| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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Today I drove a total of 20.5 miles, to and from work. In the course of this 20.5 miles: 1. Ambulance, sirens blaring, lights flashing, comes screaming down the road. I pull over. No one else does. Everyone flies right past me and then refuses to let me back on the road after the ambulance has left. Pulling over for an ambulance isn't a legal thing like pulling over for a stop sign, it's an ethical obligation. It could be ME in that ambulance, it could be YOU, and the hospital was still a good 20 minutes from that ambulance. 2. Woman in HUGE lexus suv passes me on the RIGHT in the breakdown lane, which is really only half a lane, forcing me into oncoming traffic. Procedes to flip me off when I cast a glance of irritation. (All hands note that the speed limit is 55 and I was going easily 70, speaking of bad driving). 3. Youngish couple in HUGE Ford suv manages to hit a bird (?) tossing it back onto the hood of my car--then feels an obligation to slow down to twenty miles an hour in a 55, I guess out of contrition. 4. Toyota pickup with Colorada plates stuck behind me and said suv procedes to pass me on a bridge with oncoming traffic, causing great consternation for all--is still stuck behind the origional, slow offender. 5. Lady attempting to parallel park behind me manages to take off a huge chunk of my bumper, does not apologize or offer any info, drives off. I have her plate no., was thinking of calling DMV. So, like, seriously, what is going on with all the bad driving? It seems to be getting worse and worse these days, and it's pissing me off. Every trip to work is fraught with danger and stress...how are all these people getting their licenses, anyway? ARGH. /rant |
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If she really did do damage to your car, she's in trouble. |
Drivers are getting worse here, too. Though I always thought it was an actual law to pull over for ambulances and fire trucks and basically anything with a siren like that, people are just sitting in the way here. I noticed some people at a light, the light turned green in my direction, but the ambulance was coming from the opposite direction. My line of traffic, nobody moved out of respect. The cars in front of the ambulance just SAT THERE and blocked it for like two minutes, when traffic was clear for them so that they could get out of the way of the ambulance. Idiots. They just sat there and blocked it, even when it was right behind them. |
i want to get drunk just reading that. id be in such a lather. totally call that wank in. make her pay for all the other assholes you encountered. |
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I remember when I was learning how to drive, people told me "never rely on signals to tell you where someone is going." No shit. Signaling, like pulling over for an ambulance, isn't just the law, it's common fucking sense. I don't know if there's been some sort of mass signal device interruption system in force, but honestly. I signal in parking lots for chrissakes. I did call DMV and report her for hit and run--turns out she has two points on her license already...heh heh heh. |
*i once got a ticket for "Failing To Yeild To An Emergency Vehicle", but that was in Wyoming in 1993 and i thought the cop was chasing someone else. |
Damn, I feel like shit today. Day off, where are you? |
. One law that I see very few people obey are those "Stop When Occupied" crosswalks. They're the legal equivalent of a stop sign, only you can ignore them there aren't any peds. The overabundant rudeness on the roads really bothers me. I try to compensate by being nice, and I usually only get more rudeness back. |
also, egos drive cars. every notice how everyone now wants to drive in the far left lane, usually the fast lane, even though its painfully obvious they arent the fast ones and you are forced to pass on the right, creating a danger for merging and genuinely slower traffic. also. as a general advisory...if i pull up behind you, and flash my lights, day or night. its an established means of communication. most educated drivers know this. Most educated drivers also look in their rearview AT least once every 30 seconds. When I flash my lights, and you see me, that means move your slow ass to the right lane and let me pass. its not a shot at your ego. im not saying im better, faster, bigger, longer, harder or whatever than you. it just says you arent moving at the rate of speed id like to and im askin for motherfuckin courtesy. this thread is getting me worked up. |
lights started flashing in the road. i'd never seen them before so i was staring and thinking about them, like, what's that? and i almost realized too late that it meant someone was in the crosswalk and i almost couldn't stop. heh. er. |
