Small case of road rage.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(heliotropehead\";p=\"88027)</div>

Yeah, that probably explains it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AnOldHouse\";p=\"88025)</div>

You are blocking traffic and those that wish to get by you are hogs?

Do me a personal favor, since you don't have a Prius yet, please don't get one so the masses don't think that all of us Prius drivers are fools.

Or at least get a different color than me. :roll:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(majordude\";p=\"88044)</div>

You are blocking traffic and those that wish to get by you are hogs?

Do me a personal favor, since you don't have a Prius yet, please don't get one so the masses don't think that all of us Prius drivers are fools.

Or at least get a different color than me. :roll:[/b][/quote]

You once again miss the point that I've made abundantly clear that this is in heavy traffic, with heavy traffic ahead and heavy traffic to the right. I am in no way "blocking traffic" as you assert. I am keeping up with and flowing with the heavy traffic as safely as possible.

In that scenario, there is absolutely no purpose to flash lights at anyone, but it's happened to me countless times. There is nothing to be gained by anyone by my having to slow down and attempt to merge into the adjacent right lane traffic.

Like I said, I've obviously hit a nerve with a few headlight flashers here.

You're more than welcome to paint yours a different color or trade it in if my purchase "so offends" you.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(majordude\";p=\"88024)</div>

You're wrong. AnOldHouse clearly said he was following a line of cars ahead in the left lane and that there was heavy traffic in the other lanes. Under such circumstances it would be patently stupid for all the drivers in the left lane to start merging right just because some prick wants to speed. If we were to follow your advice, we would be creating a special condom lane.

 

Give Oldhouse a break. While I don't agree he should slow down and irritate the flashers, I agree that flashing someone in a line of traffic or is completely RUDE. What makes you king? Like he said, we have to slow down to merge right so you can go 85mph? It isn't like you going to get anywhere. What happens when you run up on the next driver going a terribly slow 70mph? You flash them? Everyone has to merge right, slow down 10mph, just to get out of your way? We are talking city freeway traffic here...not wide open roads.

I think that is the point he is trying to make, although I don't believe irritating the flasher is a good idea. The selfish flashers already have a God complex, so who knows what they will do. :guns:

*Just thought I'd give you a little support, OldHouse, since I started the flashing thread. :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vprius\";p=\"88083)</div>

How about the California Vehicle Code which reserves the left lane of any multi-lane highway (freeways included) for passing only.

 

I assume, living in the San Fernando Valley, you have driven in LA traffic? I lived in OC and LA before moving to Bakersfield. ALL lanes are packed, and if the left lane wasn't utilized, or utilized ONLY for passing just imagine the traffic?! Besides, when I am in the left lane...going sixty miles per hour, and the lane to the right is going 55 then I am passing! Come on now, be realistic!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vprius\";p=\"88123)</div>

No one is going to flash you to move over in stop and go rush hour traffic in order to drive at 85 mph.

On most California freeways, even the urban ones, the speed limit is 65 or 70 mph. By going 60 mph in the left lane you are impeding traffic and the law obligates you to yield and let faster traffic pass you.

If that driver is speeding, he or she will be cited, but so will you for not letting the other driver overtake you.

 

Where I am traffic is less insane but equally stupid. Today I got on the highway 4 times. 2 times some dumbass decided to accelerate to a whopping 45 mph, then jam on the brakes at the top of the onramp because there was *a car coming*. That's called getting on the highway, moron. No flashing on my part, nothing. I just got on the highway and accelerated to leave them far behind me.

I have only played along in the road rage game once. Someone held me up for 3 traffic lights as I was in a hurry to get my friend to the doctor. I laid on the horn and passed the guy, only to have him follow me and try to run me off the road. You think the pregnant woman in the passenger seat would have said something to him about why we were in a hurry...

Speaking of which, the only time you're really justified going 85 mph is if you're transporting someone to the hospital during a medical emergency. In that case an ambulance is recommended, and even ambulances won't go that fast. They know better.

Lastly, I am pretty young and by most standards good-looking... that didn't get me out of the $175 ticket I got for not slowing down fast enough after passing a "speed limit 55" sign... damn it. I hate when they sit 300 feet past the sign and wait for people who want to coast until their speed drops to the limit.

 

You don't understand! I am not holding up traffic in the left lane. I am going as fast as traffic will allow, which sometimes is UNDER the speed limit, I can't run over the car in front of me can I? I am going faster than the traffic in the lanes to the right.

