A koan:
Three-lane freeway parallel to the river. From right to left, slow, medium and passing lanes. Today’s morning commuter traffic results in the following estimated speeds (official speed limit on freeway = 130 kmH): Slow lane = about 100 kmH. Medium lane = about 120 kmH. Fast lane = the sky’s the limit, right now about 130 kmH.
A man is tootling along the middle lane in a Dobl
now we’re in my area of expertise – navigating the highway system.
impatient drivers behind me used to increase my anxiety level and i would speed up beyond the 75 mph i was already doing just so i wouldn’t appear to be an occaisional driver of the lame sort. but i have come to realize that anyone who truly wants to go faster than i am going will find the first opportunity to pass me on either side. the ones who don’t are just into that intimidation thing.
to them, i react by going a bit slower. it’s a harder thing to pull off than it sounds – you must make a conscious effort to resist checking the rearview mirror to guage the reaction. it helps if you slowly chant ” doh dee oh doh doh” in a turtle-like fashion.
p.s. ignore this advice if the flasher behind you is an 18 wheeler. in that case, just get out of the way.
Here, it is illegal to pass on the right. Which didn’t stop the guy from doing that to the next car in front of me. And it is illegal to step on your brakes to teach someone a lesson when they get too close, but yes, I can’t see anything wrong with taking the foot off the accelerator a little.
Yay, hooray for flipping off flashers!
18 wheelers rarely pull stupid shit, anyway. I mean, they’re easy to deal with, mostly, as they have their own system of courtesies and light flashes that’s not hard to figure out. One of my favorite things is flashing trucker signals at truckers and getting their help when I can’t see for all the phucking Excursions on the road.
Another possibility (which is reasonably safe) is to maintain your current speed, but hold the brake pedal down just enough that your rear brake lights go on. Actually, you can be nastier by speeding up a bit as you massage the brake pedal with your left foot.
this was no trucker. I have no problem with trucks, I just stay out of their way. My parents were bus drivers and truck drivers, and I drove delivery trucks (but not semis) for a while, I figure they’re just working stiffs out doing a job, you know, cranked to the gills with amphetamines to stay awake after 48 hours straight behind the wheel.
no, this was a tiny little VW Lupo with an attitude. mid-life crisis sort of thing in a little silver hatchback.
haha, david flipped of some dude the other day while driving, too (thank god I wasn’t there, I would’ve gone into my “american mode” and started lecturing him about ‘what if they’re gangsters and shoot at us’ or something). guy behind him was just honking up a storm because david merged into his lane when the lane he was in had to merge. david was going way faster than him, the guy just was having small dick complex, or something.
either that, or this is david’s version and in reality david almost killed the guy by cutting him off.
Ehhh, was the other guy driving a dirty metallic blue Fiat Dobl
my girlfriends reaction: (this was on an almost empty road in portugal)
Small car (Probably a peugeot 306 or something) comes up behind us as we’re overtaking.
The car we are overtaking is doing 120 km/h.
We’re going 130.
Guy behind us flashes his lights.
My girlfriend overtakes first car, gets in middle lane (Totally empty), lets impatient dick get level with her while overtaking and then punches “the pedal to the metal”.
Oh, the joys of having a 1.6 litre 16 valve engine.
After 300 meters we settle back to going 125.
the guy passes us again, and gets into the middle lane…
:-)
That’s not much of an option with a 64 HP Dobl