This is so dangerous! For everybody! Pedestrians take their lives into their hands when they cross. Drivers risk getting hit from behind when they stop suddenly in the middle of the street. For the life of me, I don't understand why the crosswalk is there. Go to the ends of the block, where there are lights! |
technically I believe pedestrians have the right of way to cross from corner to corner at an intersection, even if no cross walk is marked. however, i too think peds take their lives in their hands when they opt to cross at such crosswalks. always take a cross walk with a traffic light if you can. |
oh man. You're THAT guy? fuck you, buddy! I set my cruise control to the speed limit (right on the dot) and won't budge just for fun. And giggle. Because of YOU GUYS. Slowdown or get over it. I'm not getting pulled over for someone else's impatience. Then i tap the brake. good times. *p.s. na-na-NA-NeeeaaaaaNeeeaaaaaaah* |
When i lived in Toronto, my own mother did that speedlimit in the fastlane shit all the time... she was pulled over by the cops Twice because of it, and warned about being 'unsafe' and that 'keeping with the flow of traffic' is the only time when its ok to speed. Wisper can probably attest to this fact... The 401 during off peak hours is at least 120km/hr in the fast lane (usually in the slow lanes too) and if you cant/wont do that speed you are causing (or risking) more than if you would just speed up.. |
aww shit now i have to go back to anger managment classes.. fuck fuckitty fuck fuck fuck.... |
And pulling over. I live in a highly rural area. The roads are hard to drive if you don't know them. PULL THE FUCK OVER if you can't handle going 50 or 60. It's safer for all of us. And if I see cars behind me, I pull over. It's not an ego thing, it's a "let this person who obviously wants to go faster pass me" thing. Argh. Didn't they used to have something called a "governer" that wouldn't allow your car to exceed the speed limit? Damn, that would suck. |
but doing the speed limit in the ultra fast lane is doing the speed limit shut the fuck up about 'its okay to bend the rules, move over', because its not OK. I hear this same shit from people who drank 'just a little' over the legal limit. no big deal, right? "you see me swerving, its my drunk ass way of communication. move over and let me pass." its these people that killed my dad. "When i lived in Toronto, my own mother did that speedlimit in the fastlane shit all the time... she was pulled over by the cops Twice because of it, and warned about being 'unsafe' and that 'keeping with the flow of traffic' is the only time when its ok to speed. " this is interesting considering my uncle is former Toronto PD and was Mr. Speed Limit. Well of course he is, it was his brother (my dad) who got killed with this way of thinking. I'd like to see you tell all of us that this is 'just the way it is'. It isn't. "thats how people die..." no, its idiots who have their heads so far up their asses with cockiness they think they can control their car at any speed. And they mess up just a little, panic, and end up in a ditch. When I was learning to drive, I was being taught on the highway, and they wanted me to go the speed limit in the fast lane. The cars behind me were honking and beeping to get me to speed up, and I was panicking, it being my first time, and almost flew off the road. If the people in the fast lane OBEYING THE LAW are in any danger, its because of pressure from you guys. back off. Its also because of that pressure coupled with loss that my mom wont drive on the highway AT ALL anymore. She takes the service roads and goes the speed limit because she's been fed the bullshit that safe driving is 'a nuisance' to you folk. If you need to get somewhere faster, plan ahead next time. Noone else should have to pay or be pressured over your poor time management skills and attitude. The road is NOT the same as an escalator. The 'move to the right and let me run up the stairs' ideal does not work in practice. And you all know that the 'crazy drivers' that just have to get where you want in time, they dont JUST stay in the fast lane, you switch all the time, dont think twice about cutting others off, will swerve around one fast driver to get to the next. No sense of courtesy even amongst themselves. |
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a. infuriating other drivers b. causing unsafe lane changes/poor flow of traffic--the left is a THROUGH lane and should be treated that way c. potentially causing great harm to yourself and others by provoking road rage. People get shot here. No shit. It's not a good idea to play better than you on the freeway here, it's a dangerous place--write to your congressman if it bothers you so much. It's one of these commonsense pick your battles things. |
