"Hypermiler" pulled over for driving too slow

[LostCause]

I confidently drive 55mph. If anyone wants to go faster, they can pull around. If I'm inconveniencing a truck driver, I don't give two thoughts to the situation as I'm going his speed limit.

If a police officer ever pulls me over, I'll be courteous and tell him my reasoning. If I get a ticket, I'll contest it in court. I'm not the one being unsafe on the freeway by creating a speed differential. There are two ends of the spectrum. The end blatantly breaking the law is the one at fault.

Cops need to learn to pull speeders over. It is a very rare day I see a CHP behind a motorist on the freeway. The problem with cops is that they are speeders off the clock. You don't catch a rat with another rat.

I drive as intelligently and responsibly as I know how. My only responsibility is to "save" myself and those willing to be helped.


- LostCause

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by LostCause

I confidently drive 55mph. If anyone wants to go faster, they can pull around. If I'm inconveniencing a truck driver, I don't give two thoughts to the situation as I'm going his speed limit.

If a police officer ever pulls me over, I'll be courteous and tell him my reasoning. If I get a ticket, I'll contest it in court. I'm not the one being unsafe on the freeway by creating a speed differential. There are two ends of the spectrum. The end blatantly breaking the law is the one at fault.

Cops need to learn to pull speeders over. It is a very rare day I see a CHP behind a motorist on the freeway. The problem with cops is that they are speeders off the clock. You don't catch a rat with another rat.

I drive as intelligently and responsibly as I know how. My only responsibility is to "save" myself and those willing to be helped.


- LostCause

Well said. It's a shame when those following the law are the bad guys.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by AXMonster

So I can quite safely sit in the inside lane at 55 as cars will pass me in the middle lane, and faster cars pass them in the outside lane. So I can be at 55 while others are 90+

Unfortunately in the States it seems the vast majority of Americans forget everything they're taught in Driver's Ed just as soon as they get their mitts on their first Driver's License and just take whichever lane suits them. So we get folks tooling along on the leftmost lane at 10mph under the limit, crazyass riceracers flying down the rightmost lane at 20mph over the limit, and everybody passing on whatever side suits them. Last week some kind in a souped-up Mitsu flew by me on the shoulder.

American drivers are stuck with a "me first" kind of mentality, and it reduces the safety for everyone. I think it's a large part of why we have so many gigantic, hugely powerful vehicles on the road that have only one person in them.

Think about it: a lot of those sales are justified as being for the safety of the driver, in that the larger vehicle is probably safer in a crash. Well, what about the poor ******* in the little econobox just squashed in a hypothetical accident. Let's listen:
"What about him?"
"Well, you squashed him with your Excursion."
"He should've driven something bigger. And in the meantime, I'm not hurt. That's what matters." This is an excerpt from an actual conversation I had with an Excursion owner. Ouch.

I'm not saying all SUV owners are as shallow as that, but I think it's representative of a lot of the attitudes behind much American vehicle ownership.

[wagonman76]

Originally Posted by elhigh

Unfortunately in the States it seems the vast majority of Americans forget everything they're taught in Driver's Ed just as soon as they get their mitts on their first Driver's License and just take whichever lane suits them. So we get folks tooling along on the leftmost lane at 10mph under the limit, crazyass riceracers flying down the rightmost lane at 20mph over the limit, and everybody passing on whatever side suits them. Last week some kind in a souped-up Mitsu flew by me on the shoulder.

American drivers are stuck with a "me first" kind of mentality, and it reduces the safety for everyone. I think it's a large part of why we have so many gigantic, hugely powerful vehicles on the road that have only one person in them.

Think about it: a lot of those sales are justified as being for the safety of the driver, in that the larger vehicle is probably safer in a crash. Well, what about the poor ******* in the little econobox just squashed in a hypothetical accident. Let's listen:
"What about him?"
"Well, you squashed him with your Excursion."
"He should've driven something bigger. And in the meantime, I'm not hurt. That's what matters." This is an excerpt from an actual conversation I had with an Excursion owner. Ouch.

I'm not saying all SUV owners are as shallow as that, but I think it's representative of a lot of the attitudes behind much American vehicle ownership.

Unfortunate it is true. When I take my drivers tests to renew my license, I get them all right because I know drivers ed taught me, but Im always tempted to put down the real answers. Like at a 4 way stop, who goes first? Not the one there first or the one on your right like its supposed to be. Usually its the ones with the fancier car or the bigger truck that will run right through it. If you follow the laws of right of way youre going to get hit. And when other traffic is merging onto the freeway, the law says to stay in the right lane at a constant speed. Wrong. The mergers usually expect you to move over, and if you dont then youre going to get hit. And they tell you to drive "a safe, prudent speed for the conditions, which is never over the posted speed limit". You do that and youre a safety hazard since everyone else is speeding. Many times around here Ive gotta drive 10-15 mph over the posted speed limit just to merge from 2 lanes to one.

[Formula413]

Originally Posted by Daox

the idea that speed limits are there to conserve fuel is absolute bull.

Yup. If that were the case the speed limit would be 50 mph.

Originally Posted by dcb

Nobody should pander to speeders in the name of safety ?!?

We should absolutely try to appease speeders in the name of safety, because who doesn't love irony?

Some people have alluded to drivers having some obligation to maintain a speed close to the flow of traffic in the name of safety. I think it is common sense but I will state anyway that it is the responsibility of any driver on a highway to be prepared to encounter slower moving vehicles without hitting them. What about 18 wheelers on hills that are not able to maintain a speed anywhere near the speed limit? Why is someone in a car obligated to maintain a certain speed just because they can? Some states do post minimum speeds on freeways. Vermont for example is either 40 or 45, can't remember which. I think that is reasonable. I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to drive 50 mph on a highway if you keep to the right.

