do you speed?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by GMScud

As to your first point, it just seems strange coming from you. You seem like a pretty straight thinking, logical person. This kind of behavior seems dumb (and as you said- childish), so it's just kind of off in this case, IMO. You may think it's the right thing to do. But again, what do you think police officers (you know, the guys who actually do this stuff professionally for a living) would say about your pseudo-traffic cop vigilante "justice?"

As to your second point, you "start to blockade" at the 15mph over the speed limit mark. You think it's right to take matters into your own hands and pull maneuvers that are potentially much more dangerous than just letting the 85mph guy just go on his way? I think it's strangely convenient how you are just ignoring the very valid arguments that have been made against your behavior. It's not like you to avoid a strong argument.

As to your third point, I think it is understandable that road-rage is caused by people blocking the left lane. It doesn't mean it's excusable, but certainly understandable. And the fact that insurance companies have proof that your "blockades" do far more harm than good should tell you something. I'd hope so anyway.

As to your fourth point, I hear you. People don't generally try to mess with me either, and I'm not one for backing down. That said, I don't go out looking for it either. That kind of behavior for me pretty much faded after my early 20's. Let me ask you, if you confronted some guy at a rest stop who you could clearly handle, and without getting physical he totally blew you off and laughed in your face, pretty much telling you to kiss his ass, then what?? I'm just asking, because if someone (big, small or otherwise) confronted me in that manner, that's how I would react. It would pretty much go like this: "Did you really just follow me in here to bitch at me about my speedometer? Ha! Mind your business. For real."

Look Schneed, I'm not the type of driver you would ever pull this with, because I'm not reckless at all, and I rarely push it more than 10mph over. In fact, I have a perfect driving record.

But I do think your behavior is totally counterproductive, and IMO what you're doing is actually more dangerous than just worrying about yourself and being a defensive driver. Daseal was right. You're on the offensive. It reeks of bully-ish behavior. No disrespect intended, and we can agree to disagree. Just my opinon.

A number of quarrels with your points. You're making a lot of assumptions here, assumptions which would naturally lead you to believe I'm being illogical. Let me clear it up for you, you might see more logic:

You seem to think I'm pulling some sort of "dangerous maneuver." It's really quite simple and not dangerous at all. I usually cruise in the left lane. If someone comes up at a sane rate seeking to pass, I move over and let them by. If someone comes up at a reckless rate or tails me, I stay right where I am and I match speeds with the car to my right so he has few options to get around. Ultimately, all I'm doing is going a constant speed. My eyes are faced forward, I'm at 10 & 2, and I'm ignoring the guy behind me. There's no way that can be construed as dangerous, unless you actually want to blame me for the angry response I get from the bozo behind me. And that would be absurd.

You'll never see me swerve from one lane to the next in order to try one of these blockades. It would make no sense to take on more risk myself in order to reduce the risk posed by the bozos on the road.

Another quarrel, who said the insurance companies have proof that blockades do more harm than good? You're extrapolating that from the point that "people sitting in the left lane is the #1 cause of road rage." Which I'm not even willing to blindly accept, by the way, without seeing proof, and furthermore I find it irrelevant because the emotional reaction by the road-rage-ee is the proximate cause of any accident. Just because someone gets pissed off doesn't mean they're excused of responsibility for their own actions. And like I said, I don't buy that crappy stat anyway, you're going to have to prove it to me. I would venture to guess that someone going 95+ MPH without road rage is more likely to be involved in a fatal accident than someone road raging while he's stuck behind a guy going 75. There is logic there: speed reduces the margin of error and is a greater factor in causing accidents than angry responses at a slower speed.

So until you bring me something other than saying "I think a cop would say this", or naming some lame anecdotal insurance industry line without a link to back it up, then I think you're the one without the cogent, logical argument.