If you’re one of our younger readers, you might have wondered why you have blown by an older driver who was happily cruising about at exactly the speed limit, if not under it. Maybe their driving skills, reaction times, or senses have diminished? Maybe they’re no longer comfortable behind the wheel? While any of those could be valid, there’s another explanation.
Jason wrote about a system that General Motors has patented to determine if someone is too old to be driving. In reality, the patent seems to be for a system to punish a bad driver regardless of their age. 4jim offers a more hilarious explanation:
I thought the too old driving score was all the dings, dents, scraped wheels etc.
Old people need to buy a new GM product of course. $$$$
As I am now an old man I now know why old men drive slower
- I know now how to schedule my life so I am no longer in a hurry so do I not need to speed.
- Most of the places I am going I do not want to go so I do not need to speed.
- I am not in a hurry to go be around people I do not like.
It took me a lifetime of mocking slow old men to finally understand.
I wrote about how BMW Motorrad has made a new concept scooter, which teases a future where you might not need to wear a helmet to ride. My story included a bit about how Detlef Helm, an engineer at BMW, contributed to the development of the original BMW C1 with a computation model. Martin Dollinger:
Detlef Helm (Helm = helmet in German) simply had to be the specialist to do the calculations here.
Nlpnt:
As someone who worked in grocery with (at various times) a meat manager named Mike Bacon and a refrigeration mechanic named Bob Frost, I heartily agree.
David Tracy has started his new WWII Jeep build project by unboxing the body. I wonder if he’ll get this reference:
Hey girl
I got somethin’ real important to give you
So just sit down and listen
Girl you know we’ve been together such a long long time
(Such a long time)
And now I’m ready to lay it on the line
Wow, you know it’s Christmas and my heart is open wide
(Open wide)
Gonna give you something so you know what’s on my mind
(What’s on my mind)
A gift real special, so take off the top
Take a look inside it’s my Jeep in a box
It’s in a box…..
Finally, Jason might want to be careful before showing off the engine bay of his 2CV. Andy Individual:
Seeing the front end stripped of all the bodywork reminds me of changing a windshield wiper fuse on an Audi.
Have a great evening, everyone!
I’m 65 and I drive fast. Why? Because driving is fun and driving fast is more funner.
Besides, the older you get, the less things like “life in prison” really seem to matter.
Well back before she past away my mom got a speeding ticket for going 80mph on her 80th birthday she always had a lead foot forfeited her license without being asked and never had an accident in 70 years
I finally learned the math of diminishing returns for speeding. At highway speeds, you have to go EPICALLY faster to actually gain any time, and you burn a LOT more fuel.
Once I stopped frantically hustling on a regular 100-mile freeway drive, I found serenely cruising at exactly the speed limit costs 3 whole minutes and nets a 20% gain in mpg.
If I really want to feel speed and terror, I can just ride a motorcycle with normal traffic.
I used to be a “normal” driver. Always subconsciously striving to be faster than the flow of traffic, tailgating anyone with the nerve to drive merely 8 MPH over the limit instead of 15 or 20, music cranked, overconfident of my ability behind the wheel and blissfully oblivious to the ever-present hazards of everyday driving.
Then one morning in 2022 on my way to work as I was changing lanes toward my off-ramp, a speeding driver hit the left rear corner of my vehicle causing it to roll, slam into a concrete barrier and scrape to a halt driver’s-side down with my left forearm grinding through asphalt and broken glass as I kept both hands vice-gripped to the steering wheel. Witnesses pulled me out skyward through the passenger door and informed me the driver fled the scene. I spent the rest of the day in a chaotic ER filled with gasping COVID patients.
I was beyond fortunate to have only minor injuries. Loss of my left arm or any functionality of it would have been devastating to me as I truly love my job as a construction equipment mechanic. When I’m driving I still flinch when other vehicles make sudden maneuvers and reliving events to type these comments makes my heart race.
Please be cautious and courteous out there. Consider the safety of yourself and others and don’t be an asshole when you encounter someone driving like an 80 year old.
Going for 61 in a month. I just learned about some law or something that if you get busted over 100mph you go to jail? so now I only do 98. Twice monthly on a 300mi interstate stretch, twice (both ways). I dont weave, dont race, if traffic piles up I’m patient until I can bust loose. I dont hog the left lane and I use my blinkers. So far, so good. Always in a rental, and I avoid flashy cars and colors.
