Summertime

This song is dedicated to the black Toyota Camry who followed me halfway to work:

It's summertime
And the driving is easy
The road crews are working
And the traffic is light

Your fuel is rich
And your car is good looking
So slow, little baby
GET OFF MY BUTT!!!

Therapy Couch

This morning I was driving behind a black Honda that was driving near the speed limit. I was very excited. I kept hoping the car wouldn't turn off a different direction than I was going so I could stay behind it. It lasted three-quarters of my ride to work.

However, I started thinking: Why am I so excited about this? Since this blog is my therapy couch, I'll share and hopefully have a breakthrough. My excitement stemmed from the fact that the line of cars behind us couldn't blame me for slowing them down. I was excited that their anger would be directed at someone else, not me. Since this is therapy, I'm coming to understand how foolish that is. What difference does it make whether if the other drivers direct their anger at the anonymous driver of this black car (me) or that black car (the driver of the Honda). Why should I really care?

Self-Righteousness Alert

When you do something like driving the speed limit, it is easy to get overly self-righteous so it is good to get reminders not to do that. This morning, I passed a stopped school bus. A woman had stopped coming the other direction and gave me a look that could be either horror (like I had just run over her son) or righteous indignation as she screamed "NO" at me through her closed window. The problem was that the school bus was not stopping to pick up kids at a bus stop. As it pulled over to the side and put flashers on, I waited a few seconds, but it never put it's stop sign out and there were no kids in sight. It was just stopping for some other reason, and it is perfectly legal to pass a school bus that is just parking. This is great reminder to me to remember that even when I'm right, I'm not always right. I need to keep in check any indignation or horror over someone going a bit faster than I am going or even someone passing me in questionable circumstances. Sometimes, I might not be right.

Illegal Passing Epidemic

I think it's been about four times in the last week that I have been passed illegally. I wrote about a couple of those times here and here, and it happened again this morning. This was the least dangerous one, but it is still a disturbing trend. This time it happened within half a mile of my house. He got behind me on one of the 25 m.p.h., and I knew he was trouble when he started shaking his head, but he seemed to be distracted by his coffee so I thought he would back off. We turned onto a 30 m.p.h. road, he got close, and took another sip of his coffee. Then he went around me on the right. The road is pretty wide at that point, but it is still one lane--if they painted narrow lines, it possibly could be two lanes, but it is only that wide for about 500 ft so it's not worth it. Of course, like the others, his passing didn't buy him more than 5 seconds. We got to a light that happened to be green, and he turned right onto a road with two real lines in each direction. Even if I were turning ahead of him, he could have legally passed me immediately in the left lane.

Even though this episode was pretty minor, it is part of a really disturbing trend. My whole point of driving the speed limit is to drive more safely. It's as if these people are trying to balance out my added safety by driving more dangerously.

ILBL8

Red Infiniti pulls up behind me and tailgates me most of the way to work. At some point she started driving a bit erratically. It looked like she had pulled out her cell phone and started texting. I can only imagine what she was texting, but I imagine it was something like ILBL8 to let someone know she was driving behind some annoyingly slow driver. Finally about two minutes from my office (and 30 seconds from a spot where the road widens to two lanes in each direction), she passed me on the right shoulder. Just past where she passed me, there is a speed trap about once a month, but it wasn't there this morning. Too bad. She could have been nabbed for speeding, passing on the shoulder, and texting while driving.

Gamifying Speed Cameras

I heard a story about a new idea: gamifying speed cameras:

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/27/134866003/gamifying-the-system-to-create-better-behavior

Apparently, in Sweden they have tried this. Instead of the money collected from speed cameras going to the government, the profits go into a lottery. The lottery winners are selected from the people who drove by the speed camera at or below the speed limit. The way it works is that the cameras not only take pictures of speeders; they also take pictures of everyone going at or below the speed limit. The story said that it has been quite successful in Sweden.

Looney Lexus Lady

I can understand that people want to go faster than I go and don't want to be stuck behind me. I've been there. Even now as I drive the speed limit, I get frustrated when I get behind someone driving slower than I am. What I don't understand is someone taking stupid risks to get past me. On my way to work this morning, a lady in a blue Lexus got behind me. I could tell there was trouble because she kept slipping over toward the lane for oncoming traffic. We got past my accident scene (it's now been almost a year and a half) to a stop sign. Just after the stop sign is a slightly windy uphill road. She took that opportunity to cross the double-yellow line and whiz by me. I wouldn't say that the visibility is zero at that point, but it is pretty low. If a car had been coming (perhaps, someone driving as fast as she wanted to), she would have never seen it coming. She was very lucky.

