EISPIRATEN

You know, on mountain roads... how come so few people use them???

Because most people are assholes. Or maybe they just NEVER EVER look in their rear-view mirrors.

Remember, never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Personally, I will pull over at the next turnout if there is a single car behind me. I hate having people ride my ass down the mountain. If they want to get killed driving like maniacs along mountain roads, it's none of my business.

(present company excepted, of course)

Coming down the Baldy Road yesterday, I think the guy 5 cars in front of me was trying to see how many people he could slow down to 30 mph. Using a turn-out would have spoiled his quest.

Aye, Mitch. If someone is a bad enough driver to get "eliminated" on the mountain, such is fate, IMHO.

Sounds like a fun quest, Alan.

These damn kids these days throw trash all over the place, drive like crap, go fast in slow corners and slow in fast ones, and never use turnouts.

What bothers me even more is the idiots that think driving three inches from my bumper is going to make be use the turn out. I usually do 5 or 10 over on a mountain road. If some clown comes up behind me and rides my ass, I don't use the turn out just to piss him off. If he keeps doing it, I slow down. That really gets them pissed. If you are traveling at or over the speed limit, why pull over for someone just because they want to do 70 down a mountain road? I would never do that if i had a line of cars behind me of course. I am talking about the single car that just has to get by.

I agree that the people driving mountain roads 10 or 15 mph slower than the speed limit and don't use turn outs are morons.

hvydrt wrote:If you are traveling at or over the speed limit, why pull over for someone just because they want to do 70 down a mountain road?

Short answer: because I want to be as far from a guy like that as possible.

In any case, it's not for me to decide what the safe speed should be, especially if I'm already driving over the limit. It never pays to do anything on the road just to piss someone off. Your own safety should be uppermost in your mind.

Sorry to be such a buzz-kill, but I believe with bicyclists around every other corner and asshats crossing the double-yellow lines all the time, mountain road driving is serious business, and not a place for macho games.

simonov wrote:Your own safety should be uppermost in your mind...............not a place for macho games.

I agree. Its more dangerous to pull out and let 1 or 2 people in a hurry pass than it is to keep going at a reasonable speed.

FWIW, I never deny anybody their right to speed. I always change lanes and let them by.
Sometimes people have good reasons to speed. My experience: I was definitely speeding through Whittier to the hospital (at 2 in the morning, though) and safely going through red lights as my wife was attempting to stop our second child from being born in the back seat. We BARELY got to the hospital in time.
I always think about that when someone wants to speed by me.

Most are usually nice enough to let me by if I'm too close. Not that I would ever tail gate anyone or speed or anything like that.