The American Spectator : An Ode to the American Driver

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An Ode to the American Driver

By Eric Peters on 9.2.11 @ 6:07AM

American drivers are on Quaaludes. Every last one of them.

Too bad most American drivers are on ‘ludes. Or might as well be. They dawdle along at just under — or slightly over — the under-posted speed limit. They slow for the mildest of curves; to them, “cornering” is something you do in the commodities market. They routinely tailgate, then drive no faster than the car they just spent 15 minutes tailgating, once they finally get around it. When the light goes green, it takes them awhile to notice. And forget about right on red. Even when it’s legal and the way is clear for three football field lengths in either direction.

And yet, they drive cars with 150 MPH top speed capability, three and four hundred horses under the hood, variable cam timing, direct fuel injection, sequentially staged turbos, six, seven and even eight speed transmissions, 17, 18, 19 and even 20 inch wheels, super sticky stiff sidewalled low aspect ratio tires rated for sustained travel at speeds over 130 MPH (that will probably never see the far side of 80 for more than a few furtive seconds). Sophisticated four-wheel-independent suspensions, in many cases “active” or otherwise controlled by a computer to continuously adjust themselves to changing road/driving conditions.

Well, the road may change, but the driving rarely does.

Go out and see for yourself.

I drive all sorts of new cars, including some very powerful exotics. But the truth is that I’m usually still passing everyone around me even when I am driving my beat-up old 1998 four-cylinder pick-up. I find myself passing cars with two (and sometimes three) times the horsepower and speed capability; leaving “sport sedans” in my rearview going “up the mountain” (curves). I’m not driving like a maniac, either. Just a few MPH faster than the posted limit. I run 70 on the posted 55 MPH straight sections and about 5-10 MPH faster than the posted 35 MPH limit going “up the mountain” (curves). But that is fast enough to blow past 85-90 percent of the other cars out there, many of them equipped with powerful V-6 and even V-8 engines, “high performance” suspensions, and so on. I feel just like Spicoli must have as he threaded that T-topped ‘79 Z28 through the dozers out on Hollywood Boulevard.

The level of interest in driving among American “drivers” is incredibly low. Yet they just need to have these massive wheel/tire packages, high-powered engines and the rest of it. It makes me laugh — and then it makes me cry. And bang my head against the steering wheel. All this power and capability wasted. Pearls before swine.

Our system puts people in an impossible situation. First, it conditions them from infancy to Submit and Obey — and most people eventually do, out of dreary necessity. They may show some early exuberance — for driving and other things — when they’re young, before the toothless but firm-jawed gums of the system clamp down on them in the form of things like DMV “points” that lead to “surcharges” and — lately — a poorer credit score. And we all know the importance of having a good credit score, don’t we?

The average American is thoroughly beaten down, living in constant dread of The Man. This makes him nervous and twitchy. Now add an overpressured life and minimal to nonexistent actual driver training in the sense of learning how to control a car and work a car so that you are actually making real use of its capabilities vs. learning to Always Slow for a School Zone and be a “responsible” machine-minder… and, violà! The American Driver.

Meanwhile, the poor sap is fed a steady diet of images and cultural pressure that lead him to desire a car — and capabilities — he either cannot or will not ever use. But he buys nonetheless and not really knowing what he bought — or what it could do. Think of all the ‘lude-ites out there toddling along in their E and S Class Benzes, their Lexus LSs and Jaguar XJs. Have you ever seen one of these cars “cornering”? Being driven anywhere near 100 MPH? How about 90? (All of the aforesaid models were built to cruise all day at 130-plus.) Whether as a consequence of defeatist conditioning or just plain ol’ indifference, these cars are like codpieces on wheels — for show, but rarely, if ever, for go.

I’d love to be able to perform an experiment. Take a new BMW 3 or 5 series — any higher-end “luxury-sport” sedan will do. Remove the variable cam timing, direct-injected turbocharged gem of over-done (because under-used) technology under the hood and replace it with a circa mid-1980s Taurus V-6, suitably muffled.

I doubt one out of 20 would notice the difference.

About the Author

Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (143) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Moe Blotz| 9.2.11 @ 6:22AM

Viola'-the American Driver. What does a fiddle have to do with your emphasis? From the gist of the article,I could swear you are driving an 18 wheeler. Do people behave that way when driving among four wheelers? If you want to see a four wheeler speed up whilst hogging the centre lane in a triple lane configuration,try and pass on the right in your Peterbilt.
With almost every automobile made in the past twenty years equipped with cruise control,I am still amazed at how many drivers on the interstates eschew its use. Approach a pack of cars with your cruise on,and some of the other drivers are constantly accelerating/decelerating. No matter how well you think you can control the throttle with your foot,human flaws interfere with your ability to hold a steady speed.

dufas| 9.2.11 @ 2:23PM

One has to drive really really fast to get there before the accident happens.

Martin Owens| 9.2.11 @ 6:54AM

American drivers on 'ludes? Not in California they ain't! Crack, meth, weedkiller and assorted industrial solvents, to judge by the way they act.

La Junta| 9.5.11 @ 4:30PM

Martin,

They are on something. I live in the SF bay area and
I am a fast driver. The knuckle heads here swerve back
and forth across four lanes, cut people off, come to a
complete stop in the fast lane. They are either insane
or on something like crystal meth. Maybe both. I can
be doing 70 mph and they are doing 95 erratically. I
thankfully don't carry my pistol or I would probably
lose it with some of these idiots.

Jim Sullivan| 9.2.11 @ 6:54AM

Roads are shared resources. Safe driving requires speed limits. Conservatives recognized the value of self-limiting behavior. I drive the speed limit for the same reason I don't shoot my rifle in the streets.

RT| 9.2.11 @ 7:04AM

Which is fine, of course, but do you also obey another law that is on the books instructing the slower traffic to stay in the right lane?

Mike D.| 9.2.11 @ 7:33AM

Lets call them, "mid lane morons", they drop into the middle lane, doing about 3 mph under the speed limit and force everybody to drive around them. Then we have the "ten under wonders" if the posted limit is 55, they drive 45, if 35 they drive 25, etc. Then theres the "pace cars", these are the left lane self appointed speed regulators. They whip along in the left lane doing exactly the speed limit, happily oblivious to the 34 cars nose to tail they are leading like a NASCAR yellow flag lap. They all seem to forget that there is laws regarding obstruction of traffic, but cops don't seem to remember that one either. Don't get me started on those idiots on crotch rockets.

RT| 9.2.11 @ 7:42AM

Preach on, Brother Mike! You speak the truth.

My only quibble is with the term "oblivious". I contend that many of the left lane lollygags are well aware of what they are doing because they are doing it intentionally. The get perverse pleasure controlling the people behind them. Presumably when they get home their "psychopathic wives thrash them within inches of their lives" but there on the road they get to be lord over all they delay. It's the one area of their lives where they can have some control over others.

Mike D.| 9.2.11 @ 7:50AM

On two lane freeways, the terror of looking ahead and seeing two semi's one in back of the other and the left lane clear for passing. You accelerate quickly knowing in the back of your mind what will happen if you don't get pass those two semis' in time. And then IT happens, the trailing truck swings out into the left lane in front of you and for the next 56 miles attempts to pass the other truck doing .02mph faster. By then, when the left lane is clear, you have have the population of NY in vehicles piled up behind you.

Mike D.| 9.2.11 @ 8:05AM

The most useful types are the "rabbits" or "minesweepers". Their doing about 85-90MPH in the left lane, you let them by and trail them about 1/2 to 3/4 miles behind knowing that they will trip any speed trap hazards that may lay ahead.

Hank H| 9.2.11 @ 12:13PM

Mike, was that you just ahead of me as we followed that kid in the camero across Nevada I-80. Too bad he didn't know about the speed trap just before Elko.!!

uncle curmudgeon| 9.2.11 @ 1:44PM

Hank and Mike are drivers. I call the guy out front my stickman and the guy following, my back-door. "No Smokies for U."

Patrick| 9.2.11 @ 11:50AM

Funny, but haven't you noticed that these same people tend to have those stupid "coexist" bumper stickers?

John Navratil| 9.2.11 @ 8:22AM

Mike D.

The cops write speeding tickets because they are easy. On the stand it's (1) I tested the unit (2) I clocked the perp with the unit, (3) the unit said XX and (4) I only wrote him for YY. Anything more subjective and its actual work.

PS. I stick to the right lanes. They are the only clear ones. When they start ticketing for passing on the right, I'll be in real trouble.

Occam's Tool| 9.2.11 @ 7:08PM

The cops where I live go bonkers when you go 5 miles over speed limit. Minnesota traffic cop= Paulbots. And you know what I think about paulbots.

Clint| 9.3.11 @ 9:39AM

WTF ?

scotchieguy| 9.5.11 @ 10:56AM

MN is famous for its left lane 'pace cars.' They are truly the dumbest drivers in the nation. They literally have no concept of the term MERGE. Here is a typical scene on the freeway in MN. You are driving on an entry ramp attempting to merge onto the freeway. You get to the lane, and the schlub will not let you in, will not slow down, speed up, or move over a lane to let you in. Instead, he has those stupid scandinavian/German eyes pierced straight ahead, 100% oblivious you exist. To make it even worse, in the past ten years or so, that moron is babbling on his cell phone, doubly oblivious to your existence.

