Traffic / Driving question. Was I in the wrong?

[volcs0]

I was driving down the Kennedy in Chicago a few days ago in the afternoon towards O'Hare. The traffic was dense - stop and go in all lanes... your standard 60 minute trip from the loop to the airport.

I was in the innermost lane, and everyone was doing the 2-3 mph speed up, jam on brakes routine, every 20 feet. I myself do not like to ride tight on people's bumpers, and I also try to give a little room and see if I can coast and avoid a lot of braking.

Occasionally, someone would merge in front of me because of the space that would open up. When this would happen, the guy behind me would go crazy...throwing up his hands, yelling.

Now, I've done the math. In the 20 miles, if I let 20 cars in (it was more like 5), that would be about 200 feet - or just a few more seconds of travel time.

Anyway, I am a pretty respectful driver most of the time. I drive a few mph over the limit and then only use the inner lanes for passing. But given the dense traffic, I thought I was behaving OK.

I eventually moved over onto the shoulder and signaled for him to just pass me... which he did... still swearing and waving all around.

Of course, this says nothing about the science behind this, which says that if everyone were to just slow down and stop doing the start/stop routine, the traffic would all flow smoothly... but that's never going to happen. See this: http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/trafexp.html

So, just wanted to see what others thought. I suppose my driving style would be more accepted in the middle lane...

[btfc]

Your driving was fine.

[testcase]

In traffic that heavy, which lane you crawled in is a moot point. The moron motorist behind you would have acted that way if he were behind someone else. Of course there's no way of knowing if he's just an idiot or, has some kind of emergency where he need to get someplace yesterday (unlikely). My big concern would be if said moron motorist would progress from mere anger to full blown road rage. Allowing him to pass was wise.

[Grace62]

I think you were right and were being a courteous driver; the person who was behind you waving his arms has issues that have nothing to do with your driving. If you were in the far right lane, you were doing to right thing in leaving a little space because it allows people who need to get to the exit space to do so.

As you say, there is some science behind the idea that being a courteous driver helps traffic jams go away and certainly reduces accidents.

[M A V I C]

It was probably fine. I often see more extreme examples of this. You may only be driving 2-3 mph, but when every few minutes, they speed up to 15mph and 5 cars get in front of you, that would irritate me if I was behind you. In my last car I would have driven the same as you simply because its turbos didn't not handle stop and go very well. It was hard to go from 3-10mph, it wanted to go from 3-20.

The other day I had a driver get very irate with me. Apparently they passed me and were through their hands and various birdy symbols flown at me, as they leaned from the driver's seat over the passenger seat of their SUV to try and make sure I saw (I didn't watch them.) Then they got in front of me, slowed down, so I went around and they repeated as I went past.

Previously, there were two lanes stopped at a light to get on a freeway onramp. They were in the left lane, I was in the right lane. It was a two lane ramp. As we went down the ramp, the right lane was coming to an end ahead. I noticed there was no gap to my left, and I was behind the SUV, but there was a good sized gap in front of the SUV. The SUV was going fairly slow so I pushed on the gas just a little - probably got up to about 2500 RPMs so really not much - then pulled in front of the SUV with plenty of room between us and the vehicle that was now in front of us. I started merging before the dashed line between the lanes ended, but likely finished merging after that line had ended. I never came close to the SUV nor was I even close to driving on the shoulder.

I'm guessing the SUV driver thought I was being aggressive or something by passing on the ramp. The ramp curved some and I did take advantage of the fact my suspension was in its lowest setting, I have my summer tires on and that I knew the SUV couldn't go around the curve very fast.

[cbelt3]

You were the Idiot, the guy behind you was a Maniac. At least according to George Carlin.


I drive that way myself. If people can't deal, tough bananas. I drive a stick shift. I HATE stop & go traffic with an all consuming passion.

[mrbigstuff]

I will drive out of my way to avoid congestion, but if it's unavoidable, there is no other way other than the brake/coast/throttle/brake routine. wasting fuel also comes to mind in this day of $4plus/gal fuel.

[volcs0]

Yeah, it was frustrating - taking an already odious situation and making it worse (not to mention the screeching kids inside the car).

Deep breath. Calgon take me away, Serenity now, etc.

[hal]

btfc wrote:
Your driving was fine.

until you pulled over to the shoulder...

next time, just engage you night-mirror so you can't see him

[macbeergeek2]

btfc wrote:
Your driving was fine.

:agree:
and thanks, volcs0, for the link about the Traffic Wave Experiment! I've tried to do the same thing myself.