Glacier slow drivers rant

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555

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While driving an XV Crosstrek with CVT no less, I noticed that when I'm first in line at a red stoplight and the light turns green I'm the first one away and up to the speed limit on multilane suburban roads. Probably at most 20 percent throttle. By the time I reach the next stoplight which is green I notice that the traffic behind me is 50 yards back and will not make the light. Why does it take drivers a quarter of a mile to get up to 40mph?! I won't mention what part of New England but it sure would be nice if these drivers took the bus! It creates traffic snarls with a minimum of vehicles on the road. Ok rant over.
 
You should vist Albuquerque...drivers there leave each light like it was an F1 start. Of course they burn out and drive 10 MPH over the speed limit only to hit the brakes HARD for the next red light.
 
The multilane roads I'm on have timed traffic lights commensurate with the speed limit. Any input on causality? Drivers texting, pill poppers etc. What's scary is they get to the light and run the red.
 
I find I get people mad when I drive the F350 or my Focus. Have to pause to shift. The F350 winds out 1st gear while in the single digits so I have to shift sooner and being a truck transmission it takes a bit to shift 1-2.

People really are in too much of a hurry.

I don't see a reason to accelerate full throttle from a stop light ... just to stop 1/4 mile up the road at the next one.

Also the reason why I have been getting 38 MPG commuting back and forth to work (24 miles round trip).
 
That's my wife...when the light turns green, she looks each way a couple times to make sure nobody is blowing through the red and then crawls away in her peppy V6 sedan. I will give her credit for being consistent, even when we are in a huge hurry to get somewhere (like to catch a flight) she sticks with her relaxed ways. I will admit that she gets vastly better gas mileage than her lead-footed husband, even though we have vehicles of comparable weight and pep.
I am generally watching the cross lights and scan both ways on their yellow for possible morons who are going to blow through the red, and then am gone the moment I have the green. If somebody is blowing through their red, I pull out enough to catch their attention and then brake and blow the horn...I want them to know somebody noticed what they did.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
That's my wife...when the light turns green, she looks each way a couple times to make sure nobody is blowing through the red and then crawls away in her peppy V6 sedan. I will give her credit for being consistent, even when we are in a huge hurry to get somewhere (like to catch a flight) she sticks with her relaxed ways. I will admit that she gets vastly better gas mileage than her lead-footed husband, even though we have vehicles of comparable weight and pep.
I am generally watching the cross lights and scan both ways on their yellow for possible morons who are going to blow through the red, and then am gone the moment I have the green. If somebody is blowing through their red, I pull out enough to catch their attention and then brake and blow the horn...I want them to know somebody noticed what they did.


That's a little extreme, it only takes me a glance to see if someone is going to blow the light. For real stoplight racing, you can put your left foot on the brake and the right on the gas and then keep an eye for the yellow the other way and give it a little rolling start before it turns green. Handy for those 4 lanes that turn into 2.
 
I'm less bothered by those traffic turtles who crawl away from a stoplight than I am by those who seem to have a policy to always drive 20mph slower than the posted speed limit, regardless of visibility, traffic, or road conditions. Or those who are challenged when it comes time to merge from an on-ramp onto the highway, and choose to do so at 45mph or less when the highway traffic is moving at 65. Worse yet, those who accelerate up the on-ramp, only to come to a complete stop waiting for a pristine 2 mile long gap in traffic before proceeding.

The sad thing is that folks like that truly believe they're safer drivers because of those behaviors.
 
How bout the turtles that FLOOR IT when you finally get a dashed line to pass them, and then try to block your pass - or they dart toward your lane. Bunch of those morons up here in Cow Hampshire. Don't get me going. I have a 30minute commute which is now an hour due to poor or inconsiderate driving. Thats over 250 hours wasted every year.
 
Just so I'm clear about this. I'm not talking about full throttle from a light(in a XV no one would notice), nice easy throttle(dont want to make the dog car sick)to the speed limit, cruise at speed limit, next light turns green before I'm there. Relatively new cars with at least 200 hp, automatic transmissions that take 1320 feet to get to 40 mph! All those cars behind them don't make the light, stop, idle and then take off with all the fury of a golf cart. It creates traffic jams when there shouldn't be any. Ranting again. I'm out.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
How bout the turtles that FLOOR IT when you finally get a dashed line to pass them, and then try to block your pass - or they dart toward your lane. Bunch of those morons up here in Cow Hampshire. Don't get me going. I have a 30minute commute which is now an hour due to poor or inconsiderate driving. Thats over 250 hours wasted every year.