Kevin Compton| 9.2.11 @ 11:37AM

Inevitably the same people who rigidly obey the speed limits are also the ones who never use their signals,creep through stop signs,drive left of center or a foot into the bicycle lane, speed through yellow lights, double park, etc.

Skippy| 9.2.11 @ 6:04PM

Jim Sullivan,
Right on.
The eternal teenager who wrote this probably counts his moving violations as awards of merit.
I don't.
Perhaps when his daughters get their licenses he will suddenly be a speed-limit purist.
Clowns like this guy need to substitute sex for driving too fast. It's what they're trying to simulate anyway.
Look; when you build your own road you can drive as fast as your TIVCT V8 will go. Knock yourself out.
As long as you choose to drive the publicly funded roads my girls are on, slow the f**k down.
I have no qualms about running a speeders ass off the road, and regularly cell-call the CHP when they fly past.
I have driven for 40 years, today(happy birthday, Skippy!), and have earned zero moving violations in that time.
Nobody believes me, but there it is.
Only liberals make their own rules, with no regard for the lives of others.
My bumpersticker defines my driving.
"The closer you get, the slower I go".
Call me a fuddy-duddy on Quaaludes, but don't call me stupid, reckless and dangerous.
Those seem to describe the author.

Skippy| 9.2.11 @ 6:30PM

Oh, and I sell high-performance cars for a living, and have for 20 years.
I never attend the funerals of my customers, though.

ALH| 9.2.11 @ 9:26PM

Right on, Dude! I have read before that men who drive souped up cars are making up for their own personal performance deficiencies.

axbucxdu| 9.6.11 @ 8:59AM

" '...My bumpersticker defines my driving.
"The closer you get, the slower I go' ".

I don't have the bumpersticker, but do the same to tailgaters. When they pass and I end up behind them at the inevitable red traffic light, I always add a toot on my horn and a wave into their rear view mirror to end the lesson.

RT| 9.2.11 @ 6:54AM

That "steady speed" makes for passive driving that clusters cars together thus creating dangerous situations. But that pales in comparison to the dangerous conditions created by the road hogs in the left lane that tie up all manner of traffic with their passive-agressive driving.

Idiot Boy| 1.15.12 @ 10:43PM

Amen.

Some of us would prefer to open it up a little and break free from the pack (for safety's sake) to secure a cushion on the road ahead with a couple of shoulders available as an escape route and room to brake without worrying that a pack of semi-conscious yahoos on auto-pilot may not be able to stop their 5000 pound SUVs in time or for that matter whether they'll even see an obstacle looming in the road when all they can actually focus on are the rear ends of the cars blocking all the lanes in front of them. Baffling how many of these "safe" drivers become aggressive when some cretin recklessly cuts in and out of traffic with zero regard for anyone else's safety in an effort to simply break through. The lunatic speed enforcers refuse to accept that they create an unsafe situation by forcing their road politic down everyone's throat and pissing off aggressive drivers who couldn't care less about safety or the sanctity of human life. Such drivers would sooner see Skippy and his teenage daughters overturned on the side of the road than be deterred from getting where they want to go at whatever speed they deem appropriate. Do not forget this IS a free country and the speeding violation will be theirs, not yours.

Go ahead and mind the speed limit as you wish but be attentive and courteous enough to move over promptly when someone else isn't receptive to you dictating how fast they can drive. Best to teach the ones you love to do the same.

Sean| 9.2.11 @ 6:55AM

People drive slow because the only job many police have is writing tickets and amount of police is only increasing. There is a BMW dealership on the route home for me. Almost every day I pass someone test driving and going 35 in a 45 zone.

ALH| 9.2.11 @ 7:10AM

Interesting. The street I live on is used as a "shortcut" and even though the speed limit is 25 mph, drivers routinely drive past going in excess of 40 mph. I guess they can't get to the stop sign on the corner fast enough. I almost got run over one day going to get my mail and that's when I decided that I had had enough. I called & got a survey done and then not one, but two speed humps installed on my street. This is my neighborhood, not the Indy 500. I am glad you don't live anywhere near me, Mr. Speedy. You stay classy!

RT| 9.2.11 @ 7:32AM

Speed bumps just push drivers onto the next adjacent residential street. If people naturally drive 40 then the 25 mph speed limit is artificially low. By your own admission your street is the most direct path, hence the term "shortcut". So, that suggests you've chosen to live on what is effectively a major throughfare but begrudge people for using it. If you didn't build that street exclusively with your own funds then what gives you that right? That's like chosing to live near an airport and complaining about the noise. Roads cost taxpayer money, after all.

ALH| 9.2.11 @ 9:12PM

It's not a major thoroughfare, it's a residential street. The next street over is a major throughfare. There are families with little kids and old people living on my street. This is a small town with a population under 10,000. It's not the big city.

loulou| 9.2.11 @ 10:30AM

Man up, ALH. Speed bumps--how embarassing.

ALH| 9.2.11 @ 9:17PM

Hey, I worked hard to get these speed bumps. I actually had to have them run the survey twice because the first time we were .20 mph short. I am very proud of those speed bumps. They have made my neighborhood a safer place to live.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 9.2.11 @ 7:20AM

Your right, Americans "think" they're great drivers, but in reality, they're a bunch of boring old farts!! They can "only" drive well on a straight flat roads!! Put a few turns in the road, and watch them turn into Grandma!! I've got a big ole Town Car now, and I can lose 90% of the cars behind me just approaching a sharp turn (and the Town Car isn't really know for it's great sports car handling). People brake way way too early, way too often, and for way too long. Personally, I try hitting my brakes as few times as possible, and to make it even more fun, as late as humanly possible. I pride myself in scaring the sh*t out of my passengers!! Wanna go for a ride sometime?

Back in the 90's, I had this cheap Chevy Chevette (not to be confused with the Chevy Corvette-that's the Chevette's older Brother by the way), and every single day during rush hour, when top speed didn't matter any more, you could find my little car passing everybody on the road. Why do you think they made the road with three lanes for anyway? They're for passing stupid!! And if you don't get out of my way, I'm using all of them!! I've always thought, that by the time you can afford to buy one of those great sports cars, you're probably too damn old to drive them anymore. Which explains all those Porche's you see on the road, being driven by old bald guys. Makes you feel bad for the car, huh?

And another example of bad boring driving, is driving in the snow!! Last year we had a snow storm that hit from Virginia all the way through New England, and I-95 was a big mess. I was heading to New York for a visit, so I had no other choice than to drive with a bunch of inexperienced Winter drivers. And nobody in Virginia could handle driving in the snow whatsoever, so I was passing them by like I was some sort of lunatic, but I wasn't driving very fast at all. The only vehicles in the outside lane were, my car, and a bunch of Truck Drivers. And those guys know how to drive in the snow!!

If only I could afford one of those great sports cars myself, then I could have some real fun!! Unfortunately for me though, I've got too much hair still!!

Margie| 9.3.11 @ 9:44PM

I try hitting my brakes as few times as possible, and to make it even more fun, as late as humanly possible. I pride myself in scaring the sh*t out of my passengers!! Wanna go for a ride sometime?"

LLL's,

My husband would like you. But the question is: if you had to ride together, which one of you would want to drive? :^).

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 9.4.11 @ 10:12AM

Hi Margie: I don't "let" anybody else do the driving for me, EVER!! Me and my Brother commuted for over a decade together, 120 miles a day, 5 days a week minimum, from 1986-1998 (sometimes weekends too). I drove 98% of those miles (sometimes my car broke down you see), or approximately 400,000 miles (and that's New York driving too). And every single one of those days, I was definitely trying to be the fastest commuter on the road, despite the fact that I was normally driving some piece of crap used car (hey, it was the best I could afford).

Even here in the Army I still hog the wheel, I drove my Humvee every single mile down to Katrina Relief back in 2005 (1,000 miles from FT Bragg to New Orleans-but it felt like 10,000 miles!!), despite the fact that I had a Private sitting next to me, asking me every ten minutes if he could drive at the next stop. No, you can't!! I'm not putting my life into the hands of a 20 year old!! What am I, nuts? And Humvees, by the way, are not fun to drive, in case you didn't know that!!

Now to show you how obsessed about driving I can be, sometimes I'll talk my First Sergeant into going out to play Golf, and even though he's older than me, and outranks me (by a lot), I even kick him into the passenger seat. And this is a Golf Cart I'm talking about here!! One time he challenged me, he said I'm driving today, I said cool, then I'm going to walk!! He laughed, then said, here take the wheel!!

So the answer to your question would be, Victor would be in the passenger seat, or I'm not going for a drive!! It's just that simple!! I'll ruck-march instead, it'll take longer, but I'll get there!!;^) Hi Victor!!