if you're not in such a hurry, be my guest to mosey along behind some 18 wheeler in the slow lane. you'll get there. over here the left lane is the passing lane. i'm always passing so i get the lane. if you're not passing, stay to the right. i do partially sympathize: "you switch all the time, dont think twice about cutting others off, will swerve around one fast driver to get to the next. No sense of courtesy even amongst themselves." i hate lanesurfers and do everything i can to keep them from cutting me off if there's already a car right in front of me. if it's wide open, i'll let 'em go. hopefully, they'll flush out the trooper at the next speed trap. better yet, end up in a deadly fireball upside some bridge abutment. i'm not saying i'm above passing a group of cars, i do that all the time. but in a respectful way. it's dorky but i really like to feel like i'm making MORE progress than everyone else and i dislike having someone else impeding my progress. but if passing one car only means being stuck behind the car 200 feet ahead, i don't bother. |
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aneurysm time. i also do everything i can to keep at least one small car in front of me. i can not fucking stand the opacity of the ubiquitous minivans, suvs and ridiculously large trucks. i close that gap off. i've been burned too many times letting some fucker who appears to have a purpose, get in front of me only to pull the cruise control trick once inextricably in my way. if only i could fling into the sun with my mind, all the annoying stuff in the world. that'd make me quite a super villain. |
patrick, if you pull up behind me and flash when there's nothing stopping you from going around, i won't budge. you want it, you do the work. if there's no easy way to go around, i'll probably speed up a bit. if there's nowhere to speed up to, tough shit. figure out your own escape plan. besides, if i'm doing 75 in a 60 and passing everyone in the adjacent lanes, you should be buying me a beer, not flashing your headlights at me. p.s. having been for several years a professional driver in one of the worst traffic cities in this nation, i constantly check my mirrors, both peripherally and directly. but, while i know this to be absolutely true, i also tend to let the meat do the driving. it's pretty common for me to have driven across town without remembering a single moment of the details of the journey. autopilot. |
"if you're not passing, stay to the right" my problem is that there are people who can never pass because there are those 'eternally passing' who just cruise the lane, going so fast noone obeying the law can cut into that lane to get around THEIR guy ahead who is going too slow. Fast Lane Hogs its not platy and patrick that pissed me off near so much as Bigkev. and spunk, I'd like to see Montreal take the Pepsi challenge against San Antonio |
My driving peeve is how the majority of drivers are clueless on the concept of SAFETY DISTANCE. You know, keeping about two-three car lengths between you and the guy ahead of you when you are speeding down the highway? ALmost everytime I try to establish a safety distance, some dumbshit gets inbetween. Don't even get me started on tailgaters on a multilane highway. You can afford to back off a bit and pass me safely. |
I'm with you, Dave. I've never had someone flash their lights at me, but when I'm in the left lane and the lane next to me is clear, and there's some fuckwit sitting on my ass, I don't move. And I understand that this isn't the safest or wisest thing to do, as it usually pisses the guy behind me off, but I don't like conceding to bullying jackasses. And if I'm in the middle or right lane, and someone is tailgating me when the passing lane is clear, sometimes I take my foot off the gas. BUT...I have to admit there is one situation in which I often drive really close to the car in front, and that's on an on-ramp to a freeway. What the fuck is wrong with people who drive 30 mph and expect to merge into 80 mph traffic? It's enough to give me a stroke, I swear to God. |
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Have you ever noticed, as you drive down any road of any kind, that the speed you're comfortable at is 10 over the speed limit? The road I take to work -- I naturally take it at 50 mph....speed limit's 40 mph. Speed limit on I-95 is 65 -- I'm comfortable at 75. Tiny back road: I'm going 35, speed limit turns out to be 25. |
