Interstates and Cruise Control

[ShawnD1]

You don't need CC for that, just competence. Believe it or not, there was a time when the majority of people could drive. You could get on a full highway(not packed), set the CC, and not have to touch it much, and that was when CC was a luxury item. It isn't hard to maintain speed, but you have to treat driving like a responsibility, and look out for other peoples' interests so we can all get around easier.

Yeah but times were different back then. Driving was all you were doing, so you focused on driving. We can't afford to "just drive" in today's go go world. I need to be looking at my iphone to see where the gps signal from my son's phone is coming from because I need to monitor him at all times. He could be kidnapped by paedophiles if I let my guard down.

 

[Ichinisan]

You don't need CC for that, just competence. Believe it or not, there was a time when the majority of people could drive. You could get on a full highway(not packed), set the CC, and not have to touch it much, and that was when CC was a luxury item. It isn't hard to maintain speed, but you have to treat driving like a responsibility, and look out for other peoples' interests so we can all get around easier.

This.

 

[cronos]

Strange, I have not experienced the constant adjusting of CC that's mentioned by several people in this thread.

I always set my CC to speed limit, get all the way to the right and rarely ever have to do anything until I have to get off the highway. Well except maybe when there's heavy merging from the right.

 

[frostedflakes]

What confuses me here is the law on speeding's concrete, you cannot legally speed period. But they have the left lane for passing rule too. So which is it?

Highways have minimums, for whatever reason not everybody drives at the maximum posted speed. Some states also have lower speed limits for trucks. There are situations where you can pass without speeding.

 

[IGemini]

In the states I've driven in the northeast, speed limit is a recommendation. Posted NY interstate limits is 65, NYSP won't pull you over unless you're 10+ above that, higher depending on flow of traffic. This is in spite of the fact that the law says not to exceed the posted speed. PA seems a bit more lenient.

CC is great for road trips. Adjustment is usually needed on inclines, and not all cruise control systems are created equal. Some throttle up when it gets 3 MPH under the set speed, then overcorrect by almost as much.

 

[Phoenix86]

Some new cars do have this.

That's exactly the problem, some cars have some of this.

All of these things were technically possible 10-15 years ago.

By now they should be standard and integrated options but instead we have single stand-alone systems.

 

[CZroe]

I need to go to work about half an hour away for a nightly graveyard shift. Being a graveyard shift, I like to get as much sleep as possible first, so I get absolutely infuriated when I get behind someone who doesn't even notice that the speed limit increased to 55MPH for half the trip with no passing opportunities. When I honk or flash, they get SLOWER. Other times they are going 55MPH and then they see my security badge reflecting in their rearview mirror and slow to 45MPH thinking that it's the limit then they are so focused on me they don't notice the upcoming limit signs. It's a daily frustration.

Oh! And my car is 1 month old, brand new, and has no cruise control. Also, CC has no worked or stopped working on nearly every past vehicle I've owned.

Umm when you see someone coming up behind you, you should automatically be merging to the lane on your right. They shouldn't need to slow down for you.

Lern tu reed.

 

[LTC8K6]

I can set the CC for 75 on I-40 and not touch it for long stretches at a time. It's great. I have done my whole trip on I-40 without touching the CC or brakes more than a couple of times. Mostly used nothing but the turn signals to pass.

I drove for a year in South Korea.

People in the US drive like pros in comparison.

 

[FoBoT]

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/faq.htm#question14

Is the left lane for higher speeds?
Although the left lanes of multi-lane freeways are widely viewed as the "high speed lanes" or "the fast lanes," the speed limit applies to all lanes on any given street or highway. The intent is that vehicles going slower than the posted speed limit should stay to the right.

 

[SandEagle]

why even have speed limits? it should be survival of the fastest.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'm not fond of using cruise control. I'm just not comfortable with it.

Congrats, you and my wife have something in common. Well, that and your love of me of course.

 

[Ben90]

If only I rode a motorcycle with a laser jammer. Oh wait, I do. Whats traffic?

 

[dmcowen674]

What the fuck is with people and not understanding "left lane for passing only?"

And fuck people who see you coming up on their tail, and when you try to pass them they speed up and try to block your way.

Fuck people who can't keep a constant speed, it's a fucking highway in the middle of nowhere, use your damn cruise control.

Illness aside

The left lane is not for "passing only"

If I am doing the speed limit and you come up on my tail like a mad man I will block your ass and enjoy it.

I pay a shit ton of taxes as well as tolls and I can go up and down in speed however I feel.

Don't like it you are free to drive in another country.

 

[TheVrolok]

The left lane is not for "passing only"

It can be. http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

If I am doing the speed limit and you come up on my tail like a mad man I will block your ass and enjoy it.

I pay a shit ton of taxes as well as tolls and I can go up and down in speed however I feel.

Paying taxes doesn't entitle you to be a prick. Also, you can not "go up and down in speed however you feel," given that you can be ticketed for both speeding, and driving too slow for the roadway/conditions.

Don't like it you are free to drive in another country.

"If you don't like it, you can get out!" is redneck bullshit.

 

[Engineer]

Different day...same argument....

It's like groundhog day with this argument...over and over and over and over.....

Don't tailgate me and I'll get out of your way and, if possible, even speed up (within reason) to do it. Tailgate or try to push me faster (especially if there is a line of traffic in front of me), I'll slow down and eventually merge over behind the car I was originally passing.

