Re: Advice to Drivers of Small Pointless Japanese Cars

ROTFLMBO!! Sloth Coasters, funny, never heard that one before. You should 
try stand-up comedy.
At 47+ mpg, those "Japanese car owners" drive slower to keep from having
an 
accident. They are laughing so hard at those gas guzzelers passing them, 
they have trouble seeing with the tears rolling down their cheeks.

Daniel
NWTG&ADTGT

"gpsman" <gpsman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:b2d7299e-ac9f-4b25-9e24-447334bfdbcc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 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.
> -----
>
> - gpsman