I’d like to thank my mechanic, the dealership and the great team at roadside assistance…
“The real reason I drive slow” – at age 72, I’m on my 3rd BMW 5 series and I’m tired of getting tickets.
Use the old ” oh it is US 95 I thought 95v was the speed limit.”
What got me to slow down as I got older?
I am the same here. my daily is also either 1988 or 1997 car so it is somewhat expected to see old car driving slow.
Those were great!
For me, the big thing that changed my driving habits was children.
Getting these little hellions to sleep in a car and keeping them asleep was a major goal when they were younger. Smooth and steady driving was more important than setting FTOTD.
As they got older, I wanted to model safe and responsible driving in the (vain) hope that they might not drive as stupidly as I did when I was a teenager/young adult.
Kids are f’ing expensive. I can’t afford diapers, formula, chicken nuggets, school supplies AND traffic Tickets. Also, if I get hurt in an accident (that I cause), how am I going to afford for any of this stuff?
Now that I’m in my mid-50s, I see no reason to drive hard. I’ve been driving careful because of kids (and young adults) for 20+ years. I’d like to think I still have the skills to haul ass, but I don’t see the point anymore. Just so I can show up at the Doctor’s office early so he has more time to violate me and tell me I’m fat?
I’m 90% sure that I’m an invisible driver right now. I stick around the speed limit, stay out of the Left lane, signal when I am changing lanes or turning, rarely have the throttle opened up enough to make any significant noise. One of those cars I absolutely ignored 25+ years ago. I’m ok with that.
With that being said, the fastest driver I personnel know (well on the street) is about my age and never had kids (well that he knows of). He’s got a combination of 35+ years of driving hard on the street and enough money for an actual fast car. He’s learned where he can haul ass and how to haul ass when those opportunities are available.
My problem is with the people who decide that the window from 6-9AM is the perfect time to go for a weekday cruise under the speed limit. You’re retired. You don’t need to be out when everyone else is trying to get to work.
Then 5pm rolls around and it’s time for another cruise to settle their stomachs after 4pm dinner so they can fall asleep to Jeopardy later.
Dude, by 6 AM, they’ve walked an elderly dog that pees on every weed, watched an episode of Law and Order, and been to Denny’s for a Super Slam. They are barely awake and trying to drive home safely so they can take their mid-morning nap.
Give them a break.
My apologies, I was not aware of the tribulations suffered by retirees. I will feel honored from now on to be in the presence of the traffic they have created.
Just watch for them in the evenings during the later rush-hour. They can drive like Demons to make sure they don’t miss Mattlock
Yeah I’m 62 hoping to live that dream
I’m in my later 50s and spent 3 weeks off work recovering from surgery. Got into “Bargain Hunting” on Amazon. A quasi-game show about antiquing.
After a week, I figured I was only watching it because I was on pain pills. Last two nights, my wife and I have watched together and got into it. It’s scary. I look at the crap being sold and think “well, that was a dumb idea, I would get…” and my wife is going “that’s cute, I would want to buy that..”
I swear we are aging quicker than milk left outside on a hot day.
What in the world is a hobo doing up at 6am and why is he in a hurry?
That’s easy. Hobos need to catch trains. At 6 AM (Rush hour), by law, the freight trains have to position themselves to block as many roads that have a crossing for as long as possible to make rush hour longer and more miserable. These parked trains sitting at road crossings are a perfect chance for Hobos to climb aboard.
4jim is correct, especially the part about being around people I don’t like which is pretty much everyone. I’m a boomer, but not your garden variety bitter, angry, MAGA boomer. I’m at the point where I don’t give a rat’s ass about almost anything. People annoy me, I’ve reduced my friends to single digit numbers, and I’m not taking applications.
Oh yeah, I drive the speed limit in my little town because of kids and stuff but get me on the interstate and I will embarrass you.
So MAGA?
No, which is why the number of friends has dwindled into single digits. I got tired of them spewing stupid Fox News shit.
I’m on the board! It’s an older reference so it’s possible he could get it, think he likes the N’SYNCs and such right?
