Debate whether what the OP actually did is fine or not all you like. This thread is full of people ignoring that the OP has clarified they were passing a slower moving vehicle at the time they were flashed by someone tailgating them.
Flashing Headlights to Pass: Were We Transported to Fury Road?!
- Thread starter DJ Lushious
- Start date
How are you obstructing the passing lane if you are actively passing someone?
That's kind of beside the point.
Dude has made it clear that he was going the speed limit in the left lane, regardless of the fact that he was passing.
Going "5mph faster" than a semi WILL block the road, even moreso when the semi that he's passing is going under the speed limit but he's cruising right at it.
Yes, he was using the lane for its intended purpose.
Yes, he was still going too slow while he was there.
It depends on how quickly you're passing them, obviously.
Have you ever been stuck behind someone slooooooooooooooowly passing a semi? It takes ages to get around because the semi is simply a wall filling the other lane and there's no way to get around the slow (but still technically passing) driver in front.
It's a rolling roadblock and the passing driver is at fault for not getting out in front of the semi.
If you are blocking the passing lane because you refuse to speed up so you can move over to let traffic behind you pass by faster than you, the one who will get the ticket is you. If you were blocking a cop by doing this and he didn't like it he would pull you over for obstructing traffic.
Speed up when passing slower traffic. Don't be that guy who passes a truck doing 65 by doing 70 and blocking traffic behind you.
Left lane at 70? Nah that's right lane speed, get out of the way.
Rule of thumb for left lane: Catch up and keep up with whoever's ahead of you. If you aren't doing that, get out of the way.
Rule of thumb for left lane: Catch up and keep up with whoever's ahead of you. If you aren't doing that, get out of the way.
If people that wish to pass your vehicle are unable to do so then you are impeding traffic. In many states you are required to yield to faster traffic. In California for instance you will get a ticket for impeding the left lane even if you are going the speed limit. It doesn't matter if you are passing someone or not. You are not legally allowed to impede traffic.
If you are driving 5 mph faster than a semi, then it isn't going to take ages to pass the semi. So why are saying the OP was obstructing the left lane?
Stay out of the left lane unless you're going well above the speed limit (or it's super congested and no one is going anywhere, anyway). If people are doing this to you in the right lane, then give them the middle finger.
OP, you really should've sped up to pass the semi, not just to let the people behind you pass, but for your own safety. It's dangerous to drive beside a semi for longer than you have to. Speeding up another 5 MPH is not as dangerous as you're making it out to be.
In fact, you should really try to use the passing lane for as short of an amount of time as possible, just to keep good traffic flow.
I drive fairly fast, but I'm never the fastest driver on the road. If I feel like I'm holding up people behind me on the left lane, I speed up to try to get out of that lane as fast as possible, it's inconsiderate otherwise.
In fact, you should really try to use the passing lane for as short of an amount of time as possible, just to keep good traffic flow.
I drive fairly fast, but I'm never the fastest driver on the road. If I feel like I'm holding up people behind me on the left lane, I speed up to try to get out of that lane as fast as possible, it's inconsiderate otherwise.
If there are cars backed up behind him then he's either cutting people off or driving far slower than traffic and not passing quick enough, either way he is obstructing traffic.
Also, get out of the way of people who want to go faster. It doesn't matter if your going 120kmh on a 100kmh road, if the guy behind you wants to go 150kmh, move. You're not the police, it's not your job to slow them down, and you are only putting yourself at more risk by having them behind you.
Go outside and get in your car and idle past a building at 5mph and time how long it takes you to get past it.
Then factor in that both you and the building are moving at 65mph, the building may have fluctuations in speed and may even speed up (while, if you're cruising, you're remaining constant and are therefore passing even more slowly), and that people behind you are ALSO trying to pass this building.
You're going way too slow at only 5+ to pass a semi.
Most cars, okay, maybe, though I'm usually shooting for 8-10, but a semi is 3-4 car lengths and needs an appropriately higher speed to get past in a timely manner.
Just accelerate past the semi and change lanes. Put on your blinker to let the person behind you know "I see you, and i'm on it", so your road rage doesn't beget their road rage.
And that would be double road rage, and no one needs that.
