Poor driving habits cause others to slow down and create traffic jams.
Driving on the Interstate or on one of those "miracle mile" four-lanes with traffic lights every one-quarter mile and a repeating Fred Flintstone backdrop of WalMarts, McDonalds, Oil Change Places, and big-box lumberterias, is no fun. People drive like assholes, as if they are late for an important meeting, when in reality, they have nothing going on in their lives.
And hey, I get it. That was me at age 25 or so. Driving fast was a thrill, and when you are young, you seek thrills. When you are old, you want to avoid pain and death - and after a few wrecks, you realize that shaving ten seconds off your commute time isn't worth dying for.
What I noticed in our recent trip was that that people drive poorly and selfishly, and as a result, cause others to slow down to accommodation their whims - and the overall result is that traffic slows down - sometimes to a crawl, sometimes to a halt.
What sort of habits am I talking about? Let me do a listacle of seven (an arbitrary number) of bad habits:
1. Flooring it to a stop sign/red light: We are traveling along a four-lane or two-lane road, lined with American fast-food shops and big-box stores. Every tenth of a mile is a side-street. Cletus in his clapped-out pickup truck is approaching from a side street, going 10 MPH over the limit. A sign indicates "Shady Acres Trailer Park" where he no doubt came from. He approaches the stop sign at full speed and applies the brakes only when he hits the cross-walk.
From our point of view, it appears that Cletus is about to run a stop sign and plow into our camper. Since we are towing a trailer, our stopping distance is diminished. So we slow down until we see Cletus actually stop - which is indicated by the severe nose-dive in his old Chevy as he hammers the brake pedal to the floor. This is the way he normally drives - foot to the floor on the gas, foot to the floor on the brakes. There is no modulation in-between.
Now, Cletus drives this way, thinking he will "get there faster" but the only thing he got to faster was the stop sign. And since his asshole driving made us slow down (to anticipate his running the stop sign - something he no doubt has done more than once) Cletus has to wait longer for use to pass by. If he just slowed down, anticipated the stop, he would have saved wear on his brakes (getting 50K out of a set of pads and rotors instead of 25K) and saved gas as well. If he bothered to look, he would have seen us coming and then anticipated the stop such that he could have pulled in behind us in an even flow of traffic.
But since he wanted to save ten seconds, he wastes nearly a minute and moreover, slows down traffic on the main road, as everyone slows down as it appears he is about to blow through a stop sign (or red light). He finally pulls in behind us, guns the engine, and passes us (just barely) and we catch up to him at the next stop light. And the next stop light. And the next one. And so on.
Driving like an asshole doesn't "save you time" and in fact, it slows down the whole traffic flow.
2. Failure to Merge: On I-81 in Pennsylvania there is always construction. When I was a kid, my Mom used to say it was because the Mafia always got the paving contracts and they intentionally do a shitty job of paving so that in a year or two they need to re-pave again. I am not sure if that is true or not, but once you hit the Pennsylvania border, all bets are off, and the road goes from paved, to third-world.
In several sections, the road goes from two lanes to one, and you have to merge into one lane. In theory, this should not be an issue, if everyone merges from one lane and then another and acts courteously. But in reality, well, people suck, and it only takes one car with New Jersey license plates to really screw things up. And we saw this firsthand.
Most people, when it says "Lane Closed Ahead, Merge Left" will merge to the left lane and that's it. Traffic would flow. But there is always "the one guy" who thinks, "Gee, this is a great chance to get ahead of a dozen cars and thus arrive at my destination a minute sooner after a six-hour drive!" And yea, they really think this way - although not in the front-part of their brains.
(This is the same "guy" who pulls in behind an ambulance, viewing someone else's medical emergency as an opportunity to cut through traffic! Sick! Illegal, too)
So they zoom ahead and at the last minute, cut off an 18-wheeler who has to jam on his brakes, and thus causes a ripple of brake lights down the way. As traffic slows, more New Jersey Tags decide they are clever, too, and zoom around and cut off more 18-wheelers. In a matter of minutes, a moving merge lane has turned into a parking lot.
