

| Subject: | Was Bumpersticker..Driving habits..something..Now..how about this "habit"? |
| From: | Don Hanson |
| Date: | Sun, 21 Sep 2008 17:12:18 -0700 |
A great number of drivers now seem to have no familiarity with the concept of passing on a normal highway with two way traffic. They seem absolutely baffled by the concept of waiting for a safe sight-distance situation and going around a slower vehicle by using the oncoming traffic lane. I see this very often where I travel, as I try to avoid interstates. So, there you are, traveling along at 65mph out in Nevada, Wyoming, Utah...some western state with wide open spaces and two lane highways and up comes a faster driver behind. Then they follow you for 10 miles! I have been forced to slow up to about 20mph to encourage a particularly meek driver to get his brights out of my mirrors at times. Or, you come up behind a row of vehicles, stuck behind a slower truck or car...chance after chance to pass is missed by the clueless car just behind the slow vehicle and nobody in the line has the speed or the safe distance to get round both the truck and the 'scaredy-cat' or the city fellow who doesn't know it is OK to go around slower vehicles.... In Baja, Mexico, it's the custom to indicate it's safe for passing by putting on your left blinker when someone is behind you and is itching to go round. When you can see ahead that it's clear, you flip on the blinker and the fellow goes right round. If you are going to be turning left off a highway, it's customary there (Baja) to pull across the line and turn from the oncoming lane so that people headed in your direction don't have to slow up while you do your turn.. And here in the Northwest, we seem to have more than our share of left lane slow drivers on the interstates. Between Portland and California on Interstate 5, I usually encounter about two dozen that I must pass around the right side, even in my VW vanagon... Don Hanson
Have something to add on this topic today? Revive this thread in the forum »