Margie| 9.4.11 @ 6:33PM

Well, if my husband had to be in the passenger seat, looks like you'd be driving by yourself. He takes a back seat to no one, you see.
When we got married, I had just bought a new car. That was quite awhile ago. I somehow am still waiting for the day that I drive the car. I tell him the next car we get is gonna be mine, because he's made this one old already.
Not to drag you into the middle of it or anything, but.. don't you agree?
LOL.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 9.4.11 @ 9:44PM

Margie: I was born at night, in case you didn't know that, but,... I wasn't born last night!! I "am not" getting in the middle of this one!! But after reading many of your ongoing battles here (IE: Clint), I know you can handle yourself, and you don't really need my help in doing battle. But I'll throw you a bone here anyway, come on now Victor, let Margie drive the car the next time the Stock Market breaks 12,000. How's that? It'll give us all a reason to cheer on the DOW Jones, Margie gets to drive the car before it falls apart, and Victor's portfolio will be worth more. That's called a win-win!! But if you real question was, do you deserve the next new car? Why sure you do, fair is fair!! Have you ever considered the Chevy Volt? It's shockingly electric, I hear!!

Margie| 9.5.11 @ 2:16PM

Hahaha! Love your posts, LLL.
Actually, I'm aiming for a pick-up truck. I'm tired of little cars. Sure, they save on as, but you can't use them for anything. Out here in the country, you have to do things like carry wood for the woodstove that we're getting, and maybe even chop that wood!

But we're not buying from Government Motors a/k/a GM.

Nope, we're avoiding them like the plague. See what you've done, Obama? Everything he touches is turning to stone.

Maybe a Dodge Dakota, or a Chevy Silverado. I don't know yet. Not too big, not too small. I'm ready for the big time!

Margie| 9.5.11 @ 2:17PM

oops. That's save on gas.

RWinks| 9.5.11 @ 3:29PM

Margie, a Chevy Silverado is made by GM.

Margie| 9.5.11 @ 7:01PM

Oops. Scratch that.. or maybe a used one from before the takeover, but not new!

JP| 9.2.11 @ 7:29AM

I live and drive in the cornbelt. Never know when a combine or Amish buggy is just around the corner...then there's the deer and occaisonal coyote. Also, the stretch over open highway I use to commute usually has enough State Police on it to form a reinforced panzer battalion.

RT| 9.2.11 @ 7:35AM

Your chosen comparison for State Gestapo is apt.

John Navratil| 9.2.11 @ 8:16AM

Eric,

The turtle in the flame-coloured shell is your friend. How else could us little people afford a car that performs better than an twenty-year-old exotic without all those people driving the unit cost down?

Now, if we could just get those drivers to park them and take the bus. Does anyone have LaHood's telephone number?

Pecos Pete| 9.2.11 @ 8:28AM

Dear Mr. Peters:

I enjoy your commentaries. Your worries are over about the American Driver, well, by 2025 anyway. At the newly required 55+ MPG instituted by the federales the car you will be driving will be both fun and highly dangerous. Thus, the current pleasure you derive from a power machine will be replaced by an adrenaline high induced by fear of hitting a moth on the highway.

As for exceeding the speed limit, by 2025 with your foot powered automobile, you will simply be excited to get within 10 MPH of the speed limit on a downhill slope.

Keep on writing and know that the TSA is watching you. Exceeding the speed limit is both racist and a form of terrorism. You can expect road blocks every 10 miles or so just to verify that you haven't somehow altered the engine of your pedal machine to use fossil fuel, even for lubrication. Nothing better than the sound of squeaks as you drive around those curves.

Cordially,

Pecos Pete

Le Cracquere| 9.2.11 @ 8:46AM

Agreed with all Peters's points. To my mind, though, this confirms that many Americans are not drivers by inclination or ability, and would be better served by having some non-automotive way of getting from points A to B. One needn't be a leftist to intuit as much.

JimH| 9.2.11 @ 8:59AM

A couple of points; Many Americans have grown up in urban areas and come to driving later and drive less than those from rural, suburban areas. As a result they do not have the same enjoyment of driving and view the car as an appliance. American car makers and lately some Japanese as well, build for this market and as a result their cars tend to insulate the driver from the outside world. It’s sort of interesting to see how many otherwise strict ’law and order’ conservatives view speed limits as no more than a suggestion or an attempt by the government and insurance companies to obtain more of their money. Maybe we can dispense with speed limits entirely provided we enforce strict liability responsibility in the case of any accidents, including a mandatory death penalty for vehicular homicide.

DaveD| 9.2.11 @ 9:08AM

Interesting. Where I live it's a bit different. Hwy 494 is posted at 55 - three lanes both sides designed for safety at 80 iusing 70's technology. Nobody does 55, not even the Highway Bulls. Slid in behind one once and discovered that the 'real' speed limit is 68, at least that's how fast he was going.

You can then turn north and head up I 35E. Two lanes each way where the posted speed limit is 45! Neighborhood association held the freeway up for decades because of noise concerns and this ended up being the compromise. You go 45 on that stretch and blue-haired little old ladies will flip you the bird as they wizz by.

R Martin| 9.2.11 @ 9:09AM

Anyone who cannot lap the equivalent of Leguna Seca in a specified minimum time should not be granted a driver's license. And anyone who thinks speed bumps are a good idea is probably an Obama voter.

In support of the author's thesis, here's a little experiment you can do yourself. Next time you are exceeding the speed limit take note of how attentively you are driving. Undoubtedly you are highly alert, you're holding the wheel securely and you're paying great attention to what is going on around you. Then note how you drive when you're just meandering along with slow traffic. My conclusion, driving fast is safer.

And in two weeks I'm going to be celebrating that practice at the Goodwood Revival. I'll tell you some stories upon return.

Chris C| 9.2.11 @ 3:48PM

I agree that we need higher standards for who gets a driver's license. At the very least, people should be required to attend schools like Jim Russell or Skip Barber. The Goodwood Revival is a dream of mine. But still, in two weeks I'll be at the aforementioned Laguna Seca.

rongordo | 9.2.11 @ 9:19AM

Sorry for being in your way doood, but some of us drive safely due to children present or speed restrictions on company vehicles, and we stay in the slow lane just for you. I know I'm missing the point here, which is a society of suckers, over-sold on stuff they don't need, but I doubt if your own domicile or condo is as empty as a Japanese tatami room.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 10:14AM

If you're staying in the slow lane you're not in the way, you're where you're supposed to be if you're driving slow.

Petronius| 9.2.11 @ 9:26AM

Eric saw my last post on this subject. Ban low performance drivers not high performance cars. Put an end to the ethanol scam and it's damned double taxation. And get rid of the EPA and CAFE standards . Every time I see a pussy in front of me in his Prius, I wish I had twin 50's mounted on my hood. Traffic is a constant snail trail because of Them!

duffman| 9.2.11 @ 2:53PM

Thanks for the laugh Petronius, I spit soda all over my computer screen! Add small subaru wagons to your prius example and we will need four 50's between us!

Petronius| 9.2.11 @ 3:04PM

d
Foresters are acceptable depending on who is the pilot. My stereo dealer owns 2. He usually commutes on his Beamer bike though.
Cheers

moron| 9.2.11 @ 10:32AM

In choosing a lane at the upcoming red light, I never choose the lane with the Cadillac or Mercury (geezer at the wheel). Passing lane morons really annoy me, those driving side by side with 18 wheelers, 18 wheelers in the passing lane going uphill thus obstructing flow forever, and the guy that takes the open right lane at a red light prohibiting right on red. My goal is the open road, not reckless driving.

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.2.11 @ 10:48AM

Drive early...drive late.....no problems dummies.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 11:32AM

Bad eyesight. Can't see well enough to drive safely in the dark. Big problem.

Paul from SA| 9.2.11 @ 10:48AM

Everybody is on ludes these days. Even the police -- they ignore illegal immigrants driving too slowly with no license plates and inspection sticker, but they'll set up traps to catch rich people driving with no seatbelt. Meanwhile the police don't even know how to signal their intent to change lanes.

And people complain that drivers don't use their turn signals.

I just bought a new Subaru and I am running circles around Jags and Porsches.

PolishKnight| 9.2.11 @ 10:49AM

I have another explanation that nobody here appears to have thought of. Drum roll... Bump ba ba!

American drivers are lousy because nearly everyone is a driver.

In Europe, west and east, most people don't drive. Those that do consider it a luxury or a necessity as part of their profession (ex. taxicab driver.)

You want these turtles and grandmas off the road? Build a few railroads, trams, set up a minibus network, and you'll get most of the drivers off of the road. It will also encourage people to walk more and lose a little of that famous American fat.

The "free market" at work!

Le Cracquere| 9.2.11 @ 11:06AM

I was sort of trying to imply that in my post above. Unfortunately, highway/road funding to the exclusion of all else is a form of big government that too many conservatives can get behind.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 11:30AM

If the free market would support mass transit in the US as you imagine, then why do we have to subsidize Amtrak? If consumers were demanding what you seem to think they were demanding, then all those railroads, trams, and mini-bus networks would already be built and running at profit. Those things don't exist, except where forcibly subsidized with tax dollars, specifically because there is no "free market" demand for the services they provide.

Le Cracquere| 9.2.11 @ 12:20PM

Is it also possible they don't exist because the government is underwriting a single alternative and sets policies that make anything else an uphill effort?

I believe you've committed a logical fallacy, but one who's name I can't recall:
1. Make A difficult or impractical, or neglect it.
2. People accordingly do less of A.
3. Whenever A is suggested, scoff that few people do it, and therefore the market has spoken!

