Re: Advice to Drivers of Small Pointless Japanese Cars

On Jun 23, 10:52 pm, Scott in SoCal <scottenazt...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> 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.

Why should they need any justification... but don't they sometimes
claim fuel savings?

> 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.

Now you're a judge of what constitutes "waste" of another person's
time?

> Sloth Coasters are all smug and sanctimonious because they usually
> coast up to a light just after it has turned red.

They do?  From where did you obtain your data?

> What these guys fail to realize, of
> course, is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. By driving so slowly,
> Sloth Coasters make their own red lights because nowadays traffic
> signals are controlled by sensors embedded in the pavement; if there
> are no cars close by to trip the sensors, the light turns red.

Isn't there any faster traffic to trip the lights?

> So
> instead of causing "wear and tear" on their engines and brakes, they
> sit there idling at all the red lights and getting 0 miles per gallon.
> In the long run it probably costs them more in wasted gasoline than
> they save in maintenance costs.

According to Click & Clack's latest column- "An average car burns
about 0.15 gallons of gas an hour while idling"
http://www.cartalk.com/content/columns/latest.html

It seems it would take a lot of idling to equal the fuel used by hard
acceleration, and what of that might go to waste from braking that
would otherwise be unnecessary for the lights uncaught.

> 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
> bull****. 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.

"Proof by (single) example".

> 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.

One was me.  Then you forgot all about me, but I kept an eye on you.
I was 3 cars back of you 6 lights (and 10 less lane changes) later.

Occasionally a faster driver will manage to escape a couple lights and
my sight before turning or arriving at their destination, but it's
pretty rare.

> I get there faster often enough to make it well
> worth the effort to try.

I doubt that, and I doubt the cir***stances available for you to have
measured those instances with any degree of accuracy.

> Another big reason you'll see people "racing" to the light is when
> they are trying to escape the Phalanx of Sloth

You sure know a lot about what other people think.

> - that tight lattice of
> vehicles that inevitably forms around these Sloth Coaster types,
> clogging up the entire road.

So... racing to the light prevents encountering slower traffic in the
future?

> It would be one thing if these buffoons
> would confine their slow driving to the right hand lane, leaving other
> lanes free for faster traffic to get by. But NOOOOOOOO, Sloth Coasters
> coast in every available lane, and they don't give a danm about anyone
> else.

Sorry.

Traffic at the SL sometimes need to make a L.  It's tough to drive in
the R lane at the SL and get in the L turn lane with traffic flying by
at the SL +15-30mph, each vehicle either on the ass of and/or gaining
on the one before, so we have to take an early op****tunity.

> If by some miracle a normal-speed driver manages to make it
> through one of these cluster****s, is it any wonder that they're going
> to make DAMN SURE that they stay out of it, even if that means
> "racing" to be first in line at the next red light?

Priorities vary.  Some are wise, some are not.

> Maybe they don't
> get ahead right this second, but as soon as that light turns green
> they will be FREE of that cloud of inanity, and eventually they WILL
> make it through a green light that changes to red by the time the
> Sloth Swarm reaches that same intersection.

Yeah, and at the next intersection...?  You're tripping the light for
me, thanks.

> So next time you see someone "racing to the red light," consider that
> they may be thinking several moves ahead.

Hurry, beyond all reason, is hardly "thinking".  Speed, over all, is
nowhere near the wisest of driving priorities.

> Checkmate, Sloth!

You are simply adorable when you think you've thought.
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- gpsman