I hate cruise control.
Ok, maybe I don’t hate cruise control. Maybe I just hate the people who use cruise control.
I know what you are saying. You are saying, “Tank, I know you have the bird flu and it is making you cranky. You don’t really hate people who use cruise control”.
Yes, I do have a very nasty case of the bird flu that would put an ordinary man into the hospital, but I really, honestly hate people who use cruise control.
There should be no way for me to detect if a person is using cruise control or not. This feature on someone else’s vehicle should not affect me in any way. Unfortunately, many times it is obvious to me who is using cruise control as I am riding down the road, and here is how I can tell.
Lazy people use cruise control. I am a lazy person myself, so I am not hating because they are lazy. The problem with them is when they are traveling down the freeway and come upon another vehicle that is moving 1/8 of a mile per hour slower than they are. Instead of shutting off the cruise control, speeding up, passing them, and then returning to their regular speed they simply pull into the passing lane to pass the car that is going 1/8 of 1 mile per hour slower than they are. This makes their passing speed .125 mph. This converts to .18 feet per second. Lets say this guy pulls into the passing lane while he is 30 feet behind the car he wants to overtake, and the car is 20 feet long, then he waits until he is 30 feet ahead of the overtaken car before getting out of the passing lane. This means he needs to travel 80 feet at .18 feet per second. Simple math tells you I am going to be waiting behind him for about 444 seconds, or roughly 7 and a half minutes.
Ok, so whats the big hurry? 7 minutes? Does it really matter?
No, it really would not if that was the only guy on the road doing it. I am constantly getting stuck behind people doing this, and it is starting to make me crazy. I mean, can these people see the line of traffic a mile long that is stuck behind them? Do they care? Are these people stupid?
I think I am going to write a letter to each of the Presidential candidates to see how they feel about this issue.
I will be sure to let everyone know the response.