Originally Posted by BarracksSi

Man, this really rubs me the wrong way...

Look --

Yeah, when everyone else is speeding, they're still speeding illegally. Fine.

Here's the problem, though: they're all idiots. Every last one of them. You have to assume that they're incompetent fools who learned how to drive either at 15 mph in a shopping mall parking lot or on a tractor back at the farm. They're blind, they're deaf, they have crying kids in the car, they're getting road head, they have narcolepsy, their tires are 30 years old and are showing cord, they've stolen their car and are trying to evade the cops...

As a driver, you have to both blend in AND do everything better than they do. You blend in by not standing out -- don't go faster than everyone else, and don't go slower than everyone else. Don't change lanes all the time, but get yourself into whatever lane you need early enough so that you don't fly across five lanes at the last second.

Do everything else better. Turn on your lights so that the blind ones have a better chance at seeing you. Set your mirrors so that you eliminate blind spots -- and USE them. Stay out of others' blind spots -- if you can't see their eyeballs, they absolutely do not see you. Signal appropriately -- don't leave it on for five miles, and don't flick it on after you start changing lanes. Don't go too fast or else some other idiot will change lanes right in front of you; don't go too slow or else some other idiot will swerve around you and hit someone else. Merge with traffic easily by going the same speed as they're going. Keep your car in good shape, making sure that your steering's not loose, the alignment's good, the exhaust won't fall off, and the tires still have tread & are pumped to the right pressure (and snow tires for snow driving).