Driving habits of rural folk

[/pine]

I hate the flat landers that think they have to ride the brake down every hill and around every curve...!

 

[ovrszd]

First, at 34, you are just a kid. I have boots older than that.

Second, you are the guy they talk about at the round table and how you're gonna kill someone with your driving.

Third, does the benefits or living where you do outweigh this "problem"? Sounds like they do.

Fourth, if the roads are as you describe why don't you simply pass the slow poke?

Fifth, in 30 years you are going to start a thread here on TBN complaining about those young guys and their dangerous driving!!!

 

[strantor]

First, at 34, you are just a kid. I have boots older than that.

I'm old enough to know that I won't win the age debate, so I'll concede. You win; I'm a mere babe. Your totally relevant old boots convinced me.

Second, you are the guy they talk about at the round table and how you're gonna kill someone with your driving.

I was that guy, I'm sure. I did drive recklessly as a younger man, and maybe by itself my still-youthful face behind the wheel of a moving vehicle is enough to strike fear into the members of the round table, even if I am only going (or trying to go) the speed limit. There is nothing I can do about that. But I can tell you that if this "round table" gathering is comprised of the same people who seemingly intentionally block traffic at inconsistent slow speed, they are the ones who are going to kill someone. Either directly or as a resulting of goading someone like [the younger me] into trying to pass their parade.

Third, does the benefits or living where you do outweigh this "problem"? Sounds like they do.

Absolutely! But when has that ever stopped someone complaining?

Fourth, if the roads are as you describe why don't you simply pass the slow poke?

At the risk of drawing the ire of the round table, sometimes I do. If it's safe. If there's no 3rd-shift funeral processions in the oncoming lane. If there's only one or two cars to pass. But when I'm at the back of a line 10, 20, 50 or more cars long, what's your suggestion then? (Obviously only those suggestions that won't draw accusations of "he's going to kill someone with his driving")

Fifth, in 30 years you are going to start a thread here on TBN complaining about those young guys and their dangerous driving!!!

I'll have to defer to your judgement on this one. I have no idea how I'll feel about this in 30 years. But if there's some epiphany I'm to have in the next 30 years which will change my mind, I'd like to go ahead and get it out of the way now; save myself a few decades of frustration. It might help if you shared your epiphany.

 

[Diggin It]

But if there's some epiphany I'm to have in the next 30 years which will change my mind, I'd like to go ahead and get it out of the way now; save myself a few decades of frustration. It might help if you shared your epiphany.

Sometimes it involves a lengthy hospital stay and recovery.
Sometimes it involves a very high insurance premium or only being able to get auto insurance from a high risk pool because nobody else will cover you.
Sometimes it involves losing a friend or family member.
Sometimes it's just waking up one day and wondering ... 'what the h**l am I doing?'


I think the last one was mine. These narrow, winding, hilly country roads with hidden driveways and sideroads and the ever present deer ..... well, sometimes you just suddenly realize that the risk is too great. I used to be one of those running 65 plus all the time and passing every car I came up behind. Now I'm one of those running 50 as often as not with people passing me. When I see one coming up behind me (we all check our mirrors, right?), I'll slow or move right as I enter a passing zone if possible to give them a better chance to pass..

 

[turnkey4099]

I grew up in the country and that's where I learned how to drive. I drove predictably like a teenage male, and everyone on the road was too slow for me. Then I went off to the military, city driving in places across the country and the world. After I got out I lived in the city for about 7 years and then moved back to the country.

Everyone here still drives too slow for me.

...correction... 1 in 10 drives too slow, and therefore everyone on the road for half a mile behind them must also drive too slow.

My elders repeatedly told me (and nearly had me convinced) that as I got older I would outgrow the "need for speed." I think I'm old enough now (34) that if that were true, it would have happened already.

I commute 45 miles every morning and 45 miles back every evening, to my job in the city. If I leave at 4am before anyone is on the road, I can make the drive in 45 minutes. If I wait until 7, it takes an hour and a half or more, and this is NOT because of traffic in the city; at least not in the greatest part. It's mostly because someone out here in my rural community drives like they have no destination, no expected ETA, no purpose in life, or some combination thereof. Or maybe they're hobbyist highway safety vigilantes with nothing better to do after they wake up, than to get out on the two-lane blacktop and enforce their own arbitrary speed limit.