Well, those types I put firmly in the category of dangerous nut jobs. I was only thinking about the slow types. We certainly have our share of dangerous nut jobs up here too, unfortunately.
 
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How about the ones that cut you off because they MUST be first at the light and then accelerate at the exact glacial pace as the ones next to them?
 
Originally Posted By: ammolab
You should vist Albuquerque...drivers there leave each light like it was an F1 start. Of course they burn out and drive 10 MPH over the speed limit only to hit the brakes HARD for the next red light.


That's everyplace!
 
It always boggles me when I'm driving the old white van - pulling a trailer - and I'm not only faster from the light, but even through the twisties. (And it's not like it even WILL go fast ... it's a '76 van.)
 
Originally Posted By: AlaskaMike
I'm less bothered by those traffic turtles who crawl away from a stoplight than I am by those who seem to have a policy to always drive 20mph slower than the posted speed limit, regardless of visibility, traffic, or road conditions. Or those who are challenged when it comes time to merge from an on-ramp onto the highway, and choose to do so at 45mph or less when the highway traffic is moving at 65. Worse yet, those who accelerate up the on-ramp, only to come to a complete stop waiting for a pristine 2 mile long gap in traffic before proceeding.

The sad thing is that folks like that truly believe they're safer drivers because of those behaviors.


I accelerate slower than most but once up to speed I will go with traffic.

People that stop on the on ramp are just ridiculous. That's not how it's supposed to work. Quite irritating.
 
What I don't get is why people don't pay attention at the light. I mean, shouldn't the whole line of cars get moving at about the same time? A slow ripple as you go back. But sometimes it seems to take every person several seconds before they decide they too can move.

When I'm first in line I try to watch the light for the other directions. So that I can be moving as soon as it's green (well, I'm checking all directions at the same time as I expect it to go green, but you get the idea).
 
Two types I hate,the ones that sit like 4 car legths back from the car in front of them at a light (they really get traffic backed up for blocks and impede the flow of the traffic) and the ones like mentioned earlier that feel the need to race you to the next red light that's just a few yards away.
 
Usually the drivers around my area are not too bad, but there's a large industrial estate near me and honestly the people drive like mad, seriously, large dump trucks and buses OVERTAKING me!!
Also i hate people who start honking at you if you aren't moving by the time the traffic light has been green for 0.000001 seconds.
One thing i do notice while driving my Capri rather than my little Peugeot is that people seem to get out of the way for example if i'm behind them on the left lane on the highway, when i drive my little Peugeot they won't.
 
People that don't try to make the next "timed" light drive my crazy.

But worse than that, I dislike it when people are in continual "slowing" mode. When they are going 60, then a minute later, 58, then 56 after another minute, then 53, etc. We have those straight, Florida (one lane each way) backroads where the speed limit is 60 and people often don't pay attention for hours at a time. Strangely, they slow to a typical speed of 43MPH, jamming up a long line of vehicles over time. I just can't understand that. So I make the mental call that they are out of gas, and need to make the next station. And I pass as soon as practical.
 
Originally Posted By: 555
While driving an XV Crosstrek with CVT no less, I noticed that when I'm first in line at a red stoplight and the light turns green I'm the first one away and up to the speed limit on multilane suburban roads. Probably at most 20 percent throttle. By the time I reach the next stoplight which is green I notice that the traffic behind me is 50 yards back and will not make the light. Why does it take drivers a quarter of a mile to get up to 40mph?! I won't mention what part of New England but it sure would be nice if these drivers took the bus! It creates traffic snarls with a minimum of vehicles on the road. Ok rant over.


You just don't understand do you?
It is very complicated and distracting when you have to drive in addition to using a phone, texting and eating plus God knows what else!
You can't expect anyone to be able to do all of those things at the same time. Are you stupid or what?
 
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