Oh, and just because a highway is limited access does not mean that it doesn't have left splits so just keep that in mind if you think that everyone in the left lane is there just to lollygag (rare in the country but it does occur quite often in cities where the interstate highway splits between one interstate and another).

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Illness aside

The left lane is not for "passing only"

If I am doing the speed limit and you come up on my tail like a mad man I will block your ass and enjoy it.

I pay a shit ton of taxes as well as tolls and I can go up and down in speed however I feel.

Don't like it you are free to drive in another country.

I hope you get pulled over like my sister when her dumb ass was doing this. Obstructing traffic is a ticket able offense in many states.

 

[blinblue]

Despite having some really tedious scenery, driving through South Dakota is awesome. When I drove through it on I-90 a couple years ago, it seemed like every single person stayed right except to pass, it was wonderful. Granted there are relatively few cars, but just felt so good when everything was working like it should.

 

[Jaskalas]

What confuses me here is the law on speeding's concrete, you cannot legally speed period. But they have the left lane for passing rule too. So which is it?

Novel idea, you pass vehicles who are in the slow lane driving BELOW the speed limit. Therefore you are passing in the left lane while obeying the speed limit.

 

[Engineer]

Novel idea, you pass vehicles who are in the slow lane driving BELOW the speed limit. Therefore you are passing in the left lane while obeying the speed limit.

Do you really think that any in this thread bitching about people driving in the left lane and holding them up are really driving the speed limit in the left lane? Really? LOL

 

[MotF Bane]

Illness aside

The left lane is not for "passing only"

If I am doing the speed limit and you come up on my tail like a mad man I will block your ass and enjoy it.

I pay a shit ton of taxes as well as tolls and I can go up and down in speed however I feel.

Don't like it you are free to drive in another country.

Slower traffic, keep right. Maybe somebody will run you off the road.

 

[fatpat268]

Most of the people who are staunch speed limit observers would get ran off the road in several big cities. I drove a couple of times in Houston, and when the interstate wasn't backed up during rush hour, the average speed was probably around 85 across all lanes. Noticed the same in Austin as well. Speeds come down once the highway narrows down again, but still.

But yea, I almost bought a car with no CC a couple of months ago too. It's really only the low-end cars that don't have CC by default (I was looking at the Ford Fiesta and Focus). I eventually settled on the Fiesta, but I did have to spend more as it was something I was specifically looking for. Also, those who don't have CC installed in their car, if your car was manufactured within the past few years and is drive by wire, it's fairly cheap to add in an aftermarket CC (~$300 + labor if you don't diy).

 

[ShawnD1]

Don't tailgate me and I'll get out of your way and, if possible, even speed up (within reason) to do it. Tailgate or try to push me faster (especially if there is a line of traffic in front of me), I'll slow down and eventually merge over behind the car I was originally passing.

I'm usually not in a rush to get anywhere, but I like to drive the speed limit. When someone in front of me going 10 below the limit, I tailgate them. They slow down. I slow down with them. Keep tailgating the whole way. Going around is bad because that teaches them that it's ok to slow down and drive 20 under the limit. If I give positive reinforcement to that type of behavior, then I'm just as bad as the slow guy in front of me.

What's cool is that people who drive really slow are the same people who stress about stuff they can't control, such as my distance behind them. It just makes sense to keep stressing the shit out of them until they eventually decide to stop driving or they kill themselves.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

My new Toyota is great - I didn't know it had cruise control.
Any ideas how to turn it off?

 

[ShawnD1]

My new Toyota is great - I didn't know it had cruise control.
Any ideas how to turn it off?

You can either push the button in or you can pull the handle back. It also turns off if you touch the brakes or the clutch.

Speaking of which, cruise control on Toyotas is stupid. On my Civic and Impreza, it's on the steering wheel. In a Corolla, it's on that stick. I need to take a hand off the wheel to use it. What if I only had 1 hand? What if I had 2 hands but one of them was using my iphone to gps track my kids? That means I need to take both hands off the wheel and everyone dies just because some engineer thought it was a good idea to put the CC down there.

 

[fatpat268]

I'm usually not in a rush to get anywhere, but I like to drive the speed limit. When someone in front of me going 10 below the limit, I tailgate them. They slow down. I slow down with them. Keep tailgating the whole way. Going around is bad because that teaches them that it's ok to slow down and drive 20 under the limit. If I give positive reinforcement to that type of behavior, then I'm just as bad as the slow guy in front of me.

What's cool is that people who drive really slow are the same people who stress about stuff they can't control, such as my distance behind them. It just makes sense to keep stressing the shit out of them until they eventually decide to stop driving or they kill themselves.

Wtf? People who play these shitty mind games on the highway are the fucking idiots here. Yea, I get pissed if someone comes speeding up and tailgating behind me, but I'll move over if it's safe for me to do so. Playing mindgames (like slowing down purposely to piss the other driver off, or purposely tailgating) is just ridiculous.

Speaking of which, cruise control on Toyotas is stupid. On my Civic and Impreza, it's on the steering wheel. In a Corolla, it's on that stick. I need to take a hand off the wheel to use it. What if I only had 1 hand? What if I had 2 hands but one of them was using my iphone to gps track my kids? That means I need to take both hands off the wheel and everyone dies just because some engineer thought it was a good idea to put the CC down there.

But after reading this, I'm not too sure you're being serious.

But in all seriousness, the CC from that picture looks like an aftermarket CC.