Plan B Forum

On my way home from the George Mall recently, belting west down the N2. I use my GPS as the speed guide because my car's speedometer is set to run higher than actual. At the legal 120kph, it shows 130. Seems to be endemic as everyone else (almost) is driving slower and (I am sure) they believe they are doing 120.

Anyway, this day, all the damn slow cars were in the wrong lane. I came up behind the first of them with my headlights on expecting them to get the hint. But they resolutely stayed in the wrong lane. I flashed my headlights several times. Nothing. So I used the wrong lane to overtake (which is legal but why should I have to move over for a snail who doesn't bother to use a GPS to find out he's a snail?).

This happened three more times with three more slow vehicles in the wrong lane. An epidemic. It wasn't until I reached some road works where traffic had slowed considerably and a line had formed that I realized that, for whatever reason, all the drivers I'd been cursing and lighting up were driving quite nicely in the left lane as they are supposed to do here.

They must have been pissed off that some lunatic was trying to overtake them in the non-overtaking lane and then getting angry at having to use the proper lane to go past them.

I never, ever, forget that we drive on the left here. Never go the wrong way round a traffic circle. The only explanation I can come up with is a TIA. Or I'm going gaga.

"going"?

Gob wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 11:06 am

"going"?

To quote one of your earlier posts

I've pretty much spent the last 40 years going back and forth between keeping left (UK) and keeping right (USA, Canada, Germany, Middle East, N Africa) and never making a mistake until the other day. I was turning left in an urban setting and did not realize that the street I was turning into was divided. It wasn't busy (no cars going either way) and I realized as soon as I'd done it and corrected myself, and I was prepared to drive onto the central grass area if I had to. I don't think I'm gaga but it's a reminder that the brain is less flexible at 70+ that it was at (say) 40.

MajGenl.Meade wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 6:46 am

I never, ever, forget that we drive on the left here. Never go the wrong way round a traffic circle. The only explanation I can come up with is a TIA. Or I'm going gaga.

Maybe it's because you're an American now? (Yeah yeah, "potayto/potahto.")

I think it could be some form of muscle memory; I can recall a number of times in England where I entered a car park from the right hand (exit) lane, even though I was always conscious or driving on the left, making proper turns, entering circles (roundabouts) properly... It does happen, no need for the onset of senility or TIAs.

FWIW, crossing the streets in England is a similar problem--I never seem to look long enough in the direction of traffic.

I use my GPS for exactly the same purpose. It knows the local speed limit and shows my actual speed in red if I am over. I set my car's speed control by that, not the speedometer. It saved me big bucks and inconvenience on my last speeding ticket. The officer informed me that one-mile-per-hour faster and I would have gone to jail and my car towed on the spot, leaving my family stranded on the side of the road a couple hundred miles from home. According to his radar, I was traveling at the same speed indicated by my GPS. Thus it all was taken care of by the side of the road and I was on my way, chastened and a bit slower, inspite of my out-of state- plates. It was a $180 check by mail to the local court. or show up on a specific day (about three months later) to dispute it. After I sent the check I got several offers from local lawyers who would get it expunged from the legal record for another $250. I declined.

snailgate

back in the day, when I read the car magazines, R&Tcompiled the car test data into a single chart. Nearly all cars are sold with a speedo that over estimates speed by ca. 10%.

yrs,
rubato