Weird News Thread Part III

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When the NJ Turnpike introduced EZPass, one concern was that they would eventually use entry/exit times to gauge average speed, and surcharge those exceeding the average speed limit. It hasn't happened ... yet.
I would prefer that they develop some way to surcharge lane changers! More than one per mile: 25 cents. As Father Guido Sarducci once said about penalties for masturbation, "Not much, but it adds up!"

 

Well, it's just tough I'm afraid... but it doesn't tend to happen too often and, even when it does, if they moved over, you still can't get anywhere.



It's pretty funny actually, watching people get frustrated waiting for you to move out the way and, when you do, they move forward about 20 yards and get stuck behind the guy you were stuck behind

Even in quite dense, (but still moving), traffic I tend to stick to the inside lane as it often travels just as fast and drivers there usually drive without constant braking and acceleration. The only problem is the traffic joining on slip roads from the left necessitates moving to the middle lane.

 

When I did drive in France I never used the autoroutes. Mainly because I was on holiday and wasn't in a rush but also, there was so little traffic on the other roads, what's the point?

Of course, I'm comparing them to British roads...

 

Shush now.

 

No it doesn't in the U.K., I have driven there. Despite what BigJake says, though, it's commonplace in the U.S. I often see the left and center lanes occupied by two guys driving in parallel at 65 mph, with people zooming to the right lane to pass the duo at 80 mph. Almost an everyday sight. Maybe in Jersey they are different but here in the Midwest there is only a vague understanding of the slower traffic being on the right, and passing on the left. As a result passing on the right is very common, almost as common as passing on the left.

It beats how they drive in Mumbai but it's dangerous and stupid, and I blame the lane hoggers more than I blame the passers (although sometimes they pass on crazy fast speeds, I've seen guys at 100 mph blowing past in the right lane, and I won't defend that).

 

To be clear, it's not that we, being British and vastly superior to mere foreigners*, have the highest regard for traffic rules or road safety. It's just that, if you're on the nearside and overtake, (undertaking it's often called), and the driver in the offside moves across on YOU, it will almost certainly be deemed YOUR fault and YOU will get done, even if he's the one changing lanes.

The highway code says that, in dense, slow moving traffic, (similar to that in the pic I showed), you CAN pass on the nearside but I wouldn't like to try and argue the point in court.


* Although we are, obviously

 

But how can that be? The ref should whistle the play dead before the foul is committed.

 

We've never driven across PA, on either the Turnpike or I-80, without coming up on a hill (with a third lane added on the left and where the right lane is thus designated the "climbing" lane for trucks) w/o seeing a truck in said climbing lane going 30, another truck passing it in the middle lane going 32, and a third truck in the left lane passing both of them at about 33MPH. Pretty sure that's not what the engineers had in mind.

 

Urban cow-tipping:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Suspects-Flip-Over-Smart-Cars-in-San-Francisco-254177981.html

 

Perhaps Illinois & neighboring states need a few of these signs:
http://static.lowensign.com/vcImages/items/600/TS-R4-16_18X24.jpg
You could be doing it wrong:
http://i1.cpcache.com/product_zoom/...r=Clear&height=250&width=250&padToSquare=true
I question the validity of this sign:
http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-right-except-to-pass-4.png

 

Drunk, and Stupid

 

Send him to the Dean...

 

As a former trucker, that's true. It's best for all parties.

 

Lin lao, lin lao, lin lao!!!

 

The Che bumper sticker explains it all.

 

GMP = Greater Manchester Police.

 

Rather reminds me of a young kid I used to know who vandalised a police car with a pen-knife. They identified him, (a young man who went by the name of Grocott), partly because he scratched, 'Grocott was here' on the drivers door

 

How did they single him out? Aren't there like millions of Grocotts in Britain?

 

Damn left coast.

Today driving in on LakeShore Drive, I was driving in the left lane, got stuck behind a guy going 54. (The speed limit is I think only 50, but it's a 4-lane highway with the flow of traffic being 60-65.) I looked to pass him on the right. There was a guy next to me, also driving at 54. The two of them in a perfect blocking pattern, driving in sync, and of course utterly oblivious to me being trapped, or to the the fact that another driver had swerved two lanes over to the 3rd lane, had just blown past them at 70 mph, had then cut over to the left in front of them, and was now leaving them in the distance.

I hit my brakes to let the duo drive on with their 54 mph blocking pattern, slowed to less than 50 mph, cut over two lanes, and then also passed them in the 3rd lane.

Yes I am guilty but I am driven to my sins, Oh Lord, I am driven to my sins.

 

When I first read this I assumed he was American. It's good to know that the good ole USA doesn't have a monopoly on dumb asses.

 

Per capita, England might well outperform us for sober stupidity, and surely does for the drunken version.

 

I drove about 45k miles per year for the last three years, and most of that was on the quick side. The lane hoggers are an issue, and I'd say that maybe twice on a three hour drive is passing on the right necessitated. In areas that have more than three lanes and many exits, it's probably more...but that's a bit different. A bigger problem than the lane hoggers are the people who pass on the right without waiting long enough for a lane plug to move. Between Waze, a radar detector, knowing all the traps by heart, and a fast car, I'm confident that if the people behind me just chill for a moment while we wait that they'll get there faster by staying behind me.