Brake checking - why?

[JesasaurusRex]

Then there's the temporary tailgater that rushes up your ass when you change lanes in front of them or merge in front of them. And although they have plenty of time to react and slow for that couple of seconds you've inconvenienced them they will make it look as though they don't. The goal for them is to get as close to your bumper before they touch the brake.

who wants to have to service their brakes before it's necessary ?

 

[wazzuFreddo]

 

[Reli]

Then there's the temporary tailgater that rushes up your ass when you change lanes in front of them or merge in front of them. And although they have plenty of time to react and slow for that couple of seconds you've inconvenienced them they will make it look as though they don't. The goal for them is to get as close to your bumper before they touch the brake.

Probably because they're mad at some moron who enters the freeway at only 50-55 mph. The person entering has the responsibility to adjust their speed to match the traffic flow before entering.

 

[Climber]

Probably because they're mad at some moron who enters the freeway at only 50-55 mph. The person entering has the responsibility to adjust their speed to match the traffic flow before entering.

Some cars have much slower acceleration than others. I've had some girlfriends whose cars took forever to get to 60 mph compared to my cars.

 

[Reli]

If someone can't reach highway speed by the end of the merge lane, they must not have floored it. Women in particular seem to have an aversion to flooring cars, like as if it's going to damage their engine.

 

[MysterYvil]

If someone can't reach highway speed by the end of the merge lane, they must not have floored it. Women in particular seem to have an aversion to flooring cars, like as if it's going to damage their engine.

Some onramps don't offer acceleration space.

And why would Ricky Racer be in anything but the #1 in any case? Freakin' math-challenged tiny-penised morons.

 

[Bay Arean]

Then there's the temporary tailgater that rushes up your ass when you change lanes in front of them or merge in front of them. And although they have plenty of time to react and slow for that couple of seconds you've inconvenienced them they will make it look as though they don't. The goal for them is to get as close to your bumper before they touch the brake.

That's what I was talking about on I-5. I feel like: "Hey, I'll get out of your way as soon as I can but you don't HAVE to give me a colonscopy for the few seconds it takes to do so."

Instead, it seems like they have been mortally offended by your existence and want to make sure you are aware of it.

And for the record, this is at high speed, always above posted speed limit. Not like I was plodding along and just decided to merge.

The other possibility is that people are playing chicken with their cruise control and it seems like they are speeding up but just are not choosing to respond to your merge unless they absolutely have to, as described above.

 

[Climber]

That's what I was talking about on I-5. I feel like: "Hey, I'll get out of your way as soon as I can but you don't HAVE to give me a colonscopy for the few seconds it takes to do so."

Instead, it seems like they have been mortally offended by your existence and want to make sure you are aware of it.

And for the record, this is at high speed, always above posted speed limit. Not like I was plodding along and just decided to merge.

The other possibility is that people are playing chicken with their cruise control and it seems like they are speeding up but just are not choosing to respond to your merge unless they absolutely have to, as described above.

Yeah, another one of my pet peeves with California drivers...you have the decency to not stay in the fast lane and these assholes get offended when you go back into the fast lane to pass slower cars! I don't know WTF is the problem with these turds, so much 'me only' perspective and absolutely zero big picture ability.

 

[250mL]

Yeah, another one of my pet peeves with California drivers...you have the decency to not stay in the fast lane and these assholes get offended when you go back into the fast lane to pass slower cars! I don't know WTF is the problem with these turds, so much 'me only' perspective and absolutely zero big picture ability.

It may seem like I'm picking on you, but your's is the last in the string of similar posts at the moment. Also, I am trying to talk myself off the ledge in response to TheRobSJ. I can't believe nobody hasn't responded to his post(s) yet... I am trying to exercise restraint and meter my words, but haven't been able to publish a thought yet...wait for it...

