Driving and Drivers

hello again(not that anyone cares)

If any of the people reading do any driving I am sure you will see yourself somewhere within these words.

First off, Driving. I love to drive. Get in the car, put on your seatbelt, start the engine (if your lucky you will hear a nice roar form under the hood), adjust the radio or put in a CD, Take off the hand brake and go. Where? Who cares really? Pick a direction and see where it takes you. Well, at least until you have to come back because you have to work the next day.

Driving can be a lot of fun, but unfortunately there are those that would take that pleasure away from you. You name it, tailgating, getting cut off, following a really slow car and so much more. But why are they like that? Are they in a hurry to get home so they can sit down for that extra minute that they saved by driving home real fast? Are they just assholes and don't care how many people they cut off on the way home? Don't get me wrong; I love to drive fast just as much or maybe even more than the other guy. However, I won't endanger others while doing it.

Lets go through some definitions of sorts
1) Cutting someone off
Cutting in front of someone in a way that forces him or her to use their brakes when they normally would not have had to.

2) Tailgating
If you cannot see the bumper of the car in back of you, you are being tailgated. Likewise, if you cannot see the rear wheels of the car in front of you, you are tailgating. Even if you are 1 full car length away from the car in front of you (especially on the highway) you are tailgating.

3) Excessive speed (not taking into account the speed limits)
Technically if you are not following the speed limit you’re going to fast. Now there are discrepancies that we will talk about later. In my opinion if you are trying to go faster than everyone else around you, you are going to fast. For instance, if everyone is driving 120kph and your doing 140kph then you are going to fast.

4) KPH - Kilometers Per Hour


Ok now that we cleared that up lets get into the discussion.

First thing that gets to me is this. You’re driving on the highway and your trying to keep your distance from the car in front of you. Everything is perfect until someone cuts in but does not necessarily cut you off. Now your distance is not good anymore so you have to back off from the new car that just cut in front of you. No Problem right, back off of the gas pedal a bit and get back your distance. So now you have your distance back and another car cuts in. Back off again right? Sure!! Yet another car in front of you. You see the picture? It's catch 22. Leave too much room and it will be taken. Don't leave enough and you are tailgating. What to do?? There is nothing to do really. There are to many cars on the road for these techniques to work properly so just do like everybody else does, try to leave just enough room so your not tailgating and not enough room for someone to cut in. But now this causes other issues. Most people will not cut into a space that they perceive as to small but some will cut in anyway because they just have to get into your lane to get home 1 minute earlier. Because of this you now have to use your brakes to keep from hitting them. In other words you get cut off.

Now speed
I don't have a problem with people driving fast. I have a problem with people driving fast and crazy. Weaving in and out of lanes to get ahead, cutting people off and always ending up someone elses rear (Tailgating).


Also there is another factor to all of this. Cars are designed to be most economical at around 90kph. So when you are driving at 100kph you are not really getting the fuel economy that the manufacturer states much less when you are driving at 120kph. So the faster you go the more it will cost you. Now driving fast has other type of wear and tear to your car as well. Brakes will wear out faster because your more often need to use them since you are going faster you are always up someone’s ass and it takes more brake power to stop from a higher speed. Speed also increases the power a hole in the road may have on the structure of your car. Your engine also turns faster therefore wears out faster. Your tires, bearings, transmission and so on and so on...... Get it?


Well that was talk about mostly highway driving. Next post will be more about city driving.

MacPhreak