Rant: Idiots that flash their highbeams in attempt to get you to move over...

Raze wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Raze wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Raze wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Zomby woof wrote: Honestly, I've never read so many childish things in one thread

This cannot possibly be true.

You don't know what's possible, maybe you should move over to the right lane

You assume my lane is somehow wrong? Don't put your morality on me, maaan.

Your ignorance shines through that you don't have any ground on which to question my assertion, duuuuude.

That is 77.891% falsity. I am a Supreme Court Justice, Physicist, Doctor of Anthropology and ex-Delta Force Commando. I think I know a little more about right and wrong lanes than you do. What ever you say next is probably what Hitler would say.

Don't you know that 80% of statistics are made up? Chuck Norris flashed his lights once, and there were no more left lanes... Oh yeah, well you may be all those things but my Dad, whose a Mechanic says Miatas are gay...

quoted for posterity, because of the excessive amount of "win" in these collective posts.

miatame wrote: My cat's breath smells like cat food.

Try letting them drink out of a fish bowl. New smell and a better tasting drink for them.

on a side note, I'll say it....in areas like this (DC), any thought that the left lane be reserved for passing is bogus anyways. There are too many cars here for all 4 lanes on the highway, much less telling them to stay in just the right 3 unless passing. The passing lane here is whichever lane happens to have the fastest line of 45 cars in it....but of course over the length of 10 miles, they all even out and that guy you blew by on the left 15 minutes ago will invariably somehow end up in front of you even though he's been in the 2nd from right lane the whole time.

The real question is.....Do you guys with P71s notice that other drivers mistake you for an active police car and get out of your way? Because I'm going to go buy one if that is the case.

irish44j wrote:

Raze wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Raze wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Raze wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Zomby woof wrote: Honestly, I've never read so many childish things in one thread

This cannot possibly be true.

You don't know what's possible, maybe you should move over to the right lane

You assume my lane is somehow wrong? Don't put your morality on me, maaan.

Your ignorance shines through that you don't have any ground on which to question my assertion, duuuuude.

That is 77.891% falsity. I am a Supreme Court Justice, Physicist, Doctor of Anthropology and ex-Delta Force Commando. I think I know a little more about right and wrong lanes than you do. What ever you say next is probably what Hitler would say.

Don't you know that 80% of statistics are made up? Chuck Norris flashed his lights once, and there were no more left lanes... Oh yeah, well you may be all those things but my Dad, whose a Mechanic says Miatas are gay...

quoted for posterity, because of the excessive amount of "win" in these collective posts.

I'm glad I'm at the center of it, that's all I can say

jimbob_racing wrote: The real question is.....Do you guys with P71s notice that other drivers mistake you for an active police car and get out of your way? Because I'm going to go buy one if that is the case.

On this car and past ones, since I have a bike rack on the roof, I find that at night people think I'm a cop car, seeing the glint of the rack and mistaking it for lights.

Then they slow down to the speed limit, and I get annoyed.

iceracer wrote: On multi lane roads, sometimes the far right lane is the fastest. Did that going north on the Northway (I-87) on the day before Christmas.

You speak truth to power. I've noticed this myself, even with the occasional traffic merging, sometimes the right lane is the fastest overall.

jimbob_racing wrote: The real question is.....Do you guys with P71s notice that other drivers mistake you for an active police car and get out of your way? Because I'm going to go buy one if that is the case.

I had a 79 oldsmobile delta 88. I painted it bright white. It was a friggin oldsmobile but back in the early 90's I still found people moving over for me on the PA turnpike. I can't imagine how great it would be to have a P71. It would be glorious.

This question is highly case sensitive and I think most of GRM's demographic would like to think they get out of the way of faster drivers and I would imagine the reality is a bit less simple. I personally spend a lot of time in the fast lane and I spend lots of time stuck behind a bunch of cars going slower than I'd like to.

I've found the reality of driving in LA is that lane discipline is unheard of so as far as lanes go, I'm an equal opportunity passer. I try to sit back, see the big picture, gauge the traffic as far ahead as possible and plot your way through the maze. One car here or there simply does not matter when you could be passing 13 cars a few lanes over.

That said, if someone wants to be 10 yards ahead of me bad enough to flash his lights I let them go. Letting someone like that in front of you is almost like having a scout and they tend to make it easier to see which lane to be in, or not.

Also, in regards to P71's, I had one and am over it. Everyone sees you, especially officers. I now own a V70 and may as well be invisible.

As posted, "Stay Right Except To Pass". Pretty simple.

In reply to jnaught:

I've never seen that posted anyplace in this state.....

In reply to irish44j:

I have, jnaught posted it on Jan. 4, 2011 around 9:13 p.m.

I'm just happy to hear that the death of lane discipline in US cities isn't just happening in Atlanta. I'm a native Southerner, and was afraid that talking about this stuff would just give my friends from "up North" to make even more berkeleying jokes about the Southern US.

Personally, I've noticed that the LLBs here (and I'm talking about non-rush hour travel) won't move whether you flash the lights, blink the directionals (I thought it was more "polite" than flashing the lights), or set yourself in the "sweet spot" that somebody else mentioned. I'll admit that it took me a couple of years to learn that, but I also have to say that I never did anything "agressive" when I saw that there was thick traffic. Why flash somebody who's fifth or sixth or tenth in line?

