strantor
Platinum Member
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?
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?
