If Left Lane Slow Driving Is Rude, Why Is Slow Walking Okay?

Why is it okay to tailgate only inches away at high speeds, yet considered obnoxious when a person is walking right on someone’s tail?

I wonder if the drivers who tailgate me when I’m doing 70, even 75, actually walk like they’re 80.

It’s tempting to assume that these thoughtless drivers who tailgate at high speeds are also the sluggish walkers whom many people get stuck behind when there’s no room to walk around them.

Slow walkers slow me down by forcing me to move at their pace, which feels unnatural, since I’m a brisk walker.

Also, slow walking has been linked to future health problems, according to numerous studies.

The slow walker might argue, “What’s your hurry?”

Well, that’s what I wonder too when I’m being tailgated in the left lane at 65 or 70 mph.

• Where’s the fire?
• Is there a woman in labor?
• Did the driver just get a bullet in the gut and is racing to the hospital?
• What’s YOUR hurry?

If these people are in such a hurry, why don’t they get into the middle or right lane (which are often clear!) and move ahead of me (less than half actually do this, believe it or not)?

They just want to play bully games. Otherwise, they’d waste no time zipping ahead of me when the coast is clear — which it often is.

That they typically don’t do this tells me that they’re not in any hurry.

It’s dangerous to drive so close behind another motorist. In fact, “following too closely” is considered an offense and often comes up in motor vehicle accidents as a contributing factor.

I once saw a video of highway traffic in both directions. Suddenly a huge truck appears to blow a tire, forcing the behemoth to make an abrupt 90 degree turn into opposing traffic, where it hits another truck and erupts into flames.

The car that was heading in that dirction can’t stop in time and rams right into the truck.

However, there’s a car that’s clearly tailgaiting that first vehicle, and despite applying their brakes (you can see the lights go on), crashes into it as it disintegrates into the truck.

Had they not been tailgaiting, they would’ve had sufficient time to evasively maneuver and avoid getting vaporized.

Another way of knowing that they’re not in a hurry and simply feel like being a bully on wheels is that after a while of being right on my tail, they’ll suddenly cross two lanes — that have been clear all along — to take the exit.

If they were intending on taking the exit, why didn’t they just stay in the middle or right lane, which were clear enough for them to drive as fast as they pleased?

I Usually Drive in the Right Lane

But many times, I’m stuck in the left lane. I can’t go into the right lane due to traffic, yet I’m still tailgaited.

What do these clowns behind me expect to do, fly my car out of their way when I can’t get into a crowded right lane to let them pass?

Sometimes I’ll switch to the left lane to get ahead of a slow truck.

As I’m accelerating in the left lane to get ahead of the truck enough to safely get in front of it with plenty of room, someone behind me will be zooming up like a torpedo, just one car length behind me, even though it’s obvious I’m in the process of gaining speed to get ahead of the truck and back into the right lane. WHY DO THEY DO THIS?

Slow Walking Raises Mortality Risk

A comprehensive study of senior citizens by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health showed that the participants whose walking speed was in the quarter bottom of the field for slowness, in completing a 400 meter walk, had a 3-4 times greater early death risk than those whose speed was in the top quarter.

Another study (University of Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris) has similar results: The slowest walkers age 65-plus had a 44 percent higher risk of death from any cause over the next five years.

The slowest third had a three-times greater risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease.

It’s fair to conclude that slow young walkers become slow middle age walkers who then become slow senior walkers.

Normally, I just walk past a slow walker. But this is not possible if there’s no room.

Why is it acceptable to so many people, and even encouraged, to tailgate as a means of telling the driver ahead that you want to move faster than them in that same lane … but considered bad-mannered when a walker pulls the same stunt by “tailgating” the dawdler ahead?

You might be thinking that when I tailgate a sloth-like walker, I’m exhibiting the same thought process as a vehicular tailgater. But you’re mistaken.

If I’m walking on someone’s heels to get them to speed up, this has absolutely ZERO potential for an accident, let alone a fatal one. There’s NO risk. Thus, it is not the same thought process.

Also, I’m not trying to stoke my ego or be a bully. And when I see an opening, I take it rather than remain on the slow walker’s tail.

I truly hate being stuck behind slow walkers (unless they have a medical condition, and I’m not ready to believe that all of these middle-age and especially young adults have a medical condition that causes dawdling), and I just can’t understand why so many younger adults move so slowly.

I never tailgate elderly people or those with difficulty walking.

I also practice what I preach. One time when I was using crutches for a sprained ankle, I knew someone was coming up from behind me.

I stopped and gave them room to pass! I wanted to be considerate, and it was my pleasure!

If I can do this when on crutches, why can’t able-bodied people do it? Why can’t they be aware of faster walkers coming up from behind and simply give them room to pass?

I’m betting they’d think this was ridiculous, yet these are probably the same boneheads who expect motorists to clear out of their way at 70+ mph.

When Bright Lights Flicker

If from a reasonable distance, a driver flicks his brights, I will move over to let him or her pass.

The flickering is road etiquette, and I’m fine with it. I’ve done it myself when in a hurry.

But few drivers practice this unspoken rule of road consideration. Nearly every single one of them just barrels down on me even though I’m going 65, sometimes even 70! So why won’t I move for them anyways?

Because they don’t practice the etiquette of flashing their brights from a safe distance first.

Yes, I will penalize them for that. By not flashing their brights, they send the message they just want to be a bully.

I don’t make accommodations for bullies.

Another common scenario is that a vehicle that’s in the middle lane will suddenly move close behind me.

It’s risky to shift lanes at high speeds right up on someone’s tail. What the devil are they trying to prove? I owe bullies nothing.

Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer. She has a clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.