I pass on the right a lot nowdays. I will admit that when the DOT's not around (in Atlanta Metro, they actually have "police" powers-and cruisers to enforce our carpool lane & "no through trucks" regulations) I'll "borrow" the carpool lane for half a minute to get by on the left, provided that there's no way to get by on the right. But that's all when traffic isn't really congested. When there's nowhere to go, I actually agree with plance1's original post. Where do these guys think they're going to go? Aren't they looking far enough past you to see that there's another six or seven cars or so in front of you? It's one thing to be flashed if traffic is light, and you're trying to creep past someone that speeds up while you're half-way around them, but it's something entirely different when you've just resigned yourself to high traffic volume, and trundle along behind a bunch of cars because you can see that there's no way to get through without risking an accident.

IMO, if they're not enough of a driver to be looking any further than your rear bumper cover, they don't need to be driving that speed in the first place, whether the road's full or empty.

Oh, and on the P71 thing..I used to slow down when I saw them, but not so much anymore. Most of my local LEOs (city, county, and even the HP units around here!) have switched to the Dodges. I'm sure I'm pissing off a lot of folks that catch me in traffic, because:

1.) I haven't figured out yet what the Dodge headlights look like at night. Seems at the moment that the lights on the Chargers look like a lot of other cars.

2.) There seems to be many more people driving "civilian" Chargers than there ever were driving civilian Crown Vics.

Per Schroeder wrote: I'll go out on a limb and agree with the OP's statements, as stated. We get this situation a lot in Florida with two or three lane interstates. The two right lanes are going slow...the left lane is going slightly faster, but essentially, you're just stuck in a line behind a bunch of other shlumps and you just have to wait it out until you clear the clump.... Flashing, moving over, etc...nothing works. The only thing that helps is pulling over and buying an overpriced coffee and keep on trucking. The more 'polite' you are, the further behind you get—and the flashing/tailgating guy behind you only advances one spot. How did that help anyone? What it basically boils down to is that given excess traffic flow for a given roadway, the "slower traffic move right" mantra will no longer be appropriate. You're going to have to go slower. Deal with it. Now, given a not-overcrowded highway where we can move over and let a faster car pass easily...or just get in the left lane to pass the occasional slower car, then great...slower traffic keep right.....

The only solution to that is to add more lanes or alternate hiways. Well....ya know.....that or genocide

This is what we have in oregon. It does not state "unless you are travelling the posted speed limit". It is pretty simple.

Not that anyone pays attention to it.

I hate to bring this up yet again but modern speedometers are not accurate by design. According to toyota forums their speedos are typically off 10 percent. So the typical 5mph over driver comes up on a left lane clogging camry. The posted speed limit is 65, the Camry driver looks down and sees that they are doing 66mph and thinks "I am already exceeding the speed limit, these people behind me can suck it" The rest of traffic that normally flows at 70 is now stuck doing 60 in the left lane, tempers flare, horns honk, lights flash and the indignant toyota driver continues on knowing that they are doing the right thing slowing down those reckless speed demons.

plance1 wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: The real question is.....Do you guys with P71s notice that other drivers mistake you for an active police car and get out of your way? Because I'm going to go buy one if that is the case.

I had a 79 oldsmobile delta 88. I painted it bright white. It was a friggin oldsmobile but back in the early 90's I still found people moving over for me on the PA turnpike. I can't imagine how great it would be to have a P71. It would be glorious.

yup, back in the late 80s early 90s my brothers had a retired american cab as their DD. it was white with a blue strip on the side about door handle height and the same thickness as the chicago police. an antennae for a 2way was still on the car. Always got mistaken for a cop.

ditchdigger wrote: This is what we have in oregon. It does not state "unless you are travelling the posted speed limit". It is pretty simple. Not that anyone pays attention to it. I hate to bring this up yet again but modern speedometers are not accurate by design. According to toyota forums their speedos are typically off 10 percent. So the typical 5mph over driver comes up on a left lane clogging camry. The posted speed limit is 65, the Camry driver looks down and sees that they are doing 66mph and thinks "I am already exceeding the speed limit, these people behind me can suck it" The rest of traffic that normally flows at 70 is now stuck doing 60 in the left lane, tempers flare, horns honk, lights flash and the indignant toyota driver continues on knowing that they are doing the right thing slowing down those reckless speed demons.

we have those here too. It is actually a law in illinois that you can not be in the left lane unless passing. it is not an enforced law though.

I just went through this travelling over the holidays and I completely agree with Per and the OP. Higher flow traffic means that you can't just move over. Your choices are to basically join the LONG line of slow passers in the left lane or jump in the right lane and try to pass a few guys on the right before you get to the semi that everyone is slowly passing and cut back into the left lane having gained a few spots and nearly caused an accident. This just causes everyone in the slowly passing left lane to bunch up to prevent the next guy from trying it and now everyone is feet apart doing 75mph.

If there is a third lane I often find it to actually be the fastest. Most people merge onto the interstate and immediately move to the middle lane so the right lane is often mostly empty (here in Fl).

I don't do the whole flashing lights thing anymore. It just ticks people off and I can usually just pass on the right without nearly as much trouble. I hate that it's the way things are, but it's not worth getting worked up over. We can argue all day long that you should only be in the left lane to pass or get back over immediately, but unfortunately most people don't know or follow the rules of the road (this ain't Germany).

iceracer wrote: On multi lane roads, sometimes the far right lane is the fastest. Did that going north on the Northway (I-87) on the day before Christmas.

Welcome to driving any 400 series (multi-lane) Highways in Ontario. I have come up on guys in the left lane at 2 am that refuse to move. I just motor down the right lane most of the time and I have to pop out around the occasional Tractor-trailer and continue on.