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July 6, 2022: FIB Mode Activated

52 Comments

I'm sorry, each and every time I stop by, I am reminded that you Minnesotans are just terrible drivers. The worst. Even the Cheeseheads are better.

52 thoughts on “July 6, 2022: FIB Mode Activated”

  1. I'm curious what specific types of driving behavior are prompting this post; I'm not prepared to argue that Minnesotans are great drivers, I'm just curious about why you'd say that.

    2. Minnesotans aren't aggressive drivers. We're passive-aggressive drivers. A single four-way stop is enough to ruin us.

      I'm thinking that Minnesotans have to be pretty solidly near the bottom of any "good driving" list.

      1. It feels like a huge lack of awareness on highways as well. Cars just turning into other lanes for reasons(?), regardless of what traffic is coming up behind them. Also, it seems they just looooooooove to go 10 miles under the speed limit in the left hand lane. Just love it.

        Also, you're right, nibs.

          1. How dare you refute my cherry picked study. Anyway, the first one still has you in the bottom 50%. The only relevant metric (to this discussion) in that second one would be "driving safety", and that's a bit higher. Not as high as Illinois at #1 though*. So far all three studies show the FIBs are superior drivers to Minnesotans.

            (*Can't argue with Illinois being ranked #50 in "driving quality" though.)

          2. The first counterpoint had insured percentage, DUIs, and fatalities per 100,000. The second had driving cost, road quality, and weather as the criteria. I'm not sure either are as relevant as the one HJ posted, which was "accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, citations and fatalities". Anecdotally, I can say that our driving style infuriates people from nearly every other region, and everyone I know who has moved to a different region of the country has had to "relearn" how to drive to undo the Minnesotan way.

            I stand by my initial assessment that "Minnesota Nice" is a nightmare on the roads.

        2. Hmm, my most experience with this was about 30 years ago on several drives across southern Minnesota into Wisconsin heading to either Madison or Rockford, IL. It was very noticeable to me when we crossed the WI border and ran into a million people left-laning while going slower than us.

          Granted I think the interstate speed limit there at the time was 65 and maybe we were pushing it. And the southern Minnesota part was probably empty.

      2. Eh, most of the "objective" lists I'm looking at put us in the top-middle somewhere. I believe that. Passive-aggressive driving may be obnoxious, but it's not nearly as dangerous as aggressive driving.

        1. We have a lot of idiots in Minnesota. There are a lot more idiots in most states.

          1. Amen.

            On my drive up here, my most annoying incidents involved older drivers (which I'll skip) and drivers who apparently can't figure out how cruise control works. It may be SSS, but seems like there are less drivers who permanently live in the fast lane than in the past.

            1. Yo-yo drivers are the worst. Learn how to use the cruise, people. It ain't hard.

              1. Is that where your car slows down ten car lengths behind the car you're following?

                Hate it.

              2. Is that the one that stops/slows down when you're getting "too close" to a car? If so, yeah, I had that in a car recently and it sucks. That thing was reacting to cars 100 yards down the road.

                1. Yes, the kind that slows down to match speed with the car in front. That’s not cruise control, that’s collision avoidance. When I said to cruise at 77, I didn’t mean slow down 68 because some nimrod or trucker pulled into my lane to pass an even slower car shortly before the heat death of the universe. If I need to move left to maintain my speed, so be it!

              3. Oh, I love it. You can set the distance at which it activates. Should be able to move into the left lane before it activates. In busy traffic I’m way less infuriated and just let it go. I stop wasting brain cycles trying to frogged the fastest route.

                But that’s just me.

                    1. I have it on my Toyota and love it - I rarely have issues with it picking up other car lanes.

                    2. I have a Toyota. The problem is that even at the shortest distance, it slows down before I go to pass. I end up dropping a couple MPH and then have to accelerate that much more (with all 4 cylinders). It's less efficient, annoying, and dangerous.

                  2. I like it in our Kia. There are four distance settings and I've gotten used to using it on the interstate.

          1. I guess this is really my thought, is all. And, if you're in the right mindset, infuriating doesn't have to be so infuriating - a little patience goes a long way. The older I've gotten, the easier that has been for me on the roads. Except 4 way stops. How can people really not figure those out?

            1. I'm very easygoing on the roads. I drive a couple MPH over the speed limit and set the cruise. I don't drive aggressively. I let people in in spots where I would hope to be let in.

              But if I have one more person who has right-of-way wave me through a four way stop because they can't figure out how it works.....

      3. Minnesotans aren't aggressive drivers. We're passive-aggressive drivers. A single four-way stop is enough to ruin us.

        and this is the reason I came up with as to why so many people are against roundabouts.

              1. Yes, or those that get to a roundabout marked with a YIELD and come to a complete stop even though they have a clear window to enter.

      4. We're passive-aggressive drivers. A single four-way stop is enough to ruin us.

        You should try the wild west New Orleans method - everyone does what they want and if you have a problem with it you're the asshole.

    3. I’ll say my view of FIB drivers is heavily influenced by the number of FISH(TAB)s one encounters between the state line and the northwestern edge of the Dells. Doing 85 mph in a Tahoe, Lexus, or German SUV while towing a boat up to a lake house more expensive than my only house puts one on the “entitled asshole & road menace” list.

      1. Also, Upper Midwestern motorists might be annoying on the passive-aggressive side, but having just come back from Southern California, let me tell you I was reminded how some excellent roads are wasted on mediocre-at-best drivers.

      3. Find something you love as much as a FIB loves passing on the right. Also, there is nothing worse than heading south between the Dells and the WI/IL border.

          1. They aren't usually passing me in the right lane, they'll be passing someone in the middle lane on the right while I'm doing it correctly on the left. Though I was nearly killed on my way to get my first COVID shot when three FIBS passed me on the right (I was stuck behind a pickup with a large trailer trying to pass a semi) with the third one not having the space to get in front of me, but did so anyway, while I had another FIB inhaling exhaust from my tailpipe and a cement construction barrier on my left.

          1. Yeah, we typically get off at exit 92 and take highway 12 up through Madison.

        3. I feel like we've been getting some of these in MN... I'm passing in the left lane, correctly, they decide I'm not passing fast enough for their liking, cut me off from getting back into the right lane, ususally after I've already signaled, always dangerously.

          1. Its kind of terrifying, especially because they're usually making the move back to the middle quickly due to a closing gap from an even slower vehicle in the far right lane.

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