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Road Ettiquette

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6K views 62 replies 36 participants last post by  steelydan 
#1 ·
I can get to my favorite fishing spot in 35 minutes if I drive forest service roads. If I drive paved roads, that time increases to about 60 minutes. Makes sense to take the dirt path...most of the time.

The most recent trip took much longer. Dusty dirt road and stuck behind a truck doing 25....for 13 miles. No way to pass at all since all this road does is turn. Just driving in disbelief. Pull outs every quarter mile.

After about 3 miles I'm still coming down from the high of numerous hours of fishing, so I don't really care. Another five miles and that has all faded.

Get out of the way.

I tend to pull off when someone wants to go faster than I do. Even if it is one car/truck, and especially on back roads. It's probably a ten second thing to hit the shoulder and let someone go. Yet, I have been stuck in this situation so many times.

Just pull the f#%k off! Pretty simple.
 
#6 ·
It is surely annoying that the driver didn't have the consideration to pull over for you; there seem to be two possible scenarios: 1) he felt he didn't have to, or 2) simply didn't think of it. Did you tap on your horn lightly to suggest he pull over?

That said, in this day and age folks seem full of hate. Take the 10,000 foot look: is it worth the stress and anger to lose a half hour of your time because somebody wouldn't let you go faster?
 
#15 ·
I don't mind driving slow with a rig behind me if they roll up fast and are instantly assholes. Attempting to pass where they cant. 5 feet behind me etc. In fact I'll even slow down a little. But otherwise I'll pull over where I can. I drive pretty fast down back roads so it's rare someone is behind me. When I want to get by someone I don't tailgate them. If they don't let me by it happens and I'll take a few deep breaths and relax and still give them space.
 
#54 ·
They get a minute or two grace period then I ride them like there's no tomorrow, like scary ride them. Especially on a backwoods dirt situation. I think allot of people don't like the dust on their car. Then pull over and wait a sec, people got places to be. I feel the same about left lane drivers but am reluctant to ride them at sixty for safety reasons.
 
#21 ·
Have lived here going on 40 years. For the last 35, they have been "smoothing out" the Renton Curves of 405. That mutated into including the 167 interchange. It has been standing traffic since about 1986.

Now-days, look at the driver playing on the phone and know one more traffic flow hazard and safety danger.
 
#22 ·
....................................The most recent trip took much longer. Dusty dirt road and stuck behind a truck doing 25....for 13 miles. No way to pass at all since all this road does is turn. Just driving in disbelief. Pull outs every quarter mile......................
Most urban folks are NEVER taught how to drive in rural areas.

Really the fault of the state of Washington for focusing all their driving information on urban roads. IF you don't know any better you will never be a safe driver outside of cities.

Anybody ever see information on downhill versus uphill driving on gravel roads?? City folks do not read traffic signs, so when a passing lane "suddenly" shows up on a rural highway it is always interesting. You never know what they will do in those circumstances!! Get after the state of Washington and get that information into the drivers handbook!!

There is less information on how to drive on dirt roads. When I was working I would always ask at public presentations about "inter-visible turnouts" on roads and what they were for....without exception NOBODY knew.

The good news is I posted on my blog about driving backroads. It actually is one of the more popular postings, but I have a sneaking suspicion that somebody in BLM or Forest Service is using it for defensive driving classes in the agency.

Here is the link to my posting I guess you can print it out and hand it to people that don't know how to drive on dirt.

http://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2010/03/driving-backroads.html

Everybody thinks they are a good driver. Even my daughter that had three wrecks in three years thought she was a "above average" driver!!
 
#25 · (Edited)
Most urban folks are NEVER taught how to drive in rural areas.

SNIP

Here is the link to my posting I guess you can print it out and hand it to people that don't know how to drive on dirt.

http://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2010/03/driving-backroads.html
We were trained to use the turnout (always a dropoff slope) because regardless of it's position--left or right--we were driving a one-lane road. Typically, uphill traffic yields. We always yielded to loaded logging trucks, however; they lived on the inside curve. One tip possibly mentioned in training: Read the road. If it's a logging route, the track is pretty much defined, so keep clear of them at blind corners.

My training was a few years before you.

BTW, stupid drivers live anywhere. I learned that most of them grew up in 4-bys, or trucks, and thought they were invincible. It wouldn't surprise me if per capita traffic deaths are higher in SUVs and 4x4s. Current designs are shy of garbage truck scale, but they still look like smashed bugs in front of several tons of logs.
 
G
#28 ·
Some things to live by when driving:

-Your brakes work better than your accelerator. Always (even on ice, which isn't to say there aren't dangers). Be up to speed before you merge. If it happens that you are going too fast, you can slow down easily.

-Showing your brake lights is like bending over and showing your ass. Don't do it unless it is necessary.

-Being 150ft behind the guy in front of you on I5 is not helping traffic. It is, by definition, making it worse. Don't be that guy.

-When at an uncontrolled intersection, there is only one truth: The older or junkier car goes first. That comes from my HS calculus teacher.

-If a farmer has his left arm straight out of an old farm truck it means he is turning left. If a 20yo girl has her left arm straight out of a window it means the window is open.