I get the short on-ramps, or those with an incline, but if my 90HP can reach 65 at the end of a merge section, I'm sure your 20XX model year, Any Make /Any Model can too. Press the fuel pedal, harder and earlier... If adjustments are needed to make a smooth merge, it is much easier to decelerate to accommodate, than to accelerate. It's simple math (to continue the theme), physics, and at least in my head makes common sense. No???

Now on to highway speed lane changes and creeping up on someone's tail. There's continued mention of courtesy, decency, and big picture... There's also mention of flow, disruption, and traffic jams...

Thank you for being in the slower lanes until the need to pass. Thinking courteously, in a big picture, non-flow disrupting manner, does it make sense for you to jump out into the fast lane to make a pass at a substantially slower pace than the vehicles currently occupying the fast lane? Surely you were attentive and monitored your mirrors prior to activating your turn signals and can see that traffic in the lane you want to enter is moving at a much higher rate of speed than you. The only "common sense" thing to do in order to maintain decency, big picture, non-flow disrupting action is to pass at the higher rate of speed, no???

That's all I desire, if you're going to pop in the faster lane, increase your speed, make the pass, and get back over. If you want to re-establish a new slower speed in the fast lane, I think you are the not being decent, not thinking of the big picture, and instead are being disruptive to the existing flow.

My thought is you are the one with a "me only" attitude, in that just because a gap is open, you can slowly take it, but at the expense of creating brake lights behind you that will ripple on backwards, creating a slinky jam.

 

[Climber]

It may seem like I'm picking on you, but your's is the last in the string of similar posts at the moment. Also, I am trying to talk myself off the ledge in response to TheRobSJ. I can't believe nobody hasn't responded to his post(s) yet... I am trying to exercise restraint and meter my words, but haven't been able to publish a thought yet...wait for it...

I get the short on-ramps, or those with an incline, but if my 90HP can reach 65 at the end of a merge section, I'm sure your 20XX model year, Any Make /Any Model can too. Press the fuel pedal, harder and earlier... If adjustments are needed to make a smooth merge, it is much easier to decelerate to accommodate, than to accelerate. It's simple math (to continue the theme), physics, and at least in my head makes common sense. No???

Now on to highway speed lane changes and creeping up on someone's tail. There's continued mention of courtesy, decency, and big picture... There's also mention of flow, disruption, and traffic jams...

Thank you for being in the slower lanes until the need to pass. Thinking courteously, in a big picture, non-flow disrupting manner, does it make sense for you to jump out into the fast lane to make a pass at a substantially slower pace than the vehicles currently occupying the fast lane? Surely you were attentive and monitored your mirrors prior to activating your turn signals and can see that traffic in the lane you want to enter is moving at a much higher rate of speed than you. The only "common sense" thing to do in order to maintain decency, big picture, non-flow disrupting action is to pass at the higher rate of speed, no???

That's all I desire, if you're going to pop in the faster lane, increase your speed, make the pass, and get back over. If you want to re-establish a new slower speed in the fast lane, I think you are the not being decent, not thinking of the big picture, and instead are being disruptive to the existing flow.

My thought is you are the one with a "me only" attitude, in that just because a gap is open, you can slowly take it, but at the expense of creating brake lights behind you that will ripple on backwards, creating a slinky jam.

Just to clarify, I'm the type to avoid forcing people to touch much less hit their brakes in order for me to merge. When I've experienced the type of people I mentioned in my post, it's people who see you getting to where you're going to either have to hit your brakes or shift over a lane and they step on the gas to close up the gap on you. This has happened to me many times on I5, I'm moving along in the slower lane within 5 mph of their speed, there are sizeable gaps between cars, my merging into the fast lane isn't going to cause them to even slow down but they have to be assholes about it and speed up to force me to slam on my brakes as I come up behind a slower vehicle.

I'm with you on the on ramps, I know it's much easier and safer to merge if I'm going at least as fast as the vehicles in the lane, but others are more cautious without realizing that what they're doing is actually more dangerous.

 

[Reli]

Some onramps don't offer acceleration space.

Then they offer an extended merge lane.

