Watched a cop get people out of the passing lane.

"Milky" (jordanmielke)
08/01/2018 at 09:35 • Filed to: left lane, passing lane

It was glorious.

Merged on a highway (4 lanes each way) behind a state police car. Doing 77-78 in a 70 for a few miles until there was 2 cars blocking traffic. Cop pulled up next to each of them, point at the car then behind his cruiser. The 2nd car even had the stupidity to not understand what was going on and took a whole minute to get over.

This made my morning commute a lot more enjoyable.

DISCUSSION (11)

fintail > Milky
08/01/2018 at 10:28

pit maneuver would have been even better

facw > Milky
08/01/2018 at 10:28

I mean the outcome was good, but I can’t help but feel he was probably just concerned that they get out of his way, as opposed to being interested in maintaining orderly and functional highways. Maybe I’m too cynical though.

Milky > facw
08/01/2018 at 10:41

Eh, he could have just drove around them if he really wanted. A lot of room to do so and would’ve been a lot quicker.

Michigan state police were supposed to start ticketing people for cruising in the passing lane too.

https://jalopnik.com/michigan-cops-are-doing-gods-work-teaching-drivers-not-1763004613

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > facw
08/01/2018 at 11:31

If that was the intent he probably would have just passed them. I mean, if there was room for him to draw alongside of both cars...

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Milky
08/01/2018 at 11:53

This touches a nerve today. I’d already slept in majorly, and then some twat decides that they just HAVE to pull out into the fast lane.

*BACKGROUND—This started on a bridge. The bridge has two lanes. Both lanes join with another 3(?) lanes to their right coming from a different highway.*

Anyway, the fast lane was more or less clear, and right close to the end of the bridge where the two set of lanes come together, this guy decides to pull out in front. Doing 100km/h. Which he would not budge from. By the time he was past the guy he so desperately needed to pass, the lanes had joined and the cars in the other set of lanes were already filling the gaps before I could get in.

Anyway, mister “I work for a semi-public company, I can do what the fuck I want” continues on his merry way at a gnat’s fart more gas usage than the cars next to him, and I can’t do shit about it because I’m boxed. When he finally finds a spot and begins to drag his carcass nearer to where it should be it’s too late, I have to go past my exit. THAT’S. FOUR. FUCKING. KILOMETERS. YOU. BURNED. I do talk to myself when I drive... I don’t think I’ve ever gone hoarse before. He probably heard me over the exhaust.

Then, on my forced alternate route, someone makes a right hand turn. That’s fine. The person behind them pulls into my lane to go around. That’s fine too. But BE AWARE OF YOUR BLOODY SURROUNDINGS. IF THERE IS SOMEONE COMING, YOU SUCK IT UP AND BRAKE. Also. If you DO screw up, and we all do, the correct response is to floor it to avoid a bumperhumping and get back over immediately. Never assume the other guy can stop.***

Net result, an extra 15 minutes on a day I was already late. Go slam a dumpster on your head, asshole.

*** This second incident isn’t usually the kind of thing I’d rant about on it’s own but I was a little fired up at that point...

Milky > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
08/01/2018 at 13:35

Theres two major connectors on my commute but its Detroit and nearly everyone speeds. M erge into 1 highway at “55 mph” curves but the pace quickly picks up to over 70. Once every few weeks traffic stays slow and you can see what car is holding you up. Then the person moves across all 4 lanes to exit on a different highway miles later . Jesusfuckingchrist you couldn’t do that earlier?!

Super frustrating when you’re just having out for a distance.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Milky
08/01/2018 at 14:32

But nooooo. I can drive where I want, nuts to you. (’-’)

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
09/09/2018 at 16:24

A tactic I’ve found effective for creating gaps if signalling isn’t working is slightly slowing down, then just... moving over. Obviously don’t hit anyone. But either the car beside you that isn’t noticing your turn signal actually looks at you , or else the one behind it sees and slows down so they don't hit you as they enter your lane. I usually only have to resort to this tactic while pulling trailers, just because you need so much bigger of a gap. Generally speaking so long as people are following at a semi-reasonable distance, there's usually enough of a gap to get into without a trailer.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
09/10/2018 at 08:16

This is all true, however I hate people that signal and slow down in order to get over—especially on the highway. I like being that person even less. These conditions were probably a reasonable exception, but I’m proud to say I’ve hard-wired myself to the point where it doesn’t even occur to me 99% of the time. I also don’t like “begging” for a spot if I can avoid it, but I will do that.

The biggest problem in this case was the guy was already moving so slowly that I couldn’t safely move over, and slowing down more would either make it more unsafe or slow down two lanes of traffic instead of just one.

Looking back, the correct case of action would have been to drop back to gain acceleration room and then go for the hole shot.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer
09/10/2018 at 12:06

That makes more sense now. I ASSumed he was going slightly faster than traffic, not slower. But yes, leaving a reasonable following distance does g enerally make things better.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
09/10/2018 at 12:32

He was moving *minutely* faster than the last guy in the lane next to us, obviously , because he passed that person. So you weren’t wrong. However:

- Like I said, two sets of lanes joined here. I was in the set to the left. Cars from the set to the right invariably start spreading out to the left as soon as the lanes join.

- He pulled out to pass the first guy juuuust before the join.

- People here suck and don’t look ahead of them, don’t look for the slow guy, just move left. And then have to move back again. Net result: A flow of vehicles in and out of the gap between the slow vehicles, and a bunching up of traffic.

- The people in your own lane behind you can often get a clearer picture of the situation , and therefore be in a better position to take advantage of an opportunity to remove themselves from it. So gaps that looked promising would never make it all the way up to me anyway.

So yeah, while he was technically moving faster than the slowest vehicle in the lane I wanted to get into, he was still moving slower than many of the vehicles in that lane. And being the first person behind him I was stuck.

You know how in a river if there’s a rock sticking out from the bank the water will flow around it, but if it’s placed just right (or wrong) you’ll often end up with a fairly vortex right up against the bank? That was basically the effect this created. Pretty much the perfect storm of clusterfuckery.

Thankfully I rarely if ever see this crap. 99% of the time I have no problems with this part of my route... actually I don’t know if I’ve ever seen everything come together quite this poorly here. It was a one-off and I hope I never see the guy again.