  Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 155 Registered: 07-2006 |
OK....... Why is it there is ZERO accountability when driving on the freeways within and just around Detroit's border?? Cars, SUV's and motorcycles are free to speed as fast as they want along these stretches. For the most part, motorists can do this whenever and as freely as the individual deems. Barring our 11 hour rush-hour traffic, you can find people passing in the far right hand lane about 20 mph faster than the fast lane motorists. Or they feel they can get right up on you a$$ until you move. Others cruise up and slide into those necessary safety distances between the car in front of you (driving instructors worked so hard to instill this into the population). And the real one that makes me want to rent a gun and buy some bullets are those motorists who KNOW they have to merge within two miles, but decide that THEY deserve to ride it out until the lane actually pinches off. All these typical jerk manuevers only make other safe driver become more aggressive. Well, it may seem to some that this is a vent post, but I do want to make four particular points that are very important. 1- From what I have noticed over the years, the average freeway speed has increased as technology has made our automobiles faster and safer. Although this safety increase helps some, it actually hurts smaller cars on the road by creating SUV/Truck renegade drivers who feel they don't have to be careful because they drive tank-like vehicles which pick up the slack in safety. Typical evolution of man. 2- Where are the police who are supposed to patrol these freeways??? Have you ever driven through these areas on a Friday or Saturday night? People think they are $%#@! NASCAR drivers!! They pretty much have a green light because this area has been unpatrolled for sooooo long. 3- Some of you may say that this is typical of all freeways and cities. Don't try to generalize your way around the issue. 696 is a bit of a race track in some areas, but try to do this on 275, 75 and/or 94 outside of the City. It won't take long for you to get lit up. I have also travelled to many cities for work and have never seen such good driving and lower speed limits. I was baffled that such law and order still prevails on wide scales in cities such as Portland, Raleigh and Columbia. Detroit....... not so much. 4- This trend towards faster, more aggressive driving is a bubble that is going to burst. If you think that your road rage is bad, consider the nuts that can't control their emotions in the first place. I hope that the city wakes up and puts a stranglehold on the lawless roads it now condones. PS -- KUDOS to the truckers and cars that block out the idiots who try to ride out the merging lanes. Keep it up and I hope more people like you jump on the wagon. | ||
Belleislerunner Member Username: Belleislerunner Post Number: 355 Registered: 12-2003 |
As long as someone isn't cutting off other drivers, I have no problem with speeding. Many people think if there are going "75" they are entitled to the left lane. I've long given up on tailing or flashing my lights and just fly around them at 85. It's the non confrontational way to get where you're going. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 1174 Registered: 12-2005 |
quote: It sounds like you've got serious problems with large groups of drivers, not freeways. You better seek help before you act on those impulses. | ||
Spitty Member Username: Spitty Post Number: 608 Registered: 07-2004 |
I echo Ludacris' sentiments on this issue... I'm doin' a hundred on the highway So if you do the speed limit, get the FUCK outta my way I'm D.U.I., hardly ever caught sober and you about to get ran the FUCK over Move bitch, get out the way Get out the way bitch, get out the way Move bitch, get out the way Get out the way bitch, get out the way Move bitch, get out the way Get out the way bitch, get out the way Move bitch, get out the way Get out the way bitch, get out the way ---Ludacris | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 10191 Registered: 12-2003 |
I am finally remembering something I deduced long ago...the real estate I can own THE LEAST is that fifteen to twenty feet in front of my car while driving. I am once again working on drumming road rage out of my being, damn stuff keeps creeping back IN! Plus, in general, females have less depth perception than males...so if a woman is on your bumper, don't immediately get inflamed. She may simply not know how close she is...same with Asian men. There was a strange correlation with low testosterone and poor depth perception in the latest studies that I've read. Unfortunately in MI, any lane on a freeway can be used to pass. Move over and make it easier for them, it'll be safer in the long run. Make sure the slower traffic ends up in the lane with the folks entering the e-way and leave the passing/speeding lanes more free, and we could reduce the number of accidents greatly! Studies have shown that indeed speed does NOT kill, rather