Commuting…The strange. The Odd… And the FUN

[Phlemdog]

Originally Posted by WoodButcher

Had to run down to our data center yesterday. Got on the toll road for the ride back to the office. 3 lanes wide at that point. 4 cars running together in tight formation, 2 in the middle lane and 2 in the right. Nobody else near for a mile in front or behind. And they the on ramp was short. So I had to merge into this mini pack. Okay, I had two better options. Pin in and pass in the short merge section or brake heavily and drop in behind. Both would have been better, but the cars let me join their little cluster just fine.

I worked my way through to the fast lane and speed up to get a safe gap...only to find that my new little flock speed up to stay with me. And so it went until we finally caught some other cars. I'd speed up and so would they, I'd slow down and so would they. I felt like a mother goose leading my goslings.

So, just one of those strange things about cages and the herd mentality.

You should have stood on it, Stroker Ace style. That weeds out the herd.

I see this a lot down here. They're going just fine until you go to pass them, then they speed up to stay right by you. It's cool when I'm in a car or truck, but on a bike it makes me nervous.

[LuciferMutt]

People who speed up when you go to pass them on multilane roads drive me nuts. Car or bike, I downshift and blaze away as hard as I can for a few seconds and the behavior stops.

I call them boogers, BTW. They just hang on to you in inconspicuous places like your blind spot, no matter the speed. ARGH I'm getting annoyed just talking about.

Happens a lot comint to work. Four lane road, two lanes each way. I'm doing 40-45 in the left lane of a 35 and there is another vehicle ahead in the right lane doing the speed limit or less. I've been gaining on them for several blocks...then right while I'm in the process of casually rolling by them at a slight speed differential all of the sudden they are doing 50!

Ugh.

[NJ-Brett]

Maybe they is just checking out your bike....

[halasz]

Originally Posted by nhbubba

I've done this. Hasn't worked out to be anything interesting yet. One of these days I hope to see pix of boobies.

Are you not making the same mistake though? Better to look where you are going.

Nor have I though (and of course I look).

[LittleRedToyota]

Originally Posted by WoodButcher

Had to run down to our data center yesterday. Got on the toll road for the ride back to the office. 3 lanes wide at that point. 4 cars running together in tight formation, 2 in the middle lane and 2 in the right. Nobody else near for a mile in front or behind. And they the on ramp was short. So I had to merge into this mini pack. Okay, I had two better options. Pin in and pass in the short merge section or brake heavily and drop in behind. Both would have been better, but the cars let me join their little cluster just fine.

I worked my way through to the fast lane and speed up to get a safe gap...only to find that my new little flock speed up to stay with me. And so it went until we finally caught some other cars. I'd speed up and so would they, I'd slow down and so would they. I felt like a mother goose leading my goslings.

So, just one of those strange things about cages and the herd mentality.

they were probably hoping you were clearing the way through speeding ticket land for them.

[WoodButcher]

Originally Posted by LittleRedToyota

they were probably hoping you were clearing the way through speeding ticket land for them.

Hmmm, white helmet, optic yellow jacket, led driving lights...they usually slow down when I get close. That is until they realize I'm not a cop then they get rolling again.

[nhbubba]

Had a guy in an F-150 doing the speed up, slow down thing on me a couple days ago. I was in my cage which has a ridiculously accurate cruise-control that-according to my GPS-doesn't loose more than 1-2 MPG on even the steepest hills. I did the floor it for a couple seconds, then drop back onto cruise. He followed me. Drove me out of my mind.

[Gummee!]

IDK what it is, but I'll be cruising in traffic and someone will latch onto my bumper.

...Till I need to change lanes and they latch onto the car that's immediately in front of them again.

OR I'll change lanes leaving them some free space and they floor it to get to the next bumper and then sit there.

I don't get it, but I tend to drive one speed adjusting lanes as needed to keep moving forward.

M

[DAKEZ]

Originally Posted by Gummee!

IDK what it is, but I'll be cruising in traffic and someone will latch onto my bumper.

...Till I need to change lanes and they latch onto the car that's immediately in front of them again.

OR I'll change lanes leaving them some free space and they floor it to get to the next bumper and then sit there.

Just like riding a Speed Triple only different.

When one rides a Speed Triple they are always following someone. They pass and before you know it they find themselves following someone else. Repeat.
A.E.

[anmut]

Originally Posted by Censport

You noticed this too, huh? Another favorite is the person who speeds up to get in front of you, just so they can slow down and block you from passing anybody else by pacing the vehicle next to them. I figure they were overzealous hall monitors in their school days.

And then there are the guys with full-size pickups, who seem to have bought those trucks so they can decapitate people driving behind them (brake-checkers).

If it wasn't for the music scene and all the beautiful women in this town...

I hate those people - the self made traffic cops. If everyone else is going 5-7mph over the set speed limit, but one of those asshats decide that he's going to go exactly according to his speedo on the the nuts, who is causing the traffic danger now? Yep, it's non-officer assclown with the line of angry vehicles behind him.

