Mastodawn

Aug 21, 2024

I need a sanity check from the fediverse. After all, I'm a mere Illinois driver. I was just informed my dad and his friends have this deep pet peeve while driving that I have absolutely never been aware of or concerned by on safe roads in America.

Imagine you are driving on a multi-lane highway. Yes, I get the "right lane is the slow lane, left lane is the passing lane" thing. But imagine it's like pretty empty road, out in the country, and you're driving the speed you want to go in the right or middle lane.

Another car is along side you in the left lane. There's nobody behind them who wants to go faster. They just hang out at the same-ish speed as you. So you have a car kind of driving next to you.

This makes my dad deeply uncomfortable and he finds it incredibly rude. Fediverse, if the driver is doing nothing else objectionable, is it him, or me?

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aeva Aug 21, 2024

@hacks4pancakes I tend to speed when I'm on the highway, and so my preference is for there to be less immediately adjacent to my vehicle because it's stressful to track adjacent vehicles as potential hazards. I usually just adjust my speed so I'm slightly slower in that situation if the other person is already going the speed I want to so they overtake me.

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aeva Aug 21, 2024

@hacks4pancakes there's a demonstrated phenomena where if a street feels more narrow or enclosed people drive slower and more cautiously. I wouldn't be surprised if the people who think having someone adjacent on a mostly empty wide open road is somehow rude are probably picking up on that same feeling without realizing it, and then blaming the other driver for it.

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aeva

@hacks4pancakes A friend who has what I'd call a serious speeding hobby once claimed to me that when you are going very fast it is "safer" if you are moving faster than everyone else for reasons of being in control and having lots of options for how to react to things.

I don't agree with him on this at all, and I think there are some obvious problems with his reasoning, but I could see how someone similarly minded might convince themselves of some imagined road etiquette along the same lines.