Me and two of my friends were out last night, my friend was driving pretty fast and we came upon a corner, that was not signed as being a sharp bend at all, so se had slowed down a little but not much, it ended up being a whacking great big almost 360 I would say like turn, the screeching of the tires, we ended up in the other side of the road, go thing another car wasn’t coming, we were very lucky she had such good control at such a high speed. I would like to point out we had never driven around this particular area before!

On side roads the following annoy me:

1) You cut me off because you’re on a cell phone and can’t check your blind spot well while holding the phone up to your ear. You’re going to kill someone someday.

2) You’re sitting at a light, usually on a cell phone, and it’s green. Pay attention.

3) Sudden braking and turning with no blinker, very very smart move.

4) Driving under the speed limit on secondary roads… unless there’s bad weather, heavy pedestrian traffic, or some other reason, the speed limits posted on 1 lane roads are generally very cautious… drive the speed limit.

So… I probably get annoyed at you for number 4. But seriously, if the speed limit is 35, do 35 or higher.

But I speed a lot, and so I’m probably a horrible person… I even got the Prius up above 100 once.

But I don’t honk at people.
Sometimes, like when an 80 year old is driving 45 in the left lane on the highway, I’ll get their attention because they’re going to go completely cenile at any moment, lose contol of the car and kill everybody behind them. I don’t flip people off, either.

However, I have been known to get ahead of someone going really slow, then go EVEN SLOWER making sure they stay behind me. Also, I tailgate horrendously.

All that said, I don’t hate Mike D (at least not for his driving).

This past week I started using my GPS to see how far off my speedometer is and how good the cruise control is at keeping said speed. Its been a lot of fun.

All that said, even though i know that there’s not much difference time wise for most of my trips (2 hours and less), I can’t bring myself to slow down under 60. It becomes a compromise between saving gas and saving my life and I value my life more than the few bucks I can save at the pump.

1) Your gas-saving tendencies will be admired (though you do it to primarily to save money).

2) Seattle drivers are the most passive drivers I’ve ever seen. Everyone drives the speed limit (60mph), and a few outliers drive 65mph. People don’t weave in and out of traffic. People stay in their lanes as if they bet money on it. Nobody *ever* honks. I’ve been here 15 months, and I think I’ve only heard a honk once. Maybe twice.

Every time I go back to Kansas, I find myself only going 60 mph on the highways (instead of the usual 75 mph). I’m just that used to Seattle traffic now… I’m a slow driver, too.

But, I’ve never honked for reason #3. I’ve been tempted, but only when stuck behind a 15mph driver in a 40 mph area.

From what we could tell everyone looked fine. Most amusing thing after this guys car got crushed he put his car in reverse like he would be able to back up and drive away. That dudes car wasn’t going anywhere.

While the fault is obviously with the agressive driver, from your observance do you think the law likely find the semi at fault?

But back on topic, I’ve found that even on the highway I set the cruise at 72 and I still get passed. I like the ‘get right behind you and put on your highbeam’ tactic. People seem to think that will make me go faster. it doesn’t. Bright light actually slows me down.

We saw an agressive driver get his car crushed by a semi. He was angry at being stuck behind a slow semi that was slow to start up after being stoped at red lights. He ended up trying to speedily pass the semi that was making a wide right hand turn. His car got crushed up agains the curb and under the truck. Scary sight (we were the car directly behind this, got to witness the slow motion crush of the car).

I think I am called a “slow” driver by some of my friends, but their definition of slow is, apparently, “doesn’t break the speed limit”, so whatever. I generally travel at the speed limit (70 on motorways, 60 on major one-lane roads, 40/30 in built-up areas), and if the conditions are bad or it’s at night I’ll usually drop 5 or 10 mph off that. Drivers who are incredibly anxious to overtake (and who I inevitably pull up alongside at the next junction) annoy the hell out of me too - especially if they are breaking the speed limit by a significant margin - but I try to ignore them as much as possible.