right lane for 20 miles, was passed by 70-80% inlcuding many semi’s. Then on the return trip I did slighty over the majority. She said, hands down she felt much better with me in control. I thought so.
And as usual, it really is different if you are driving in a rural area with little traffic, or a metro area with lots of traffic.
As for driving at night, I agree. As my eyes grow older, I want to be driving at night less and less. But I pick my battles, and do drive slower as well.
ps: I did the experiment with my wife so she would feel more comfortable with me going pretty fast vs the other way. The large motorcycle accelerates past 1-2 cars with ease with a flick of the wrist. And I very much dislike riding street bikes, but we do it for adventure vs. a car.
The earth is circling the sun at a rate of 18.5 miles per second. Never takes a break. The moon is tagging along slinging the earth slightly to and fro, the oceans move back and forth, restless night and day. All done at more than 66,000 miles per hour. You won’t win the race. The sun, its gravity, the light and heat, keeps us alive.
The sun’s life does matter.
Back in 2014, I drove through Iowa on I-80. Every single truck was driving the speed limit. The highway patrol was every six miles the entire route, you drive the speed limit along I-80 in Iowa.
Always a steady flow of traffic in both directions on I-80.
On I-94 in Montana, I was not speeding at 95 mph. A truck was passing me at about 105 mph. I slowed down some. Traveling north on I-15 up to Great Falls, I was ticketed for speeding at 84 mph.
You roll with the flow.
Chicago is the destination for the most part for the trucks on I-80, you don’t want to have an accident, the goods from the coast have to get to Chicago. Chicago is a Native American word that translates to ‘home of the onions.’
It doesn’t help that most slow drivers don’t have the courtesy to pull off to allow people to go past them too. Some seem to love playing “slow the traffic” to boot. So many wanna be traffic heroes.
In many areas with Amish people in buggies there are pull off areas on many roads for them to pull into to allow traffic to pass them. There is no reason why cars not use them as well. Of course you have to figure a way for to get those slow pokes to use them (most wouldn’t at this time). The Amish may not be very friendly to outsiders but they are far more polite than the general public
IMHO slow pokes are FAR more dangerous than “speeders”.
It certainly doesn’t help that most highway department are trying to “calm” traffic rather than remove impediments to moving traffic. It seems like road rage is hardly “calm”. Things like building three lane roads (mostly useless turn lane in middle) instead of four lanes is a particularly annoying one lately.
I don’t pay attention to double yellow lines. I use my own judgement. I does make the snowflakes even madder though which is a bonus.
How to drive and pass on a B Road in Mexico. Passing procedure starts at 40 sec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL7IV5PQLYY
That is a way better way to do that. The irony is the people pass in the no passing zone……
They seem to be building far better secondary highways in Mexico than they do here in the good ol USA……
Ironically, the last few instances of passing I’ve observed lately, have been very reckless. Latest one: I’m on a two-lane highway behind two ars. The lead car is going pretty slow- barely the speed limit. We’re coming to a spot not far from the crest of a hill (In addition to not being able to see if anything’s coming over the crest of that hill, the oncoming side merges from 2 lanes to one just before that hill)…and sure enough, the car between me and the slow-poke swings out into the oncoming lane, maybe 500 feet before the crest of the hill!
I’m thinking: “Is this guy nuts? If a car pops up over the other side of the hill, there’s going to be a head-on, and the poor schlepp who is being passed will likely be involved in it too!”. Sure enough, as the fool is executing his pass- as he is just about side by side with the car he is passing, up pops a car in the oncoming lane from the other side of that hill! I had already started hanging back when I saw the dude starting to do the foolish pass….and now I’m slowing down more, thinking “Here we go! There’s gonna be a head-on!”- but the dangerous passer swung back in just inches in front of the car he was passing, and an accident was narrowly averted.
Had the asshole waited just a few seconds, he would have then been in a spot where there is good visibility and enough room to safely pass (and even a broken yellow line, to boot!).
Seeing crap like this though, I’m thinking that the average person these days is so clueless that I understand why passing seems to be being discouraged in many locales lately.
Ironically too, is that I find that often people behind me tend to get impatient if I don’t pass someone immediately. I always wait for a good opportunity, where I have unobstructed visibility (the more so at high speeds)- and I never cut it close, as it seems a lot of people tend to speed up these days when you attempt to pass them, and plus I want to give the person I’m passing plenty of room- i.e. my pass thouldn’t inconvenience them/affect them in any way- but it seems that a lot of people think that a mere few hundred feet at 60MPH just before a curve or blind crest is fine…..
Nunz,
I see similar dangerous behavior all the time, people follow me out to pass on a 2-laner.
This means they can’t see oncoming traffic (even though I can)
So i might complete my pass, only for them to discover they are about to get into a head-on.
Usually, there are no near misses. Usually. Thank God I’ve never seen anyone collide this way, yet. But people seem to be pulling this maneuver much more frequently lately.
NOTE: Re: speeding and safety
Speeding has nothing to do with safety, the problem is the unsafe road designs built by the government, they blame accidents on speeding, so nobody will figure out it is the government’s crappy road designs that causes accidents, that they should be sued over.
Adding bike lanes, with narrower roads and more concrete curbs and medians have made the roads more dangerous, have made them almost undriveable.