The fallacy, of course, is that the market has been sabotaged since step 1. Opponents of A are here being disingenuous, not to mention shameless--thanks PRECISELY to them, the actual "free market demand" for A is tough to gauge. And the fruits of this big-government meddling are considered the conservative position, which really is the "frozen limit," to quote Wodehouse.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 1:35PM

The simplest answer is usually the correct answer. Which is simpler, that people don't want the mass transit you espouse, or that the market has been "sabotaged" by some shadowy conspiracy determined to make people drive cars when they really don't want to?

PolishKnight| 9.2.11 @ 2:10PM

Let's try this thought experiment (which was much of the case in Europe) Imagine if there were few usable roads for cars while plenty of railroads and biking paths. It would be the other way around: "People" would hate cars and love trains.

If there's just a few rail lines with few connections to clean, safe busses and vice versa, then most will feel a need to buy cars whether they like them or not.

We can quibble over the morality of subsidized public transportation but I know when I go to Europe, it feels great to be able to walk and ride to most places without having to drive.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 3:13PM

When I was in Europe - which was back in the mid 80's and thanks to Uncle Sam - I noticed that Europeans, at least in the part of Germany I was tasked with defending from the Russians - lived in a somewhat different manner than we did back home. Rather than homes spread out across the countryside, they lived in tightly packed villages, many of which had been in existence for hundreds of years - and the countryside in between was relatively free of habitation. On or two train stops in a small town were enough to have everyone within a short walking distance of a railroad.

I also noticed that most Germans who didn't have a car wanted one, and were envious of America in that regard, where automobiles were so common.

So which way does the theory go? Do we all have cars because we built interstates? Or did we built interstates because we all either had cars, or wanted the freedom provided by personal transportation?

Le Cracquere| 9.2.11 @ 2:43PM

A "shadowy conspiracy" is a funny way to describe stuff like the Interstate Highway System, zoning laws across the country, and the standard operating procedures of state DoTs. As I think you know, featherbedding legislators and crony faux-capitalists interfere with the free market all the time: if believing that counts as conspiratorial, then every political figure and pundit to the right of the NYT merits a tinfoil hat.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 3:27PM

Of course they do, but the fact is that car ownership became common in the US - and was well on its way to replacing the railroad - long before the interstate highway system was built. You can thank Henry Ford for that.

The reality is that at one time, this country WAS crisscrossed by railroads, not highways. Even in the rural areas. My dad has talked often about riding the train into town when he was a boy to watch a movie. But those rural passenger railroads no longer exist - and in many, many cases, their demise came long before the construction of the interstate highway system. In the case the train my father refers to, usage of the train gradually declined throughout the 1940's and 50's until it ceased to be a profitable enterprise -and no - that was not the result of the interstate highway system. We're talking the rural Appalachians in NW NC, the nearest Interstate even today is a couple of hours away. Another local railroad in this area went under in 1940 when a flood washed out the track. That railroad never rebuilt because usage of the railroad had declined so much that it was not worth the money to rebuild. Why? Because by 1940, most households had a car. Similar stories originate from all over the US. And remember, while the railroad was declining, railroad companies were among the most powerful lobbying interests in the country.

You can craft whatever theory you want to justify whatever position you want to take, that's fine. I'll stick with historical facts, and the historical facts are that the automobile replaced the railroad as the preferred means of personal transportation in this country.

Le Cracquere| 9.2.11 @ 3:56PM

And I wouldn't dispute that, as far as it goes. Nevertheless, current legislation, zoning laws, funding, and subsidies have combined to make the use of anything but the automobile arduous and expensive. If the American preference for something other than automobiles approaches zero, that's one thing. On the other hand, that preference might account for a non-trivial chunk of the population--one can't say, thanks to current U.S. transportation policy ... which is redder than a baboon's keister.

Please don't get me wrong: I'm willing to let the free market guide our transportation policy. But let's not pretend that'd be anything but a first.

Petronius| 9.2.11 @ 3:06PM

Does that mean there will be an open season on the damned joggers who run in the streets just to get in my way?

ken wood| 9.2.11 @ 11:17AM

Eric,
You need to come out here to southern CA. Drive the 101 at morning rush especially if there is a long uphill. I find a big ass semi to hide behind.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 11:26AM

I'm going to apologize in advance for this becoming a lengthy rant, but frankly, you've struck a nerve with me on this.

When I was a younger man, before marriage and a kid and the like, I drove two-seaters. Not particularly fast two seaters mind you, I couldn't afford those, but a couple of MGB's, a Jensen-Healey, a Datsun 280Z, a Fiat X1/9, stuff like that. I loved driving those cars, pushing them to their limits on the back roads where I live. They were loads of fun to drive (even though they were relatively slow compared to modern cars) and didn't cost a lot of money to purchase or run.

But things change in life. I got older and more rotund, and I got married - though my bride liked small sporty cars, too - she had a Mercury Capri XR-2 when I married her. And then I went blind, well nearly blind.

For about a year, I had no license because I could not pass the eye test. Eventually, I received a cornea transplant (if you're not an organ donor, please become one), and after several months of recovery, was able to regain my license.

But as I said, things change.

I still loved the small two-seaters, but I no longer had the depth perception, nor the confidence in my vision, to drive them with the verve I once did, plus I was by then a family man. So my driving style, as well as my preference in cars, changed.

But understand this - I still love to drive. I still love the feel of controlling a car on the road, of it responding to my commands, and of the sensations I feel behind the wheel, and from time to time, on a clear day and an empty road, I still open it up and let it run.

Which, of course, is why I will never, never, drive a car made in the last ten years. They're dead boring. Even the fast ones.

Let me explain. The old sports-cars I had were fun because (a) they were a direct connection to the road, and (b) I could fully explore their capabilities and push their limits. The modern cars that I have driven simply fail in both categories.

An old MGB connects the driver to the road in a visceral manner. You feel every bump in the road, no matter how minor, through your hands and your seat. You feel the forces of cornering around the bends, even at relatively low speeds, because your butt is only inches off the ground and the only thing between you and the guardrail is oxygen. THAT is driving.

But modern cars isolate the driver from the road, as if driving is a scary or dangerous activity that should be engaged in only from a safe distance. They may have vastly superior capabilities (an MGB only did 0 to 60 in 13.5 seconds), but so what? When you're behind the wheel of one of these modern behemoths, you're so insulated and isolated that it all feels the same anyway. Modern drivers are not INVOLVED in driving the car, because the modern car, with all it's computers and electronic overrides and excess weight won't let you be involved.

And yes, I said excess weight. Compare any new car to it's 25+ year old counterpart and you'll be shocked at the weight difference. A new Ford Mustang GT weighs over 3600 pounds, nearly 3800 pounds for a convertible. That's almost TWICE the weight of my old MG, about the same as a late 70's Lincoln Versailles, and almost as much as the original Cadillac Seville. The original Mustang weighed anywhere from 2400 to 2800 pounds - A FULL HALF-TON LESS! The original Ford Taurus SHO weighed in at just shy of 3300 pounds. A new, 2011 Ford Taurus SHO, however, weighs in at nearly 4400 pounds.

And it's not just Fords. An original, 1967 Camaro coupe weighed in about 3000 pounds. A 2011 Camaro coupe? 3750. A 1976 Honda Accord? 2000 pounds. The 2011 variety? Depending on body style, anywhere from 3200 to 3600 pounds. A 1974 VW Rabbit weighed only a little over 1700 pounds. it's modern counterpart? 3200 pounds.

Modern cars try to make up for their excess weight with much more powerful engines, and they succeed in making cars which are much faster, but the force of gravity and the laws of physics don't change. The more weight a car has, the more mass there is to dampen the feel of acceleration and cornering, and the more insulated the driver feels from the experience of driving. Why do you think a go-kart is so much fun to drive? They have no power to speak of, and aren't fast at all, but they are LIGHT, and so produce g-forces on the driver that are much greater than those produced by heavier, much faster, automobiles.

Finally, with modern performance cars, you really can't use their performance on a daily basis anyway. A new Mustang may go 0 to 60 in 5 seconds, it may hold the road better than any old car, but how often can you explore those abilities? I mean, really explore them? And how many drivers, even conscientious and skilled drivers, have the ability to explore those limits even if they had the opportunity? In my old MG's, every trip to the store became a thrill ride, again, because of the way the car plugged you in to what was going on around you, but also because you could - quite literally - drive those cars on the ragged edge every time you went anywhere. Try doing that with a new Corvette. Sure, it may have a top speed of 190 or so, but driving it at 40 in traffic will be no more exciting than driving a new Honda Accord in traffic at 40. Driving an old MG, or if you want something slightly more practical, an old Honda CRX, in traffic at 40 can be exhilarating.

So what is my point of all this? Simple. How can we expect anyone to care about their driving when they're behind the wheel of an overweight sensory deprivation chamber designed primarily to protect them from the feel of the road? Driving a car thirty years ago was a physically engaging experience. Today, it's more like running a blender. Do you get excited running a blender? Even a high performance blender? I don't.

If we want people to care about their driving, we need to let them have cars they care to drive - not just appliances in which they are passengers even when they're behind the wheel.

Okay. I'm done now.

John Navratil| 9.2.11 @ 12:36PM

The Big E,

I love to drive, but I hate the traffic, so I hate to drive. Anything more that going to the airport to fly is a stretch for me.

