🚀 go-pugleaf

Gordon Gunn <ggunn@aton.sps.mot.com> writes:
>What I mean by "tolerance" is a resistance of the impulse to
>try to impose one's driving style (good or bad) on others by
>tailgating, flashing lights at...

Flashing one's lights is the standard way to ask someone who's in a
faster (inside) lane but not going as fast as prevailing traffic to
move to the right (if possible).  Driving instructors suggest this
technique; it's a not-very-harsh way of suggesting to the driver in
front that they should check their rear-view mirror.  It's not an
imposition of driving style, it's just a request made in about the
most polite way available in car-to-car communication.

Driving faster than the speed limit and forcing car after car to yield
(either by flashing or because the slower drivers are alert enough to
note the approach and yield without being warned) is itself rude.
However, driving in the left (fast) lane of Mopac at 50 when the speed
limit is 65 and *not* yielding to faster traffic is also rude.  (Those
signs that say "slower traffic keep right" convey that message.)

I don't like to honk at highway speeds unless it's really necessary
because of the risk of startling a non-alert driver and causing a
problem.  However, it could be argued that a honk directed at a driver
who's poking along on I-35 along a 70mph stretch, blocking traffic
without paying attention, is justifiable.

Dangerous or clearly offensive actions are excluded from my arguments,
of course.

-- 
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Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX    * pain is inevitable  
       m5@tivoli.com * m101@io.com          *
      <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101>         * suffering is optional