it would make driving so much more enjoyable.... i am sure that most people here would agree too.... :yes:

from craigslist.com in seattle/tacoma

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Yeah, you could ride transit or carpool or bike, but that's not gonna happen, so here are easy things you can actually do.

All of these fit a theme. Which is: It's not all about YOU out there. You are part of a collective. If everyone did these unselfish things, traffic would be much better:

1. Don't tailgate. When you tailgate, you have to tap your brakes at the slightest speed change. You tap for a second, the guy behind you taps for two, the guy behind him for four, and so forth. Ripple effect that equals slowdown.

2. Use onramps correctly. ACCELERATE! Get up to a speed that matches overall traffic, then merge seamlessly. Too many people here merge into 60 mph traffic at 40 mph. People hit their brakes, and again you get a ripple effect.

3. Honor the left lane. Move over when not overtaking cars. Yes, we've talked this one to death. Just do it.

4. Pick a lane and try to stick with it. Incessant lane changes for little real gain can cause slowdowns for much the same reason as the onramp example above. Think ahead: Will the lane you're in peter out soon, or turn into an exit-only lane? Get yourself in one that will see you through to your destination.

5. At stoplights, pay attention. If you're first in line waiting at a light, be sure you're pulled up far enough, as someone here already noted. Then PAY ATTENTION! Watch the light. When it changes, go! Driving is war, and you've got the point -- so stay alert! That goes for everyone in the back of the line too, but we have way too many people at the front who use stoplight time to apply makeup, read the paper, change the radio station or eat french fries off their car's floor.

6. Step on it. If traffic's going 60 in your lane, why aren't you keeping up with the guy ahead of you? Why do you feel the need to go 57? Again, you're part of a collective out there. Join in, please.

7. Don't go so fast you get pulled over. Because every time someone gets pulled over, it gums up traffic for the rest of us. People rubberneck and irrationally brake (like the trooper's gonna drop you to go after them), and the aforementioned ripple effect ensues. So drive briskly, but don't risk a ticket. If you're going over 70 in a 60 mph zone, you're risking it.

8. Look way down the road. I get on I-5 northbound everyday from Fairview at Mercer. Two lanes from Fairview are onramp only. Invariably someone is sitting in the middle, onramp-only lane who wants to go straight. And he just sits there, and people are stuck behind him. It happens at every signal, because the mope didn't READ THE SIGNS. Look ahead. Look far ahead. Look way past that big hurkin' SUV you're behind, if you can. The sooner you see signs and the sooner you see trouble, the sooner you can avoid messing up in a way that affects the rest of us.

9. Live the golden rule. Let people in. Wave when someone lets you in. I wish I had a buck for every time I've signaled to enter a gap in a lane, and the car that's far back in that lane guns it to try to keep me from moving over. No wait, I don't wish I had a buck, I wish I had his head on a pike. But you've gotta check that impulse too. Do unto others ... you know.

10. Devote yourself to the task. This is covered in many of the points above, but driving is not simply something you do to pass the time while listening to the radio. Driving is the all-consuming task at hand.

So DO it -- briskly, efficiently and competently. So that we can all get out of each other's way.

Thank you.

Of course there is always no harm in driving even better but you should try to drive here once to know how "bad" driving is. I'm sure you will be thankful given the number of drivers in your area and the number of "mistakes" people do there I think the rate would be very low.

Over here, once I picked a very crowded road and counted the number of illegal U-TURNS done that EACH one (each illegal u-turn) totally freezes traffic coming from 4 directions into a traffic light and delays everyone there for at least 10 minutes (that would be not less than 60 cars).

1 out of 3 cars will do this. And it's not that they don't have other quicker options. They do, but it's the "laziness" factor that they choose.

Unfortunately, here if you don't tailgate 2 cars will get into that space....causing everyone down the line to it their brakes.

The favorite here is the use the "only" lane for an extra one until you can't & squeeze in making all the others use their brakes. We have a spot like that close to home. There's a really LONG offramp that gets used as a lane all the time.

Then there's one lane that our super intelligent road crews put in that ends for a few yards right before becoming the offramp I need to gp home. I thought they'd finally finished the lane after several years of working on that stretch & got in it. Just to have to be one of the idiots trying to squeeze in.