If you can show me one that doesn't allow someone to get up to highway speed before being forced into another lane, I'd be open to change my views.

 

[Reli]

That's what I was talking about on I-5. I feel like: "Hey, I'll get out of your way as soon as I can but you don't HAVE to give me a colonscopy for the few seconds it takes to do so."

Instead, it seems like they have been mortally offended by your existence and want to make sure you are aware of it.

And for the record, this is at high speed, always above posted speed limit. Not like I was plodding along and just decided to merge.

The other possibility is that people are playing chicken with their cruise control and it seems like they are speeding up but just are not choosing to respond to your merge unless they absolutely have to, as described above.

Once again, I'm not tailgating you because I'm on a power trip, I tailgate because I'm trying to prevent every Dick and Jane from cutting in between me and you.

 

[Bay Arean]

Once again, I'm not tailgating you because I'm on a power trip, I tailgate because I'm trying to prevent every Dick and Jane from cutting in between me and you.

Yeah, we are talking very close tailgating, the "get out of my fucking way" Manhattan-taxi close, not just enough to discourage others. Very aggressive and dangerous at 75 mph. Kind of a lot of CHP activity south of Redding especially on weekends.. Climber describes it very well immediately above.

Oh well. At least I know some BARFers are into this sort of thing so it becomes collegial. I still won't ever do it. Some things are just not safe. You are generating more bad karma than me because I am immediately pulling over rather than setting up some kind of rally, which I have also seen on 5. This has truly changed over the years though because of widespread use of cruise control....

 

[250mL]

Just to clarify, I'm the type to avoid forcing people to touch much less hit their brakes in order for me to merge. When I've experienced the type of people I mentioned in my post, it's people who see you getting to where you're going to either have to hit your brakes or shift over a lane and they step on the gas to close up the gap on you. This has happened to me many times on I5, I'm moving along in the slower lane within 5 mph of their speed, there are sizeable gaps between cars, my merging into the fast lane isn't going to cause them to even slow down but they have to be assholes about it and speed up to force me to slam on my brakes as I come up behind a slower vehicle.

I'm with you on the on ramps, I know it's much easier and safer to merge if I'm going at least as fast as the vehicles in the lane, but others are more cautious without realizing that what they're doing is actually more dangerous.

I hear you to a certain extent.

In your hypothetical, the speed differential (5 MPH) is between your current lane and the lane you want be in. By virtue of you wanting to exit your current lane in favor of the next, you must feel that this speed difference is large enough to want to be out of it. If you dislike it enough to want to leave it, what makes you think the guy in the fast lane wants to travel at that rate too? As before, I ask you to accelerate and maintain the new higher rate of travel, or accelerate and move back over.

You maintain that the problem is that the AHoles try to accelerate in order to close the gap so that you cannot move into the fast lane...why do you think that is so? A possible reason is that too many people will pass with a 1 MPH differential like I posted before...do not disrupt flow, even if you THINK there's a gap large enough.

Gaps disappear quickly. Doing some math, we can see that a 5MPH differential equates to ~7 feet per second, this is the rate the faster car will be gaining on you. It only takes 2 seconds to loose a car length. Meanwhile you are passing at a 1 MPH differential, or 1.5 feet per second. It'll take you nearly 10 seconds to pass the car...The gap you thought you had has just shrunk 5 car lengths. This only takes into account the length of the vehicle you are trying to pass, let alone the gap behind and ahead of the car that you must overcome. Call each gap at one car length and now it takes 30 seconds to pass a single vehicle, chewing up 15 car lengths...was your gap that large to start with? No?, well that's why you have a car up your ass. Don't tell me you haven't seen this happen. This is the situation many tailgaters are trying to avoid. Yeah yeah yeah, 30 seconds, big deal, blah blah blah, but think of the big picture...Pass with a purpose, people!