They don't merely drive 55 in a 60 zone; no, they drive 50, then 60, then 50, then 60, then 50. The next few cars behind them slow down to maybe 45, then speed up to maybe 65 to catch up. This oscillation is amplified more and more the longer their line of rolling captives grows. In the case of a half mile parade, the people at the end of the line are likely coming to a complete stop, followed by a gas-guzzling acceleration to 80mph, followed by a dangerous rapid deceleration to zero again.

Why? What is it about living in the country that leads to lethargic driving? Is this a side effect of spending more time in the seat of a tractor than in the seat of a passenger vehicle? Will this happen to me if I stay until I retire?

Your descriptionof varying speeds is typical of two types of drivers. Those who refuse to use cruise control or somone more interested in their phone than driving. Sometimes it is a combination of the two. One of my pet peeves is people who do not use CC. There just is no excuse for not using it on the open road.

 

[strantor]

Sometimes it involves a lengthy hospital stay and recovery.
Sometimes it involves a very high insurance premium or only being able to get auto insurance from a high risk pool because nobody else will cover you.
Sometimes it involves losing a friend or family member.
Sometimes it's just waking up one day and wondering ... 'what the h**l am I doing?'


I think the last one was mine. These narrow, winding, hilly country roads with hidden driveways and sideroads and the ever present deer ..... well, sometimes you just suddenly realize that the risk is too great. I used to be one of those running 65 plus all the time and passing every car I came up behind. Now I'm one of those running 50 as often as not with people passing me. When I see one coming up behind me (we all check our mirrors, right?), I'll slow or move right as I enter a passing zone if possible to give them a better chance to pass..

Totally reasonable, and if that's the epiphany, I think I've already had it. I think we are talking about totally different scenarios. Where I grew up was like you described. Winding, hilly roads, home to deer, dogs, kids, and livestock. That is treacherous, and I would not attempt to pass even one car in that environment (although I did when I was younger). Where I live now is as I described previously; flat, straight roads that cut through farm land. Anything that might be approaching the highway (deer, tractors, cars on intersecting roads, etc) can be seen approaching from a mile off. There is almost no reason to ever touch your brake pedal out here. All you should have to do is get on the FM road, set the cruise control, and turn on the radio. There should be no other actions required until you reach the city. But it gets turned into a stressful test of your reaction time to find a balance between not slamming into the guy in front who was previously going 60 but now going 25, and not being "that guy" who is still going 25 while everyone ahead has gotten back up to 60 (at least until the next brake check). There is no reason for any of it. Picture Kansas but a bit greener, with a few more trees, and cars piling up and spreading out like an inch worm on the rural routes for no reason.

 

[strantor]

Your descriptionof varying speeds is typical of two types of drivers. Those who refuse to use cruise control or somone more interested in their phone than driving. Sometimes it is a combination of the two. One of my pet peeves is people who do not use CC. There just is no excuse for not using it on the open road.

Totally agreed.

 

[Jim Nelson]

When I was about your age I moved from Co. to Ca. for the ability to work year round in construction and more money. I took one look at the housing tracts near the cities where most of the construction work was and said no thanks. My wife agreed so we got a place out in the sticks and commuted. In Ca. it's not the country folks but the number of folks out there. For the majority of the jobs I worked It was only an hours drive in low traffic times but on work days it was a nightmare. I had to leave home between 3:30 & 4:00 am to start at 7:00 am. this meant that I sat around for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs to start work. If I waited til 5:00 am to leave I would get to the job between 8:30 & 9:00 am which doesn't go over very well with management. The drive home in the evenings was just a long 2 1/2 - 3 hr drive, no options.

Like someone else said you could move to town but I couldn't stand that and in the construction business if you move to town A to go to work the next job is in town B or C. Just the nature of the beast. All you can do is bite the bullet until you get to be an old phart like many of us and retire.

 

[Diggin It]

When I lived in a big city and worked downtown, I had a similar situation. If I left between 5:30 and 6:00, I could make the trip downtown in about 20-25 minutes with almost no one else on the freeway with me. If I waited until 6:30 or after, it would take 45 minutes or more often in bumper to bumper traffic. I was at least on a sort of unofficial flex schedule, so I could leave that same half hour early and beat the traffic home.

 

[dodge man]

I would say you are going to have to live with it or move closer to work. I recently retired but live outside of a town of 20,000 people. I live 7 miles from where I worked. If I hauled butt to work It took 12 minutes and if traffic was really bad it took 15 minutes. In other words it did not matter. The people we bought the house from moved because it was to far from town. I laugh at that idea because where I grew up a friends dad spent at least three hours a day commuting back and forth to Chicago on the train. It is really a matter of perspective. The only way to change is to move closer because people drive like that around here.