To convenience one person, one-thousand must suffer. But it is no different than other aspects of life and other aspects of humanity. There are people today who would gladly sell out our county, our Democracy, our civilization, even, just to put a nickel in their pocket, provided they get to keep the nickel. As Heinlein once said, it is amazing how cheaply government officials can be bought - and provided they stay bought, it is not such a bad thing. Folks like Trump will sell out a country worth Trillions, in order to put a few measly millions in their pocket.
Humanity sucks, let's face it. But I digress.
3. Pass to get off exit: When you are within five miles of an exit, just get in the right lane (for a right hand exit) and slow the fuck down. You won't save more than mere seconds trying to pass one or two more cars or even a dozen, before the exit ramp.
And yet we see this all the time, people wanting to pass "the slow RV" to get to their exit, cutting us off (or a truck) from the far left-lane to cross over two or three lanes of traffic, almost trading paint with the exit sign.
The problem is, traffic on the main road has to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting these idiots, which then slows down the main traffic flow. Time saved for the idiot? None, as he usually is accelerating on the off-ramp toward a red light. Going faster doesn't always mean getting there faster!
By the way, this goes triple for truck drivers who make a "last pass" before a weigh station and then cut off cars to make the ramp. Just suicide!
4. Excessive Speed: Traffic flows like a river and if you "go with the flow" you will find the journey relaxing and easy and have no complaints about "heavy traffic." If you try to drive 5-10 MPH (or more) above the traffic flow, you will end up going slower, getting shitty gas mileage, and arriving later than if you went with the flow. And your antics will slow down the overall traffic flow, which in turn will slow you down.
Note that I said. "traffic flow" and not "speed limit." On any road, people will tend to drive at a speed they are comfortable with, based on the number of intersections and driveways as well as the availability of run-off space. Sight-lines are are also important - if you are on a narrow four-lane road with "Jersey Walls" on either side, with no shoulders and sharp corners or abrupt hills that limit forward vision, you should expect people to slow down. On the other hand, on a wide-open Interstate with little traffic and wide grassy areas on either side of the broad shoulders, you should expect people to be driving five MPH over the speed limit, at least in the left lane.
Go with the flow and driving is easy. But there is always "the guy" (and that used to be me!) who saw each car as an obstacle to be passed and that passing was "winning" some sort of game.
It is almost hilarious to watch these idiots. They pass us and then zoom into the right lane, convinced they are going to pass on the right (more on that, later) four cars that are waiting for two 18-wheelers to slo-mo pass each other on a hill. The racer dude ends up stuck in the right lane as all the people he passed in the last 15 minutes patiently wait their turn to pass that truck.
Go with the flow. As some automotive journalists noted, "Speed doesn't kill, speed differential kills." And if you are going 10MPH more than the traffic flow, you are the problem, not everyone else. Or as another wag once said, "if everyone around you is an asshole, maybe you are the asshole!"
5. Failure to Yield: That big triangular sign on the on-ramp says "Yield". That means you have to "yield" to traffic. You don't have to stop, but you don't have the right-of-way, either. For some reason, a whole generation of drivers thinks they have a right to just swerve over into traffic (sometimes two or three lanes!) and other drivers just have to suck it up.
Sometimes, they actually get angry. "Why didn't you 'move over' and 'let me on'?" they say. Well, there is heavy traffic on all three lanes, and sideswiping a truck wasn't on my agenda (BTDT! - not fun!). Oh, and by the way, you are supposed to yield, dumbass!
You either have to accelerate to go ahead of the car in the traffic lane, or slow down and pull in behind them. Match your speed to traffic and safely merge. Sadly, some people prefer to merge at 40 MPH and then check their phone, do their hair, organize their glovebox, and then leisurely accelerate to highway speed. Others want to zoom in at 70 MPH and cut across three lanes of traffic. Both are a recipe for a deadly accident. Neither save any time, both slow down the traffic flow.
When these idiots merge, their antics cause everyone else to slow down. So to save a few seconds, they cause dozens of cars to waste even more time. Worse yet, if you "move over" to let one of these idiots on, they then pass you on the right (more on that later) and you are stuck in the left lane, trying to get back in, as a plethora of people wonder why you are going so slowly in the left lane and pass you on the right.