Seriously! Consider getting a pilots license. I don't know what the eye test requirements might be; it might be a problem for you. I had a monovision Lasik and had to demonstrate my visual ability. My brother is color-blind and had to demonstrate the ability to distinguish light signals from the tower. An aviation medical examiner would be able to tell you.

I'm not suggesting that you fly to the "hairy edge", although you could get into aerobatics. But it beats the hell out of frustrating hours on the interstate.

I'm 6'1", 250#, so I'm not quite The Big E. Many planes will be somewhat tight for you. But there are plenty which are not.

Besides, what else do you have to spend your money on? Find a flight school and schedule a demonstration ride, or come to Houston and I'll do it.

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 1:41PM

Flying is not an option. For me, passing the eye test to get a driver's license is a process which takes time and planning (I have to time getting new glasses right so my eye doctor can legally certify my vision after I have flunked the eye test at the DMV but before my license has expired). I can't come close to meeting the requirements for a pilot's license, though, I would LOVE to be able to fly.

That said, I live in a pretty rural area (the mountains of North Carolina) and while my daily commute is traffic filled, there are plenty of country roads around here where a simple detour can still become a joyous occasion.

Occam's Tool| 9.2.11 @ 7:13PM

I have been an organ donor for a long time, and my wife knows my wishes. G-d Bless, Big E.

George S| 9.2.11 @ 3:25PM

Federal Aviation regs place more restrictions on you than DMV laws. Yet, flying entails more freedom (at least prior to 9-11-2001). That's because everyone up there (above government-free airspace) is a professional. I know what the other guy is doing and I know what to expect at each stage from taxi to chock down. When you don't have to worry about the other guy doing it his way, it is much safer. Yet that point seems to be lost on automobile operators.

Bondo | 9.4.11 @ 5:48PM

Still alive (granted, with a lotta help from medical science) after some twelve years and 1600 hours of flying "down in the weeds with my hair on fire" (RF-4C/F-111A WSO), the last thing this USAF retiree needs is to get into general aviation and die in a "bug smasher"; my favorite fighter cockpit components were the yellow and black-striped ejection handles --that is, "I" got to make the final decision on my life.

I love to drive long distance (with high-end radar detector, of course) in either the Cad DTS or the 'Vette or the brand new, leetle Honda CR-Z, and do so regularly...all at the age of 72.

DPE| 9.2.11 @ 4:08PM

Big E, you just struck a nerve with me! :)

In regard to cars of the last 10 years, I mostly agree, but go drive a Mazda RX-8 if you want to experience one of the finest handling cars this side of a Porsche. Turn off the stability control system, and it's an extension of your hands when the road bends. Amazing car.

I have a 2010 Mustang GT. Not the 5.0, but still not too slow. I OFTEN accelerate as fast as it can; plenty of relatively deserted roads around here. And I take it to the track (road course), where it can be operated at or near 100% of its power and handling potential. Yeah, it's an overweight muscle car, but even so (with proper shocks) it does a very decent impression of a proper sport coupe when asked. New cars are generally getting worse for drivers, but there are still a few good ones left.

Margie| 9.3.11 @ 10:30PM

Hey Big E,

How about a TR-6? I'll never forget when I was 16, me and my boyfriend sitting in the back (what back?!) of his brother's, down to the Jersey shore from Central Jersey in the early 70's.

The 2 of us combined must've weighed around 160 lbs.. we were so little. What a blast it was!!

Dryden| 9.2.11 @ 11:28AM

Big powerful cars are safer. I know if I get in an accident with my 1996 Mercury Marquis with a huge V8 engine, that my chances of surviving an accident are pretty good ( cafe standards result in 10s of thousands of road deaths a year), In addition, knowing that when I step on the gas there will be great acceleration has enabed me to avoid numerous accidents as well as safely merge onto highways.

Mommynator| 9.2.11 @ 11:31AM

I, at 55 years old, go out of my way to drive an s-curve at the end of a local expressway for the joy of it, every morning. I hate getting stuck behind someone who can't handle a curve. I do this in every type of car and enjoy my thrill thoroughly - better than a cup of coffee.

I too am thoroughly frustrated by people who won't learn the limits of their cars and enjoy them.

David W| 9.2.11 @ 11:37AM

I paused for a few seconds when my light turned red on Saturday in Grapevine, Texas. Had I not I would not be here - some dingbat female on a cell phone ran the red light doing 40 or 50 (and the speed limit is maybe 30).

I can sympathize perhaps with people in the high speed fancy cars going slow (sometimes I can take a corner faster on my bicycle faster than they do). However, suck it up.

Kevin Compton| 9.2.11 @ 11:37AM

Gary| 9.2.11 @ 12:15PM

I am retired after having commuted the last 120 years of my employment 125 miles a day, round trip. Sure I encountered aggressive drivers but no where near as often as the type you discuss. They blithely go on their way totally oblivious of other drivers, They hug the left lane for nor reason impeding the flow of traffic driving under the speed limit on freeways and interstates. They poke along, make a green light leaving those stuck behind them to catch the red light. They almost come to a full stop to make a simple right turn. I am by no means an aggressive driver and drive the limit or a shade above it. I don't tailgate. These people have driven me nuts all of my driving years my relief coming only after retirement when my time driving among these turtles is limited. My scars are deep though. My one observation over the years about such people is that they have no clue. Even before cell phones, texting, etc. they drove in a parallel universe, smug, content, in their little cocoons on wheels totally ignorant of other drivers. A pox on all their houses.

John| 9.2.11 @ 12:21PM

Let's not forget the clods who drive the big suv's that are able to "leap tall buildings in a single bound" when they approach speed bumps in a strip shopping center. They slow almost to a crawl and ease over the bump, as if their vehicle would break apart if they went over it any faster.

J R Cromwell| 9.2.11 @ 12:34PM

Come to Arkansas and try to make it thru the wolfpacks of cops with radar guns. After a while you won't be able to afford to drive over the limit.

John Navratil| 9.2.11 @ 12:39PM

J R Cromwell,

Was it Brock Yates who called speed traps the "growth industry of the South"? Maybe that's the only part of the pond where the fish are in any great number.

A few month ago, CBS News rated Houston the #1 speed trap city in the country. It helps to swim on the opposite side of the school (the "slow" lane).

The Big E| 9.2.11 @ 1:50PM

A few years back my wife and I drove to Jackson NJ from our home in NC to spend Thanksgiving with her relatives. I will never forget the stretch of I-95 through Maryland. There are 110 miles of I-95 in Maryland, and on that day, I counted 116 cars stopped by law enforcement. 116! And I have no idea what they could have been stopped for, for it certainly could not have been for speeding - I was never able to top 35 mph at any point during the trip.

I told my wife it reminded me of one of those old nature programs I remember seeing when I was a kid - you know - the majestic herd of caribou making its yearly migration across the frozen north, being stalked from the shadows by packs of wolves which, from time to time would pick off one of the young, or the sick, or the careless.

RichTex| 9.2.11 @ 12:38PM

One of the benefits of Republicans finally getting control of the Texas Legislature a few years ago was getting some rational traffic laws. We now have a law requiring a driver to vacate the left lane to allow a faster car to pass even if the slower car is driving in excess of the posted speed limit. Of course the left-wing news media (but I repeat myself) won’t publicize that so it isn’t always obeyed.

We also have laws requiring that speed limits be set only after a study is done to see what speeds drivers are actually traveling. Someone noticed that this was never done for the Dallas North Tollway, and when it was done, the limits were raised from 60 to 70. We have freeways out in West Texas, where it’s so flat you can see into next month, with speed limits of 80, and a new law which went into effect yesterday will allow those limits to be raised to 85. That new law also removed the lower night time speed limits (even if the signs haven’t yet been removed).

By the way, if you do get a traffic ticket anywhere in Texas and want to play games with the city issuing it, you have the right to a jury trial for any offense. You don’t need a lawyer, as you can try it yourself to lower your costs. Then, if you get convicted, you can appeal the case to county court. In most instances, this means that they have to try the case all over again at that level, and if you end up being convicted there, the fine goes to the county not the city. But, a second trial increases the likelihood that something will go wring for the prosecution such as the police officer failing to show up for trial. You just might get lucky.

Jack Olson| 9.2.11 @ 2:09PM

You won't get lucky with me on the jury, Rich. You aren't "playing games with the city issuing" the ticket, you are playing games with self-employed people like me who get paid a whole $6 for a day of jury duty. We cannot legally ignore a jury summons, but we can throw the book at you for "playing games" with us.

RichTex| 9.2.11 @ 4:38PM

Remind me never to pick you as a juror when the Obama regime decides to decides to trump up some charges against me. I'll take my 6th Amendment rights elsewhere, thank you very much.

Bondo | 9.4.11 @ 6:12PM

This Austinite couldn't agree more; love driving
I-10 West! I still use my high-end Escort radar detector weeth ze pre-programmed "warning /danger" points and GPS , though. Seem to be VERY few DPS on I-10 now that the limits have been raised.

Ron| 9.2.11 @ 12:46PM

I like, genuinely, like to drive...I am limited where I am at, but I still have a V8 (thank you Ford for the original straight-line Ford V8!) Crown Victoria LX. It is really a treat to wind it up to 100 on straight away stretches of what passes for our highway in Juneau, Alaska.

