07-01-2018, 09:56 AM
You've constructed an elegant argument, PowerDubs. Anyone who doesn't behave according to your norms is "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..." Cute, but neither reasonable nor fair. What if someone's view of safe driving is different from yours? Does that make you "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..."?
That's simply too narrow an approach for the world I've inhabited all these years. While, on a road where overtaking is possible relatively often, a person can and should wait for an opportunity to pass and suck up travelling slowly until they have a chance to do so. I'd be inclined to agree that, if they don't, they're "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..."
However, there are lots of other circumstances. For example, if I'm travelling at about the speed limit (in a car or on a bike) and someone clearly wants to go a whole lot faster and there are limited opportunities to overtake, I'm going to pull over and get out of the way. I choose not to live with the irritation of either feeling pressured to drive faster than I want to keep someone else happy or to have them on my hammer and likely to rear-end me. Likewise, if someone is tailgating me and it's difficult for them to pass, I'll get out of the way. I may think they're "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..."; it may be right that there's something severely wrong, but it is what it is and it happens every day.
When I'm on the bike, on, say, a winding road with limited opportunities for passing safely or legally, and I'm able and wanting to travel faster than a car or truck in front of me, I hope they will pull over when it is safe and let me pass. Many do and I'm grateful for it. I do the same for them if our positions are reversed. On popular motorcycle roads, where many want to and can ride faster than me, I wave them through. In those circumstances I'd not assume either party to be "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..." I'd see us as reasonable people doing the best we can to interact sensibly with one another.
That's simply too narrow an approach for the world I've inhabited all these years. While, on a road where overtaking is possible relatively often, a person can and should wait for an opportunity to pass and suck up travelling slowly until they have a chance to do so. I'd be inclined to agree that, if they don't, they're "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..."
However, there are lots of other circumstances. For example, if I'm travelling at about the speed limit (in a car or on a bike) and someone clearly wants to go a whole lot faster and there are limited opportunities to overtake, I'm going to pull over and get out of the way. I choose not to live with the irritation of either feeling pressured to drive faster than I want to keep someone else happy or to have them on my hammer and likely to rear-end me. Likewise, if someone is tailgating me and it's difficult for them to pass, I'll get out of the way. I may think they're "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..."; it may be right that there's something severely wrong, but it is what it is and it happens every day.
When I'm on the bike, on, say, a winding road with limited opportunities for passing safely or legally, and I'm able and wanting to travel faster than a car or truck in front of me, I hope they will pull over when it is safe and let me pass. Many do and I'm grateful for it. I do the same for them if our positions are reversed. On popular motorcycle roads, where many want to and can ride faster than me, I wave them through. In those circumstances I'd not assume either party to be "... clueless, rude, or blatantly should not be on the road ..." I'd see us as reasonable people doing the best we can to interact sensibly with one another.