*all references to road rage in this statement are purely hypothetical and should be taken as such.
And that would be double road rage, and no one needs that.
*all references to road rage in this statement are purely hypothetical and should be taken as such.
Because it's the polite way to send a clear signal that you want to pass.
It really isn't, other than honking, which is annoying, how else would you suggest that drivers signal to each other?
The tailgating was aggressive though, if not also a commonly accepted form of "Please move out of my way".
As quickly and reasonably as possible yes. You accelerate past the semi and move over.
If you find the posted speed limit too fast for your liking, you shouldn't be in the fast lane during heavy traffic.
Are you saying it isn't timely in regards to the law, or is this just an arbitrary determination regarding how long people should have to wait before you agree with people using their two ton vehicle in a threatening and highly dangerous manner?
Now I have to counter-report you to make it seem we are equally to blame.
You are forcing my hand, marrec
See post 154.
Whether it's against the law or not is kind of irrelevant. If you're impeding traffic, you're blocking the road and you're a safety violation.
Flow with traffic or go faster than the traffic so that you can safely get out of the way to let faster cars pass when you slow down again.
Trying to turn this into some righteous "but I'm obeying the law here, YOU'RE the problem" matter is completely disingenuous when you're endangering everyone's public safety.
I bet you can apply those keen senses you have on the road to do things like actually reading the OP and the subsequent mod post that followed.
OP just cause you complained to a mod about how technically you were using the passing lane to pass doesn't mean you were using the passing lane to pass.
You were casually cruising in the passing lane at the speed limit.
Stay in the slow lane unless you're going to use the passing lane properly.
You were casually cruising in the passing lane at the speed limit.
Stay in the slow lane unless you're going to use the passing lane properly.
Even at 5mph difference, it's going to take you an unreasonable amount of time to pass a semi. You're endangering yourself and the people behind you by needlessly blocking lanes. It only takes one person to cause a traffic jam for everyone else.
Making assumptions on whether or not the OP reported people for not reading a topic is not arguing on good faith: you're literally making up reasons to shit on them.
You're holding up traffic in the left lane... That's the speeding lane, and in many states it is a passing only lane (I learned this the hard way during a road trip up north, but the officer only gave me a warning when he saw I was from out of state). By all accounts, you're actually putting others in danger.
I don't follow speed limit laws. I am constantly breaking them. But if I see someone safely change lanes to pass a semi in the distance, I am not going to overreact and threaten them with my vehicle. I am going to patiently wait until they complete their pass, because I don't believe driving in the fast lane entitles me to drive as fast as I want without ever needing to accommodate other drivers' speed. And I would never threaten them, because I am not a deranged asshole.
"I know this guy is driving a two ton vehicle and is only like two and a half feet away from your bumper and is drowning your field of vision with high wattage lights, but you made him drive 70 mph for a few seconds when he wanted to maintain a constant speed of 82 mph, so you're the one being unreasonable here and the REAL safety hazard."
Don't be obtuse. I meant the whole side-conversation accusing the OP of using the report function.
The law gives leeway to the very real possibility that there are times where a person could reasonably need to drive above the speed limit (As in the case of a medical emergency). As a motorist, it isn't your place to enforce the speed limit by blocking a lane with your car: if you feel strongly compelled to report that person to the police, move out of their way and make note of their license plate.
That's how you get a ticket. At least in Jersey. Ya can't just go with the flow of traffic. The god damn cops give 0 fucks about that.
The problem is not having to slow down to 70 from 82, the problem is is for how long I'm forced to do so, and being stuck beside the semi for ages at 70.
If you're constantly breaking the speed limit you've no doubt been in this situation before in which the guy in front of you is very slowly passing the semi in the right lane meaning nobody can get around.
It's not a matter of whether or not the guy is passing, it's a matter of how long he's riding beside the semi (meaning everyone else, or you, if you're behind the guy) has to ride beside (or behind) the semi.
SO many traffic jams and wolfpacks start simply because people are either too oblivious or too self righteous to just overtake the guy next to them, thereby causing traffic to back up behind them.
If you're clearly passing the truck fast enough, even if you're going slower than me, then whatever, it's no big deal, I can speed back up.
If you're deliberately going past at a relative snail's pace, you need to move the fuck out of the way.
