N2EY wrote:
"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message link.net...

"N2EY" wrote:

OTOH, if "behaving like an idiot" on
the road is not rewarded, the driver
may try something else (like courtesy,
or getting on the road a few minutes
earlier).


However, your child analogy falls apart when you remember that you're
talking about an adult


A biological adult who is acting like a spoiled child.

Remember the scenario Kim describes:

- multilane divided highway
- all vehicles at or above the posted speed limit.
- vehicle comes up behind her, flashes brights, follows too closely,
tries to get around on the *inside* shoulder. IOW, unsafe, aggressive
driving actions intended to intimidate Kim. (as if!!)

Some "adult".


- an adult that is going to get very angry at a
person blocking the fast lane while he and others are trying to pass.


Let them behave like adults, then. Following too closely for the speed
of travel is not adult behavior, regardless of what Kim is doing.


Lets be realistic here.


OK, fine.

It's realistic to behave in a safe responsible way when driving a
motor vehicle.


If Kim is intentionally blocking others on the roads, she
doesn't deserve courtesy.


She's only blocking those who want to speed faster than she wants to
speed.

Okay, who made her the arbiter of how fast the lane travels? Kim has no
more the right to limit other drivers speed than I do to limit hers, if
I were to try the same tactic.
Suppose several cars were to line up side-by-side on a multilane
divided highway and go exactly the speed limit. Would that justify the
"idiot" behaviors Kim describes?

Nope. Nothing ever justifies idiot behavior.

Suppose they were police cars....

Then I suspect I would go the speed limit!


Instead, she is more likely to be a victim of road
rage (something else she doesn't deserve, but far more likely). If she
manages to avoid that, and if one of those people she is blocking just
happens to be a cop, she may instead eventually get a ticket for not driving
on the right.


Agreed! That's why I previously said I let the "idiots" get past,
because I'd rather have them in front of me than behind me.

But the behavior/reward model I gave is valid. For both children and
alleged adults.

Another model I can think of for this kind of behavior is when a person
feels stressed out, out of control, and is in a bad mood. The other
drivers, those going faster or slower are an irritant. You're traveling
along, and someone comes up behind you and invades your "auto persanl
space". You can exert just a little smidgem of control, and spread a
little stress on the other driver by taking just a liiittlle biit
looonggerr to get out of his/her way. If you get them to react to you,
short of provoking a roadrage incident, you get a little dose of
satisfaction.

I'll bet everyone here has done something like that one time or another.

And as George Carlin points out:

Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and
anyone going faster than you is a moron.

- Mike KB3EIA -