WTF?.....They Stay There, Move Up, Slide Back and Eventually Creep Ahead.

WTF?.....They Stay There, Move Up, Slide Back and Eventually Creep Ahead.

I've got it. I finally figured it out. 

Have you ever noticed when you're traveling on a highway, the auto-route or even a turnpike, that there are drivers who you think are passing you but they take forever to do it? 

They come up behind you, get in the outside left lane and then creep up to pass you. And they move up and slide back or just stay there for mile after mile. Eventually they creep ahead of you and cut over because there is some one else on their tail.

I'm in New Jersey this week for a wedding.   So I've been doing a lot of driving on these highways.  I've sort of half noted this behavior before but I've seen a lot of it this week and I've finally figured out what is going on.

Now we all drive to meet our clients, to show and open houses and to inspections.  We have to be mobile for our livelihood.  So driving skills and behavior observation of other drivers is important to us.  So important that we don't actively think about it but we watch all the time.

We see things but maybe don't think about it, but in this case I've realized what's going on!  These drivers are passing on cruise control.

That's right!  They don't pull out, accelerate, pass you and get back in the lane again.  That's the way we were taught to pass.  That's the safe way.

They just leave it in cruise control and gradually creep past you at 60 to 70 miles an hour for mile after mile, basically an arms length away.

Do you think that's a safe practice?  Just think about what can happen if one of the eight tires has a blowout, hits something or bottoms out in a pothole.  And that's only the tires.

There are many other sudden mechanical breakdowns that can suddenly cause a sideways veer.