The flock.

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Norm Olt
"Flock" indicates a goup of birds, in this case, clearly Dodo's.

I prefer the term "herd", as in SHEEP!

BAAAAAAA!

Cheers!

p.s.

I also like a MURDER of crows. Or a POD of whales.


I call the big groups of semis "gaggles"...

 

[TMoto]

Originally Posted By: grampi
I call the big groups of semis "gaggles"...

I generally find most of the cross country truckers courteous as they will pass on the left and move over. The city drivers, not so much.

I also see lots of people enter a highway and immediately move over two lanes, regardless if anyone's in front of them or not. It allows me to stay in the #3 lane driving faster than them before I need to move over.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: TallPaul
Sometimes I think there is even a subconscience thing that a driver will increase their speed when a passing car begins to overtake them. Too many times I am behind someone going 5 or 10 under only to find them going much faster when I am passing them.



I see this all the time. On 4 lane freeways with the speed limit being 70 MPH, I usually set my cruise at 75 cuz I know the cops won't mess with you at just 5 over. Without fail, I'll come up behind someone in the left lane whose passing another vehicle doing 65-70. As soon as they finish passing they move over into the right lane and speed up. This makes no sense to me. If you're going to speed up, it should be done while you're in the left lane, not after you move back over into the right lane.


When it seems someone is deliberately pacing me to keep me from returning to the right hand lane, I will vary my own speed several times to see how they respond and make them conscious of what they are doing if they are not already. If they continue to vary their own speed accordingly I take it as a signal that they are either deliberately messing with me, or clueless. I figure either one is an indication that nothing will change without action on my part, so I have license to stop being accomodating and do what I need to do to get out of the left lane. If they come to the conclusion that I was not pleased, that is fine, perhaps they will come to the conclusion they should change their habits...

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: TMoto
Originally Posted By: grampi
I call the big groups of semis "gaggles"...

I generally find most of the cross country truckers courteous as they will pass on the left and move over. The city drivers, not so much.


I spend a lot of time on the freeways and I'm not seeing the courteousness from the OTR drivers. What I see is a lot of these semi drivers holding up a lot of faster moving POV drivers by clogging up the left lanes. I don't know why these truck drivers think it's imparitive to hold up large numbers of vehicles just so they can overtake the semi, or multiple semis in front of them that's going 1/4 of a mile an hour slower than they are. They could at least slow down that 1/4 mile an hour and stay in right lane until they can pass without holding up other drivers coming up from behind to pass...but they just don't care who they hold up...they've gotta get that extra 1/4 mile an hour...

 

[bigmike]

They probably watch too many competition cycling teams.

 

[TMoto]

Originally Posted By: grampi
I spend a lot of time on the freeways and I'm not seeing the courteousness from the OTR drivers. What I see is a lot of these semi drivers holding up a lot of faster moving POV drivers by clogging up the left lanes. I don't know why these truck drivers think it's imparitive to hold up large numbers of vehicles just so they can overtake the semi, or multiple semis in front of them that's going 1/4 of a mile an hour slower than they are.


There are exceptions, but in my experience the cross country truckers generally stay out of the left lane in town. Unless of course they need to be, due to the genious design of some of Denver's left lane ramps on the highways. It's the local drivers that tend to be more discourteous.

Quote:
They could at least slow down that 1/4 mile an hour and stay in right lane until they can pass without holding up other drivers coming up from behind to pass...but they just don't care who they hold up...they've gotta get that extra 1/4 mile an hour...


Playing devil's advocate here, but is there ever a time when a truck in the right lane won't have vehicles coming up from behind to pass?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't usually find the truckers to be the issue. It's the other morons on the road that are either blocking the left lane with a long line of cars behind them, or worse, they're swerving wildly through traffic only to gain two car lengths, cutting off a semi or two that weighs many tens of thousands of pounds more than they do.

Yes, I tend to move to the faster lanes but I also move over when I'm aware of someone wanting to pass. I'm also never static in relation to the flow of traffic, especially on a motorcycle. I always want to be moving faster than or slower than the other vehicles around me.

Who knows, maybe it's a regional thing? When I lived in CA it wasn't an issue with semi's, since they have to stick to the two right-hand lanes and most freeways were four or five lanes wide. Here, it's mostly four lanes with far less traffic. I-270 and stretches of I-225 have only two lanes, so it gets clogged up fairly easily, trucks or no trucks.