You want to know how to get the dude in the two ton vehicle with the bright lights off your bumper? Move.
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I feel like you are doing it wrong only because you say it's happening to you more frequently. I've definitely been caught out in the left lane before. When I see someone on my ass I typically am like "oh yeah, this is my bad" and speed up to let them get by. If this is happening to you on the regular, I don't know how this can be a 'them' problem. I think I've been flashed maybe once or twice in my life in the left lane. I wouldn't be able to tell you if it was my fault or not, but since it has only happened to me a handful of times, it's possible I was daydreaming or it's possible the other driver was just a dick. Now, if it was happening to me all the time? I'd probably start trying to self-evaluate what I'm doing.
IMO you shouldn't be using the left lane unless you plan on going over the speed limit. I've driven from Ontario down to Florida too many times to count. It didn't matter what state I was in, didn't matter which country, consistently the left lane was reserved for people going 10KM+ over the speed limit on the highway. The high beams may have been more an indication to go faster, rather than shift into a truck.
So making someone wait behind you for 10 seconds is a perfectly acceptable reason for recklessly threatening someone with a two ton vehicle?
Flashing headlights to pass? What? That's usually done as a warning of some sort to get your attention and not a "warning" of someone passing.
But if you're not passing and just hanging out in the left lane, going the speed limit or worse the minimum speed limit while there's other traffic around you are probably annoying people, even if they're speeding. Especially if the right lane is also blocked (by like a semi) and you don't get over after going past it or you pass slowly, most people I don't think, like the idea of being beside a large truck for any longer than they should have to be on highways, I know don't from my own past experiences of being run off or nearly run off the road by them due to all sorts of potential blind spots.
Either way, you get the eff out of the passing/fast lane when you don't need to be in it.
But if you're not passing and just hanging out in the left lane, going the speed limit or worse the minimum speed limit while there's other traffic around you are probably annoying people, even if they're speeding. Especially if the right lane is also blocked (by like a semi) and you don't get over after going past it or you pass slowly, most people I don't think, like the idea of being beside a large truck for any longer than they should have to be on highways, I know don't from my own past experiences of being run off or nearly run off the road by them due to all sorts of potential blind spots.
Either way, you get the eff out of the passing/fast lane when you don't need to be in it.
At least in Washington State and Florida, if you are in the left-hand lane and someone behind you is going faster, you are legally required to move out of the lane to let them pass, regardless of if they are breaking the speed limit or not. If you are using the left-hand lane to pass someone slower, and someone comes from behind who is going significantly faster than you enough that they would catch up to you, then you should have seen them ahead of time, and waited for them to go by before changing lanes.
I would argue that the guy that's literally blocking the road and creating an unsafe environment is being a lot more "recklessly threatening" by refusing to move than the guy behind them who is "threatening" them with... beams of light, and ...not actually running into them with his car, but sure, let's go with that.
Let's factor in that "10 seconds" is short and most traffic issues happen because people can be "passing" a car (or semi) for miles since they simply won't overtake.
It happens everywhere every single day; don't act like you've never experienced this.
I've been stuck in these situations for closer to 10 minutes, if not more. It's infuriating.
If you think that is threatening someone then don't drive on the highways in CT. During busy times nearly every car in every lane is about 10 to 15 feet off the bumper of the car in front of them. If you are in the passing lane you are guaranteed to have someone driving that closely behind you during your entire trip even if you are going 85.
I flash my headlights when you're going slower than me in the left lane, there's space to the right, and you won't change lanes.
Don't be an asshole driving slow in the left lane. That's the only time I'll flash my lights at someone. If you have space to get over and aren't looking like you are going to that's when I will flash my lights.
Don't be an asshole driving slow in the left lane. That's the only time I'll flash my lights at someone. If you have space to get over and aren't looking like you are going to that's when I will flash my lights.
No one has ever flashed their lights at me in this context (usually coming from the opposite direction to indicate a cop is around the corner) but I'm always happier to let someone faster than me drive past. That is one more car that could be potentially pulled over before me.
If someone forcing you to decrease your speed by a completely reasonable margin for a relatively short amount of time is seen by you as creating an unsafe environment, then you should not be driving.