So with some engineering math above, can you understand that some of these "AHoles" may not even be accelerating as you claim? Could you be mistaking their speed and your speed, thus the resulting differential? If there is actually a 10MPH differential, that's 15 feet per second, or one car length chewed up every second. In the 3 seconds it takes for you to complete the lane change, he's 3 cars closer, that's a lot of car length in a short time, giving the impression of him accelerating when he's just maintaining. Plausible? Likely? Improbable because you have calibrated eyes?

Despite the actual numbers typed, do we all understand the concept?

 

[Climber]

I hear you to a certain extent.

In your hypothetical, the speed differential (5 MPH) is between your current lane and the lane you want be in. By virtue of you wanting to exit your current lane in favor of the next, you must feel that this speed difference is large enough to want to be out of it. If you dislike it enough to want to leave it, what makes you think the guy in the fast lane wants to travel at that rate too? As before, I ask you to accelerate and maintain the new higher rate of travel, or accelerate and move back over.

You maintain that the problem is that the AHoles try to accelerate in order to close the gap so that you cannot move into the fast lane...why do you think that is so? A possible reason is that too many people will pass with a 1 MPH differential like I posted before...do not disrupt flow, even if you THINK there's a gap large enough.

Gaps disappear quickly. Doing some math, we can see that a 5MPH differential equates to ~7 feet per second, this is the rate the faster car will be gaining on you. It only takes 2 seconds to loose a car length. Meanwhile you are passing at a 1 MPH differential, or 1.5 feet per second. It'll take you nearly 10 seconds to pass the car...The gap you thought you had has just shrunk 5 car lengths. This only takes into account the length of the vehicle you are trying to pass, let alone the gap behind and ahead of the car that you must overcome. Call each gap at one car length and now it takes 30 seconds to pass a single vehicle, chewing up 15 car lengths...was your gap that large to start with? No?, well that's why you have a car up your ass. Don't tell me you haven't seen this happen. This is the situation many tailgaters are trying to avoid. Yeah yeah yeah, 30 seconds, big deal, blah blah blah, but think of the big picture...Pass with a purpose, people!

So with some engineering math above, can you understand that some of these "AHoles" may not even be accelerating as you claim? Could you be mistaking their speed and your speed, thus the resulting differential? If there is actually a 10MPH differential, that's 15 feet per second, or one car length chewed up every second. In the 3 seconds it takes for you to complete the lane change, he's 3 cars closer, that's a lot of car length in a short time, giving the impression of him accelerating when he's just maintaining. Plausible? Likely? Improbable because you have calibrated eyes?

Despite the actual numbers typed, do we all understand the concept?

As stated, I wouldn't want anybody to have to hit their brakes, it's implied that I would speed up to the flow rate when I merged back to the passing lane.

In the lane I"d be coming from, I may be 5 mph slower than the fast lane, but the vehicle that I'm approaching when I merge could be 20 mph slower or more than I'm traveling.

I thought it would be obvious from my posting that I'm trying to be as courteous as I expect the people in the passing lane to be. The problem is, and this isn't in my mind, I have well over 1 Million miles of driving under my belt, I have no trouble discerning when somebody steps on the gas to close a gap.

I don't understand why you continue to try to find fault in my actions, I'm not the type of asshole to expect courtesy from others without offering at least as much courtesy to them. Please stop assuming that I'm an asshole who is just imagining other assholes on the road when I'm the asshole.

 

[250mL]

Yeah, we are talking very close tailgating, the "get out of my fucking way" Manhattan-taxi close, not just enough to discourage others. Very aggressive and dangerous at 75 mph. Kind of a lot of CHP activity south of Redding especially on weekends.. Climber describes it very well immediately above.

Oh well. At least I know some BARFers are into this sort of thing so it becomes collegial. I still won't ever do it. Some things are just not safe. You are generating more bad karma than me because I am immediately pulling over rather than setting up some kind of rally, which I have also seen on 5. This has truly changed over the years though because of widespread use of cruise control....

