"I have a few friends that are safer drivers when they are drunk since they know their reaction times will be slower so they slow down and pay more attention to their driving."

Sorry, are we actually treating this comment seriously? It is one of the most idiotic things I have read here. So much so that I assumed it was a joke.

People who say this do indeed exist, and the world would be a far better place if they had their cars taken away and crushed and they had the words "Do not put behind a wheel" branded on their forehead.

"I have a few friends that are safer drivers when they are drunk since they know their reaction times will be slower so they slow down and pay more attention to their driving."

Randomizer, that is some serious teenaged/twenty-something bullshit right there. Don't rationalize their (your?) shitty and irresponsible behavior in that way.

Intoxicated drivers typically can't control both speed and steering at the same time. Just because someone goes slower doesn't mean they are safer. It just means they're drunker.

Randomizer: Remember that comment when you're lowering your friends in to the earth or watching them being led away in handcuffs to state prison.

Basically a sucky driver shouldn't be on the road no matter what and if you're drunk, you're a sucky driver.

I'm far less concerned about an excellent driver exceeding the speed limits by far. Control is everything.

Just because you don't think it's true doesn't mean it is't true. Drunk they are driving looking ahead and checking their mirrors to watch the traffic. Sober one of them turned himself around so he could look at me in the back seat while we were talking instead of looking at the road.

Speeding depends upon road conditions so there are times when that can be legally reasonable and prudent. However as Google found out with their self driving cars, just going the speed limit and obeying the law can get you rear ended more than most drivers.

My friends have survived behaviors that are scary from driving over and snapping off a fire hydrant to having the ball bearings in a front wheel seize up so the tire locks forcing a truck off a mountain road.

So they drive even worse when they aren't drunk. That doesn't mean they can drive when they're drunk.

It really just means they're irresponsible drivers, but we kind of got that already.

Also, getting rear ended isn't really a fair measure. Obviously, the faster you drive, the more likely you are to hit something in front of you and the less likely something is to hit you from behind. Combine physics and chance calculation and you come to that conclusion.

Randomizer, there's a term for someone like you which has already been used in this thread:

ENABLER

Cut it the fuck out and keep your drunk ass friends in check before someone gets killed.

Your acquiescence is no better than Affluenza Teen's mother.

@Octavious ... "How does the US compare to other nations in regards to drink driving?"

http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1081894_what-can-europe-teach-the-u-s-about-reducing-traffic-fatalities

This article seems to think that the US is quite a long ways behind despite improvement over time. I've never driven in Europe and I haven't really paid attention when I've been on the roads out there, so I don't know from personal experience what it's like.

@Randomizer ... the fact that your friends drive drunk at all, no matter how good they might supposedly be at it, should tell you that you're around the wrong people, and if you're going to be around them, you ought to establish a DD and tell them to get their shit together before they get caught or worse. Everyone gets in wrecks and everyone gets tickets every now and again, but if either of those things happen while you're drunk, you're done.

I *loved* driving in Germany and Austria when I was there for almost 3 weeks in 2013.

I think the best thing done in Europe that isn't done any more in the US is observation of "lane courtesy." Too many Americans park themselves in the left most lane thinking, incorrectly, that it is the "fast lane" when in fact all lanes are *passing lanes.* If you aren't passing anyone, get the heck over as far right as possible and traffic speeds along ever so smoothly.

But macho and dumb Americans think they must be driving fast if they're in the left so they are better than the other drivers. Not so. Just move over and make it easier for everyone to flow in traffic.

As an aside, it is legal to pass *on the right* in almost every state if there is a proper lane for it (no passing in the shoulder). Check out your state's laws and if it is legal, DO IT. You'll save yourself so much time and frustration.

Another thing Europe does is actually have federal laws regarding driving. In the US, each state does it differently, so driver education is a mishmash. What you learn in one state does not necessarily apply in another, though most of it does.

Lastly (and I really wish the US would adopt this on Interstates), many highways have designations that trucks must use the rightmost lane *only*, usually in more urban or suburban areas. This is such a great idea! Trucks typically move slower than other vehicles so they can stay in the right lanes. This means that people who merge onto the highway can do so at slower speeds than the maximum allowed. They just have to be aware of large vehicles nearby and take some responsibility. Once up to speed, cars can pass all the trucks on the left with 2-3 lanes to work with. If trucks park themselves in the second lane of a 3-lane highway, there is no room to maneuver around them, and it slows everyone down.

/off soapbox

Trucks use the right lane unless they're passing.

Left lane campers are assholes.

That's it.