the DIFFERENCES in velocity between vehicles is the culprit in most freeway collisions. Speeding faster your own perceptual intake rate IS dangerous, though, and for many people that threshold is pretty low...and goes even lower as we age! Nightime speeding is especially dangerous, since MOST headlights do not shine far enough to allow enough reaction time. I usually ride the right-hand lane until I am forced to move for those who never learned what the word 'merge' means. But I turn every sweeping exit and entrance as racetrack timing events, you gotta get SOME fun outta driving! We've got some of the best freeway interconnections around for practicing vehicle dynamics, apex-hitting heavy-acceleration exits...got me all worked up just thinking about it. | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 156 Registered: 07-2006 |
"It sounds like you've got serious problems with large groups of drivers, not freeways. You better seek help before you act on those impulses." The title was actually a play on words from a recently posted thread title. But I guess you wouldn't have noticed, being too busy and all waxing your up your neon for the race tonight. Spitty - exactly my point. Nice company you keep. Gannon - It is unfortunate that you have to adjust your driving because others don't want to observe the rules. And..... it is really interesting that no one has addressed the reality of: THERE IS NO LAW ON THE FREEWAYS IN DETROIT. NONE! only speed freaks and imbeciles. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1388 Registered: 07-2004 |
Re: People zooming ahead down a lane that will merge and "taking cuts": I solve that merge problem by just being a dick and driving right next to a car in the lane that will end. Take me just as long (maybe less time) than if I let other people go in front. I get some angry looks sometimes, but I also get a horn-pound or a thumbs-up from happy motorists who've merged when they should. Sometimes people behind me get pissed, but I haven't been shot yet. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1389 Registered: 07-2004 |
However, I do think that, given the state of things, people should not smugly drive at the speed limit in the left lane. Are you obeying the law? Yes. But don't do it and then complain that people are up on your ass. The left lane is the de facto Autobahn lane, and if you drive the speed limit there, those pricks are just going to go three lanes right and bob and weave through a dozen slower cars and older drivers, almost causing a dozen accidents, if they have to do that just to pass little old, law-obeying you. Just don't do it. | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 157 Registered: 07-2006 |
They should be pulled over. Or at least fear the possibility of getting pulled over for driving 90 mph in a 55mph. Instead, they bob and weave without a care in the world. Kinda like Stallone does knowing that Rocky IX is right around the corner if he gets low on cash. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 2448 Registered: 10-2003 |
I have taken to a new strategy for driving, now that I'm getting a little older: Surviving. I suddenly find that speed limits are almost always right around how fast I want to go. Don't worry, I stay to the right except to pass, so I won't be in your way. I leave plenty of reaction time space between me and the car in front of me. If someone decides that means I want them to get in front of me, that's fine, I just back off them too. My hope is that when one of those things beyond my control happens on the road, I will be able to avoid it, while mister "must get to work two minutes earlier" may end up in a bad collision because they did not allow reaction time. I just hope mister Ludacris above doesn't kill myself or one of my loved ones because they didn't "get the F---" out of his way in time. | ||
Spitty Member Username: Spitty Post Number: 609 Registered: 07-2004 |
Just go about your business, and if you're in someone's way, then move and let them get a ticket. If you're in the left lane and someone wants to pass you, then get the hell out of the passing lane. I hate when people think that it's their job to police the freeways by sitting in the left lane, or speeding up when someone tries to pass them. Just because you don't want to go fast doesn't mean that you should try to slow everyone else down. It's people like you that cause traffic by clogging up the left lane while there is plenty of room in front of you. When the speed limit is 55 and the guy in the fast lane is going 56 next to the guy going 55, then I go 80 in the right lane to get around the ding dongs. I go 80 so that I can get back to the center lane faster because people don't know how to use the passing lane. Another thing that kills me is people who come to a rolling stop before they get into a turning lane. Slow does not always equal safe. | ||
Treelock Member Username: Treelock Post Number: 217 Registered: 03-2005 |