-If you cause me to swerve, brake hard or take other evasive maneuvers, you should be ashamed and I will be angry. Sheepishly wave and I'll forgive you.

-You probably shouldn't be driving. You probably aren't a good enough driver to be on my roads. You are probably distracted, which, along with your low-ish IQ, means you are only getting where you are going unscathed because of drivers like me...and luck.

-I take driving seriously. I expect the same from you.

-If you are ahead of me and going slowly because you aren't confident in your safety, I understand. I'll be yelling behind you, but I get it, you are doing what you need to in order to be safe. I'm yelling because I enjoy it and it helps to yell it out sometimes.

-If you are the guy in the previous post, don't speed up when I finally get to safely pass you. Now you are just a prick and trying to make things dangerous.

-I've probably put your license plate into my short-term memory. If you are being stupid and happen to get in a wreck that I see, I will be offering my testimony to the police and insurance companies. I'm a well-spoken guy and I work in a technical field. My driving record is pretty great (no wrecks...at all, regardless of fault). I will be believed and it will be to your detriment.

dld
 
#35 ·
This is why I moved to Montana.

Pretty simple. Two rules cure all these problems.

Rule 1. Drive the posted speed limit don't speed. You get stuck behind someone doing the speed limit that's 100% on you... You have no right to get angry as you have no right to speed....

Rule 2. Keep right except to pass.. If you are on a 1 or 2 laner pull over when it's safe and let speeders go by. ( unless it's a log truck). You have a moral obligation to slow them down :) .

Pretty simple really don't be a jerk.. Don't push people down the road and don't hold people up unnecessarily.

Just another example of people refusing to do what they know they ought to do.
 
#37 ·
Related to the OP:

Every Memorial weekend we camp at Poplar Flats. It's twenty something miles up the Twisp river, at least ten of it dirt.
Four years ago, we pull out to meet a friend in town who was going to show us some secret lakes. We were already late from dealing with the kids at camp. We immediately fell in behind a pickup that was going slow. I mean sloooooow. He apparently didn't want to kick even the slightest bit of dust up. I went to pass, and he would block me. And he kept ignoring the pullouts, even though I could see his wife pointing and yelling at him to pull over. I tried to pass again and again, but he would swerve over. He obviously thought being a dick was fun, because I could see him laughing in his rearview mirror as he watched to block me.
Stupid. My truck, though nice, was built for offroad. Especially the brand new, meaty treaded, ten ply tires I was running. I finally see an opening, but not on the road. I turn my blinker on and go left, he swerves to block me, I go in the ditch, sidehilled around him, pop back on the road in front, drop my five speed into second gear and floor it! I buried that prick in gravel. Enlightened was turned around watching through the back window. "Holy crap! You sprayed him like a fire hose! I bet you blew out his headlights."
"I bet he pulls over from now on when someone needs around," I say. "They put all those pullouts there for a reason. He should've listened to his wife."
 
#40 ·
I learned to drive in the (relatively) flat lands of the Midwest, before the days of interstate highways. If you were on a dual lane highway (two lanes each way separated by a grass median) you were lucky. When you passed someone, you didn't pussyfoot around about it. It was pedal to the floor, get around & get back in. Today, there are signs on major highways all across the US that say "slower traffic keep right" That's a simple enough statement. You would think anyone with a sixth grade education capable of understanding it. Nowhere in that simple statement is there an exception for driving at the max speed limit. Period! It is not your job to make sure the guy in the Ferarri does not exceed the speed limit, kill himself & maybe you trying. And mountain roads with turnouts? Some states will ticket you if there are four or five cars lined up behind you & you don't use the turnout. None the less, the idiots are out there, they breed & train more just like themselves. There oughta be a law,,,, there are, unfortunately stupid is as stupid does, regardless.
 
#44 ·
Wow.. I get disgusted if a car goes through while I'm walking between home and the folks place.. smidge over a 1/2 mile.

Oregon may be "the worst" on the left coast but I've traveled some on along the right coast.. they don't call them "MASS HOLES" for nothing.. it's a rep well earned.
 
#50 ·
I too have a hard time with this. I've always thought if someone becomes close behind you it means he'd like to go faster than you, seems common courtesy has removed itself from our culture. If you're on a Sunday type drive why not pull over for the freaking idiot behind you who obviously wants to get past you. Pull over and let him go, it'll make your drive better and remove the bullet behind you.
 
#53 ·
The main road to my house passes through Fort Lewis. Even though it's a county road, it's technically part of Fort Lewis and is patrolled by MP's. And since you're on a military reservation, the things those MP's can do are Not Fun.

I admit to fudging the speed limit a bit at times, but not there. The speed limit it 45 and if the MP's are having a bad day they'll pop you at 46.

Anyway, I was driving home one day when this little red Jap tuner car comes screaming around me at something like 60 or 70 mph. As I came over a hill a couple of miles on down, there he is, pulled over by the MP's.

I laugh a bit and continue on.

A couple of weeks later, same situation. On my way home when I'm passed by what looks like the same red car. Still burning up the road. Sure enough, a couple of miles later, there he is with the MP's. This time he's spread eagle on his trunk and they're getting out the handcuffs.

Some kids never learn.
 
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