Watch me drive slower than everyone else pressuring them into overtaking me thus increasing the chances of a collision because the government put up a sign that said so.
You’re barely even saving any fuel. Maintaining speed uses much less fuel than getting up to speed, and depending on the gearing and aerodynamics of the car it may even be more efficient to cruise above whatever the speed limit happens to be. You’re probably costing all the people who have to overtake you a bit of extra fuel, though.
Go the common speed as long as it’s within the realm of reason. This is day 1 of driver’s ed, people.
You are the worst, please don’t drive.
And if that was the lesson you got on day 1 of your drivers education, go ahead and shoot your driving teacher, before he can spreas more nonsense. This might save a few lifes.
It makes sense when merging onto a highway.
If it’s busy and everyone else is zooming by, merging at a slower speed is dangerous. Speed up, match the flow (even if speeding), merge, then you can ease off to whatever speed you want. This is what I was tought in drivers’ ed, and it makes sense.
Once you’re on the highway though, yeah, it doesn’t apply anymore.
Tell me how “the aerodynamics of the car” somehow just invalidate the drag equation that clearly states that drag increases proportional to the square of the velocity. Going 160km/h rather than 130km/h increases fuel consumption by about 30%. That’s what you actually learn in driver’s ed.
Regarding “depending on the gearing” – do you realize how significant the overlap between the gears is? You don’t need to drive 10km/h faster to get into the next gear.
You can drive a brick, and if you’re in a line of traffic moving faster, your aerodynamics are much different than sitting in the slow lane with nobody in front of you. Drafting is real.
…unless you’re riding the bumper of the car in front of you, drafting effects are negligible, and if you are riding the bumper of the car in front of you then you’re not leaving enough space to panic-stop safely, potentially nor enough space to see beyond them to anticipate traffic ahead, either…
My car follows the laws of physics and gets best mileage at its lowest speed, with a tail wind. Yours would too if it weren’t for the type of engine it has having a power level below which it can’t operate efficiently.
I suspect mine is also more efficient than yours at 51mph
Could be someone slowly passing. Which can cause issues, even if it is totally legal.
…nothing wrong with passing slowly as long as folks merge right afterward…
If someone takes a really long time with it, it can cause a huge holdup which can cause issues.
Pff, whatever. If I’ve got a right hand lane to sit in and let people pass I’ll do 10km/h under the limit (90 instead of 100) and save a non-trivial amount of fuel.
The cost-benefit on that shifts a bit if I need to make a longer trip, but for my usual drives in the 100-200km range that’s an extra 7-15 minutes on a 1 to 2 hour trip, which barely matters.
Time is far more valuable to me than gas. I have no problem with people staying in the right lane though you can drive as slow as you want there. The people who are the problem are the ones who want to get in the middle/left lanes and turn their brain off that’s what causes traffic to back up. IMO police should enforce proper lane usage rather than speed. This would also stop traffic caused by everyone bunching up when they encounter a cop on the highway because they’re scared to pass him.
It’s gotten worse the past few years. Everyone acts like entitled asshats. Middle lane under the speed limit, hammer lane going the same speed as the idiot in the middle lane. Most states it’s illegal to pass on the right so you either break the law or you get to follow someone that thinks they’re more important than you.
Yea, I’ve noticed it more since covid. I was on a fairly long interstate drive yesterday and there wasn’t enough traffic that I should have ever had to do anything beside set my cruise to 80 and go but instead I was having to adjust for about half of it due to people just hanging out in the wrong lanes and yea, there was a lot of passing on the right because they were pacing each other in the left two lanes. Even fucking semis were doing it and they should absolutely know better. It shouldn’t be illegal to pass on the right. It should be illegal to GET passed on the right. If that happens and you’re at the front of the line then you’re fucking up.
It’s crazy when you see people speed and overtake like maniacs just to see that they reached the gas station 20 seconds before you do. I really think it hurts some people’s ego when they have to drive behind someone. “But but, i’m the king of the road…”
If I’m not behind you I don’t have to worry about you kicking up rocks onto my car, waiting for you to get off your cell phone at the light, I don’t have to slow down because you can’t handle taking a turn at the posted speed, ect. Yeah, I’ll be the guy in front using my gas for enjoyment and open road. If I cared about fuel economy, I’d drive a prius.
Here we’re taught to go with the flow of traffic. It’s safer to go the same speed as everyone else than to be the one car everyone has to go around.
Yeah nah. Any faster than 100 km/h is already way too fast. I still don’t get how people are more comfortable going over it.
What? On the highway the limit is 110km/h in some places here (divided highway) and it’s pretty standard for everyone to be going 5-10km over the limit.
Well where I am, 100 is the maximum. I think going any faster is pretty dangerous, considering you’re in a big metal casket :/
Here we are taught to follow traffic laws. Of course it doesn’t make sense to do that to ridiculous degree but speeding because others are speeding is not something encouraged here. Flow of traffic makes sense if everyone is slowing down, then it’s probably hazardous weather or something.
Anywhere with sensible traffic schools. Accidents are almost always caused by drivers going 10mph faster or slower than the rest of traffic. Being the odd man out in this criteria is dumber than ignoring some numbers on a sign that everyone else is ignoring.
EDIT: Since it’s become apparent it needs stated for those of you who missed that week of Driver’s Ed, and didn’t read the manual; One: I merely quoted the manual; Two: it is INDEED the job of EVERY driver, regardless of their position relative to specific other drivers, to take any actions neccessary to avoid or mitigate an accident in the making. Idiots like you are the reason No Fault states exist.
It takes some real mental gymnastics to put the blame for a crash on the driver going “too slow” rather than the inattentive speeding driver who crashed into them.
Just be careful when driving out of state, I got singled out and issued a citation near Las Vegas going the flow of traffic @ 10-15 mph over the limit.
This – in Denver on I-25, the speed limit is 55 mph, but if you stay below that you’re taking your life into your hands because everyone will be whipping by you at least 10 (and often 20) mph faster. Honestly, speed up a bit and it feels safer because there isn’t such a speed differential between you and everyone else.
But when there’s only one lane on a mountain road and someone is going slow because they are scared of the mountains or scared of a tunnel for some reason…. Like dude pull over and let people pass
Or go take a driver’s training class so you’re not afraid to operate a vehicle in its ordinary manner.
As someone who lives somewhere flat, driving in the mountains is different due to the amount if focus and control I have to put into making sure I’m always in the lane. Going from a slightly curve every 2 miles to a sharp winding bend every 0.1 miles is a huge difference!
