Yeah, pretty ironic, eh?

I'm normally a very laid back driver. The most pissed off I've been in the last 6 months was when an old guy pulled in front of me as I was descending (engine off, naturally) a steep hill near where I live - one of the few roads I speed on, courtesy of gravity. Not only did he slow me down, but to add insult to injury he also braked for a set of RR tracks a little further along that I normally fly across.

The nerve.

Lane Shifting Diplomacy
 

I thought about the same thing, but I'm sure most of us try keep out of people's way during slow accel or DWL uphills. On the 3-lane, I'm constantly gauging if I should be in the Center or Right lanes depending on people in a hurry wanting to get off onto an exit (on my bumper) or folks trying to get on the highway slowly.

But still is really burns you up when you have a good momentum going and something screws it up. Lately it's been traffic lights with a single car trigger. I noticed yesterday that they put bushes at the corner so you can't see if someone's waiting -- keep the momentum, slow down, speed up to make the light??? (to avoid starting from a stop many times on a hill...)

RH77

Metro - If someone does that (pulls out), I brake immediately, so that, although I lose more energy at the beginning, I can coast for longer (e.g. If you were doing 50, someone pulls out doing a constant 10, then if you drive up behind them and brake to 10, you then have to apply power to maintain 10. If you brake to 35, you can coast for ages, finally slowing to 10 just as you are behind them :).

ELF -

I will have the same instinctive reaction, but I almost always catch myself. If *I* had been more prescient, maybe I would already have coasted down to the person's speed ahead of time. Also, since I am almost always in the far right lane, I know that being slowed/sped up comes with the lane.

Some of my better runs come when I find a slow-poke to follow (snail convoy). Mutual slowness makes it harder for the other drivers to target you.

CarloSW2

My first ticket waaaay back when I was 16 was running a red light. I didn't stop while doing a right on red. ;-) So yeah, you are breaking the law by conserving momentum. But then I do the same thing at some of the stop signs on my route. I hate stopping when there's no reason to!

John David

Being the physics nerd I am... I MUST stop to laugh at that sentence :D

Sorry, couldn't resist :P

Good list. One thing I'd add is that roads with high traffic but occurring in "packs" (regular stop lights) are preferable to slower roads with continuous traffic. Even though the former may be fast-and-furious, you can end up doing amazing coasting. As long as you start in the back of a pack you can coast to the light arriving just as the tsunami coming at your rear gets to you.... .

I hoped somebody would see that!

John David