Advice to Explorer Drivers

"Scott in SoCal" <scottenaztlan.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:qal064lph2819siqdpkik6tdu30hn6aflb@4ax.com...
> In message <kmP7k.5223$pe5.44@fe115.usenetserver.com>, "Ulysses"
> <eatmyspam.RemoveThis@spamola.com/> wrote:
>
> >This is because they want to *win.* Never mind that there are 27 billion
> >cars in front of them which puts them in 27 billion and 1th place. This
is
> >just like the people who speed up to get to the red light--the one who
gets
> >there first wins. They use more gas, put more wear on the car, and
probably
> >have a lot more incidents and pay more for insurance so I'm not sure what
> >they think they are winning.
>
> What you just described is what we call a "Sloth Coaster" - someone
> who accelerates ever-so-gently away from a stoplight that has just
> turned green, and will take their foot off the gas to coast as much as
> possible if they believe that they will have to stop at the next
> intersection. They justify this behavior by claiming that they are
> "saving wear and tear" on their vehicles. Of course, they never bother
> to try and quantify *how much* they are actually saving; if they did,
> they'd realize that having to perform one less brake job over the
> entire life of the car doesn't even come close to making up for all
> the time they waste - both their own time and (especially) the time of
> every driver that is stuck behind them.

Well, according to your definition I *may* be a Sloth Coaster. As for
brakes, it puts a lot more wear on the brakes to make a hard stop. Us
sloths don't do many brake jobs because we don't use them very much. My old
Toyota pickup with the manual transmission went 150,000 miles before it
needed brakes. It takes more gas to accelerate quickly than moderately. I
do not speed up so slowly as to impede anyone else but I have to pay for my
own gas so I try not to waste it. If it is at all possible I will make
every effort to allow a Jackrabbit to pass me or situate myself in the lanes
so that Jackrabbit can get past me easily. If I am on a single-lane country
road where no safe passing is possible I will go the speed limit if someone
with an axiety problem is behind me. On one particular stretch I have had
people pass me countless times only to end up right behind them (or is some
cases ahead of them) at the stop light several miles down the road. I have
no doubt that I used less fuel to get there. I don't know where you live in
SoCal but at least *some* towns have the lights timed so that if you
accelerate gradually and drive the posted limit you will make the lights.
If I am driving on public roads I consider my car to be transportation, not
a sport. As for getting there 2 minutes sooner, so what? Unless you are
late for work or an appointment who cares? I see many people risking their
lives and the lives of those around them because they want to get home 2
minutes sooner. What for? Their favorite TV show probably doesn't even
start for over an hour after they get home. The beer isn't going to get
warm in the refrigerator.

Another thing that doesn't ever seem to get mentioned is that by repeatedly
changing lanes on the freeway and cutting in front of other cars people are
actually slowing down traffic. Every time someone cuts in front of someone
else that person has to either take their foot off the gas or apply the
brakes. Gradually this becomes what we call a "traffic jam." The irony is
that the Jackrabbit that is in such a big hurry was slowed down and is stuck
in a jam because of others just like him.


I like my old Explorer. It has 210,000 miles on it. I expect to get
another 200,000 out of it.

>
> Sloth Coasters are all smug and sanctimonious because they usually
> coast up to a light just after it has turned red. "You see?" they crow
> to anyone within earshot. "Good thing I coasted because I wouldn't
> have made the light anyway!" What these guys fail to realize, of
> course, is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. By driving so slowly,

This is a conradiction--how could they be sanctimonious if it didn't work
for them?

>
> The other bogus claim you hear a lot is "the guys who don't Sloth
> Coast never get where they're going any faster." Well, that's complete
> bullshit. I've told the story in r.a.d of how I caught up to my Sloth
> Coasting co-worker and beat him to the office by several minutes,
> primarily because I made it through at least one traffic light that he
> did not. There have been countless instances where I have passed some
> Sloth and made it through a "stale" green light, while the Sloth gets
> caught by the red. I get there faster often enough to make it well
> worth the effort to try.

This is what I was talking about. So they got there a couple of minutes
sooner. For what? They simply want to "win."