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September 13, 2003
Guy W.
Slower traffic staying right is the general
idea but in moderate+ traffic it doesn't
always work that way and it can become
more a general free for all, most especially when 18 wheelers are thrown
into the mix.
This is theory which works until you
come upon an entranceway with many
cars merging, then you may find yourself
forced into the middle lane in a situation
wherein the traffic flow in the middle lane
is doing 70 and you lack the power to
merge left easily into THAT flow to make
room in the right lane for people getting
on the highway....and you are merging
into the pathway of a heavy truck moving
right along. The is a major cause of
accidents, especially vehicles move
into the pathway of faster moving heavy
trucks....and failing to accelerate for one
reason or another. I see these "moves"
time and again even with cars of obviously adequate power which is not
being used for one reason or another
(inadequate driver!!!:).
I-95 in my area for instance, has exits
and entranceways every few miles. You
really do need the power to "merge" into
different lanes as flow demands at higher
speeds. If you haven't got some reserve
torque at highway speeds, you can easily
become an obstruction to the general
flow, especially when you consider that
more than a few drivers are out there
talking on cell phones (my idiot room
mate!!) and/or driving with a limited degree of "situational awareness"
for one reason or another.
Then, of course, you have the idiot who
insists on staying in the left (fast) lane
doing a legal 55, forcing faster cars to
move right which forces cars in that lane
to move right, than back to the left, etc.
A stock 948 would get creamed in my
area, especially on the more hilly terrain
to the North on Route 15 (high speed
limited access two lane highway). No
reserve power at all at modern highway
speeds going uphill, for sure!
How unsafe can mixing fast with slow (including ability to accelerate or
decelerate in time/distance) get?
Well....due to unequal relative initial
approach speeds at airports catering
to props and jets, they run different
patterns for "slow" and "fast" to the
same runway, usually separating by
"right hand traffic" or "left hand traffic".
When I was learning to fly slow moving
Piper Cherokees among jets at LaGuardia
back in the 60's, they EXPECTED the
slow movers to fly inside the same
pattern used by faster jets and time
your approach between the faster/heavier
aircraft moving "outside" you. It you
couldn't do this by "working" your airspeed
and ground track, they sent you around.
If they had to send you around more than
once and they were really busy...they
kicked you out to "hold" for awhile 'til
it got less busy. If you didn't have the
fuel, you were landing elsewhere!
Cap'n. Bob
'60 :{)
PilotRob@... 25235
Posted on September 13, 2003 04:58 AM
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