Frankly, I'm surprised I haven't commented on this, yet. I understand that my driving experience is limited to about 7 or so years, but I feel like I've driven enough to, ya know, know how to.
I will never, period, ever, period, understand the recklessness of most drivers. There are even insurance companies, who want your money more than anything, that have commercials talking about safe driving. "Make sure you're at least a 3-count behind the driver in front of you to ensure you have ample time to stop blah blah blah."
It's cute, right? I mean, it's basically completely wrong, but it means well.
Before I continue I should mention that I do NOT follow the book to the "T." For anyone out there, who has any idea who I am, I basically don't do a single thing to a "T." "Common" is not my first, middle, or last name.*
For those that ever read a driver's manual, you might have come across a page talking about being one car length behind the car in front of you for every 10 miles/hr that you're going. Makes a lot of sense. I never got to this page in the manual--there might actually be, I'm not sure--because I was taught this by my father. Seeing as he's never been in a major car accident and, therefore, isn't dead, I figured there was a reason for his words.
A car length isn't all that much--roughly 15 ft. on average. Which means if you're going 70 miles/hr on a highway, you should be roughly 100 feet behind the car in front of you. Do I follow this rule perfectly all the time? No, I don't. However, I always maintain a semi-safe distance at minimum because here are the major things that could happen if I don't: I die, the person in front of me dies, everyone in the vicinity dies. If I don't die, and other people do die, guess where I am headed other than the hospital? That's right, prison. Accidents can happen to the smartest most careful people in the world, but what's the point of taking the risk?
This is an especially troubling question when it has to do with people getting to work in the morning. I drive down a major highway every morning for work. The speed limit--not that anyone follows those silly things. Ha, limits--is 65 MPH for the majority of the road. Side note: My general rule of thumb is limit plus 10 MPH as an acceptable range. 25 MPH zone? 35, why not? 40 mph? 50.** Generally these limits are put in place for people who are reckless with their driving. People that not only drive fast, but also those that zig zag through high-volume traffic thinking it'll make much of a difference. These thrill seekers generally don't give a shit about anyone around them, or they can handle the consequences of involuntary (arguable) vehicular manslaughter. With that said, and the reason why I have my very own "Plus 10" rule, is because you can go fast and be safe. If you're going 75 MPH in a 65 zone with no one around, the only person you could endanger is yourself by potentially losing control around a bend, but you're not endangering anyone else. These kinds of things are important to think about when you're flying down the road.
So, why am I being a "common" citizen by ranting about traffic?
Well, story time:
People driving in traffic bothers the hell out of everyone. The thing that I learned a year ago, after I got pulled over by a state trooper for speeding heading to work, was why the hell am I speeding to work? I was really speeding, too. I believe it was 78 on a 55. Now, after everything I just said, you're probably like, "Well what happened to YOUR rules, Pat?" Well, that's a really great question: First of all, no one was around me. No one behind me, no one in front of me, no one anywhere until I come around a corner to where a trooper is ready to trap my ass. He got me. He won. It's fine. I learned. Secondly, I used to drive even further to work than I do already. With my company's move in March they went from Limerick to Wayne, which is about a 15-20 minute difference making my trip 50-an hour as opposed to an hour to an hour and 15. The speeding happened less because of reckless driving and more because of reckless sleeping. I was tired behind the wheel and I wanted nothing more than to stop driving so I can take my focus off the road. This is also dangerous, but it's a different topic entirely. I digress...
Today was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I was in the passing lane headed towards Wayne on a major highway going 70 MPH--so 5 MPH over the limit as is. I was roughly 70-80 feet behind the person in front of me. Out of nowhere, a pick-up truck came flying behind me to what looked to be about 10 feet, coulda been less. He decides to fly around me on my right to get in front of me, and then tail the next person as close as humanly possible. Just after that another pick-up truck came behind me even faster! This guy went around me and got just as close behind the first truck. Now, before you get pissed at me for not letting them go, they hardly gave me a chance. They were up my ass so quick, and decided to make the break for it around me that in both instances I didn't even have time to react to them being behind me. What these guys don't know--or cared to think about--was that if anything happens in front of the first car, the car I was originally behind, they'd all potentially just die. And THEN another car, which looked to be some kind of newer hatchback type of car, was maybe 20-30 feet behind me. By this point, we were all entering a high traffic zone, which means there were cars all around us, and it looked like we were all about to stop for volume. This guy blinks his lights at me to say, "Move over," when there is a car directly to my right. Like, what the fuck am I supposed to do? Osmos (no, it's not a verb) into a the person beside me just so you can stop in front of me in 5 seconds?
What. The. Fuck?
Like I said, everyone has their traffic stories, but I feel like there are some people who are really reckless drivers who probably act like the people that are in high-volume traffic are assholes for stopping them from zooming. It's like, "Hey, Buddy? Did you just blow in from Stupid Town?"
/rant
- PatInTheHat
* That would be this guy:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog_post_349_width/2013/09/common_glasses_headshot_a_p.jpg
** I don't really feel like looking up people who agree with this standard, but I've seen blog posts and FB posts throughout the years where people make the argument that if people would just go 10 or less MPH over the speed limit--nothing more, but less is fine--the roads would likely be a lot safer. I tend to agree.
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