The other problem is the horrible drivers on the road, they make it very very unsafe, they should be banned from driving, they should be removed to improve safety.
F1 race cars have higher average speeds then any other cars, they are the quickest cars in the world on a race track. Driving on an F1 track is the safest place to drive but has the highest speeds.
The reason high speed F1 tracks are so safe is because they are designed for safety, huge flat run off areas, gravel traps, no poles or walls to run into, public roads are the opposite, very dangerously designed, with added bike lanes they have become worse now.
The other reason F1 race tracks are so safe is because of the very very highly skilled drivers, this makes them very safe compared to driving down the street filled with morons texting….lol.
Fangio the greatest, best F1 race car driver in history, would not drive on public roads because they are very dangerous, he didn’t want to die, the horrible drivers on the road were the main reason. Fangio lived a long time, it worked.
Lewis Hamilton one of today’s best F1 drivers does not like to drive on the street.
The safest place to drive is a race track at very high speed, speed = dangerous is bs.
Re: safety
All they do is give expensive tickets to people going 10 mph over their stupid no science speed limit, to make it look like they are doing something (actually it is for revenus $$$$$$), …..lol…when the real problem is road design and bad drivers.
They are driving 4000 to 5000 lb top heavy SUV’s you can’t see out of, it takes them 2 minutes to turn a corner, creeping at 4 mph around the corner, probably while texting….lol…honk at the bastards….
Yes, yes, yes! There are several two lane roads around here you have to drive before getting to the four lane. I don’t pay attention (too much) to the speed limit, I just drive at a comfortable safe speed for the road. A lot of the time I will get behind someone going at the speed limit or below, their speed continually fluctuating between high to mid 40’s and sometimes slower. If they notice that they are getting in the 50’s, they will slow down or do the brake thing, but once (after a day or two), we make it to the four lane, they speed up! Almost every single time—-they speed up. Errrrr! Of course I go around them by then because I am able to, but when they speed up, I really want to yell at them. They would tell me that the speed limit is higher on the four lane and that’s why they increased their speed, so it wouldn’t do any good. The fact is, they don’t want me to go around them because they knew I wanted to earlier on the two lane.
Also around here I have noticed a lot of the flashing signs on some of these back roads, showing what the posted speed is and what my speed is. I always want to destroy those signs. A lot of the two lane roads will sometimes have the local cops sitting and waiting, so I don’t even try to pass, plus a few hills and curves. All one can do is grit your teeth and keep going. You are right Eric about a comfortable speed. I can’t hardly drive in the 40’s, especially following someone, it’s just incredibly slow and boring and uncomfortable.
And, like BAC said, the weird braking, going up a small hill with no one around. What is that
about? And the weird braking when following someone already going too slow, even though it may be the speed limit. The aimless braking is as aggravating as the slow speed, even when it doesn’t affect me.
Lol riding in the truck with Eric: “you know the movie to catch a thief where Grace Kelly speeds around hairpin turns in Monaco? Thats me every day. Minus the chicken and the picnic”
Fortunately, we still have sections of dotted yellow lines on roads in southern NY and CT, and I make use of them frequently – typically accelerating to 60+ in a 35/45 to pass safely. I live for the headlight flashing I sometimes get, or the horn, as I wave them goodbye. But it’s frustrating to sit behind these dawdling fools creeping along at 30 (less when going up a hill), watching them randomly hitting the brakes, and crossing back and forth over the middle and shoulder lines at every curve in the road. It has seemingly gotten worse of late, something I have termed Driving While Vaccinated.
‘Some tepidinians, thoroughly marinated in Safetyism’ — eric
Tepidinians, phlegmatarians, torpidians … thoroughly marinated in Safetyism (or something):
‘Hey, man, am I drivin’ okay?’
‘Dude, I think we’re parked.’
— Cheech and Chong, Up In Smoke
I attribute much of such to a preference for being fearful of their vehicles, instead of mastering them. They are afraid to drive, because they never bothered to learn how once they got their driver’s license. They decided that since they had a “license” that was all they needed to know. I don’t drive much anymore, but when I did, I was always working to improve my driving skill. All 50 years of it.
Another thing.
I have on numerous occasions encountered “passing police” who will change lanes to prevent you from passing. At times literally twenty feet in front of you while you are going 20mph faster than they are, at full throttle.
I see something similar with the Clovers that speed up as you come even with them, really have to suppress my desire to run them off the road at that point.
In my neck of Dixie, the sheer volume of traffic has made passing nearly impossible. We’re overrun with mexicans in trailers and carpetbaggers living in mcmansions sitting on former cotton fields. Towns fall for the tax revenue scam and allow all of it on 2-lane country roads that weren’t meant for the volume. And every day, someone gets po’d and passes in no-passing zone. I don’t entirely blame them but there’s usually a good reason why one shouldn’t pass there (blind curve, hills, etc).
Mike,
In my regular routes, I encounter several “no passing zones”, as delineated by solid yellow lines that used not to be, and are perfectly safe for passing. Likewise some that have always been “no passing zones” that are perfectly safe, if you know what you’re doing.
John,
Reminds me when I taught my son how to drive, my exact words were “I trust you, it’s everyone else I don’t trust”.