Drivers!
 

Yesterday the Mrs. and I were coming back from Kalamazoo on the back roads. There is a road in southern Michigan, m60 which turns into I23 when it comes into Indiana. It is a very lovely drive but is hilly and curvy and lacks places to pass if one finds themselves behind a slug.

Yesterday we were coming back and we came upon a slug followed by a gaggle of other folks who lack passing skills. I decided to get around all of them as I could picking them off one at a time because of the terrain.

I got it all down to three cars though I actually thought there were two as one was invisible in front of the third car. So I got a little space and went around car #3 and discovered that there was a car #2 and now I lacked the space to slide back in line smoothly. No problem I had to use the brakes a bit and all was going just fine when car #2 decides I am in trouble and he must "help" me out....so he pulls over to the right and jams on his brakes thinking I would go on past him but I was already committed to braking and getting behind him and there Is not room to pass him without crossing center and of course there is an oncoming car.

So now he puts me in a bad place, having to brake to the max with car #3 right behind me. Mr. Helpful, car #2 actually got so far to the right he was driving in the dirt kicking up dust. I did not hit him but I don't know how car #3 managed to avoid hitting me in the rear but they did, thank goodness they were paying attention.

Bottom line is please drive your own car and let other people drive theirs. When someone is overtaking on a 2 lane the worst thing to do is speed up or slow down as the overtaker is making all their calculations on you driving a constant speed. If you think there is a problem brewing just get as far right as you can and hold your speed constant. this will give everybody more room to maneuver and to see what is developing.

You decide to do a completely unsafe passing maneuver because you could not discern that the que was three and not two............and you blame one of the driver's in the que for your critical error?

Wow........

I believe I would classify you as an unskilled passer...and a slug.;)

What I was doing was completely within safe operating until he decided he needed to involve himself in my passing maneuver....and could easily have caused an accident.

I believe I would characterize myself as a conservative passer who won't take an unnecessary risk and potentially kill myself and someone else in order to save five minutes in the trip.

Hell, you probably stop for more pisses and lose more time than the "slug" held you up.

How would you have felt if #2 ran off the road into the ditch trying to save your ass? Would you still be on here crying on how stupid HE was?

One other point of note on multiple car passes:

Most folks, including the OP, assume that the que will maintain the exact spacing that exists before the pass. There is no assurance of this. In fact, since there are a significant amount of DB's on the road, you may find that one of the group is a DB and will deliberately close the spacing that you planned to use for the pass.

Now you're out there in the death zone with nowhere to go. This happened to me ONCE and I learned from it forever.

NEVER DO A MULTIPLE CAR PASS UNLESS YOU CAN PASS THEM ALL............INCLUDING THE LEAD CAR.



Anything else, as clearly evidenced by the OP, is a death wish.

You depended on the actions of others to save your own life.

This, by definition, is not operating safely.

If an accident were to have occurred, you would have been the cause.

Speaking of passing on two lane 55 mph roads.............the thing that bothers me the most is passing at night.

NFW I can see far enough down the road and I sure as hell do not trust the passing markers on the pavement to assure sufficient space.

I'm thankful that I'm not in that situation much anymore. It really does seem like a death wish to me.

Hey Brian, if you don't like how I drive, stay off the sidewalks!;)

I was attempting a legal maneuver on a highway in a location that the road department felt a pass was safe which endangered nobody until some other genius thought he needed to intervene in my pass and endangered everybody in the vicinity. I depended on nobody to change their speed to make it safely.

I don't happen to think it is particularly safe to follow a line of unskilled drivers who are more likely to do something stupid.

On a road with a long line of slow moving cars with lots of traffic I don't bother passing unless there is a good chance to actually benefit. when I was younger I would pass whenever it was possible just for the sport of it but not so much anymore.

I am always more cautious with the Mrs. in the car since she can get frightened even if there is not imminent danger because she cannot know what I see and don't see.

People make all kinds of bad decisions to save five minutes.

I'd like to prevent you from being one of them in the future by seeing the folly of your actions.

Remember, in a two lane passing situation, you only get one chance to make a critical error. There usually is no forgiveness or "do-overs".

Please consider the consequences of a mistake before taking a similar risk in the future.

You have taken my words erroneously.

You absolutely depended on the que to maintain speed and spacing to accomplish your maneuver. The que has no obligation to do this for you.

Accordingly, your actions are foolish as your dependence on others could have resulted in the loss of your own life.

Time to get back to the basics...

Indiana Online Driver Improvement School, Indiana Online Driver Safety Course Sample

Thanks John! If I exceeded the limit it was not by much.

You have to love this one.

If you're on a two lane with a 55 limit and the vehicle at the lead is doing 50, there is NFW that it is possible to safely pass that vehicle if you limit your speed to 55. With the assumption that you'd need about 100 feet, it would take over 13 seconds to accomplish the pass, not counting the time to accelerate from 50 to 55 mph.

I can't imagine anyone maintaining the speed limit in such a situation.

Ridiculous law.

I asked a trooper, and he said that in MA you may go over the speed limit when passing. If I couldn't go over the speed limit when passing, I doubt I would ever pass.

I totally agree, and I see drivers doing this king of thing daily. I have to drive a stretch of two lane road every day going and coming from home and just last month someone lost their life because of a reckless move like the op describes.

By reckless I mean the op actions, not the innocent driver minding his own business who didn't know what crazy stunt the op was going to pull next.

A local farmer, who lives 2 miles from me, was hit head on by a driver passing multiple cars in a passing zone. Needless to say, the innocent farmer died and left behind a widow and a few young children to now run his operations. The driver of the minivan spent a couple of weeks in the hospital and is ok.

It sounds like the op wants justification for his irresponsible and reckless actions from the peanut gallery here, it looks like he hasn't garnered much support if any.

Sounds like the op needs to spend more time honing his driving skills, in the real world and not in the seat of a pinto powered go kart.