State laws governing speed and passing are in stark contradiction with themselves, and therein lies all our problems with both speed and passing.
SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT:
If I’m doing the speed limit, am I part of the “slower traffic”?
TAILGATING PROTECTED:
I am driving down a highway with a speed limit of 70mph. I am doing 74mph while also in the process of passing a number of slower drivers in the right lane who are traveling 65mph-70mph. The guy beyind me is tailgaiting me because he wants me to pass the drivers in the right lane at an even higher rate of speed than I am.
In short, the laws favor the guy who wants to travel whatever speed over the speed limit he feels like. The vast majority of drivers in the right lane are driving mostly slower than 70mph. The Formula One racer suddenly appears and begins tailgating me at a dangerously close distance. He doesn’t care about my decision to NOT break the speed limit just because h wants to travel 90mph. I’m supposed to, what, slow down until I can move over or speed up and move over so he can push on at 90mph?
Tailgaiting was once defined in feet. States have scuttled that in now define a safe distance in seconds (2 seconds behind under 30mph, 4 seconds over 30mpn) which is absolute nonsense and insulting. States need to post a speed limit they enforce or adapt an Autobahn philosophy and be done with it. Their current laws are nebulous, confusing and self-contradictory.
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State laws governing speed and passing are in stark contradiction with themselves, and therein lies all our problems with both speed and passing.
SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT:
If I’m doing the speed limit, am I part of the “slower traffic”?
TAILGATING PROTECTED:
I am driving down a highway with a speed limit of 70mph. I am doing 74mph while also in the process of passing a number of slower drivers in the right lane who are traveling 65mph-70mph. The guy beyind me is tailgaiting me because he wants me to pass the drivers in the right lane at an even higher rate of speed than I am.
In short, the laws favor the guy who wants to travel whatever speed over the speed limit he feels like. The vast majority of drivers in the right lane are driving mostly slower than 70mph. The Formula One racer suddenly appears and begins tailgating me at a dangerously close distance. He doesn’t care about my decision to NOT break the speed limit just because h wants to travel 90mph. I’m supposed to, what, slow down until I can move over or speed up and move over so he can push on at 90mph?
Tailgaiting was once defined in feet. States have scuttled that in now define a safe distance in seconds (2 seconds behind under 30mph, 4 seconds over 30mpn) which is absolute nonsense and insulting. States need to post a speed limit they enforce or adapt an Autobahn philosophy and be done with it. Their current laws are nebulous, confusing and self-contradictory.