"But macho and dumb Americans think they must be driving fast if they're in the left so they are better than the other drivers. Not so. Just move over and make it easier for everyone to flow in traffic."

Whilst calling one lane the fast lane and one the slow lane etc etc may be technically incorrect, it makes the international discussion on driving between nations that use different sides a hell of a lot easier. :p

In response to the quote, I have never had any problems with fast lane hoggers, primarily because I tend to drive to burn the least amount of fuel and rarely enter it. I have also never been able to formulate a convincing response to the argument that if you're driving at the speed limit in the fast lane, the only people you inconvenience are people who are breaking the law.

My chief complaints are for middle lane hoggers who tend to be extremely nervous drivers who cause chaos by getting in the way, the surprise 40mph car in the slow lane that is suddenly in front of you, and undertakers. Although I believe undertaking is perfectly acceptable in a lot of the US?

As far as the EU goes, methinks that survey deliberately chose nations that would make the US look bad. The Italians can't drive for toffee, and parts of Spain are terrifying.

What do you mean by undertakers?

Only undertakers I know of are people working funerals and a big ass monster truck.

Doesn't help that speed limits in the US are frequently balanced between safety and politics. We don't have the 55mph national speed limit anymore, but there are still plenty of things like it. Someone driving 65mph in the left lane on highway 280 in California is driving below normal traffic speed in the *right* lane, and while it may only be inconveniencing people who are breaking the law, it's also unsafe.

People who use the fast lane to pass another vehicle overtake it. If they use the slow lane to pass they undertake it.

If you're driving any less than 95 down Lake Shore Dr, you're gonna get rear ended.

"I have also never been able to formulate a convincing response to the argument that if you're driving at the speed limit in the fast lane, the only people you inconvenience are people who are breaking the law."

Not your job to enforce the law--that's for the police/highway patrol. Hogging the passing lane is passive-aggressive assholery in my book.

If everyone drove exactly the same speed--at the legal limit--traffic would be limited by that speed. When there are scofflaws passing around other cars, overall traffic does indeed move faster without a significant social cost. (Note: "Exhibition of speed" or "reckless speeding" where there is a posted limit is very dangerous.)

@Octavious: Undertaking is perfectly legal in most of the United States. More people should do it!

Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound....

And it starts up north from Hollywood, water on the driving side

"Trucks use the right lane unless they're passing."

Maybe you got this already, but trucks are often not allowed to pass here, because the time gain is usually tiny while normal cars lose lots of time waiting for the damn truck to go right again.

The combination of the uber delicate make ego and an automobile leads to truly entertaining behaviors.
Those comments that " my mates are OK driving when drunk because they're more careful when drunk" are a truly marvelous example of how people often tell more lies to themselves than lies to others, and the a ability of people to concoct self serving nonsense and believe it to be reasonable and credible

It's a convoluted form of thinking.

Satarised thus " if you drink drive and make it home ok you're a bloody legend, not a bloody idiot"

Once I had the experience of being first to the scene of a car smash where a drunk driver put his car sideways into an unyielding steel and concrete pillar
Impact point front passenger door
His drunken mate was squashed up against the driver and I got to watch the passenger expire, I managed to prise the drivers door open but a householder who came out and myself just couldn't get them out of the wreck.

It seemed like a long, long time, those minutes that the poor chap spent dying, and the experience of the mutual understanding of imminent death being exchanged between us without spoken words, yeah.........

A modern curse of this brave new world is the "using mobile phones / I-T devices whilst driving " behavior.
That's just as dangerous as drink driving and there is an inconsistency in having laws that, quite rightly, impose severe penalties on the drink drivers, but impose much lesser penalties on "texting, telephoning, googling, watching YouTube et al drivers"

It is a tricky issue all round, weighing up relative risk in driving. I have always said that the most dangerous thing, more so than driving a couple of times over the drink driving limit, is driving when tired. It is made all the more dangerous as it doesn't seem to carry the stigma that drink driving or drug driving does.

And you get some things that are illegal that really shouldn't be. Using a mobile phone whilst in a stationary queue of traffic isn't remotely dangerous. Changing a CD whilst driving on the motorway is. Driving a car with a dirty windscreen (which accounts for over half the cars I saw in Italy) is really stupid.

Driving while tired is bad, but driving while intoxicated is worse. In both instances your body and mind are not functioning at their best. If you're tired though, at least a natural boost of adrenaline might shock you to an awake state. Even if you got an adrenaline boost while drunk, you're still drunk and only time will fix that.

Dick bag and the bitch that shit him out have been apprehended in Mexico.

I wonder how fast a rich kid can beg to be extradited back to the US to get out of a Mexican prison?