FYI: There is no such thing as a "slow lane" or a "fast lane". There are travel lanes and passing lanes, and the speed limit is the same in all of them.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Lazarus

He was kind of a smarty pants. It depends on traffic and the situation but I guess will just agree to disagree not knowing the area but where do you draw the line. Traffic here regularly travel 80-85 mph. I'm not going to drive 75 just to be in the flow. Almost all highways have a slow lane and a passing lane.The people traveling at these speeds are going to be mad if they have slow down even if it's 70. I don't think there are a lot of accidents because people come up on a 20 mph overtake but I'm sure some one can find some links. I guess it's a good thing I don't drive much

One daily driver I have can't even go faster than 52mph except downhill.

Legally I view every ideot driving over 65mph as a tool given the fact that the high speed (aka 65mph+) headon 1yr survival rate even today lingers around 15% lower or higher depending on WHO you want to get your crapsticics from. (in fact the death rate in high speed collisions has INCREASED since the 70's, I'm talking percentages in a 65mph+ collision not just the number of by the way) Cutting through hype and getting reliable stats on this regard is hard, folks love to report # of deaths but not as a percent of incidents and in fact I have run into different "legit" entities providing different numbers, also remember that the initial survival rate at high speeds in meaningless as most survive the accident but die later from injuries.

Also Few actually look at the statistical crash tests and how the data is collected, in reality safety comes from how, where and how fast you drive, airbags do little at very high speeds. In fact my grandmother was killed by the airbag hitting her leg causing hundreds of micro clots months later (and that was in a 35mph crash)

I believe what he was doing (the guy pulled over) would be PERFECTLY OK if it were during the daytime, during light traffic, on multilane road where folks can simply pass. I do much the same in light traffic and have done so often, for long distances and for many years and I have had no accidents over the roughly 750k I have driven thus far, but I choose when to drive and where carefully because I hate unsafe conditions caused by other drivers. I also tend to do the speed limit when I don't like the group coming up on me and tend to do the limit when I am in a hurry or on a schedual.

Cheers
Ryan

[RPM]

I have some trouble understanding the issue with someone driving 50 on a 65 MPH road. Perhaps it's a cultural thing.

I have in several occasions driven 50 on a 75 MPH road (with maybe 15% of the cars doing over 90) without incident and it felt pretty safe to me. Large speed differentials between lanes are a common thing here. You can stay on the right lane and do your thing, as long as you accelerate adequately if the need to overtake arises.

[markw365]

Originally Posted by regor

When I'm heading home,my last big hill (I'm turning right onto Poway road from SB hwy 67 (This is in San Diego County), I try to take the curve right around 30mph, and that will put me at the crest of the hill at around 27mph. Keeping the car in drive, without touching the brakes, but 1/3 of teh way down, I'll hit 55, in which I then downshift the vehicle and being in the lower gear, will take me to teh bottom of teh hill, at teh traffic light.

SO this guy behind me, in his lifted muscle wagon, get's behind me at the crest when I'm doing 27mph, and he honks his horn and raises up his hands in disguest. Of course, I did nothing, and by teh time I hit 55, he was way, way, way, back.

As for this guy getting pulled over for 50, it doesn't say what lane he was in.
I grew up learning right lane courtesy, meaning that you pass left and stay right when not passing. I know people that think it's their right to sit in the left lane at or below the speed limit while tons of cars are passing on the right, which is unsafe. Around SD, traffic is in the 75-85mph range, so if you go slow you need to stay to the right lanes.

He did catch up to me later and started cussing at me. I smiled and yelled "I'm currently averaging 41.9mpg today, what's yours?"

Wow, first 27 at the crest of Old Poway is too slow. The guy behind you was probably trying to hypermile his truck and you killed his momentum. If you take that corner around 50, you'll carry more speed onto the hill. I crest the hill around 50 and without traffic in front of me I'll coast up to 65-70 by the time I have to turn at Espola.

[rmay635703]

It is a cultural thing but not universal for all americans.

Sadly though most spend all their lives hurrying to get absolutely NO WHERE.

People make a schedual to follow in the US, go to a fair for enjoyment and need to race through to be done in an hour so they can be on schedual to eat or whatever it is they figure they need to do. Wittle their pathetic lives on a demanding schedual that is more or less filled with meaningless activities that must be done (or so they think)

A lot of people are in a hurry to get through something to go home and watch TV.

Most folks mentality in the US burns my ass and I was born here and lived here all my life, people need to learn to sit back and relax, you really don't need to be at X so badly at a certain time.

My oppinion

Originally Posted by RPM

I have some trouble understanding the issue with
someone driving 50 on a 65 MPH road. Perhaps it's a cultural thing.

I have in several occasions driven 50 on a 75 MPH road (with maybe 15% of the cars doing over 90) without incident and it felt pretty safe to me. Large speed differentials between lanes are a common thing here. You can stay on the right lane and do your thing, as long as you accelerate adequately if the need to overtake arises.

[dcb]

Originally Posted by markw365

I'll coast up to 65-70.

So you can improve on the 41.9 MPG with this technique then? Or are you just going faster and breaking harder when you miss the stoplight or hit the turn?

edit: I don't think "lifted muscle wagon" guy flying up behind someone and stomping on the brakes and horn smacks of hypermiler