I needed an opps! Sorry! sign. :)

#2 pisses me off to no end.

#1 and #2 are my biggest pet peeves.

The tailgaters that torque my lugnuts the most are the ones that you pass and then they suddenly find their their gas pedals and keep up with. you. It's a blatant act to stay on your tail. Especially annoying on deserted highways when I'm using cruise so I know I'm holding speed and they were going slower than me to begin with.

And merging . . . who in their right mind thinks it's safe pulling into a 65mph+ flow of traffic at 30mph? Idiots.

All of the above is why I gave up on motorcycle riding. I'll sit behind a few tons of rolling steel anyday!

Even as a hypermiler. The onramp thing pisses me off. If you cant hit a hole a semi could fit in and lock the brakes up on a onramp. You shouldnt be driving at all.

As far as the collective comment. Thats why America waste so much gas and electricity. We are just flat out fuel pigs. So if the idiot in front of me is driving 70 mph in a area marked 65,,,, I will follow because I'm a herding animal of great brain size? Or am I a socialist? Or,,, I cant be passed! As if I lost out on something important. DUH! I like driving 55 or 60 mph in otherwise higher speed posted area's. Mind you min. speed limits are also posted in much of Oklahoma with the MAX LIMIT! Many times I pickup followers. They have brains! Does my soul good to see a chevy truck behind me with a semi behind them. And don't forget the MINI behind the semi picking up a distance draft. Not everybody has a high speed herding mentality. Some of us like to herd like cattle, sheep or geese. Not humans with there tool in hand, cell phone to the ear and dollar signs in there eyes.

We have structured our lives such now days. That we cant be bothered to obey even the very most simple thing as a speed law. We are so geared to beat the system. Or cram so much in a day we cant see the forest because of the trees. We think the left lane is to be used as a speed demon lane. Not a passing lane.

And what gets me the most. Is most of this complaining of slower drivers or flat out lack of driving edict comes from drivers of dense parts of the country. They want to move along fast and smooth in a traffic jam. Go like hell when you can cause its going to come to a end real fast.

psy

"When you are up to your waist in muddy water, crocodiles, mosquitoes, leaches, and the temp is in the nineties, it is sometimes difficult to remember that the object of the excercise was to drain the swamp".. Driving can be a bit like that..

Our object should be, to get where we want to go, in a reasonable time, unstressed, and without damage to either ourselves or our vehicle. and to be aware that everyone elses (all other road users) intention, is to prevent us from achieving our objective.. :banana: :banana: :naughty: :biggrin: .
.

Even as a hypermiler. The onramp thing pisses me off. If you cant hit a hole a semi could fit in and lock the brakes up on a onramp. You shouldnt be driving at all.

As far as the collective comment. Thats why America waste so much gas and electricity. We are just flat out fuel pigs. So if the idiot in front of me is driving 70 mph in a area marked 65,,,, I will follow because I'm a herding animal of great brain size? Or am I a socialist? Or,,, I cant be passed! As if I lost out on something important. DUH! I like driving 55 or 60 mph in otherwise higher speed posted area's. Mind you min. speed limits are also posted in much of Oklahoma with the MAX LIMIT! Many times I pickup followers. They have brains! Does my soul good to see a chevy truck behind me with a semi behind them. And don't forget the MINI behind the semi picking up a distance draft. Not everybody has a high speed herding mentality. Some of us like to herd like cattle, sheep or geese. Not humans with there tool in hand, cell phone to the ear and dollar signs in there eyes.

We have structured our lives such now days. That we cant be bothered to obey even the very most simple thing as a speed law. We are so geared to beat the system. Or cram so much in a day we cant see the forest because of the trees. We think the left lane is to be used as a speed demon lane. Not a passing lane.

And what gets me the most. Is most of this complaining of slower drivers or flat out lack of driving edict comes from drivers of dense parts of the country. They want to move along fast and smooth in a traffic jam. Go like hell when you can cause its going to come to a end real fast.

psy
Couldn't a said it better myself

3. Honor the left lane. Move over when not overtaking cars. Yes, we've talked this one to death. Just do it. < I believe lot of people pick the wrong lane on interstate.