Some type-A motherf*%@er started flashing his lights and waving his arm at me the other day when I merged onto eastbound I-96 from southbound US-23. If you are familiar with this area you know it's a left-lane merge. So traffic on 96 is thick and rumbling along at its usual 75 mph minimum, and as someone who's generally risk-averse to speeding tickets, I'm unwilling to speed up much faster than I'm already going to pass the guy on my right and move over. Type-A is really riding my ass and I can see his blood pressure is spiraling. I flip him the bird and he returns the gesture when I am finally able to move over and let his impatient ass pass me. Whatever. I sometimes wonder if road rage incidents like this have become more common this summer with all the road construction making traffic so bad. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4930 Registered: 10-2003 |
The biggest problem is people need to learn how to merge and the people already on the freeway need to understand that they dont own the road. Move the fuck over and let the merging guy on asswipes. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 2452 Registered: 10-2003 |
One day, before my mellowing out, I was driving down M-5 North. There was NOBODY on the road, as usual. Only me, and this one other guy. But the guy was in the left most lane going pretty slow. I was coming up on him and figured he would get over when he saw me coming. No. So like a jackass, I rode his ass, rather than passing in the clear right lane, as a matter of principal. So he just let his car coast to a complete stop in the middle of the highway with me behind him. I pulled around next to him, rolled down my window and while laughing said: "THAT WAS AWESOME!" And I meant it. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1390 Registered: 07-2004 |
Haha. Thanks for the smile this Friday, Johnlodge! | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 3249 Registered: 12-2005 |
I just searched this thread for "courtesy" and it came back Text not found. HAHAHA! It's Detroit, dammit! Whadaya want? A tea party?!  (I'll decline posting Bernadette Headd's mugshot.) (Message edited by Jimaz on September 14, 2007) | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 1748 Registered: 12-2005 |
This is a very new phenomenon: http://www.archive.org/details /WeDriver1936 | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 158 Registered: 07-2006 |
Patrick - merging is an issue also. Merging in heavy, slow moving traffic can be really aggravating when some dope thinks he is not going to let you in. Instead he/she stops and goes as close to the car in front of him/her as possible. They not only look foolish, but will probably bump their neighbor and get a bird flip from me as well. Spitty - people like who? you sir, don't sound like an assertive driver. Jimaz - Detroit does not in any way deserve a hall pass for this kind of behavior on the roads. Johnlodge - enjoy your weekend. | ||
Oakmangirl Member Username: Oakmangirl Post Number: 367 Registered: 08-2007 |
I thought I read somewhere else here that we were a *slow* city? Johnlodge, I'm a speed limit square too. Isn't the last minute merge illegal? Cops could easily make quota on that one. | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 159 Registered: 07-2006 |
Shouldn't they though? I am sick of playing cop on that last minute merge, and i rarely do it. Boy I would love to see a bunch of saps get popped for that one. | ||
Charlottepaul Member Username: Charlottepaul Post Number: 1671 Registered: 10-2006 |
"you can find people passing in the far right hand lane" It is legal in MI to pass on the right if there is more than two lanes in traveling in the same direction. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5338 Registered: 08-2004 |
The left lane is supposed to be the passing lane. But more often than not, you'll have someone going only 55 in the left lane and they'll be on their cell phone. If you are in the left lane and someone is coming up from behind, it's no big deal to move one lane over to allow them to pass. It's way safer than having them pass you on the right. But there seems to be an abundance of clueless people who like to go just 55 in the left lane. They are the ones that indirectly cause accidents, even though they are not at fault for doing so. After all they don't call it the passing lane for nothing!!! I recently talked to a Harper Woods cop. He says that you have to be going over 70 before he'll pull you over. That varies from department to department. Also, ONLY State Police give out tickets on Detroit freeways. I've been pulled over 3 times (being a leadfoot) by Detroit cops, and each time they just said to slow down and not give me a ticket. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 135 Registered: 07-2007 |
Watch out for the Livonia cops on 96. They love to swoop down from those entrance ramps and nab ya. I've seen the Southfield police do the same on 696. Most people who get caught this way are oblivious to their presence. I always take a look back up the ramps, just in case, not that I would be speeding or anything. | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 160 Registered: 07-2006 |