Cruise control almost makes it worse in some cases. On I-5, your car's indicated 75MPH is different than every other car's 75MPH. So you think you're travelling at an acceptable speed and begin to overtake the slower vehicle (who also thinks he's going 75). Again, you think your 75 is ok, so you jam on by the slow guy at a 1MPH differential, never a care in the world for what actual traffic is doing in the adjacent lane...thus flow and big picture, and...and...and...

 

[250mL]

As stated, I wouldn't want anybody to have to hit their brakes, it's implied that I would speed up to the flow rate when I merged back to the passing lane.

In the lane I"d be coming from, I may be 5 mph slower than the fast lane, but the vehicle that I'm approaching when I merge could be 20 mph slower or more than I'm traveling.

I thought it would be obvious from my posting that I'm trying to be as courteous as I expect the people in the passing lane to be. The problem is, and this isn't in my mind, I have well over 1 Million miles of driving under my belt, I have no trouble discerning when somebody steps on the gas to close a gap.

I don't understand why you continue to try to find fault in my actions, I'm not the type of asshole to expect courtesy from others without offering at least as much courtesy to them. Please stop assuming that I'm an asshole who is just imagining other assholes on the road when I'm the asshole.

I do read courteousness from your posting, I'm just trying to outline to others (nobody in particular), how I see these driving conditions.

But I still question your calibrated eyes though, not to paint you as an AHole, but maybe to open eyes to what is actually taking place in the physical world, and not a made up story of what one thinks the other driver is doing.

Assuming the slow lane is traveling at 65MPH, you are 20MPH faster at 85, faster traffic at 90. Even if you could instantly met the initial 90MPH speed of the adjacent lane, the AHole would have to accelerate from 90 to 95 in order to create a closing rate such that the three car lengths you thought was good is now too small. Is the average vehicle out there capable of 90-95 in three seconds? Again, could it be that you have mistaken the speeds involved and the AHole is not really speeding up to tailgate or close the gap? (I don't know if all that last stuff made any sense, I have work to do, see ya.)

 

[MysterYvil]

Then they offer an extended merge lane.

If you can show me one that doesn't allow someone to get up to highway speed before being forced into another lane, I'd be open to change my views.

Kern St to 101N is a good example. Plenty more further north between SF and SJ. Tight onramps with no acceleration lane.

Why are racers in the far right lane anyway?

 

[MysterYvil]

Cruise control almost makes it worse in some cases. On I-5, your car's indicated 75MPH is different than every other car's 75MPH. So you think you're travelling at an acceptable speed and begin to overtake the slower vehicle (who also thinks he's going 75). Again, you think your 75 is ok, so you jam on by the slow guy at a 1MPH differential, never a care in the world for what actual traffic is doing in the adjacent lane...thus flow and big picture, and...and...and...

I drove from Orlando to Chicago to Salinas on cruise with no and causing no problem.

Cellphones and inattentive drivers caused the only incidents.

 

[Climber]

I do read courteousness from your posting, I'm just trying to outline to others (nobody in particular), how I see these driving conditions.

But I still question your calibrated eyes though, not to paint you as an AHole, but maybe to open eyes to what is actually taking place in the physical world, and not a made up story of what one thinks the other driver is doing.

Assuming the slow lane is traveling at 65MPH, you are 20MPH faster at 85, faster traffic at 90. Even if you could instantly met the initial 90MPH speed of the adjacent lane, the AHole would have to accelerate from 90 to 95 in order to create a closing rate such that the three car lengths you thought was good is now too small. Is the average vehicle out there capable of 90-95 in three seconds? Again, could it be that you have mistaken the speeds involved and the AHole is not really speeding up to tailgate or close the gap? (I don't know if all that last stuff made any sense, I have work to do, see ya.)

I've been changing lanes and gauging speeds for over 40 years across many states. Only in CA do I encounter what I've described, even Masshole drivers on the turnpike don't do that. Also, as I approached the vehicle in front of me I increased my speed to match that of the faster lane so that I'd merge into the gap with plenty of space for the vehicle behind.

As I said, I've a very courteous driver, I extend all courtesies to other drivers and expect them to not be assholes to me.