I think most of us could check off all the offenders on that list on the way into work, sadly.

the one thing that really boils my blood is the drivers who view a lane closure as a reason to try and get 3 vehicles ahead of where they are.
Do you see how all the traffic is stopped? Do you know this is largely because of the 99 cars before you who tried the same trick?

I used to drive for the pleasure of driving, but the exponential increase in the number of idiots on the road has made that all but impossible.

I think most of us could check off all the offenders on that list on the way into work, sadly.

the one thing that really boils my blood is the drivers who view a lane closure as a reason to try and get 3 vehicles ahead of where they are.
Do you see how all the traffic is stopped? Do you know this is largely because of the 99 cars before you who tried the same trick?

I used to drive for the pleasure of driving, but the exponential increase in the number of idiots on the road has made that all but impossible.


^^^^^ agree

7. Don't go so fast you get pulled over. Because every time someone gets pulled over, it gums up traffic for the rest of us. People rubberneck and irrationally brake (like the trooper's gonna drop you to go after them), and the aforementioned ripple effect ensues. So drive briskly, but don't risk a ticket. If you're going over 60 in a 60 mph zone, you're risking it.

Fixed.

Fixed.
Haha, here everyone drives 60 on the main road where the speed limit is 45. The city decided that they should turn our main road into a highway. Instead of adding more cross-valley roads, they added more lanes to the only road that crosses the freeway, traintracks, etc. With such a spike in population here from the booming housing market, there are just too many drivers and not enough infrastructure. I'm ready to get out of Cali.

2. Use onramps correctly. ACCELERATE! Get up to a speed that matches overall traffic, then merge seamlessly. Too many people here merge into 60 mph traffic at 40 mph. People hit their brakes, and again you get a ripple effect.



These people are driving the mitsubishi lancer! They cant help it.

Haha, here everyone drives 60 on the main road where the speed limit is 45. The city decided that they should turn our main road into a highway. Instead of adding more cross-valley roads, they added more lanes to the only road that crosses the freeway, traintracks, etc. With such a spike in population here from the booming housing market, there are just too many drivers and not enough infrastructure. I'm ready to get out of Cali.

That is true. Almost no one obeys the speed limit around here either.

However, there are a lot of police cars parked at different points along the road.

I heard that the police around here were embarrassed by the whole thing with the Governor so they're on a ticket blitz now.

I almost got a speeding ticket for doing 76 in a 65 2 days ago, but luckily I got away.

These people are driving the mitsubishi lancer! They cant help it.

I like my brother's Rally Art Lancer. Same power as a I4 Accord. A 5mt short throw that Honda doesn't have a clue on. The very best clutch Ive ever driven in a OEM FWD car. One of the best OEM stereo's Ive ever heard. Fit and finish on his is very good and painted in a pearl white. With no orange peel.

His Lancer will run off and leave my 06 EX Civic. His purchase of the Lancer was what got me in the car buying mode in 05. And I love to drive his. And understand why there is a Mitsu fan base. The Lancer OZ and the standard vanilla offering are not the same cars in running gear.

psy

2. Use onramps correctly. ACCELERATE! Get up to a speed that matches overall traffic, then merge seamlessly. Too many people here merge into 60 mph traffic at 40 mph. People hit their brakes, and again you get a ripple effect.


I do use onramps correctly, just 52 hp does not allow for me to reach the speed limit in some areas. There's always exceptions to this one. The onramp I take from work to get on to I5 is such that I'm doing around 40-45 mph when I have to merge. I do accelerate though, I keep my foot all the way down until I reach the speed limit. Not my fault there's not enough room in the lane, or power in the car for me to reach the speed limit by the time I have to merge.

If you ever have to drive on I-5 in Washington you'll learn that there are many onramps that only give you 1-2 car lengths before you're forced to move. We got pulled over by a cop once because we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him (he was pulled over on the shoulder, right after the merge lane ended, in front of us), and hitting the bastard who wouldn't let us merge to our left. There's a lot of room to merge, but you're not allowed to cross the solid white line. You get a ticket for that.

I'd say that merging is probably one of the biggest causes of traffic jams. People don't know how to merge properly. It's supposed to be every other car.