And YES, I have been flashed traveling at 60-75mph in a line of traffic with somebody wanting to go faster. They continue to flash their lights at every car in front of them and wildly zig-zag, cutting people off, when the person in front does not yield. That is why, even though I think these people are lower than dirt, I let them pass. I don't want them causing an accident.

Obviously you don't understand the situation I'm explaining. I think I need that "point of view gun" they had in Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy movie! (those of you that have seen the movie will understand). Guess there is no arguing with flashers :roll:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IsrAmeriPrius\";p=\"88118)</div>

Your thinking, as usual, is simplistic and blinkered. BTW, if you wish to cite the CVC, let's see the regulation (does it make any mention of Model T's by name?). And while you're searching you might chew on this:

"22348. (a) Notwithstanding subdivision (B) of Section 22351, ( )1 a person shall not drive a vehicle upon a highway with a speed limit established pursuant to Section 22349 or 22356 at a speed greater than that speed limit."

The speeder has no legal ground to stand upon. As for safety concerns, I think everyone here agrees that slower traffic should keep left and that it is desirable for drivers to either keep with the flow of traffic in their lane or move over. Certainly OldHouse would agree with that and has said as much.

Under the circumstances described by OldHouse (where he is already keeping up with the flow of traffic), however, it would unsafe for the left lane drivers to move over because some s*ithead wants to play Speed Racer and establish a new flow for that lane.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vprius\";p=\"88139)</div>

I think you need people who actually read and understand before they "respond." You're not getting that. People respond to what they _think_ you said (or sometimes to what they _want_ to think you said).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(V8Cobrakid\";p=\"87046)</div>

amen, V8CK.... i've tried to convince one of the "traffic reporter" newsmen at the San Jose Mercury News, here, that many of the congestion spots in our area could be alleviated by getting drivers to move to the left two lanes of a three-lane when they're coming up to an entrance ramp in heavy traffic. give the newcomers a chance to merge, and traffic would flow faster. the proof is in the observation that, a mile past the merger, traffic is almost always moving at the limit, meaning that the road had the capacity for those cars and that speed all along, and it's the moron-merger-preventers that screw it up.

but he didn't get it at all. check out "Mr Roadshow" at the Murky News.

you got it right; shame is: drivers coast to coast, on average, don't get it!

motor easy...
+af

ps.
braking, for "slowing down"; breaking is what happens when you don't slow down and you hit something....
impeding, not the "ee" version.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AnOldHouse\";p=\"88025)</div>

My usual response in this situation is to ignore the flasher and just keep driving normally because there's nothing anybody can do anyways. Turn up the radio even. The key is to look away from the rear view mirror and stop obsessing over it. Count backwards from 100; that should calm the passive-aggressive road rage.

When there's opportunity to move out of the way, or if the guy can find his way around, let that karma come. Aggressive drivers usually think fast enough and "get it".

I can't believe your area even gets flashers, because don't remember ever seeing any in over 10 years driving the semi road-rage environs of LA freeways; or I don't look in my rear-view mirror that much.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee\";p=\"88135)</div>

You're very lucky that person didn't run you off the road or worse. He could have followed you to the hospital, got out, and confronted you. If you were living in Utah, you then could have legally shot him.

Like I said, there are some seriously f***** up people out there, and our lax and contradictory law "enforcement" seems to encourage them. If they had their a** really nailed for acting that way, it might get the word out.

I could give a rat's a** what mental problems these pathetic creatures have, but gadamit don't put everybody's life in danger using a 2-4 ton vehicle as your penis-compensation personal battering ram.

As this juvenile criminal behavior increases, either we do something harsh about road rage or it will soon become the primary reason of fatal car crashes. In most countries if you drive that way, they really nail you. Not here in North America.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DanP\";p=\"88144)</div>

Quoting one section of the code it out of the context of the entire code can be embarrassing.

For your education, here is California Vehicle Code Section 21654 (a):

(a) Notwithstanding the prima facie speed limits, any vehicle proceeding upon a highway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at such time shall be driven in the right-hand lane for traffic or as close as practicable to the right-hand edge or curb, except when overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or when preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway. (emphasis added)

VEHICLE CODE SECTION 21650-21664

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vprius\";p=\"88139)</div>

Oh, I do understand, even though you poorly articulated your hypothetical situation.

The law requires you to yield even to a person who is speeding in violation of the law.

 

On a multi lane highway which has more than two lanes in each direction, you can pass someone even while being passed by another. Thus you are required to yield.

In any event, even on a two lane highway, you must move over to the right as soon as you finished passing so that a faster driver can overtake you.

 

Well said. The I do what I want and screw what anyone else thinks is getting tiring to me.