Bad drivers! Pet peeve of the day....

Ok, I've arrived home in a foul mood...it's bad enough I was informed today I have to leave for a business trip tomorrow, but what is it about the day after a holiday? Do people come out of the woodwork to add to traffic and do things to piss me off?

Here's my pet peeve of the day...

People who make illegal U turns and pull in front of you when you are going 50 miles an hour, forcing you to slam on your brakes, which triggers a chain reaction of ramming your chest (or both hands) into the horn... and.... what's that? Well, would you look at that, that driver shot me a little birdy out the window!



Lia

I feel your pain- there are some absolute fools on the road- people I wouldn't trust with a shopping cart let alone an automobile. Within this past week alone I've seen idiots:

1. Zoom through stop signs

2. Nearly hit me in the parking lot because they were jabbering on the phone

3. Drive about 15 miles per hour in a 55 zone.

4. Back up without looking

5. Almost flatten me when I'm crossing the street, in the crosswalk in broad daylight. Am considering crossing that street with nails in my pocket from now on so if I get run over, at least I'll put holes in the bastard's tires

Past week? In DC, I see all of that pretty much every day. I am not exagerating. Its really that bad here.

That'd be fun if I could commute to work in a tank. Some one cut me off? I'd roll right over 'em. Or at least aim the gun barrel their way to make them sweat.


p.s

A friend told me that would be a bad idea as the tank's treads were tough on the road. Notice he was concerned about the road, and not about the well-being of bad drivers who incurred my wrath

Little 'sheds' with roof-racks are always a bad sign for some reason. If you see one, you can almost guarantee he's going to be drifting between each side of the lane, turning without signalling, leaving a signal on for 2 miles, driving at 20 in a 40 zone etc.

It's interesting; I didn't drive for about ten years, and took it up again about eighteen months ago.

What I have noticed is the different errors that people make when driving. Before, tailgating used to be the problem; you could guarantee that when you were doing 70 someone would be about a yard behind you.

But now things have changed - there is very little of that now. What happens now is that people jump red lights and also pull out in front of you on motorways when you are travelling at speed. I had one occasion recently when I was travelling in the fast lane at speed, and someone would pull out in front of me to overtake slower traffic, forcing me to brake hard, every minute or so. It happened over and over again.

It seems that nowadays people hate the idea of stopping or slowing down. Even on slip roads on motorways. Most people have learned that it's safest to get out of the way and get in the middle lane, but when that is impossible you will find that traffic entering the motorway, instead of stopping as they are supposed to if there's no room for them, will suicidally fling their cars into the path of approaching traffic.

I think I prefer tailgating.

Normally, I don't get to bitch about bad drivers, because since we're all hillbillies here, we're all good drivers. Well, all of us who aren't behind the wheel of a coal truck, that is, because we have to avoid THOSE drunken, inbred idiots! <grin>

But I had the pleasure of driving to, and in, DC a few weeks ago and, what, are you folks ALL smoking crack in your cars? On the beltway, someone came to a DEAD stop in front of me, turned on her blinker, and then did the same for six lanes as she tried to cross from the right lane to the left-hand turn off for the GWParkway. In the city itself, a man who missed his turn threw his car into reverse and then BUMPED me to make me back up so he could back up far enough to get to the street he wanted!

Whew!

I have this route I take to school every morning and when I'm changing highways the 2 lane turns into a 1 lane as it circles back over. I swear there is 2 miles of road to merge over but yet people still wait until the last second to merge. They can clearly see 3/4ths of a mile up the merge signs and that the road is going to end yet they wait until they get in the situation where they MUST merge over and everyone else has to slow down or stop to adjust. Makes me mad. People are inconsiderate and impatient on the roads.

I love those people who made a mistake and get into the wrong lane so they stop ALL traffic behind them trying to get over 2 lanes into a turning lane. Just sitting there, people honking doesn't seem to affect them. They don't want to go down the road to turn around. They'd just like everyone else to suffer for their mistake.

Where is a cop when you need one?

Trade ya pedestrians who think it's fun to challenge 2 tons of steel and fiberglass by entering the road 15 feet short of said vehicle when it's traveling at 30MPH.

Dude, ever heard of the phrase, "stopping distance"? There's only so much standing on the brake can do.

Shoot, I thought this thread was going to be about device drivers.

Talk about misleading headlines.


hehehe

How about going 120 in a 40 zone?!

Yikes! How do the laws work there?

Over here, only the most extreme of idiots (the type you see being chased on TV or whatever) would do something like that, and it's rare.

I think the law works pretty well in this case. You *have* to be insured to legally drive. In normal circumstances they'd have to get out and exchange insurance details (address etc) so that the insurance company can cover the cost of the bump. Complying with that means the idiot who reversed gets the blame and his insurance rockets so high he can't afford to drive any more. Good riddance.

If he doesn't stop and there are witnesses who saw what happened and the description or numberplate (Brits are very nosy/observant, there *will* be witnesses willing to speak up) then the driver is likely to get banned for failing to stop at an accident he caused, dangerous driving etc.

Basically, nobody would dare do something like that unless they were completely braindead.

As for pedestrians, it seems most of them *are* braindead, and that's another rant entirely. *shakes head*

Like I said, I was not exagerating.

Olympia, a tank? Think about what your gas bill would be!

Blimey, and I was complaining about drivers here !

I concur wholeheartedly Dan. The folks who do this are not only selfish but haven't taken the time to realize that the reason we all are stuck in some traffic jams is because they are up there a mile ahead FORCING ppl to let them in. All because they don't want to merge WHEN THE SIGNS TELLS THEM TO (usually 3 or 4 times), like an animal with a brain larger than a pea normally would. The people in the lane into which they are trying to merge either have to stop or slide over a lane. The stopping is what cause *stop'n go* traffic. The sliding over a lane is what causes the *cascade effect* across multiple lanes of traffic. It's hard enough dealing with the amount of vehicles on the road these days. Dealing with folks with underdeveloped prefrontal lobes just makes it mind numbing...

Parade treads. There are treads that can be installed on a tank (mainly for parades, duh) that have rubber pads instead of cleats, so they don't dig up the asphalt.

a) don't back out of his way. Just sit there and refuse to back up.

b) if he pushes harder, he'll do damage, and then you can file a hit-and-run police report.

I usually try to match speeds with these people, and not let them in. They have to either out-accelerate me (not easy), slow down and find a way to get in behind me (which I'm not too helpful about either), slam on their brakes and wait for a break in traffic, sideswipe me, or run into the concrete barrier (aka "The Wall of Death".

I thought so too LOL, I spend too much time on or around these silly machines....

Times like that you wish you had a Mac

(Not that I have one, too expensive)