Didn't really expect this thread to be a european driving class, but hey.... it's DY. I think this shows that our region doesn't really experience or understand safe driving characteristics. 80% of the responses are directed at how to drive faster and who exactly it is that is slowing them up. Gistok, were those DPD cops on the freeway or do you mean on the streets? State police does watch the the CoD freeways, but it must be from far away because I don't see them very often. Today, on my short, pathetic ride home from work i just knew I would be graced by at least one idiot who just whips in and out of traffic lanes by the narrowest of margins. I saw him alright, and it didn't take long at all. Ironically he was driving the same car I was. What a d i c l< Who do these people think they are? I honestly believe that the tighter the roads are enforced, the less road rage there can be. It is pretty simple when you think about it. Wouldn't the increase in ticket revenue finance the extra officers on the road? | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 10198 Registered: 12-2003 |
Only if people continued to misbehave. CHiPS have the right idea...maintain a visible presence within the FLOW of traffic...because people tend to behave when they're around...and keeping the flow results in WAY fewer accidents. The way we do it here? People jam on their brakes, even when they are not speeding, whenever they see a cop in the median. Stupid, guilty shit. Stupid on the cop's part, though, too. Cheers! | ||
Steelworker Member Username: Steelworker Post Number: 987 Registered: 02-2004 |
You must be one of those douches who drive 65 mile an hour in the fast lane on north boundI-75 in detroit when the speed limit is 70. You can easily do 75 on it and never get a ticket. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 10210 Registered: 12-2003 |
Dude, if I did that, I would kill MYSELF and put me out of everyone's misery. No...I stay to the right...but watch the flow of traffic and will drive well beyond the law when necessary to evade being boxed in behind someone fucking up the flow...especially at night, or in bad weather. (I drive gauging about a mile ahead and a half behind and can sense the overall flow and friction of traffic, as if it were liquid. I really love to drive, motion is pretty cool most times.) When I drive exactly the limit, I find that on two-or-more-lane roads I am not a hindrance to the flow at all. And I never end up in a bunch of cars jammed together waiting for the least mistake to become a pile-up! When I'm on a two-lane road with opposing traffic, and I notice a few cars stacking up behind me...I pull over and let them pass. It really freaks out the Type-A Ford people on Hines Drive. | ||
Jazzstage Member Username: Jazzstage Post Number: 101 Registered: 08-2007 |
This thread reminded me of this great story I read on the net. Someone told about how they were driving in Tennessee and they came upon a black Cadillac that was going pretty slow in the fast lane. The driver told how he was acting like a jerk riding the bumper etc to get him to go faster. Finally, the driver drove beside the Cadillac to see Johnny Cash giving him the finger. Something about the man in black putting him in his place changed his driving forever. | ||
Ray Member Username: Ray Post Number: 1010 Registered: 06-2004 |
The drivers here are maniacs. I often fly to CA. I drive down 101 to SFO, get on the plane, land at dtw and the drive home. The contrast is staggering. One thing I love about CA, is people "let you in" if you need to change lanes for an exit or whatever. I MI, they maliciously speed up to ensure that someone will not be getting ahead of them. I think it has to do with the stress imposed on the population by the economy. | ||
Tkshreve Member Username: Tkshreve Post Number: 161 Registered: 07-2006 |
The difference Ray is very prominent between Detroit driving and other regions of the nation. I don't really see the option to make it go away. It would be similar to teaching an old dog a new trick. The economy as a source is an interesting angle. I think that being the motor city may have an influence on driving attitudes also. Nobody car pools because they have their own car, and I can speak for myself by saying when I do have co-workers etc. in the car, I really watch my speed. Plus if they put a car pool lane (yeah right) into the freeways, people might jump on board. Instead, we get lengthy construction jams and unabated vigilante drivers. Another thing about other cities and their driving is when everyone has to merge, they do it early and together which doesn't really affect the flow of traffic. But, in Detroit, we like to be at the head of the line. I always find myself magically wishing peoples' tires to just blow out. Bottom line, Metropolitan Detroit driving as a whole is becoming a monster. And it's pretty obvious that the state and city don't give a rats ass. |