Cheers,
T

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog

ughh.....

at one point, US287 merges with I-20. To continue southbound on US287, you have to go from the left two lanes to the far right two lanes. You have two miles to do this. But NOOOOOoooo! People are stupid and panicky animals. They have to go NOW!!!! If they perceive a gap wide enough to force their way into, they will do it and they will bring 3 or 4 followers in with them.

Then you look at their faces. Full of righteous indignation. "I have to exit 1.9 miles ahead! I have to get over NOW! I don't care if I made you hang in your seatbelt with your ABS working hard, I need to be in the far right lane for the next 1.9 miles...."

They are just dangerous, panicky, and stupid animals.

I'll take the rolling roadblock drones over them anytime. Rolling roadblock drones do not deviate much. You can pretty much tell what they are going to be doing 5-minutes from now. Chewing their cud and rolling with the herd.






I travel that route daily - crazy!!

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: SLCraig
There is nothing that drives me more insane.
Same idea as people not passing, in the passing lane.
I wish police would pull these people over.
Road rage that they crack down on, is brought on by people who can't drive in the first place. They should get ticketed. The people that rage are probably just wishing the people who can't drive, could.

That's what happens to me when I get annoyed too. I am no hypocrite. I pass if I'm in the passing lane and move over after. I am a big believer in proper road etiquette but some people couldn't care less. Sad.


100% agree.

The root cause of road rage is often left lane hogs and other unattentive and self centered drivers. This causes some drivers to make foolish and risky moves to get around these people. I do not endorse road rage or careless driving - I am merely pointing out that often times road rage it is caused by people holding others up in the passing lane.

 

[97tbird]

^^^ I agree with that too...

Almost every day to work, on I-95 i get blocked by the flock...on BOTH lanes...so I can't even pass the 'slower-than-speed limit-flock' on the right lane, because that one also has a (more legal) slow flock. It makes me very angry.

I am also afraid to flash and honk at these people because I worry that they might call the cops and report me as doing something aggressive / violent - how can I prove my story if that happens?

And just as annoying as the varying speed drivers, my wife also points out that there's the 'constant speed' day dreamer. These people, usually female SUV/mini van drivers DO pick a speed - and stay on that speed everywhere...for example, they put the cruise on at 45 MPH and they drive at that speed in the 20 zone, 35 zone, 55 zone, 65 zone...everywhere!

Sometimes I pick a "traffic plow"/ "left lane cleaner" driver and stay behind them - those are the ones in an M3 or something that has enough balls to be VERY aggressive and scare the illegal flock out of the left lane

 

[gathermewool]

Reading all of your responses makes me feel better.

My addition: Those who crowd the intersection, blocking all of those (namely, me) from making a left turn. There are two very busy intersections near where I live. BOTH intersections will fill with cars waiting to make left-hand turns (one with cars going one direction, and the other, a block away, with cars going the opposite direction,) but neither directions can until the other direction clears - what's known as a stupidly vicious cycle.

If the small length of road between the two busy left turns is filled, I stop at the green light and let those waiting to turn left go. I've had idiots lay down heavy on the horn and pass me and flip me the bird, only to stop directly in front of me, blocking the intersection.

This usually leaves me waiting even longer, most times through ANOTHER red light, enraged to no end. The worst part is when my light changes to a mocking green turning arrow, but I can't go because the intersection is still filled with cars.

It simply makes no sense to me why people do this. It makes so much more sense to leave the intersection clear and allow a sensible gap while you wait for your turn to go. I hate to admit it, but when it's really bad and I feel as if I might be caught waiting through TWO red lights, I inch forward and lay on the horn to prevent the intersection-filling-goober from blocking me off again.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: TMoto
Originally Posted By: grampi
I call the big groups of semis "gaggles"...

I generally find most of the cross country truckers courteous as they will pass on the left and move over. The city drivers, not so much....

When I work out of town, the semis are usually in the right lane. Just wait for an uphill run and you can pass all of them without breaking the speed limit too much. Watch your rearview when you pull back in front of them on the downhill side until you get a pretty big buffer on them because all thier weight and their desire to get back up the next hill is going to move them down the hill pretty quick. But they are courteous.

The only exception are those salt water injection well trucks.

They enter the road with little regard for how close you are or how fast you are going, whip mud and rocks all over your car while they accelerate and then drive at stupid speeds once they get up to them.