. You're all part of the problem if you're trying to control how other people drive. If you're pressuring people to move out of your way or you're intentionally blocking people to slow them down, you're contributing to the rage that makes roads scary. . You can't control how other people drive. Any attempt to do so makes blood boil. . For some reason, at least half of all drivers are ALWAYS hurrying. It must suck, but whatever. Then there's the other group who feels that nobody on the road could possibly have an honest reason to be in a hurry, which is silly. . My favorite drivers are the ones who swerve in and out of traffic, burning twice as much fuel from all the accelerating and braking... and don't get there any faster than I do. The highway is different, but in town, stoplights are the equalizer. You can hurry all you want, but while you're waiting a the next light, I'll pull up right behind you and smile into your rear view. . I live just off 3rd street where the speed limit is 35, but I've heard several people say that it doesn't feel safe to go that fast. It's a narrow, two-lane, pothole infested collection of asphalt patches. But other than that, the speed limit is usually lower than the highest comfortable speed. Some people will always drive 5-10 over the speed limit, and that's taken into account. |
Eh, you're probably right on all accounts. Let me just say that before I moved to the DC Metro area, the concept of road rage was alien to me. After I spent a year driving a 17-mile commute that never took less than an hour and a half because of traffic, I became the bitter, remorseless creature you see before you. I am willing to pay a $900/month rent for a studio apartment so I can live 4 miles and 20 minutes away from my office...that alone can tell you what the traffic is like here. On the news a little while ago, they said the DC Metro area is the second-worst traffic congested area in the country, second to LA. It really does warp your driving personality. |
Um, isn't it courteous to move to the other lane if it's clear? That's what I do all the time. I've rarely had cars flash lights at me. I know among truck drivers, they flash lights after one passes the other to signal to the other guy it's clear to merge back in. |
see spider? you're one of them. you're letting your ego dictate your driving behavior. THATS the problem. same with you wisper. Your behavior is derived from spite, and thats potentially unsafe. your job isnt to enforce the traffic laws. if someone is doing 80 and they flash their lights on approach asking you to step aside, step the fuck aside? whats it to you! you're only making the road more dangerous by being a stubborn fuck. If the right lane is clear, and im approaching a left lane cruiser, a schmuck who CLEARLY doesnt get the concept of passing lanes/ cruising lanes, I will flash my lights. In CA that idea is dumb on most people. Elsewhere, its effective and when I pass, I offer a wave, to say thanks for letting me pass. Its like letting someone merge in front of you in slow traffic. Its a courtesy. In certain parts of the country, say on causeways and bridges (like Key West for example) where its two lanes for a dozen miles or more, your ass will get a ticket for cruising in the left lane. also, its sometimes safer to go with the flow of traffic even if the flow is faster than you'd like. take atlanta freeways. VERY fast freeways. average speed, that i recall reading some years ago was like 82 mph. Thats insane! If you want to go 60 on the freeways in Atlanta your ass is all of a sudden a danger to everyone else, even if they are breaking the laws. I pride myself on being a polite, courteous driver who doesnt let his ego control his actions, despite the coronary i suffer nearly everytime i get on the freeway because of stupid assholes. I've only gotten into one fender bender at about 5mph in bumper to bumper traffic in over a decade of driving. i think that says a couple of things. I pride myself on anticipating other drivers moves, keep a car or two space between me and the fuck ahead and cover brakes often (note, not ride brakes...im convinced much traffic congestion is the result of one testy fuck hitting the brake lights, causing a chain reaction slowing). so...yeah.....you know......whatever. wheres my coffee. |
I have had people flash their lights at me on cross country drives and such, but when you are climbing the rocky mountains in a fully loaded 4 cylinder, you can only go so fast and I am not in the fast lane at that time. If they have a problem they can move to the faster lanes. I usually tend to drive in the middle lane, not stuck behind the rigs, not impeding faster moving traffic. I always move over for sirens, and always try to let people in and maintain safe distances, and always be nice, but some people are just assholes. I figure if I try to be nice, then fuck em. |
Truckers flash their lights for that very purpose. its a polite communication. now i understand the mental image of some prick in a Porsche Carrera bearing down your bumper, impatiently swerving side to side and flashing his lights wanting you to move. thats not what i do. at all. there road etiquette. and flashing your lights when someone spaced out in the left lane, when the right lane is clear, is etiquette. |