Then, of course, comes the best part. The road ends about a quarter of a mile ahead of that, and she got stuck behind five cars waiting at the stop sign. I wonder if she saw me laughing as I pulled up right behind her (and if she knew I was laughing at her). As we both turned the same direction she tried to go fast, but, alas, the traffic would not allow. I mostly kept her in my sight for another 10-15 minutes when I saw her turn off at a traffic light. Had she stayed behind me, and not risked her life to pass me, she would have been a total of 10 seconds behind where she was.

Right-Lane Tailgater

I got a good laugh on Monday. I was driving on the highway during rush hour, but traffic was light because of the holiday. I was in the right lane, and a car came up behind me and sat on my tail. Did I mention I was in the right lane with two lanes to my left? After a couple of miles of this, the car zipped into the next lane over, passed me, and got back into the right lane. Did I mention that he could have done this two miles earlier? Immediately, after passing me, he got "stuck" behind another car in front of me, still in the right lane. Did I mention that I put "stuck" in quotation marks because traffic was light? A little while later, the right lane slowed down so I easily got into the next lane and passed the right-lane tailgater. I thought that, perhaps, he just needed to get off at the next exit, but I kept an eye on him, and he passed at least a couple of exits before I lost track. I think he just like the right lane and still wanted to go as fast as possible. I'm sorry it didn't work out for him, but I got a good laugh out of it.

Car Talk Used to Drive the Speed Limit

This week's Car Talk (http://www.cartalk.com/ct/review/rundown.jsp?showid=201108, call #7) featured a caller who drives the speed limit. He was looking for a way to signal to other drivers that he is driving slower than they might like. One of the car talk guys said he used to drive the speed limit but fell off the wagon recently and started speeding and driving in the breakdown lane. I sent him this letter (in case you don't listen to the show, calling them "knuckleheads" is par for the course and not the least bit insulting:-)

Dear Knuckleheads,

This week you were talking to someone who drove "slowly," and one of you (I can never tell which of you is which) mentioned that he had just stopped obeying the law while driving. I have diagnosed his problem, and it is Exo-self-righteous-itis. He fell off the wagon because he is too concerned with other people. The trick to obeying the law is not to be a self-righteous jerk and try to make everyone else do what you do; it is to worry about yourself and lead by example. Now, his example is being a knucklehead and driving on the shoulder to save two minutes at great risk to himself and others. I have been blogging about driving the speed limit since I have been doing it for about a year and a half. Check it out at:

http://icandrive55.blogspot.com/

Speed Cameras: How Do They Know?

I was driving on the highway last night through a work zone. The work zone speed limit is 50 m.p.h., and I was going 40 (the car in front of me was going slowly so I couldn't get up to 50). We passed by a speed camera, and I saw the flash of the light in my rearview mirror as it caught someone speeding (probably the guy next to me who hit the gas at just the wrong moment). However, I'm really curious as to how (and if) it knows whom to cite. The camera seems to take a still picture of a whole range of cars. My (not speeding) car must be in the picture right next to the speeding car, but you can't tell from a still picture. I guess (I hope) it is sophisticated enough to know who is speeding and who is not.

On a related note, I'm finding the speed cameras in this work zone to be very curious. First, I have noticed that speeds are generally down in the work zone, which is a good thing. When they first started with the speed cameras, the light would flash like flashbulbs at a rock concert, basically constantly. Now, they only flash occasionally.

However, the speed cameras are not there all the time (they're mounted in special trucks on the side of the road and can move around). I have noticed that they are almost always there at night and rarely there during the day. The goal is to increase safety, especially of the workers, in work zones. However, in this particular work zone, they are not working at night so it seems like they are there at the wrong time.

My Daughter Wants to Drive Like Me

I was driving in my car the other day with my children, and my 13-year-old daughter told me that she hopes that when she starts driving, she follows my example and drives the speed limit. It was a very proud moment.

Fast Times in Florida

I was down in Florida visiting my dad and my old hometown, and I noticed that the speed limits are higher down there. In Maryland, we have highways that are 55, 60, and 65. I drove three hours on the Florida Turnpike at 70 (that was the speed limit). Many of the non-highways are also higher. Many of the non-highways were 45 and 50. Of course, those "back roads" also tend to be wider (many of them 3 lanes each way). With the higher speed limits, there were still many people passing me, but not as many as usual. The pressure to speed was much less with higher speed limits.

One more thing. I was driving my father's wife's car, and it doesn't have cruise control. Maintaining speed is much harder without cruise control. I use cruise control all the time. I just have to watch myself on hills so I don't speed up too much going down hill. Cruise control would have been perfect in Florida because there are no hills. Instead, I found myself going up and down in speed, never quite sticking to the speed I wanted.