Brian| 9.2.11 @ 12:58PM

Having lived in Germany for a year, yes most Americans are terrible drivers.

No one, I mean no one, lingers in the left lane on the autobahn. Or in France, where the speed limit is only 130 kph.

Mercedes and BMW make cars for Germany - where you can go 120+ mph, where there are mountains to climb and snow to deal with.

Why people by these cars in America is beyond me, especially in the south. Agree, you can buy an '88 Taurus if you only can go 70 on a straight road where it never snows.

Bondo | 9.4.11 @ 6:01PM

I still remember being TDY to Rhine Main circa 1967 and driving the "squadron VW" down the autobahn from Frankfurt to Rudesheim. We'd be doing about 80 MPH, and a good-looking blond with a big German Shepherd in the passenger seat would flash her lights and go smoking by us so fast in her Mercedes that I felt like getting out to see why the Beetle's engine had stopped. :)

Who Knows?| 9.2.11 @ 1:26PM

Eric, what are you driving at?

Do you want America to copy Germany and have Autobahns instead of freeways, and maybe increase speed limits by, what 10 mph everywhere?

You article reminds me of a time in my naïve “youth”, when on a health ranch a group was trying to buy and set up a commune (based on “Island”, the book by Aldous Huxley), a bunch of us got to drive a tractor around some grapes, and get rid of weeds.

We were ecstatic, wheeling that Case machine through the field!

When we asked the guy who HAD TO use it, he was totally blasé, having come to know driving it to be a job.

By the way, this happened in the hills above Escondido, California. In the winter, we had a very unseasonable rain, which left the ground much more soggy than normal.

Thus, a big truck got stuck back in the hills. The regular tractor driver made his way there, and tried to tow in out, but the tractor, itself, ended up digging its tires deeply in the mud. So, out came a massive tractor with tank-like “wheels”, and, to our delight, it ALSO ended up burying itself in the mud!

The three vehicles had to sit there until the land dried out before they could be moved.

As far as driving in America goes, then, the question seems to always come down to WHY are you moving the body from X to Y.

I posit that when one is becoming an adult, and legally able to be in control of a POWERFUL machine called a car, it’s only natural to be excited about taking it to the limit. However, over time, if one is lucky and/or wise, and avoids worst case wrecks, maturation happily occurs.

Beneath the driving-a-car scenario, it’s a fact that humans are themselves “run” by a desire to “get somewhere”, better known as SEEKING. We are ordering entities, that is, we are DRIVEN by the “keep it together” admonition, because if one doesn’t survive, then one can’t enjoy it all!

Paradoxically, perhaps, it’s a matter of mastering higher stages of life that leads to older people driving slower and obeying laws more scrupulously.

Besides, if one really thinks about it, where is there to go, when one is already where one is at?

No matter where I go, that’s where I am!

As the body-being that we each most essentially ARE, then, taking care of one self AS IT is a matter of attending to the bubble of space-time Being surrounding the body.

Thus, when driving, it seems to me to come back to probably the key lesson we all SHOULD HAVE learned in driver’s ed---for every ten miles an hour of speed, keep one car length behind the car in front of you. So, going 60 mph, stay 6 car lengths, de minimus, behind.

Finally, as one gets older and continues to want to drive, smart self-aware people keep in mind Dirty Harry’s pithy insight---a man’s got to know his limitations!

Hey—I know mine: I bike around, and hardly ever drive the car anymore. That is, when I’m not using the legs to shuffle the body along, or gleefully sitting in place!

JeMeRappelle| 9.2.11 @ 1:29PM

Buying automobiles with capacities that will never be used is odd. The same is true of modern kitchens. How many American have splurged on huge kitchens with commercial ranges, two high-end dishwashers, designer sinks set into yards of granite countertops, and yet rarely cook, seldom eat at home and never entertain?

Stan| 9.2.11 @ 1:29PM

They're talking on cell phones. It is obnoxious, slowing down for yellow lights, getting on freeways at 45mph.

But in California where you get angry looks at 80mph in the 1st or 2nd lane, it has noticeably changed. Why? Tickets are a minimum of $400-$500 for anything. And enforcement is common. It is a new tax. I tell my teenager learning to drive, you turn on a red without stopping . . . $500.

Rich| 9.2.11 @ 1:34PM

Fortunately I came from the days when "muscle car" actually meant something. First car I owned was a '66 Plymouth Sports Fury with a 426 Wedge, Holly and Hurst on the floor. Wow, what a ride. Haven't slowed down since though the engines have gotten smaller. Latest car is an '06 Toyota Avalon (fondly called the poor man's Lexus) with a sweet V6. First thing I did was find an old road that ran straight for several miles out in the country to "try her out". Hit 135 mph in a heartbeat and just stayed there. I know I need new tires when I can no longer take the 45 mph off ramp curve at the West end of the Creek Turnpike in Tulsa at 80 mph without a little power slide (drift) to make it interesting. Learning to drive without power anything made it fun to drive a car that could "feel" the road. All this stabilitrak crap is for the birds. You are right, though, people today do NOT know how to drive a car to its fullest capabilities. I always try to find out what those are as soon as I get a new car as you never know when you might need to outrun the bad guys. Knowing a cars outer limits is part of the fun. If you haven't spun out at least once in your life then you ain't driving you're just along for the ride. Even the bulls don't know how to drive anymore.

wade mcinnis| 9.2.11 @ 1:45PM

Maybe it was mentioned before. I did not want to read ALL of the previous comments.

Driving in the US has taken the proverbial "decided turn for the worst" with the introduction of the cell phone, made worse with the "smart" phone and perfected with the fascination with text messaging.

In Atlanta on the interstates the traffic can move very fast, easy to maintain eight miles per hour most hours of the day. You can be following someone and then the next thing you know they slow down twenty mph and start swaying in their lane. Takes about a mile before they realize they cannot drive in the left land and still play with their phones.

The ohone may have single-handedly ruined any chance of enjoying driving on our roads.

I am amazed when sensible people defend the use of the phone in a miving automobile. Insane and inane.

Jack Olson| 9.2.11 @ 2:48PM

Eric Peters, the French word is "voila", meaning "behold." A viola is a musical instrument. I'm sure you think you drive better than you spell. I hope that is true but your contempt for the speed limit suggests otherwise.

Willis| 9.2.11 @ 4:45PM

Olson, I suspect if someone stuck a lump of coal up your rear-end it would be a diamond in about two weeks.

Jack Olson| 9.3.11 @ 9:38AM

Now, there is an intelligent argument, Willis. I pointed out that the columnist, who regards the speed limit as a mere suggestion, made a mistake which would earn him an "F" in freshman composition class, and your answer is personal invective which would get you dropped from the course. Stay classy, Willis.

George S| 9.2.11 @ 3:16PM

Cars are possessive wealth. It's not what you do with it; you show others what you can afford that they cannot. When I was a kid, a neighborhood ritual was hey, check out our new car.

What it comes down to is freedom. The guy slowing you down is exercising every bit of his right to freely travel as you are. If you feel your right is being infringed because he is too slow, it doesn't compare to his right to get to his destination alive. That is the only point of traffic laws. Eliminate them, and our freedom to travel is restricted as we cannot reasonably anticipate what others will do absent traffic lights, stop signs and speed limits.

RC| 9.2.11 @ 3:58PM

I was very disappointed to see this idiotic piece on my favorite website.

ChuckL| 9.2.11 @ 4:06PM

Eric, For more support find the report from the National Highway administration, which compared results of changes in speed limits and driver behavior, with resulting accident rates. The conclusion was that all speed limits in the United States are set at or below the MINIMUM safe speed, and the most drivers will at all times select a safe speed for themselves and their vehicle without considering the speed limit.

Or have the disbelievers explain how someone could drive from Alturas to Reading, CA in 1987 in only 1 hour and 45 minutes. It is over 136 miles. '86 Mustang & 21 mpg.

For the record, I am almost 75 years old at this time, and my lifetime driving record has only two chargeables.

skip| 9.2.11 @ 4:18PM

In the mid to late '80s when 'road rage' was in the news, and everyone seemed to express disbelief such behavior could happen, I found when I thought about it I wasn't really surprised.

Based on the average American driver I am amazed they have the prerequisite intelligence to breathe, eat, and sleep, much less that they can find employment, not to mention keep their employment, or even find their residence at the end of the day.

When I drive, my actions are truly guided by the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Not just because it is truly the correct thing to do, but because I absolutely do not want anyone else to think the kind of thoughts I think about them when they commit the faux pas they do.

shipley130| 9.2.11 @ 4:52PM

Your assuming the average "American" is actually American anymore. 30 to 40 million illegals. Yes, I'm just so sure you have never lost your attention span at a red light and been honked at by an American to get your car in gear and drive.

skip| 9.2.11 @ 5:26PM

Correct the beginning of the second paragraph of my 4:18PM post to:

Based on the average driver driving in the United States America I am amazed....

Better?

I will happily contribute a dollar to anyone behind me who is upset with me that I was caught unaware by a traffic light turning green from red, provided I receive a dollar from anyone in front of me I am upset with for being caught unaware by a traffic light turning green from red.

