🚀 go-pugleaf

On 24 Dec 1995 03:37:47 GMT, "J. Russell Lemon" <lemonjr@cyber.net>
wrote:

>
>The formation of Packs is normal when you have fast drivers and slow
>drivers in each lane.  What happens is the fast drivers catch up to 
>the slow drivers who will not move to a slower lane.  
>
>If slower drivers are required to move right, packs will not form.
>If the lanes have different speed limits, packs will not form.
>
>   ---  Russ
>

>The formation of Packs is normal when you have fast drivers and slow
>drivers in each lane.  What happens is the fast drivers catch up to 
>the slow drivers who will not move to a slower lane.  
>
>If slower drivers are required to move right, packs will not form.
>If the lanes have different speed limits, packs will not form.
>
>   ---  Russ

	
Hi Russ, 
 
   Back in the '60's, on long-weekend commutes from Chicago to
Norfolk, I would often travel in packs. I would join two to ten other
speedsters and we would roar in single file down the turnpikes at 80
to 90mph, in the daytime and in middle of the night.  Often we would
switch positions. As pack members tired, or needed to get gas or food,
they would drop out.  Usually the packs were reinforced by others
joining in.  On occasion, I was with the same 3 or 4 other cars for a
hundred miles.  Why did we do it?  Well, for a few reasons. To get
where we were going as soon as possible.  To spread out our risk of a
speeding ticket. To stay awake.  To be in the race.  To have lights
to follow through the fog. Because we were young.  
  Anyway, these packs existed in and of themselves, having nothing  
to do with others who were not in the pack.  Occasionally we were  
inhibited by slower cars, but soon blew by them. We were cooperative  
packs, and the common driver generally gave way when he saw us coming.

Rules for pack membership were implicit and simple.  Keep up if you
can.  Don't tailgate. If you tire of leading, fall back. Take the lead
 when nobody else wants it.  If you want the lead, take it, but
maintain the minimum speed the pack has established. You don't pass a
leader doing 85mph then slow to 80mph.    
  But perhaps you wouldn't term what I described as a pack, but a
convoy. I'm not sure myself what to name it.  Be that as it may
(BTAIM?), I define the current-day "pack" as a group of three or more
vehicles, of which two or more are either tailgating or running
alongside each other.  And I see much larger packs (30 to 40 vehicles)
every day during my commute.  I spend much more time between these
packs than among them. If I am loafing in the right lane, which is my
usual habit, as I see them approach I slow to about 60 or so and the
pack flows by at about 70 to 75. My exposure is limited, and I am
exposed only on the left.  As the last car passes, I pick it up to
almost their speed until the next pack approaches,
where I slow again until it passes, etc.  I am not always alone
between packs, because packs are not static in membership, exchanging
members as they reform.  Even in heavy (but not bumper-to-bumper)
traffic conditions, packs are easily identified and avoided.  Of
course, if you are always in a pack, you can't recognize a pack, as
when you are in the trees, you can't see the forest.  If you find that
you are constantly in contention for space or maneuvering room with
other vehicles, you are in a pack.
   The modern term "wusses" comes to mind when I consider the packs of

today. An example:  
   I'm in the left lane of 294 doing 80 and passing a long line of
cars doing 70. Car comes up behind me, tailgating.  I signal, and move
right into the first safe space in the middle lane, slowing to 70.
So this guy who came up behind, what does he do? Pull on by, as he
indicated he wanted to do by pulling up behind me? No. He slows to 75,
blocking me in. Just another cow-like tailgater who has joined the
herd.  Another of his ilk pulls behind him, and the first tailgater
has no place to go now, and no guts to really get on it and clear the
lane. The new guy (also a tailgater) fumes that the guy to my left is
one of these "left-lane blockers" we read about here so often (the guy
now to my left, you will remember, tailgated me, no doubt fuming at me
for being a "left-lane-blocker" as I  was moving over for him). In the
meantime, of course, the guy behind me (who I had passed, and intended
to leave far behind) is now tailgating me, because I am not tailgating
the car in front of me, and fuming because I am not moving to the
right hand-lane (which is barely doing 65). 
   So here I am, probably the only guy willing to risk a speeding
ticket by doing a steady 80mph, and the only guy not tailgating, stuck
in a pack of slow moving tailgaters, each of whom is looking for an
edge on his neighbor.  Absolutely no cooperative spirit. 
   Anyway, I agree with you 100% that if lanes moved at different
speeds packs would not exist. But for that to happen, motorists have
to cooperate at least to the extent of setting an acceptable speed for
the lane they are in, and adhering to the agreement.  Ignoring the
imponderables, such as entering and exiting traffic, let's say the
right lane is averaging 55, the middle lane 65 and the left lane 75,
and traffic volume is such that these speeds can only be maintained by
keeping minimal following distances.  As soon as one motorist decides
to do 50, 60, 70 or 80, everything falls apart and chaos reigns.

   I think it is the me-first attitude of tailgaters, who can't even 
cooperate with one other driver to do 80 or 90, that creates packs. As

soon as the tailgater pulls up on a bumper, he has limited the
maneuvering  options of everyone around him. If he had maintained a
safe following distance, and had faith that those in front of him
would do the right thing, he soon would have been able to blow on by.

   It never ceases to amaze me how people 'normal' in other regards
can form these bumper-to-bumper lines while accelerating down the
entrance ramp to the X-Way into a swarm of other tailgaters, and
seriously expect to cleanly 'merge'.  
  I think this tailgating epidemic is due to the time pressures and
rapid pace of our society, which engender a general impatience with
and intolerance of our fellow motorists. 
   Also, the cars are much  too quiet nowadays for the class of
drivers we have. With no wind and engine noise to distract him, the
tailgater I described above was mesmerized by the "Made In America and
Proud Of It"  bumper sticker my son had put on my rear bumper (where
do kids get these ideas?), and totally unaware of his speed until I
had moved aside, whereupon he regained his senses. and lost interest
in passing.  
   This is why I avoid packs.  I either let the roiling mass slide
swiftly by, or I pass clear of the whole mess, going as fast as
necessary to keep the guy I described above from getting close to my
tail.  Most of the tailgaters are driving these little Japanese cars,
and its no problem pulling away in my Chevy. 
   Believe it or not, once clear of the pack, I've often got 3/4 of a
mile of clear road ahead, where waits for me, and easily identified in
the distance, another pack of tailgaters, roiling and writhing in
their agony. (Probably ran into Rahul up there). 
 
  Keep the Faith

--
Regards,
        Victor Smith
        (last name included to avoid name confusion)