Mountain roads and passing

[bhskittykatt]

So this has happened more than a few times to me now.

You're on a mountain highway. It's nice and windy and maybe you're scared of curves, okay. But if you insist on going 20mph under the limit, that's a bit excessive for these stretches and you need to pull over and let the cars piled up behind you get by.

Furthermore, if you can't be arsed to do that, then when we hit one of the rare patches of straight road that allows passing, do not speed up to 10 mph over to stop cars from passing, then slow back down again as soon as the passing zone ends.

In the most recent encounter, I had to get up to 70 on a 50 to get around the guy, because it was the last passing zone before the big ascent up the mountain, which is all steep and tight hairpin turns, and I was not going to stay stuck behind him through that if he couldn't seem to handle the easier stuff on the way out. I get that it's all scenic and stuff and you want to ogle it all but my time is limited and I've already seen it all and I just want to get out there, do my hike, and get back, so just let me pass you.

(Further up, there was a car coming up behind me, and I was approaching an older van that did not have adequate horsepower to ascend very quickly. The van pulled over for me, I passed him and pulled over for the car approaching behind me to get by, and it worked out fabulously with all three of us fitting nicely in our proper spots. That's how it's supposed to work! Awareness and cooperative effort ftw!)

[notalwaysright]

So annoying. We used to go camping a lot, and people drive amazingly stupid going over passes. Too fast, too slow, passing when it's terribly unsafe, refusing to let anyone pass. Generally being dumb regarding big rigs, or people pulling RVs. We were nearly always pulling a 36' trailer, and wow did people hate us. We would be about 10 mph under. But we would always let people pass! That wasn't good enough for some, who would flash their lights or do that swerve thing.

[bhskittykatt]

We were nearly always pulling a 36' trailer, and wow did people hate us. We would be about 10 mph under. But we would always let people pass! That wasn't good enough for some, who would flash their lights or do that swerve thing.

Ugh, I had some guy riding my ass 6" from my bumper on the descent. I pulled over as soon as I could, but there was just no passing and no pulling over for a while and I was already doing the limit and it was like wtf just chill!

[April]

I see that here too. We like to go up to Cripple Creek and do a little gambling every now and again. The road up is twisty and turny and not a lot of guard rails. It's not really dangerous, but there are some hairpin turns. Speed limit is usually around 40, and you have these guys who want to go 60 who are passing on the double lines near blind curves. When, if they had waited a few minutes, I would have pulled over on one of the little turn outs that they have.

[retro]

Not much in the way of mountains over here in the Welsh Valleys. Apart from the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia National Parks admittedly, and yes there's a few places there where passing places would be helpful.

What we do have though are forests. Tight, twisty forests and the worst nightmare in there is coming across farmyard vehicles - tractors are the worst. Guaranteed you're stuck behind them doing about 20mph in a 60 limit area. (Although if you can get above 40mph, you probably also have a future career in rallying) However, the road never straightens enough to be able to pass them, so you're stuck for miles behind a 20mph tractor.

[bhskittykatt]

What we do have though are forests. Tight, twisty forests and the worst nightmare in there is coming across farmyard vehicles - tractors are the worst. Guaranteed you're stuck behind them doing about 20mph in a 60 limit area. (Although if you can get above 40mph, you probably also have a future career in rallying) However, the road never straightens enough to be able to pass them, so you're stuck for miles behind a 20mph tractor.

We don't get tractors in the foresty bits, but we do get cyclists a lot on roads like this:


That's a straighter portion, actually. Speed limit is 40mph, but good luck if you're stuck behind a cyclist. No shoulder for them to pull over for you, since it's either cliff or drop-off on either end of the road for a few miles.

[retro]

Ouch that's even worse.

[pitmonkey]

Furthermore, if you can't be arsed to do that, then when we hit one of the rare patches of straight road that allows passing, do not speed up to 10 mph over to stop cars from passing, then slow back down again as soon as the passing zone ends.