I bet if that was the case over my entire driving history, I could buy any Dodge Viper I wish with the proceeds.

skip| 9.2.11 @ 7:27PM

The comedian Gallagher had it right. Everyone should have suction cup dart guns that shoot arrows with flags attached to them that say 'idiot driver'. Drivers shoot them to the backs of cars driven by idiots. Police pull over and ticket drivers with six or more of these attached to the back of their vehicles. Repeat offenders have their licenses revoked.

On an interstate highway, a driver who slows below the posted highway speed limit before merging onto the exit ramp is an idiot driver. Drive the speed limit until entirely on the exit ramp and completely out of the main highway lane before even considering slowing down.

In congested city traffic, after traffic lights turn green, a driver who fails to stay with the driver in front until well past the intersection, in order to allow other vehicles behind to proceed through the traffic light as well, is an idiot driver. At every intersection in the country, gaps of over six, eight, ten or more car lengths, often between each and every vehicle, can be witnessed, either in or immediately after the intersection, none of them even remotely yet approaching the posted speed limit, causing thirteen vehicles instead of thirty nine vehicles to legally drive through the intersection.

A driver who pulls out in traffic, causing a another driver to slow down, is an idiot driver. If there is simply too much traffic to avoid slowing down someone else, a driver who pulls out and does not accelerate to the posted speed limit as quickly as possible, is an idiot driver.

Etcetera.

Etcetera

Etcetera.

Pat| 9.2.11 @ 4:45PM

You’re six foot four inches tall, built like the proverbial tank, young and very male – the Navy Seals would be proud to call you one of their own. So, why shouldn’t you simply rush through the mall or a crowded restaurant knocking slower and weaker folks out of your way? You’re certainly built for it – a sleek, ultra-sports model containing the human version of a V-12 engine with four valves per cylinder, turbo-charged and rated at 700 horsepower – you’d cost over $200,000 if you were an automobile. What Peters doesn’t “get” is that the public roads have to accommodate everyone, old folks nearing the end of their driving careers, young teenage girls trying to drive extra carefully so as not to scratch Dad’s car and then there’s that tiny Chinese lady who didn’t drive back in the old country but recently learned courtesy of the Acme Driving School. The days of driving your “goat” or your ‘vette at top speed between red lights on Detroit’s Woodward Avenue are long gone, never to return – so grow up, Eric, please.

Yes, we know Eric, there’s that famous Autobahn, cruising at 110 miles per hour, the kids sitting contentedly in the back seat. But check out the statistics – daily you can die by the numbers on the Autobahn; due to bad weather, driver error, just plain bad luck – a gruesome end as a red smear on the pavement after a 110 mph fender bender.

If you have this need to strut your macho, there are private tracks, drive as fast as you want - or skydiving, rattlesnake hunting, surfing enormous waves – we’ll applaud your feats of derring-do, but drive like you have to share the road with lesser mortals – you’re definitely going to die someday, what’s your hurry to get there?

skip| 9.2.11 @ 5:32PM

Driving on America's roads is very analogous to shopping in America's stores.

It is rare I can proceed down the length of any aisle without being unnecessarily, needlessly, delayed, even if the aisle is six foot wide and contains only one shopper with one shopping cart, or if the aisle contains no shopping carts and only two shoppers.

shipley130| 9.2.11 @ 4:49PM

Try going to South Korea, where they have lawn mower engines and drive like they are in NASCAR.

childsplay| 9.2.11 @ 4:58PM

Who chose the fat, grey haired old woman that illustrated this piece? That is what Eric is terminally irked with, probably - - the tentative driver - the ones who never had good driving skills and the few remaining have eroded with time.

I lived next door to an elderly woman long ago, retired minister's wife. Every morning she set forth on her many social pursuits. The center post of of her garage looked like an army of industrious beavers and a plague of termites had been at it, under the daily assault of her comings and goings. God knows how many 3 car collisions she was observed leaving the scene of. The internal combustion engine was her mortal enemy and something she dedicated her life to conquering. Sadly, she never did.

Her crowning defeat was driving home on Bayshore Hwy in a car she had bought not a half hour before. Bloody Bayshore is not a place you want to be under the best driving conditions during commute. But she was. And her just-off-the-showroom-floor car caught fire. She got out of it, but it burnt to a cinder - Everyone said it looked like a marshmallow that fell off the stick into the fire. I think it was automotive suicide. It did not want to be hers.

That was 1957 when not a lot of elderly were driving. Today, with an aging population clinging to that last bastion of independence, you are going to have impediments to normal traffic flow. Their confidence in changing lanes is diminished. The "opening" they thought they had a minute ago vanished because of their impaired reaction time . Their depth perception made them think the car was further away. . .who knows, maybe they just lost their nerve. The person behind them is watching those turning lights , coping with her on-again-off-again indecision and wondering, at just what golden moment she is actually going to move it. Most elderly have never learned to use their rear view mirrors properly. They drove most of their lives with only the one in the middle of the windshield.

Elderly "sit lower" in the driver's seat than they did when they were 40. Few do anything to compensate for it. Arthritic conditions reduce their range of motion for looking back.

Every license renewal time they are frozen in the fear that they will not pass the written and surely not the behind-the-wheel. If you have to "study" for a written test, you really don't know the rules of the road.It is baffling that these drivers, beset by such fear, still wish to venture forth on the roads. Yet they do. Most of the serious accidents result from a panic "stop" where the driver stomped on the gas, instead of the brake.

Watching them parallel park is a heartbreaker. I have observed this over the years with people my senior and it has instilled in me a firm resolve to recognize when I no longer the master of the machine.. I will call a cab.

I have been driving since I was 18. When my husband was in college, in order for us to have two cars, one was a 1932 Model A - which was his transportation. I learned to drive it and retarding the spark was no mean feat. But I drove it from Santa Barbara to SF following our other car. A six hour drive with my husband speeding through stale yellow lights ahead of me! Now there was the King of the JackRabbit Starts and Panic Stops. I have driven an Army jeep belonging to my uncle. I had a little trouble with our first VW bug's stick shift - required two hands to get it in reverse.

I can parallel park in any space 4 inches longer than my car in one smooth lazy S turn. Two inches from the curb.

I am a fast, safe driver and have never had an accident in my driving life. I try not to go over 10MPH the speed limit, but I never dawdle. I have not had to take a behind-the-wheel test since 1974 - and then only because I let my license expire while I was in Barbados.

I once challenged a friend of ours who regularly carped about "women drivers", to a competition where we would go to a speedway track and be graded by expert racing drivers. I won.

I was 84 in August. I know what good driving is. And I will know whenI have lost my touch. I am not the one you see tootling along at 37 MPH on the freeway with the left turning signal blinking the past 25 miles..

R Martin| 9.2.11 @ 5:38PM

You are my kind of girl. Good on ya and look after yourself.

skip| 9.2.11 @ 5:40PM

I could swear I followed that grey haired lady, illustrated in this article, from Bangor Maine to San Diego California, without ever having a legal and safe opportunity to pass her, between the oncoming traffic and the construction. Both directions. Twice.

Solo| 9.2.11 @ 5:45PM

What I've noticed is that the guy going slower than me is a moron....and the guy going faster than me is a lunatic.

Ken (Old Texican)| 9.2.11 @ 5:50PM

Enjoy the USA in your Chevrolet.........

OK, everybody vented now?

Get a life!

skip| 9.2.11 @ 7:37PM

My complaint, and of many of the posters on this thread, is that I do have a life, which I am all too often unncessarily, and needlessly, delayed from living, by other drivers, who drive as if they don't have a single thing to do, and are just biding time, until the day they die, which is fine, and completely acceptable, provided they do not unneccessarily, and needlessly, delay me for no other reason than that they are abjectly stupid.

Tiddly| 9.4.11 @ 1:24AM

I think it was "See the USA, In Your Chevrolet" (sung).

Rich| 9.5.11 @ 4:06PM

Ken, how many people on this blog do you think even know who Dinah Shore was?

Margie| 9.5.11 @ 7:05PM

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGZvQoPxhNs

propercharlie| 9.2.11 @ 6:30PM

Great article, Eric. I've driven motorcycles in India and both cars and motorcycles in Europe and I'm always amazed at the way Americans drive. Kind of robotic, regimented and fearful with no snap and dash. No elan, if you will. In India there are no rules other than bigger has the right of way. It does wonders for learning to drive by instinct after a few near misses with buses or cars who pass with total disregard for anybody in the opposite direction.

Skippy| 9.2.11 @ 6:38PM

I'm considering carrying a .45 auto on the pass. seat, just to pop a few off at the bozo that went by me so fast, I hurt my ankle.
See, he went by so quick, I thought my car had stalled, and got out to see what the problem was.
Mr. Peters, act your age or go to a track.
I support long sentences in filthy hell-hole prisons for jerks that kill innocent folks by driving like teenage assholes.

Herbert| 9.2.11 @ 7:57PM

I've heard of road rage. This must be reading rage. Silly person.

Skippy| 9.5.11 @ 3:09PM

Sorry to offend.
I must have forgotten that you actually do own the whole damn road.
Excuse me for daring to operate my vehicle under the rules of the State that granted me the privilege of driving on the public roads.
Silly me!
Oh, did I mention that your kids were killed by a performance-loving driver?"
Have a nice day at the cemetary.

Rich| 9.5.11 @ 4:09PM

Skippy, if you're operating you car according to the rules of the State that gave you the privilege to drive then you will (a) stay in the right hand lane except to pass and (b) observe the MINIMUM speed limit, too.