Stupid Gray Honda

This morning it was raining. Many people were driving more cautiously than usual but not the gray Honda behind me. She must have been on my tail for about 8-10 miles (my whole commute is 12 miles). After following me for that distance, we are coming to the end of the last big street, one lane each way, 30 m.p.h. speed limit, double yellow line, wet road. At that moment she decides to pass me just in time to get behind 10 cars waiting at the stop sign at the end of the street. Once we turn left on that street, the road becomes two lanes in about a quarter of a mile. That is, if she had waited 1/4 mile, she would have been able to pass me safely and easily. Not that it really mattered. She got a little bit ahead of me only to be stopped by a train just past the intersection where I turned off.

I have to stop myself from secretly hoping that idiots like this get into an accident from their dangerous driving, but I am happy to revel in their getting stuck at a train crossing and gaining nothing from their stupidity.

Flashed by Pedestrians

I haven't blogged much lately because it has been the same ol' same ol' of some tailgaters and some following safely. Today, something new happened. I was driving down a 30 m.p.h. road and two pedestrians were on the sidewalk with there hands in their pockets (it was about 50 degrees F this morning) and they were waving one of their hands while in the pocket at the passing drivers. It wasn't completely clear what they were doing, but I was guessing that they were warning of a speed trap (not that I had anything to worry about). Sure enough, a few hundred feet down the road was a police car. I've never been warned by a pedestrian; usually, it's done by cars flashing their lights.

Speaking of cars flashing their lights, I was reading something online the other day about whether or not it was ethical to warn people of speed traps (apparently, it is legal, but is it ethical). I was surprised by the large number of comments that suggested that it was not ethical. I would think that most drivers (a) do it when they get the chance, and (b) have no problem with the practice.

Flashed

I was driving on a 30 m.p.h. road this morning at my usual speed (somewhere between 31 and 33), and the car behind me actually flashed his lights at me the way you do when someone is in the left lane on a highway, and you want him to get over to a slower lane. The problem is that there was no other lane. I'm not quite sure what he expected. This is the first time someone has ever flashed me on a one-lane road.

No Cop This Time

A couple of weeks ago I was passed right in front of a police officer, and justice was served. It happened again this morning but no police officer this time. I was driving down my 40 m.p.h. road on the way to work and a Jeep (I've seen this one before). She was driving very close and then crossed the double-yellow line to pass me. But this time a different kind of justice was served. By the time I turned off, she was only about 30 feet ahead of me tailgating someone else. Her dangerous (especially on the wet roads from yesterday's big rain) and illegal maneuver bought her a total of 0 seconds of time saved (if she were still behind me, she would have gotten to exactly the same spot within seconds of my turning off).

Mercedes Losing Its Luster

I have blogged about how nice Mercedes drivers seem to be. Well, today it was raining, and a silver Mercedes SUV sat on my tail for over half my drive. Because of the rain, this was actually a little scary. I was amazed how someone could stay so close for so long in very slick conditions.

Don't Stereotype

I turned onto a road, and a giant maroon Ford SUV turned behind me. I was sure I was in for a long ride of tailgating (I guess I've come to expect that from big SUVs, and this was as big as they come). But the Ford never got close. I was pleasantly surprised.

Did He Thank Me?

I was driving to work this morning, and a black pick-up truck came speeding up behind me. It wasn't super-fast, and he never got super-close, but he was definitely going several miles per hour above the speed limit. My guess is that he was probably annoyed (although I didn't see the tell-tale signs of hand waving or other gesturing), but I wonder if he was thanking me when we got to the speed trap. Chances were pretty good that he would have gotten a ticket if he didn't come up behind me and was able to continue at the speed he was going.

Justice

I was just driving right where I had my accident, and a car came speeding up behind me and sat on my tail. As the road curved and dipped (source of accident), I applied the break to keep from speeding up (from the downward grade of the road). The car decided to take the opportunity to pass me.

You know those times when you say to yourself, "I wish there was a police car there to give that guy a ticket." Well, this time there was! The officer pulled the car over (I even slowed down to make sure the officer could get in front of me as he was pulling out). As I headed by, the officer flagged me down and asked me to confirm that the guy had passed me and that there was a double line (no passing zone). He then spoke to the other guy and came back to my car. He asked me if I had a radar detector, and I said no. He said the other guy wanted to know why I was going so slowly. I said that I wasn't; I was going the speed limit and explained about my accident 11 months ago and how I now go the speed limit, especially on this road.

It kind of makes me want to do this more often. Wait, I do. It's just that there isn't always a police officer when you want one.