I don't "get over" for anyone other than a struggling truck driver with a heavy load who is obviously having a hard time of it. And even then, if the left lane has traffic in it, I can't really do much, can I? I had to slow down once, to nearly 40 MPH to let a loaded gasoline tanker onto the highway on an absurdly short on-ramp that was uphill no less. It was either that or a fiery death.
But some jackass in a Mustang? He's got a gas pedal - use it! You'd be surprised how many people in "performance" cars are afraid of accelerating. It boggles the mind. They merge at 40 MPH!
6. Passing on the right: If you want to die young, pass an 18-wheeler on the right. They literally can't see you and will move into your lane, squishing you between their trailer and the guard rail until you are human paste like those jackass billionaires in that half-assed Titanic submarine. Your Honda Civic versus 60,000lb 18-wheeler. Gee, I wonder who would win?
We often see this with some idiot in rice-racer tailgating an 18-wheeler who is passing us. The 18-wheeler has passed and has his turn signal on to get back to the right lane. Mr. Impatient zooms to the right and tries to pass the 18-wheeler on the right, only to see, too late, the truck about to crush him to death. Sadly, it doesn't.
The truck driver now swerves left and the rice-racer does likewise. Sometimes this doesy-do goes on several cycles until the rice-racer realizes he is the problem, stays in the left lane and lets the 18-wheeler get over. Bear in mind, if you are in a small car merely feet from the rear bumper of a truck, the truck driver has no idea you are there. Your erratic and unpredictable actions (more on that, next) make him nervous and cause him - and everyone else - to slow down. Trying to save times takes more time.
7. Being Unpredictable: The whole automobile transportation system is predicated on people driving predictably. We expect people to stop at stop signs and red lights. We expect people to drive at reasonable speeds, relative to traffic flow. We expect people to be courteous and attentive when merging for construction or at an on-ramp. We expect a lot, but in recent years, we have learned to expect little. Accident rates have been climbing and auto death rates have increased. One culprit is the cell phone. On any given day, we see at least a half-dozen or more drivers on the cell phones, swerving onto the shoulder or into the adjoining lane. Sometimes there are even truckers on their cell phones! You pass them and you see them looking at their phone. We've seen people on laptops or reading the Bible. Readers have reported similar things. People just don't give a damn about driving anymore, it seems.
At intersections, "Good Samaritans" try to make up new traffic laws, by "scootching" other drivers. They arrive first at a four-way stop and are to the right of other traffic - they have the right-of-way by two criteria! They decide to "be nice" to the other driver and let them go first! They indicate this by making a scootching motion with their hands. Problem is, other drivers have no idea the traffic laws have been sua sponte amended by Karen, and they end up plowing into the car that had no real right-of-way.
Being predictable means understanding traffic laws (like what "Yield" means) and not just making shit up as you go along. It means paying attention and not dicking around with your cell phone while you drive. It means going at a speed people expect, not 10 MPH faster than everyone else - even those in the left lane. It means when you are waiting for a truck to pass, you wait for them to get over, instead of trying to be a smart-ass and passing on the right.
So how do I know that these habits actually slow traffic - and don't get the driver anywhere faster, either? Well, we see this going down, every day we drive. Someone is "in a hurry" and their half-assed driving creates a disturbance in the matrix, which causes ripple effects seen miles down the road. An hour later, we see the same exact car getting on the Interstate. It ain't hard to tell, these kind of drivers love "look at me!" cars and vanity tags, as well as the collection of bumper stickers. They are now behind us, trying to cut off a trucker in order to pass. They saved no time at all.
The irony of the self-driving car is that if it became widely used, every car would be traveling at the speed limit, in a uniform spacing, and merging and lane changing would be done smoothly and easily. In other words, the cars would drive themselves the way we are supposed to be driving ourselves. People pine for "Full automatic cruise control autopilot driving mode" but when they get behind the wheel, they do the exact opposite - engaging "Full road-rage asshole driving I'm-in-a-hurry dammit!" mode.
Funny thing, too - none of them are really in a hurry to be anywhere!