In the most recent encounter, I had to get up to 70 on a 50 to get around the guy, because it was the last passing zone

I had the same thing happen to me coming back over and ended up going 70 to get around some one on HWY 2. What is very frustrating is that if there are 5 or more be hind you , you are to let them pass.

[mathnerd]

My introduction to mountain driving was I-94 and I-90 from Fargo, ND to Seattle, WA. I'm quite certain I probably pissed off more than a few drivers as I learned how to navigate mountain roads on a cross country journey. I tried to be nice and stay as far to the right as I could (interstates are usually more than one lane in each direction, but there were a few places that were single lanes), and made sure not to prevent people from passing me on the straighter sections. There was also the issue of learning how to manage my transmission on the assents. It took a few tries to figure out just when I should downshift in order to maximize power and avoid loosing too much speed.

These days, I'm still not the speediest driver on mountain roads, but I'm not nearly as bad as I was then.

[dalesys]

These days, I'm still not the speediest driver on mountain roads, but I'm not nearly as bad as I was then.

On one side of the road was a... mountain.
And on the other side... NOTHIN!

Ya gotta be careful playin' a guitar on a mountain road...
Especially if it's an acoustic guitar, 'cause the wind pressure's greater on the box side than the neck side...

[Valentinian]

Wayyyyy back when I was leetle and still lived with my parents, my mother and I were heading down the coast for a holiday. Getting to the coast involved going Down The Mountain.

Down The Mountain was a twisty, narrow road with steep forested hill going UP on one side, steep forested hill going DOWN on the other (which side was which changed with every switchback to give you some variety in the view and level of terror), fog, signs warning you about falling rock, very infrequent wider stretches where they'd managed to build in a passing lane, and a steep enough pitch that you had to gear down to maintain a safe speed. If you tried to stay at a safe speed without shifting into a low gear, you'd end up riding your brakes so much that they'd heat up and fail. There were signs warning about that, too.

Off we go, heading Down The Mountain, with Mum being a sensible driver using low gear... and after a while we came up behind this parade of half a dozen cars, all stuck behind one banged-up old car in front, going well below the already-low speed limit. Going so slow, in fact, that low gear wouldn't cut it and they were all visibly riding their brakes. Once we joined the parade, so were we. But it was okay! There was one of the few passing lanes coming up! We could all pass then!

Except no, because the moment he hit the passing zone, the lead car shifted into the passing lane and sped up. When the lane ended, he zipped back into the single lane and slowed down again. The [expletives deleted] wasn't clogging up all those cars behind himself because he was scared to go Down The Mountain faster, he was doing it on purpose.

There was nowhere to pull over. (They've built in breakdown lanes since, thank the deity of your choice.) There was oncoming traffic and blind corners, so no safe way to pass. We were stuck trailing along in a convoy behind this... sterling example of asshattery... with more and more cars joining the line, brakes heating up, tempers likewise. It got really worrying when a semi joined the parade. We could hear his brakes snorting and hissing from half a dozen cars ahead.

Another passing lane. Asshat Parade Leader repeated his little change lanes - speed up - back to the single lane - slow down manoeuvre. More switchbacks. Another passing lane. Asshat Parade Leader switched into the passing lane and sped up.

Car #2 stayed in the main lane and sped up more, blowing straight past him. Car #3 thought that was an awesome idea and did the same. The entire parade grabbed at their one chance to escape. Every driver hit the accelerator. When Asshat Parade Leader reached the end of the (short!) passing lane, nobody let him back in. The semi driver blew him a serenade on his horn as he zoomed past.

I got a clear look at his face as we passed, and it was the best example of Cat Butt Face that I've ever seen. XD

[retro]

To be honest I'm surprised no-one did that the second time. I'd have been past him like a shot.

[Valentinian]

To be honest I'm surprised no-one did that the second time. I'd have been past him like a shot.

I think Car #2 had to work up the courage to do it - the straight sections on that road are pretty darn short, and we all had to brake hard to make the next turn.