The guy you hate may turn out to be a hero

[UncleVinnys]

I'm late for an appointment.
I know this hill has about a mile stretch all downhill in a rural area.
Speed limit is 40, but the old geezer in front of me is doing 35.
I'm thinking "just to teach him a lesson" of passing him at about
65 and cut back in front of him, to show him how a real man drives.
Should I? Yeah! Well, maybe not. MMmm!
I decide not to take the chance, but I'm cursing him all the way.
As we get to the bottom of the hill . . .
I see the Highway patrol cop putting down his radar gun.

The guy you think is a chump may just be doing you a favor.
If I had passed him, I'd be writing this from prison.

[Sky Pilot]

Great post, UncleVinnys!
One of the first things about driving that my Mom impressed on me was this: "You may know the road like the back of your hand, but you NEVER know what is IN it!"

Regards, SkyPilot

[spartacus53]

Well so long as it were legal to pass him, I would have done so safely and resumed the normal speed limit. I have this situation daily by me and people are constantly driving 5-10 mph under the limit. So when I can pass them I do.

[miser]

The sad truth is the guy you hate, 99 times its justified.

It's that one time you're wrong that makes you pause...

[Sky Pilot]

The sad truth is the guy you hate, 99 times its justified.

It's that one time you're wrong that makes you pause...

Much as it hurts to admit, that is exactly right, Miser!
As for speeding up to pass and then resuming the posted speed, that will get you a ticket in TN.!

Regards all, SkyPilot

[GopherDaGold]

I guess the obvious question for me is what are you involved with that would get you locked up in prison over a traffic violation?

[Sky Pilot]

I guess the obvious question for me is what are you involved with that would get you locked up in prison over a traffic violation?

I'm glad someone else noticed that also.
Must have very strict driving laws out there! LOL!

Regards all! SkyPilot

[Shortstack]

I guess the obvious question for me is what are you involved with that would get you locked up in prison over a traffic violation?

I'm glad someone else noticed that also.
Must have very strict driving laws out there! LOL!

Regards all! SkyPilot

Sounds like a "Reckless Driving" call and could be enough to sit in jail at least 24 hours, or until you could be brought before a judge.

[Sky Pilot]

Yep, that would definitely stink!!!

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

not speculating about vinny but one way to get locked up is to get caught speeding even one mile over the limit after a DUI manslaughter conviction and lifetime revocation. They take those very very seriously in every state. Someone had better be bleeding to death in the back seat to get out of that.
siegfried schlagrule

[spartacus53]

I guess the obvious question for me is what are you involved with that would get you locked up in prison over a traffic violation?

I'm glad someone else noticed that also.
Must have very strict driving laws out there! LOL!

Regards all! SkyPilot

Sounds like a "Reckless Driving" call and could be enough to sit in jail at least 24 hours, or until you could be brought before a judge.

I don't get it, do we all live in the US I know that all the states in the Northeast allow "safe" passing.. That includes your increasing speed to pass another vehicle. If I am not mistaking, that is why we have 3 basic lines on the road, the double bar, the single bar, and the broken bar... A broken bar where I come from gives you the "right" to "safely" pass another vehicle. I am pretty sure that is in every driving manual.

I think I would be afraid to share the road with many of those who do not know the laws.

[bigwater]

I live in an area where you can't drive one mile without your compass changing it's orientation 10 times. The roads are so twisty and winding that there is no such thing as a passing lane. The speed limit is 45, although it's known that the police policy is not to stop anybody for up to ten over. In my opinion, the speed limit should be 35 due to the dangerous curves, but that's not the question.

We get a lot of flatlanders up here that aren't used to the curves, so instead of driving the speed limit or ten over, they drive ten to twenty under the speed limit. It infuriates the locals and the bikers. People constantly pass when they shouldn't, and being a first responder I have to scrape a lot of these people, as well as innocent people coming the other direction, off the road.

I've been driving these roads for over 10 years now, both in a cage and on a bike, and have learned patience. I know it's 15 minutes to town if I go the speed limit. I allow myself 25 minutes to get there "just in case". I just maintain my speed to follow ten car lengths behind whoever I'm following, no matter how fast they're running, and I pray every time I get on the road that I don't have to clean up some impatient person passing me and the person in front of me.

[spartacus53]

Bigwater, that is exactly my point. There are situations were it is unsafe to pass at any speed, curves are the biggest no-no. I don't know the road UncleVinnys is traveling, but if there were a broken line, and no traffic in either direction, I would pass when I believed it was safe.

Here in NJ, once a car is 5-10 below the limit on a straight road it will start a bottleneck and that is dangerous. There will always be some idiot toward the back of the pack that will try and pass 4-5 cars to get ahead. That's how many accidents are caused, poor judgment.

[Deepdiger60]

Good advise Dd60

[bigwater]

Bigwater, that is exactly my point. There are situations were it is unsafe to pass at any speed, curves are the biggest no-no. I don't know the road UncleVinnys is traveling, but if there were a broken line, and no traffic in either direction, I would pass when I believed it was safe.

Here in NJ, once a car is 5-10 below the limit on a straight road it will start a bottleneck and that is dangerous. There will always be some idiot toward the back of the pack that will try and pass 4-5 cars to get ahead. That's how many accidents are caused, poor judgment.

I live in a very popular mountain area that bikers trailer their bikes up to for hundreds of miles just to ride. They'll park their trailers at Wal-Mart, offload their bikes and hit the road. They aren't interested in following some slow poke riding up the mountain at 30 MPH, and most of them aren't skilled at riding these roads. They want to be dragging their knees through the curves as fast as (they think) they can run. Had one girl running so fast through the curves that she couldn't hold her lane. Crossed the line pushing it too hard and met an F350 head on coming the other direction. Threw her dead body in my parking lot. Sorta sucked for the lunch crowd business at the restaurant I was running at the time.