Skippy| 9.5.11 @ 7:09PM

I do, of course.
As I was trained, the right lane is the CRUISING lane and the left is the PASSING lane.
So, I drive that way, as designed.
My point is this; we voluntarily agree to abide by the rules of the authorities(not the "rules of the road")when we earn and accept the privilege of a State issued Drivers License.
I daresay we engage in no behavior that requires as much disciplined, voluntary cooperation and self-control as driving a car.
Every time we put it in gear, we literally take the lives of those around us in our hands.
This is monumentally serious, and the attitude Mr. Peters(whose columns I enjoy)conveys in this article is shocking and irresponsible.
A few tons of steel hurtling in your direction should be operated with deadly seriousness. The public roads are not the proper place to "see what this baby can do".
What somebody elses baby can do is die, 'cuz you drove like an idiot.
Do us all a big favor; get laid more often and drive like an adult.

childsplay| 9.2.11 @ 10:03PM

skip - you remind me a little of my husband and one son - taillight fever. Can't stand to have someone in front of you, even though you are going nowhere, either. My husband picked up many a ticket for erratic lane-changing for that one car advantage. He said it was because of the Continenetal kit on my '52 Ford Victoria. "You just had to have something cops would notice!" I said, "Yeah, you go snaking down 19th Avenue, so smart in your timing of green lights and pretty soon we are accompanied by the low whine of a cop car with lights flashing. Lost a little bit of that time while being pulled over and waiting for them to write you up, didn'ya?"

In my youth, I got stopped oftener than I like to admit for speeding. Talked my way out of every ticket, but the day a police officer called me Ma'm, I knew my guile and charm were un- renewable resources. I eased up on my lead-foot.

The prize of my collection was when I was driving a car with a broken speedometer that my brother had left at my house while he was in Vietnam. I get pulled over and the officer asks the classic, "Do you know how fast you were going?" I said no I didn't but I would agree with him that I was going too fast . And if he would tell me how fast I was going, maybe I could factor that in, when looking at the wildly fluctuating needle. Told him about the broken speedometer and how I had checked a dozen places to try to get it fixed, replaced, calibrated or whatever they did. Not only did he not ticket me, he gave me the name of a place that could fix it.

Close runner up was one still-dark 3 in the morning in a residential neighborhood - about block from my house. Cop says, "Do you know what you were doing?" Yes, I did - but I wasn't going to tell him. I was driving with my elbows while applying an Ace bandage to my wrist. He asked me what I was doing out at that hour alone. I told him (the truth) I worked for United Airlines and I was going to work. ..I started to explain a special project which required overtime . He wrongly assumed I was a flight attendant missing my flight and let me go.

One more. When I was 18 and newly married to my Southern California beach boy, driving his '42 Plymouth past the Police Station every day going home for lunch, I would slow down, so as not to get a ticket. One of my husband's friends on the force asked Hal if I was just baiting them to give me a ticket. Hal said he didn't know why I would. And this cop friend said "Well, every day she drives by here and raps the pipes on those illegal Smitty mufflers of yours." I didn't know that slowing down did that.

My son, in his fast driving, has hydroplaned in the rain, spun his car in a dusty patch outside rodeo grounds. His road rage starts in the driveway every morning with the people next door leaving at the same time and not driving at the clip he would like them to. Driving with him and listening to his steady stream of hell-raising is worse than having your ear drums pierced with an icepick. One day, tiring of it on a two hour drive, I said, You know, the worst thing about all of these drivers is - - THEY CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Which shut him up , but not for long.

He is a chronic procrastinator - leaves late for everything. Lives in Half Moon Bay, which has two egresses - both of them treacherous - one aptly named Devil's Slide (that would be down to the Pacific Ocean) and then blames slow drivers for his
not getting where he needs to be 15 minutes ago.
Bad karma follows him like a faithful dog. He has been in several accidents and yet criticizes me for one-hand driving. I just say, "I know where my other hand is, if I need it." and remind him I am the one with an unblemished driving record.

skip| 9.3.11 @ 9:23PM

Do I remind you because I have never been pulled over for any type of lane change maneuver or because I have never been pulled over for any type of tailgating maneuver? Is it because I have no desire to suffer fools who do not know how to do something as easily effortless as driving or because I have no desire to accept other driver's time being more important than mine? What statement have I made that advocates any type of illegal or unsafe driving maneuver?

Richard Baker| 9.3.11 @ 4:27AM

And yet, if memory serves, we have a higher death rate per 100,000 than does Germany where there are still unlimited sections on the autobahn and the average German DRIVES schnell everywhere else!

Mike| 9.3.11 @ 11:48AM

I drive the speed limit for the same reason I don't shoot my rifle in the streets.
http://www.wholesalesunglassesbrands.com
http://www.winter-brands.com

Mike| 9.3.11 @ 11:49AM

He wrongly assumed I was a flight attendant missing my flight and let me go.
http://www.topbrandsbags.com
http://www.wholesalehatsshop.com

PCP Smoker| 9.3.11 @ 4:38PM

I got caught going 71 on a 55 mph zone. It cost me $179.00.

astonerii| 9.3.11 @ 9:52PM

I am a bit perplexed by the author. Does he think we should be ignoring the posted speed limits and putting our licenses to drive in jeopardy? Does he think we should barrel on down the road at every opportunity, throwing our dollars into the wind in the form of burned fuel in a downright anemic economic climate? Just because I have a car that is rated to go 165MPH does not mean that I need to use that power, but it is nice to have it in waiting if need be.

Moe1138| 9.4.11 @ 10:20AM

Preaching to the quire, my man, preaching to the quire. Because of the technologies now in the auto world you don't have to think when driving any more, the car controls most functions.
When I learned to drive in high school, we were driving a 1977 Datsun B210. My God what a horrible little car. At home I was driving a 1972 Buick Skylark, what a beautiful car. My dad owned a 1965 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88, this car was scary fast. Whether the Datsun or the Buick or the Oldsmobile, you had to drive these cars.
Give me a pre 1973 vehicle and let's go have some fun!

barbara| 9.4.11 @ 5:21PM

Years ago (late ‘70s,) I bought a TR7 and enjoyed it very much - although, because of the number of times it was in the shop a colleague remarked: “Quick – What’s the difference between a British car owner and a pedestrian?”

Finally getting the message, I traded it in for an Audi. The manager of used cars for the dealership went out to check the ‘7. He returned with an amazed look on his face. “Your engine looks great, so clean. Where did you drive the car?” (Note: this was the era of 55 mph). I replied, “Anywhere I could.” He asked how fast I had been able to drive it and I told him “About 110-115.” He remarked, “Just as it was designed. Good for you.”

POST American| 9.4.11 @ 11:13PM

---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------

--Great piece.

BTW ---just out on the freeways.

Everyone noticing those ominous traffic
fences? They're popping up all over the
place. We notice too they're growing
higher.

The scam tells us they're to protect residents
from traffic noise --but we notice MOST of them
are where there are no residential buildings,
no buildings at all.

These monstrosities must be costing us hundreds
of millions. What could they be about?

"Understand, prison cities are coming,
they're on the agenda."
-ALAN WATT

--------------AHHH! ---predictive programming!

SO, as ever kiddies ---Keep a goin'

-----Top 40 n' CHEM-trails n GPS

--------Just keep a goin'!

Margie| 9.5.11 @ 2:22PM

You've been listening to Art Bell way too much. Or is it George Noory? Or Alex Jones?
Or, maybe even Ron Paul?

Wanna Fly| 9.5.11 @ 2:57PM

Forget driving, I want to fly. Why waste all that money on 2-dimensional highways and roads? Go with the 3rd dimension and enjoy freedom!

albert constantine jr.| 9.5.11 @ 9:45PM

A decade and a half ago a would have to drive periodically from Delaware to Camp LeJeune, NC. Taking Interstate 95 south was always a burdensome chore, due to the heavy volume of drivers, many of whom were idiots. I used to notice, though, that once I was south of Petersburg, VA, even though 95 was down to 2 lanes in many places, that the driving became pleasant. Not only was the road less crowded, but the driver in the left lane got over to the right if you were behind him or her and driving faster. As a result, traffic flowed smoothly, and folks were able to go as fast as they desired. This basic courtesy (and compliance with the rules of the road) is what seems to be absent in most drivers, particularly in the urban sprawl from Boston to Richmond.

POST American| 9.6.11 @ 12:06AM

-----------------BOTTOMLESS LINE-------------------

----Traffic fences spreading = Globalist 'enforcement' coming----

It's called 'Predictive Programming'.

They USE it on you...

axbucxdu| 9.6.11 @ 9:04AM

Avoid the wolfpacks. If it means higher or lower speed then so be it. Traffic engineers need to apply more principles from wave mechanics. They've forgotten that driving is safest when its only you, the car, and the road.

mark | 9.6.11 @ 6:59PM

What about the wingnuts that don't know about merging. I see it everyday. They hit the turn signal (sometimes) and just keep coming out into traffic, thinking that they have some right to just keep going. Do they even teach right-of-way anymore? And the old farts that are 70-years-old and can finally afford that big new Caddy, when for their age, they'd be much happier and safer in an Accord. I could keep going...You started it, ha.

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