Damn I feel old as hell now. I think my kids listened to N’Sync. Didn’t pay attention much because I wanted to listen to music I liked.
I spent a few years commuting some distance in the past, and I caught myself being one of those people who’s speed would generally creep up in open traffic. This being pre-radar cruise, I disliked using cruise control on the commute as someone would inevitably pull in front, slow down, and then move back again.
I did find, however, that my VW had an adjustable speed alarm. So I could set the alarm to chime when I was ~20-over – to keep myself from being a target from any officer that might be looking for something easy. And I kept myself out of the inside-most lane. I found I’d arrive to work in the same time (all due to traffic patterns), using less fuel, and without the worry of a speeding ticket.
The habit stuck, many years later. There’d have been no way my younger self would have understood.
I think it might be funnier if that, of all things, is one of the few references he gets.
I noticed my driving speed (behind the wheel specifically) drop to more legal-ish speeds, ironically when I started riding a motorcycle. My reasoning was that any speeding tickets and subsequent points on my license would be wasted in a car and should be saved for when I’m on two wheels.
The generally more relaxed driving has stuck around after I decided to hang-up the leathers when I the general quality of driving seemed to take a nosedive around COVID…
My trick was to buy a slow car with 145 R12 tires, which allows me to drive at 9/10ths without anyone noticing.
Great point. I used to have a Subaru Loyale (ski/winter beater) with like 160/xxR13’s and I had to be a bit careful in some turns on the interstate at 65. The tires would be uncomfortably close to the edge of their grip on dry roads. It would happily plow through headlight-deep snow, but don’t ask it to turn at anything close to speed in the dry…
Oddly enough, what most did it for me was when I started doing Lemons racing. I have so much more skill and aggression on track, yet my driving in traffic has become much more zen like. Not saying I never speed but I now “flow like a river” instead of weaving to maintain my speed. Another surprising thing from about 5 years ago when I’d do this drive weekly was when I-90 north of O’Hare was raised from 45/55mph to 70mph speed limits I found my average speed dropped from 80-90 to 75-80 as the speed limit was at least now reasonable.
edit – to clarify that was usually about 7-8am on a Sunday with 5 lanes and about 5 total cars per mile. My return trip I’d be lucky to average 30mph.
The sweet spot is about 2mph less than prevailing traffic. Which most often turns out to be 8 over the limit. Its quick enough to still get places in a reasonable time, but also helps maintain your chill.
I think it depends on the the old person. I know a guy that turned 75 went I’m going to take an easy maybe only go 10 over for now on. Including the 45mph winding road people like into go 35 on. Of course he is hell on a tractor too uses a rotary mower as a forestry mulcher and has flipped several tractors going hills he has no business going up. Often find he hasn’t quite gotten his trailer locked on the ball so he is dragging it down the road with safety chains.
You guys are posting so much stuff, that I can’t even keep up anymore. I’ve been working on getting my mother into assisted living this past week, but when I try to get caught up here, I’m so far behind. I guess I’m not complaining. I just feel like I’m missing out.
That said, I’ve been making trips from Tacoma down to Davis every other week for the last three months, and I am surprised to see myself doing 85 mph on stretches of I-5, just keeping up with the flow of people. If you pay attention to the instruments, that doesn’t happen.
The only time I’ve gone a sustained 90mph on my motorcycle was Northern California because it was just so effing boring with all the farmland.
Recommendation for missing stuff: if you use an rss reader it’ll keep track of everything you haven’t read, so you can pick through it when/if you’ve got a minute or two and catch up.
Use your phone anytime you are waiting for car repair or your mom’s doctor visit but a Already read button removal of articles would be great
To know what I’ve read/not read yet, I open up a tab for each article I want to read, and then close the tab when I’ve finished.
Yes, it results in a rather large collection of open tabs at the start, but much easier to let my laptop deal with this First World Problem. I can see tabs that are open on my laptop from my phone as they’re all synced. Sometimes I have to refresh the link to “up vote”, see all the comments or add my own comment, but that’s easy.
Like driving more slowly now, I don’t have to rush or feel like I’ve missed anything.
I’m not entirely convinced by the ‘old people drive slow’ argument. This is not necessarily true. It’s that older people can often drive at inappropriate speeds.
