Slipstreaming

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Fri 11 Nov 2005 14:50
Slipstreaming - AngryJonny
Usual emergency vehicle sound from outside so I looked out the window to see what the flavour was. An ambulance was trying to make its way down a one-way two-lane road full of traffic queueing for Hammersmith Broadway a couple of hundred yards away. Left lane was pulling left and right lane pulling right to let the ambulance down the middle and this was proving generally successful. But behind the ambulance two cars were slipstreaming it down the middle. Now I've heard of this happening but I've never seen quite such a blatant example of this where the cars, many of whom had mounted the pavement to make way for the ambulance had to sit and wait for these scoundrels to pass them before they could rejoin their queue. The looks of frustrastion on their faces were very telling.

I'm not even sure whether such behaviour is illegal, despite the fact that it's extremely antisocial. Are there laws in place to stop them doing it? What could a copper have done them for? And could I have done anything to stop them if I was a driver just trying to rejoin my queue? I've never seen such blatant disregard for other road-users from the "I'm in a BMW so I can do this" brigade.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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Fri 11 Nov 2005 15:12
Slipstreaming - Chicken Madras
On a slightly related note, some years ago I was stuck on a slow-moving M1 on a Friday afternoon. A Police convoy came steaming up parting the ways and as it passed, I thought "I'll have a bit of that" to myself. After about five seconds of following it, a large sign saying "POLICE - KEEP BACK" lit up in the tail patrol car. I dutifully pulled back into lane 2...
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Fri 11 Nov 2005 15:33
Slipstreaming - mare
Not possible that the two cars following were relatives of the patient in the ambulance is it? Not saying that that was the case, just a possible explanation. I've had to follow an ambulance to hospital once (and struggled to keep up i might add!)
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Fri 11 Nov 2005 16:04
Slipstreaming - AngryJonny
Hmm... I didn't think of that. And obviously neither did the people in the queues as they shrugged and jesticulated at the slipstreaming motors. I suppose it could have been the case, but to me it looked like they were just being cheeky.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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Fri 11 Nov 2005 16:09
Slipstreaming - Cliff Pope
It's not just confined to emergency vehicles of course. Quite often I see a pair of cars driven fast, overtaking everything they can, the second following the first by about 10 feet. Every risk the first one takes, the second takes too, only more so. I suppose the driver reckons that if the first car can squeeze in somewhere, he can too.
It would terrify me, the prospect of getting blocked out into the wrong lane, facing an oncoming car or lorry with no space to dive into, but some people seem to have no fear at all.
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Fri 11 Nov 2005 16:16
Slipstreaming - Roberson
but some people seem to have no
fear at all.


Yep, closely linked to something called stupidity
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