[MadMax]

A few years ago, I worked a late night shift. I was riding home at 0400 hrs. on my 05 K1200S on a usually very busy freeway in So. California, the 91- Riverside freeway. As I was riding through the Green River pass, I noticed cars, slowing ahead for an accident. I thought, just another drunk driver collision. Much to my surprise, a 5th wheel travel trailer, was partially jackknifed, and a dead horse was laying beside it. The driver appeared fine and was on his cell phone. I passed slowly, and proceeded about 1/2 mile past the collision. Much to my surprise, I came upon a herd of 20 horses trotting East on the 91 freeway. They were wildeyed with fright.

I've owned and ridden horses for many years, so I knew that in their current state, they'd bolt in front of any cars that tried to pass them. Since I was on a yellow bike, I thought they may shy from me, and maybe I could herd them off the freeway, at the approaching SR-71 interchange. This idea became imperative when the lead horse bolted toward the concrete barrier separating the directions of travel on the freeway. There was moderately heavy high speed car traffic on the W/B side of the freeway going into Los Angeles. The lead horse tried to jump the concrete center divider, but fortunately it must not have been a hunter/jumper!

Well it was now time to do something, so I edged my bike between the divider and the lead horse. I slowly rode along side the lead horse and edged the horse closer to the off-ramp of the freeway. Fortunately, the herd followed. There was a wall of cars behind us, which helped the herd stay together. I got the lead horse to run into a grassy area where the off-ramp did a 270 degree turn to the SR-71 freeway. I jumped off the bike and slowly moved around the herd as they trotted in circles in the grass. A lady in a car came up and said she would help me keep the horses "corralled." A while later a Highway Patrolman came and asked if we would keep the horses in the grass area until they could get some wranglers from the local "Hart" ranch to come and tie up the horses. None of them had a halter, so the only thing we could do was try to move calmly around the horses to keep them in the area. Eventually they relaxed a bit and started eating grass. The wranglers showed at day break and I left the scene. At home, the TV news showed a massive traffic jam on the 91 freeway, but that was about it.

Being at night, and after a 12 hour work night, the whole scenario had seemed surreal. But, that was my strangest commute and I was glad to have helped some scared horses and some oblivious commuters to stay safe!

[westerlywinds]

I drive a city bus in El Paso Tx.Most of routes are about 100 miles a day in city traffic.I have seen lots of bad driving, I have decided the worst drivers have Mustangs,Jeep Cherokee's or big pick-ups often small noisy cars with big wings are also very dangerous. bring over some beer and a lot of time I will tell bad driver stories all day.Maybe one riding story.

[khager]

Originally Posted by MadMax

Being at night, and after a 12 work night, the whole scenario had seemed surreal. But, that was my strangest commute and I was glad to have helped some scared horses and some oblivious commuters to stay safe!

Good job cowboy! Sounds like fun, if I would have been there on my silver hoss (WeeStrom) I could have joined you

[Elam]

@Madmax, that's pretty awesome.

Got a ticket the other day on the I-94 / 275 interchange. :(

I'm in the far left lane, check my rear view, and see a Charger pulling fast with the lights on. So I groan, signal left, and start to pull over onto the shoulder. Now, the odd thing is the cop didn't stay behind me and slow down, but pulls ahead of me and shoves me over *off* the shoulder at about 50 mph, so when we stop, my front tire is essentially pointed at his rear door and I'm on the gravel portion of the shoulder.

He jumps out of his car, breathing heavy( donuts? ), and starts yelling at me, telling me to turn off the bike. I turn it off and then he backs up in the left lane of the freeway and then gets behind me. wtf. I'm aware that cops think motorcycles are going to run on them, but cmon. Whole thing was retarded. Is that standard operating procedure nowadays?

Good part was he only wrote me over 10 over. Lasered me at 87. Any Michiganders, watch that interchange. I'm aware of the State cops, who are all over that area, but this was Romulus. Had no idea where he came from.

[ttpete]

Originally Posted by Elam

@Madmax, that's pretty awesome.

Got a ticket the other day on the I-94 / 275 interchange. :(

I'm in the far left lane, check my rear view, and see a Charger pulling fast with the lights on. So I groan, signal left, and start to pull over onto the shoulder. Now, the odd thing is the cop didn't stay behind me and slow down, but pulls ahead of me and shoves me over *off* the shoulder at about 50 mph, so when we stop, my front tire is essentially pointed at his rear door and I'm on the gravel portion of the shoulder.

He jumps out of his car, breathing heavy( donuts? ), and starts yelling at me, telling me to turn off the bike. I turn it off and then he backs up in the left lane of the freeway and then gets behind me. wtf. I'm aware that cops think motorcycles are going to run on them, but cmon. Whole thing was retarded. Is that standard operating procedure nowadays?

Good part was he only wrote me over 10 over. Lasered me at 87. Any Michiganders, watch that interchange. I'm aware of the State cops, who are all over that area, but this was Romulus. Had no idea where he came from.

Romulus cops are currently being investigated for corruption, besides being assholes. They've been running a speeding scam on Eureka Road for quite awhile. The court will allow you to plead to "Impeding" or some such thing that carries no points because it's a city ordinance. Of course, the fine is twice what the speed would have cost, but ALL the money goes to the city instead of having to share with Lansing. You probably could have done that to avoid points.

Unfortunately, it seems that the police, from the chief on down, are suspected of skimming off the police budget. The headquarters was the subject of a search warrant a short time ago.

I usually run out I-96 Sunday mornings, and 87 seems to be the median speed for everyone out there.....