In the UK the Honda Fit, which is generally held in high regard in America, is called the Jazz. Same engines, same car. Wave your hands appropriately. I can guarantee that any driver under the age of 80 who closes on a car in front and finds themselves viewing a Honda badge and ‘Jazz’ groans audibly.
This car is driven by octogenarians at 40mph regardless of road type, road conditions or weather. Motorway? 40mph in the middle lane. It’s safest there. Country road? 40 mph where the speed limit is 60. If any of you have driven the country roads of the UK you will know that generally there are very few straight bits where you can get past these dawdlers but, when there is a long enough stretch, enough oncoming traffic spaced just close enough to stop an overtake will inevitably appear.
You are stuck behind them until you reach a small town where the speed limit is 30mph. The Jazz/Fit will pull away from you because it’s still doing 40 in a residential area. It’s 4pm and the schoolkids are walking home; the flashing temporary speed limit sign says 20mph. That Fit/Jazz is still doing 40 past the smelly unpredictable preteens and teens and pulling away some more. You’re Hamilton in your Ferrari in 12th whilst Verstappen is romping away to pole.
You catch up to it once the town is behind and it’s still doing 40. It’s suddenly got foggy and visibility is down to the tens of meters. That Fit/Jazz is still doing 40.
It’s lack of situational awareness and something that creeps up on us all as we get older. It affects some people more than others and my father, 80, is someone I will happily sit in the passenger seat with. His ex army colleague, a few years younger, should not be in charge of a shopping cart, let alone a 2 ton vehicle.
Drivers should be judged on their individual merits, and failings of course, not tarred with the same brush. Old <> crap.
However, when I get into power I will pass legislation to export all the Honda Jazz we have to America where you can turn them into one series race cars. And save the rest of us in Europe our sanity.
It’s not as universal here, but I think the Honda CRV takes the place of the Fit here as the car you really don’t want to be stuck behind. It used to be the Prius, but by now they’re mostly driven by delivery drivers and it turns out they can be quite peppy.
If it’s camping out in the left lane, it’s almost always a CRV
And if it’s not – it’s a Subaru.
Around here its a brodozer.
That’s funny – here they’re usually the ones tailgating me while I’m doing 15 over.
We get that, too. Basically, if there’s a way a brodozer can make life miserable for you, that’s what they’ll do.
No, it’s the RAV4. “RAV4 – when the far right lane is too fast for you.”
I was always happy commuting in my Prius because it was invisible and while it didn’t have amazing acceleration like almost all modern cars it could easily cruise well above the speed limit.
I had a coworker with a bright blue RC 350 F-sport who was complaining about getting pulled over for the 3rd time in as many months and I am pretty sure I had passed him on the way to the office a few minutes earlier in my silver Prius.
This is a very real thing where I live, a region which leans very, very elderly. 40mph is seemingly the standard speed everywhere. The 55mph zone that’s a massively wide, straight, flat US highway with no town for 15 miles? 40mph. Residential street in a city with a 25-30mph speed limit with kids on bikes and schools and shit? 40mph.
I find that a lack of situational awareness has infected drivers of all ages. New vehicle interiors being designed to sensory deprivation tank standards have exacerbated this problem.
Damn it. Now I have bleep in a box earworms.
“I’m on a boat” is the one that gets stuck in my head.
The people driving slow in front of me in the left lane are in a Toyota SUV , any brand mini van, or an Altima with the temporary spare on and a bungee strap holding the trunk kind of closed.
A Ram. With flags. So many flag stickers.
Those Altimas are either going 30 under the limit or 100 over the limit. Very little in-between
I totally relate to that quote about “places I don’t want to go, people I don’t want to be with.” In the past 26 hours I’ve had a full eye exam with dilation, a dental cleaning and an MRI, with contrast. So I wanted to be on time, but there was definitely no reason to rush.
“In the past 26 hours I’ve had a full eye exam with dilation, a dental cleaning and an MRI, with contrast.”
And its not even the weekend!
I just turned 60 last month –
After spending an afternoon with my Dentist numb from the neck up earlier this week – I’m with you on that.
The only thing that makes those trips better is being able to put the top down and feeling what’s left of my hair blowing in the breeze.