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I like me following distance, it makes me feel more comfy. And in situations where some prick in a Porsche is bearing down on me weaving from side to side before zipping out to pass me in front of an oncoming truck, it probably saves someone's life. It's funny how driving gets people so riled up. There does seem to be a lot of ego and personal baggage in the driving world, which is silly and dangerous. Here, in particular, with the high percentage of suvs, driving sometimes seems more like a contact sport--stay alive and win the prize! But for some reason we seem to take so much of driving so personally--and it's funny how personalities you wouldn't expect in people come out with driving. (Say with my friend S, who's the chillest most mellow person I know until she gets behind the wheel...) Is killing your chill like peeing on your pillow? |
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walk...filled the tank.....then ran into the nastiest traffic going over the bridge and you know what? i didn't fucking care! i used to get all upset and whatever about 'my plans being ruined' and being late for stuff and just generally hating traffic. but i didn't care! i was happy to sit in my car and sing to the radio and think happy thoughts. like when you've just met someone and you're feeling all gooshy. except i haven't, it's just my life feeling this way. it's so fucking cool. and i'm not on drugs. yay. |
im assuming you are referring to the bay bridge? maybe? |
gas a couple blocks from home instead of the middle of nowhere |
Or what was that old, cross country race for a treasure box underneath two palm trees???? |
I don't drive very far anymore. Ask Spunky. If I don't know exactly where we are and even begin to feel lost I get full blown panic attacks. I am horrible in a car. So I only drive short distances and keep the radio blaring and sing along to keep panic from setting in. I am working on it, though. I want to go to Austin sometime. I want to be better at going to visit people who don't live right here, friends and stuff. I am bad about that, and usually everyone comes here to visit me. They don't know why, though, that I panic when riding in cars or when lost and hate driving more than a few miles because of it. |
Amen. Everyone should experience Atlanta freeways at some point in their lives. |
"It's a mad, mad, mad world" |
whats even a scarier little known fact. about 6,7 years on a stretch of 85, between downtown and "Spaghetti Junction" 285, when they installed the HOV lanes, they decreased all the other lane widths by a foot. great friggin idea considering few qualify to use the HOV lanes. however, the way the made freeways there, they are designed to haul ass. the grading, number of lanes, and pavement all encourage it. I hads some of the best driving experiences there when nico would get one of the company cars for the weekend, either the Lexus or Infiniti, And we'd hit the ATL freeway after midnight. The best was cruising, almost literally, right through downtown on I85 at 80mph in leather seats practically massaging your ass, high on coke, with stereolab coming through those pristine Bose speakers. god damn we lived hard in those days. no more. in LA, the freeways are older, with less lanes, more curves, fucked up concrete slabs that make a "ju junk ju junk ju junk ju junk" sound when you pass over them The freeways here were clearly designed for cars expected to go no faster than 55mph. Like the Arroyo Seco. The oldest freeway in America. The entrance ramps are, very literally 50-100 ft long. Spider, you'd have a heart attack trying merge on these. You have to gun it and pray. |
Wow, reading this thread elevated my BP almost as much as sitting in traffic. |
whoa! i'm not THAT guy! i'm not talking about the fast lane. Jesus, you freaks can have the fast lane and keep it. I don't like going 140km, at least not in my current car, and i won't be in the fast lane unless i am indeed doing 140 and really have to pee. I'm talking about the normal roads and highway lanes, that's when it's brake tapping time. Dude. I have no idea what the people doing 80 in the fast lane are up to. |
It's a mad, mad, mad, MAD world. ...and the treasure's under the big "W". |
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Lane splitting drives me nuts too. I don't care if motorcyclists are allowed to lane split, it freaks me out. That and motorcyclists who ride my ass. If I have to slam on my brakes, I'll be mildly annoyed about the dent on my bumper--mister hot shot motorcycler is going to be dead or close to it. |
There's some of us slower drivers who also may be armed. If a tailgater tries to harm me, I may just take him out. So when you're out on the road, just remember; there's some of us non-speeders you don't want to mess with. |
