Do some people drive consistently slow as a substitute for paying attention to the road?

Holy crap, this is my father in law. He doesn’t drive slow because he is aware that he doesn’t watch the road – he is too busy looking at everything around him to remember he is driving and push the f’ing accelerator.

Do you mean people who really drive slow, or people who drive the speed limit?

to Les: Speed Limit & Under, on 40 MPH streets and above . I’m not talkin about residential 25 MPH streets where children and animals are present, where everyone should drive slow. I’m talkin about people who drive 40 MPH on a 45 MPH road, or worse.

Well, I always drive the speed limit, no more, no less (unless of course I can’t go as fast as the speed limit). I’m 25. It has nothing to do with not being able to pay attention to the road, otherwise. I just find it completely ignorant that people think that just because they think they are a good enough driver to go faster, they do. I drive the speed limit because it is the law, and I hate people who drive any faster. So, I hate lots of people.

Les: do you obey ALL federal, state, and local laws? Every last one? I know you know where I’m going with that question, so explain please, if you do violate other laws, why not violate speed laws too? And then if you do not violate any other laws, then my question becomes: Do you think most people obey all laws, as well? And what do you do when the law is obviously wrong, as it has been many times in the past and present? You may then ask who decides what is right and wrong… but sometimes wrongness is apparent to almost everyone, is it not?

rolling my eyes Probably not, but I try to. I’m sorry, but you won’t win this “speeding” argument with me. I hate hate hate when people drive fast. You never know what is going to happen on the road, and the fact that you (not necessarily you..) think you can drive faster does not give you the right. It is the idea that people assume that they are better than everyone else and are more capable of driving faster than anyone else. “Oh, I’m a safe driver…Oh I know what I’m doing.” Sure. right. I especially hate when people drive fast, weaving in and out of traffic. Slow your ass down.

Steps off soapbox.

Les: Well I think we can all agree weaving is dangerous, even the weavers. But aren’t weavers merely reacting to slow drivers? What about sharing the road, wherein slow people stay to the right, and fast stay to the left. No tailgating in the right lane. No clogging in the left lane. How bout that.

I’m from Illinois, so the law states that the left lane is reserved for passing. However, this does not give you the right to speed to pass. That’s not the law. I know people don’t always agree with laws. I get that some laws were wrong. I get it. But I’m sorry. There is no good reason to allow people who “want” to drive fast to drive fast. Even if the law changed to allow “fast” drivers free reign of the left lane, doesn’t keep the drivers in the right lane safer. Driving is hard, there are lots of things to look out for and lots of things that can happen in a second. If you’re cruising along at 75 mph in a 60 mph zone, you may not have enough time to react to a threat.

Laws don’t change because people “want” them to. Just because a lot of people “want” to drive faster doesn’t make it right. Speed limits are set for a reason (not just laws…there’s some physics to take into account, too. Oooh. Science..) so drive the freaking speed limit. Leave home a little earlier if you are always late (or whatever the reason is to drive fast). But drive the speed limit.

I know my husband drives slowly when someone behind him is being especially aggressive, impatient, or reckless, just to force them to slow down, but he has no problem with awareness. He’s one of the best drivers I know. Of course, he only does this on surface streets with single lanes.

I don’t think so. From what I’ve seen people who aren’t paying attention while they are driving push on the accelerator even more than they would if they were paying attention.

The only time I’ve seen bad, slow drivers is when they are falling asleep and about to drive off the road.

In our city, they have passed a new law saying the speed limit on major streets is 40 MPH so when you are coming in from the county, where they are 45, you have a tendency to speed. I have people speeding around me all the time when I drive 40.

I just found this statistic: According to an Institute of Transportation Engineers Study, those driving 10 mph slower than the prevailing speed are six times as likely to be involved in an accident. That means that if the average speed on an interstate is 70 mph, the person traveling at 60 mph is far more likely to be involved in an accident than someone going 70 or even 80 mph. —National Motorists Association

Also… the safest traffic speed limits are set at the 85th percentile of freeflow speed. That’s standard traffic engineering. Some cities lower that to be cautious, but what they don’t understand, is they’re making it more dangerous. Or the driver himself is making it more dangerous, by driving much slower than the 85th percentile.

@Kraigmo – If everyone jumped off of a bridge, I would not follow suit. Sorry, but as I said before, this argument is not won with me. The person driving 60 when others are going 70 is more likely to be in an accident because the assholes driving faster cause the 60 mph-er to get into an accident. If everyone would just drive the damn speed limit, this wouldn’t be a statistic.

My father drives slower now. He can drive faster, but God forbid you are having a conversation with him, almost impossible not to, he talks and talks and talks, then he drives slower and slower. Seems in his older age he can’t do both at once well. Drives us crazy.

My brother drives under the speed limit. I hate driving with him and worse, behind him. I’m pretty sure he gets flipped the bird at least once each day. He says he drives slow because he’s in no hurry. The people behind you are!

I’ve done it before. If I’m doing something while I’m driving, I drive slower. I think it’s involuntary.

People drive slower on purpose to be more cautious, but it can actually be more dangerous. I was taught to go the speed of traffic and that’s what I do (generally doesn’t cause anything worse than a few miles over the speed limit sometimes). Also, I’ve noticed that people on cell phones and such drive slower. That’s just dangerous in general.

Yeah, people drive slow because they are paying attention to something else: their cell phone, a text message, food, a blow job. I always pay extra attention to slow drivers because I know there’s a real good chance they aren’t paying attention to their driving. Half the time when I pass them, I see them blabbing on the phone.