Drivers who can't discern between safe following distance and going slowly

[caddieo]

This may be only partially relevant to this thread, but the mention of TACC and poor driving skills made me recall an article about Google's self-driving cars. It seems that several of them have already been involved in accidents and IIRC, all of them were rear-ended by human-driven cars.

 

[MrJones390]

Slower traffic (and autopilot) should keep right and let those who want to push the pace drive on the left.

 

[7racer]

Slower traffic (and autopilot) should keep right and let those who want to push the pace drive on the left.

yes!!

 

[brucet999]

I am in Germany right now running the Nurburgring.

Isn't e-mailing while driving at least as dangerous as texting?

 

[7racer]

Isn't e-mailing while driving at least as dangerous as texting?

Worse!! Germany is 6 hours ahead so I was email from bed [emoji106]
[emoji13]

 

[Ride Long]

yes!!

I am not even one month into my Tesla driving experience and see people cut in front of me every day (without exception, no joke) while driving with the TACC engaged in traffic. As I age, I am trying to do a better job in deciding what to worry about and what to ignore, and I think this fits squarely in the second category. So my car slows down for them a bit, so what? With the TACC engaged I believe I am less likely to be in a collision than without it, and it lowers the stress of urban freeway driving, so what's not to love? I'll get there one minute later in a car that freakin' rocks.

 

[neroden]

I think Mr Nerode is narrowing his observations to the New York City area. Thinner roads, lots of congestion/turns. Get out into the rest of New York STATE and there's lots of wide open space.

Not at all. I live upstate. For expressways, I am actually thinking of Route 17 ("Interstate 86"), I-81, and the Thruway.

These roads are OLD, laid out at the latest in the 1950s, often earlier. They mostly predate the current expressway standards. It is definitively not safe to drive at 85 on most of the stretches of these roads. It's also highly illegal. They're designed for 50-70mph depending on the segment...

The non-expressway roads (US routes and state highways) are even older, laid out in the 19th or even 18th century for HORSES and CARRIAGES, with one-foot shoulders (if that). And yet I see people speeding at 75 on these rural roads, going way faster than their sighting distances.

I'm sure it's less than half of the people on the road, but it's large enough to be quite distressing. We really don't seem to have any sort of drivers' licensing standards or training in this country; they'll give anyone a license, no matter how reckless.

 

[7racer]

I just got back from Germany and driving the Nurburgring for a week.

Also some autobahn driving to site see. Already back a day in Dallas and the difference in drivers is HUGELY noticeable.

For one everyone respects the left hand lane no mater the speed, if the other person is faster, the person in front pulls over, even if there is a car in front of them. Impressive.
Dallas, just squatters....no matter the speed.

Also the autobahn is pretty amazing. I spoke to a couple people at the track rental to explain some basic autobahn signs I couldn't figure out. But what I noticed if there was construction or signs that dropped the speed limit to 130km/hr or in 80 in construction, even the guys flying by me would slow down.

She said that was the usual because you know you can still get to where you want since there is no speed limit, so everyone respects the area where there are ones posted especially in construction areas.
Also, speaking of construction, like neroden mentioned, I was surprised how old these highways are in Germany, many in areas without speed limits have curves where I was even a bit uncomfortable at speeds other people were going at.

 

[JohnQ]

Not at all. I live upstate. For expressways, I am actually thinking of Route 17 ("Interstate 86"), I-81, and the Thruway.

These roads are OLD, laid out at the latest in the 1950s, often earlier. They mostly predate the current expressway standards. It is definitively not safe to drive at 85 on most of the stretches of these roads. It's also highly illegal. They're designed for 50-70mph depending on the segment...

The non-expressway roads (US routes and state highways) are even older, laid out in the 19th or even 18th century for HORSES and CARRIAGES, with one-foot shoulders (if that). And yet I see people speeding at 75 on these rural roads, going way faster than their sighting distances.

I'm sure it's less than half of the people on the road, but it's large enough to be quite distressing. We really don't seem to have any sort of drivers' licensing standards or training in this country; they'll give anyone a license, no matter how reckless.

I'll have to disagree with you about the thruway. It can easily handle 75 mph west of Syracuse. Closer to Utica it's a bit different. There have been several studies regarding the increase in speed on the thruway to 65 mph. One demonstrated a 42.6% decrease in mortality per vehicle mile traveled with a 28% reduction in absolute mortality. With the change, only 8% traveled at 10mph or more above the speed limit compared to 39% before the change. Citation: Speed Kills? Not always: the New York State thruway experience - PubMed = NCBI. Clearly this was a case where the speed limit was set arbitrarily low and raising the limit saved lives.

Are there people who travel too fast for conditions? Yes. But I simply move out of the way and let them go.