Commuting: The strange. The Odd. And the FUN

Do us all a favor and teach your daughter to look ahead and move a lane to the left if she sees someone merging slowly

M

Perhaps it's different where you live, but here (Portland), nobody seems to use cruise control. Most people can't seem to keep a constant speed, drives me crazy.

I don't understand this, I have the same problem. I live in an area where the vast majority commutes 50 plus miles away for work and it's rare that you'll be able to go a consistent speed (44 miles from the edge of town to the exit 90% are taking) I love cruise control and don't understand why it isn't used by more people

2 years ago I was on my FJR sitting behind a car that was first in line at a red light.
A fellow I know was waiting to cross the street.
I gave a quick honk on my horn to get his attention and the car in front of me shot out into the intersection and got T boned by a garbage truck.
The driver must have been txting and when I honked he never even looked up he just mashed the pedal.
I pulled over and waited for the police and his excuse was he was sure he had the green light.

The second quote shows it's not really an improvement.

It's everywhere. Recently did a road trip from Michigan to Texas and back. Every place had numerous people with the same driving habit : try and go just a bit faster than the guy next to you.

I'd be cruising 82-85 mph, someone would pass, I'd get behind them because we would be coming up on a slower vehicle. The the guy that was just doing 85 mph suddenly rolls down to the slow vehicle's speed + 3 mph. The worst offender was somewhere in Arkansas. Right lane was mostly semis, but overall little traffic. This guy was driving probably high 80's, but I would be on his bumper every 30 seconds because he would just CRAWL past the trucks as he go to each one. At one point we were doing 62 mph when next to a semi doing probably 61 mph. He had a mile plus of clear lane in front of him. Passed the truck, accelerated briskly to speeds greater than I was comfortable getting ticketed for, only to brake back down to 20 mph less at the next truck.


Another cruise control thing - some cars suck at it. Every GM I've had seems to hold nearly exactly on speed. Our Chrysler, and numerous Rams I've rented, seem to have a +/- 4 mph window where they don't bother trying to adjust speed. For example, cruise set at 75 mph on our Town and Country, come to a long hill and it might fall to 72 mph before getting on the gas enough to hold speed. Then in it will stay there indefintely. Needs to drop to 71 mph or so, then it mashes the gas and accelerates to about 78 mph and settles back to the original 75 mph. Following that in my GMC would seem like someone not using cruise.

Same thing I saw heading to Texas. Was coming up +5mph on a hoard in the left lane, so passing on the right. Noticed a BMW coming up fast behind me in the right lane. Stayed on cruise, moved to the left in a small opening just as BMW passed on right and then moved back to right still on cruise and continued to pass the clueless hoard. Twas a beautiful thing.

Bringing this back to the original topic, when I'm commuting I'm often in the left HOV or express lane. Sometimes there will be very slow traffic in the adjacent lane. And a car leading the pack in the #1 lane that will only do a walking pace faster than the next lane over. Same thing you're seeing, since 3MPH is walking pace. I get not wanting to have a high speed delta in a car, but that seems pretty extreme.

As I rider I can split past easily enough (and of course I'm in a place that's legal and accepted unlike most of US & Canada). But the drivers are stuck.

Recall that I was comparing drivers, plural, who historically didn't proceed at the green light and/or the sound of my horn (and would sometimes raise their middle finger) with drivers, still plural, who now, via the observed trend, do proceed when they hear the horn...and not get hit in the process (I would have mentioned that particular data point if it was also part of the current trend that I cited.)

The foregoing is indeed an improvement, however modest. Your quoting the example of one fellow who proceeded blindly and thus negligently, and got t-boned, is just one anecdote. It's not representative of the current average driver behaviors that I mention in my original example.

It's my biggest fear at the lights. I see too damn many people doing a go, brake, go brake thing at the red light. And too many other people on their phones.

Ghastly day for commuting on a bike. When I left home it was still a bit dark. There were remnants of snow and ice on the road from the storm on Monday. Thankfully I managed to keep the rubber side down.
The return trip was worse - 1 hr 30 mins for 23 miles !! Got pulled over a mile from the office for "improper passing". Thankfully the police officers were nice and let me off with an admonishment to follow the law and at least pull up behind police cars. Too many accidents on the road and trucks drivers over the white line made it impossible to even lane split.

Days like these make me want to not commute on bad weather days any more.

I had a co worker tell me the same thing this morning. I went around him on campus last week, on a double yellow. He was driving so slow that I was losing interest in being awake. I feared for my own safety. I told him that I he was going so slow I thought he was stopping.

More like, people are getting used to being called out for inattentiveness.

Yeah get a cheap cage for days like that, it's nice having a 4 wheel option sometimes.

In heavy rain my motorcycle handles better then my car or truck but other drivers are so terrible I still take a cage on heavy rain days (no snow where I'm at)

Glad to hear you didn't get a ticket or hurt, stay sharp out there

Following a semi on the way home, in the dark, on a two-lane highway. 60mph zone and his speed varied a LOT, he barely ever hit 55. Six cars ahead of me and then the semi, another semi behind me and a bunch of cars behind him. Plenty of opportunities for the cars ahead of me to pass, but they didn't. At one point, lead semi hit his brakes and abruptly slowed to under 30mph, and the semi behind me damn near hit me.
He had numerous chances to pull over. I reported him to WSP and they had me follow him, like I had a choice, until I was handed off to ISP and they said they were on him.

I start work between 0230 and 0500 depending on the day of the week so my commute to work is always in the dark, 16 miles of that commute is 2 lane road and while it's usually cars I've had semi drive the way you described, I think it's usually due to the driver having some level of night blindness

I pass the cars as part of the problem, pulling in as necessary. They are responsible to know they are part of the problem, not inacting the solution. Who knows, you might wake up some of the drivers that way.

I really am getting a kick out of the "adaptive cruise control" on newer cars. I've heard some are adjustable for length. I end up cutting them off when they are tired of following a slower car and I'm already moving past them. I don't see any benefit whatsoever to overall traffic flow with this. They end up being an inconsistent variable when the rest of us are trying to drive smooth and consistent and predictable.

I was driving a semi with adaptive cruise control a couple weeks ago, it was a rental and I didn't realise it was adaptive, when possible I use my cruise control, I get cut off all the time because I leave enough room for me to stop and people see that opening and go for, if they're paying attention they usually more out of my way without ever being a problem (I'm going 55 in the slow lane and there're just passing through, I'll have my foot hovering over the brake but don't actually slow unless necessary, now zombie drivers not paying attention I turn off cruise control and try to prepare for anything.
All that to say I use cruise control often and I've got a system that even works with Bay area traffic and most drivers, so having my truck apply the brakes and shave off 15mph by itself scared the crap out of me adaptive cruise control was actually kinda cool once I knew the truck had it

Mrs. TM recently purchased a 2019 SUV. It's our first vehicle purchase in a good number of years. Thus, it's also our inaugural exposure to driver aid & convenience technology that was still in its embryonic stages, if that, the last time I/we went car shopping. One of the "features" on her vehicle is radar-assisted (i.e., adaptive) cruise control.

TL/DR: I don't like, want or require driver assistance aids.

Long version: (Would just be a bunch of this: , so...)