let the environment go

[cryptique]

I like people better than penguins.

I don't. People suck.

[Mrs. Peel]

45 on a highway isn't minding your own business. It's creating a traffic jam. That it was in a smart car exasperated the problem. I think my opinion of the whole lot of them is quite clear.

 

Oh. I thought it was all the other cars that created a traffic jam. So the Smart Car was taking up all lanes of traffic then?

 

Sorry, I just don't understand the hostility toward one guy who chose to drive slow. Where are the posts about all the blue hairs who drive 45 on the highway?

[mfwahl]

Oh. I thought it was all the other cars that created a traffic jam. So the Smart Car was taking up all lanes of traffic then?

 

Sorry, I just don't understand the hostility toward one guy who chose to drive slow. Where are the posts about all the blue hairs who drive 45 on the highway?

Yeah as long as he's in the right lane and doesn't have his right blinker on for 5 miles (like this geezer I was behind the other day) I don't see the problem

[caliber66]

Driving too slow (i.e., 10 mph, or in this case possibly even 20 mph under the posted speed limit) puts other cars in just as much danger as driving too fast. 45 is not an acceptable speed on an interstate highway.

[mfwahl]

I definitely don't like it but it's not like I don't see it. The problem here is really the Smart Car basically, right?

[Mrs. Peel]

Driving too slow (i.e., 10 mph, or in this case possibly even 20 mph under the posted speed limit) puts other cars in just as much danger as driving too fast. 45 is not an acceptable speed on an interstate highway.

 

I agree with you. But I don't see any threads complaining of people driving too slow or too fast in other cars, that's all. I just don't see why it's important enough to mention it because it happened to be a Smart Car. Because one idiot driver can't go the speed limit, it's time to get rid of all environmentally sensible cars? Obviously he was angry enough to come home and post about it, I just don't understand why.

[cryptique]

45 is not an acceptable speed on an interstate highway.

Not acceptable by most people's standards, but if I'm not mistaken, it is the minimum legal speed on the interstate.

[fatheadfred]

Road rage on the internets...see above

[JUDE]

If the people driving those roller skates known as smart cars want to travel at 45 mph on the interstate, I will say a little prayer to the gods of mass and inertia for them.

[fatheadfred]

I thought they weren't allowed on u.s. interstate roads...only local highways and such.

[caliber66]

Not acceptable by most people's standards, but if I'm not mistaken, it is the minimum legal speed on the interstate.

 

Minimum legal speeds by state

 

Legal doesn't mean the same thing as safe. When you can reasonably expect the majority of cars to be driving in excess of 65 mph, 45 is not a safe speed, whether it is legal or not.

[Mrs. Peel]

If the people driving those roller skates known as smart cars want to travel at 45 mph on the interstate, I will say a little prayer to the gods of mass and inertia for them.

 

They don't look safe, and I would probably never drive one because I would be too freaked out about the lack of a buffer zone, but I believe in reality they are extremely safe cars with superior cabin safety over a lot of other larger cars on the road. I would never feel safe in one though.

[sweetheart-mine]

Minimum legal speeds by state

 

Legal doesn't mean the same thing as safe. When you can reasonably expect the majority of cars to be driving in excess of 65 mph, 45 is not a safe speed, whether it is legal or not.

when on a multi-lane highway, and the 45-mph driver stays in the right lane, i don't see a problem. it's the chronic 85's that bother me.

[Spawn's dad]

I think I expressed adequate levels of hostility for the driver of the slow car, those who slowed down to gawk (even if only

momentarily) and perhaps even for the NYS thruway authority itself. I assure if it had been some guy in a classic car

going 45 I'd have been equally peeved.

 

On a two lane highway, especially a congested one on a Sunday afternoon, a driver going 20 mph slower than the posted

speed limited forces everyone into one lane to pass. This creates a chain effect back up. So, everyone is wondering WTF

is the cause of the back up...whether and accident or a smart car people are taking the foot off the gas to look as they pass.

So even if they're going 60 at that point somewhere back up the highway (like 10 miles) one lane suddenly slows from

70 and the other from 65 and it doesn't take all that many miles for it to back up into stop and go traffic.

[mfwahl]

2 lane highway, dude's gotta keep up. That's definitely unsafe.

[jenbobblehead]

I like people better than penguins.

[Spawn's dad]

 

I'm pretty sure no penguins were driving, though I assure you if a penguin was going 20 mph under

the limit I'd be really pissed off.

[ZenLunatic]

If you let the environment go, so do you. you are part of it.

[bjorn_skurj]

I think I expressed adequate levels of hostility for the driver of the slow car, those who slowed down to gawk (even if only

momentarily) and perhaps even for the NYS thruway authority itself. I assure if it had been some guy in a classic car

going 45 I'd have been equally peeved.

 

On a two lane highway, especially a congested one on a Sunday afternoon, a driver going 20 mph slower than the posted

speed limited forces everyone into one lane to pass. This creates a chain effect back up. So, everyone is wondering WTF

is the cause of the back up...whether and accident or a smart car people are taking the foot off the gas to look as they pass.

So even if they're going 60 at that point somewhere back up the highway (like 10 miles) one lane suddenly slows from

70 and the other from 65 and it doesn't take all that many miles for it to back up into stop and go traffic.

SD is correct. Doing 45 on the Thruway is not a safe thing. Shit, doing the 65 mph limit on the Thruway isn't that safe. My little car goes 72-75 max, and I get passed all the time on that road.