Inconsiderate Drivers (share your stories, etc.)

alfox

My appologies to lemko. The dope slap was not intended for him.

Isn't there a term for a poster who flies over a forum and deposits a dropping that he knows will stir up the audience, and then dissappears to watch the fray from a safe distance, never defending his stupidity? I'm thinking a "T" word...

PF_Flyer

We've been down this road more than a few times. Time to move on!

PF Flyer

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pat84

If I am an a 4 lane, divided highway (e.g. I-95 in NC and SC) and I am in the right lane, and I see someone entering from an access ramp, I signal and move into the passing lane temporarily to allow them to merge more safely. I do the same for trucks merging from scales also.
I get back into the right lane as soon as I can.
It costs me nothing to be a little courteous.

alfox

What gets me is when I get over to let a car merge, and the bone head behind me moves up to pass me on the right, and blocks the merger besides!

daysailer

Many years ago, a coworker told a story about trying to merge from a nearby entrance ramp and a driver in the right lane seemed to alternately speed up/slow down, blocking him. As he neared the end of the ramp he lowered his window and yelled "do one thing or the other, you son of a b!tch". He then realized that the other driver was our manager who was trying to let him in but their alternating responses were not in synch.

artoo

Exactly, man. Takes about three seconds to scoot over and the guy who's merging will be really grateful.

Here in GA we don't get many people who move over, or even many who even seem to notice that there's someone trying to merge and speed up/slow down to let them in. I'm glad I've got a car with power enough to punch it hard and get into the space that's afforded to me.

alfox: we get plenty of that in GA as well, as my story attests.

cheers,
Phil

robr2

One thing I remember from driver's ed WRT merging:

It's easier for you to slow down and allow someone to merge than it is for the merging driver to speed up. In essence, cars slow down faster than they can accelerate.

Of course those knuckleheads who try to enter a highway at 40 MPH drive me nuts. But I try to give them a break.

ranald

But most people don't know how to merge. They don't understand that "merge" does not mean "slow down".

To merge, you match speeds with the flow of traffic and slip into an opening. Most people I've seen "merge" by slowing down or stopping and waiting for a sufficiently large opening in traffic for them to have time to pull in and get back up to speed. Retarded at best, incredibly dangerous at worst.

If you are in the through lane and slow down to let someone merge, odds are you'll just wind up doing a cha-cha with the merging person, who is likely already slowing down to wait for an opening.

seminole_kev

speaking of poor merging. What kills me is when, in the rare occasion, there is one of those super long on ramps. The ones that stretch over the horizon, and yet, people come to a dead stop right where the on-ramp first joins the main road. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! God man, you've got 27 miles of on ramp, but no, you've got to stop and wait for a huge opening instead. I really love it when it's around a blind bend, so when you come around the corner where no one should ever, EVER be stopped waiting to merge, boom they're sitting there in park.

Ugh, I'm choaking on my own bile here people ;-)

ranald

Been there, done that.

What's even more funny is that I've seen situations where an onramp becomes its own *real* lane on the through road- there is no merge required, you just keep driving- and where the onramp/new lane joins the main road, people STOP.
Astonishing.

kinley

If you can't separate the two, therein lies your problem. Comments on your stories is to illustrate how others perceive your driving attitude and behavior. Bottom line: It appears those already on the freeway are expected by you to make room for you. In the second case to show how approaching from behind at excessive speed is acknowledged by the driver who pulled in front of you. You are a fine person, however, your driving and attitude appears to be agressive.

ghulet

.....that his approach speed was 'excessive'? If his speed was 'excessive', pulling in front of him to slow him down is even more stupid. And yeah, I think most of us, if we signal and the lane is clear, expect to be able to enter the interstate without someone suddenly deciding to pass on the right and infringe on the 'entrance lane' we're already in. Drivers who try to control the actions of other drivers by getting in the way or generally playing 'cop' are foolish and dangerous.

ranald

How very ironic.

For anyone who thinks moving into the left lane just to "block" someone is safe or prudent:

Deliberately going out of your way to impose your will on others by force is *very* aggressive behavior. Dangerously aggressive.

dave330i

Kinley giving advice on how to be a considerate driver.

eharri3

Purposefully getting in someone else's way is just as aggressive as trying to force someone out of your way.

scotian

Months ago Kinley suggested anger management classes for those of us who admitted to getting angered by LLCs blocking our way, but when he himself admitted to being angered by those speeding by him in the left lane, he made no mention of himself needing anger management classes, even after this discrepency was brought to his attention.

Therefore, in the World According to Kinley, if Kinley commits acts that others feel to be aggressive, they are not acts of aggression. If others commit acts that he feels to be aggressive, they are acts of aggression.

verozahl

Here in the Detroit area, the way to enter Detroit expressway is to blast the engine, find the hole, and charge out into traffic. Basically, just like NASCAR!

I love it... but it's the only time I wish I didn't have a 1.8L 4-cylinder Integra engine.

Foreigners here - you know, Ohio and Indiana people!!!! - they pause on onraps. It's very very very irritating, especially because a Camry 6-cylinder engine can go at quicker notice than my engine... I like to enter expressway at full speed, not 40 mph! Yikes! How am I supposed to play NASCAR games with Impala owners if the eai-diot in front of me on the onramp STOPS?!

ghulet

.......that's the WORST. We have these dumb green/red lights on some of our on ramps that try to 'regulate' the flow of oncoming traffic to the expressway. I think those lights have been there for about forty years, and they're largely ignored. The problems occur when someone actually stops for one, you're behind them and already doing 35-40 halfway down the ramp. D'oh!! It amazes me when someone stops or even slows down while trying to enter a freeway full of cars going 60-80mph. Yeah, THAT's gonna help you 'find a hole', merging while going 25.

PF_Flyer

Let's keep it away from personal comments OK?

Disagree with things that are said, but don't fall into namecalling and attack mode.

PF Flyer

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hammersley

...from my driver's ed days, circa 1972:
The day we practiced freeway driving (including merging on/off) we were in a brand new Nova with a 305 V8. The 2 other students had been, well, let's say just a bit tentative. My turn. Turn on to the on ramp, and floor it. Was up to 70 before the merge point, instructor had a slight smile on his face, made the other students try it again. All I knew as a 15 y/o hormone-enraged boy is I had a license, albeit briefly, to go fast. Fit into traffic and away we went. Been using that same method to merge now for 30 years, and it's still kind of fun.
I guess my point is that in the driving recipe, an occasional pinch of aggressive comes in handy. Notice I said occasional, and notice I said a pinch. Please return the flamethrowers to the pilot light position. Thank you.

Cheers!
Paul

artoo

Thank you for admitting that you are making attacks on my driving (which, because it is controlled by me, is an attack on me). Calling my "attitude" aggressive is also a personal attack, as far as I'm concerned. Two in one post. That's impressive, even for you.

I'm through arguing with you. Must be nice living in that fantasy world. Haven't you gotten the idea yet that not a single person on these boards agrees with you?

Phil

verozahl

Kinley: Haven't you realized you are a clog on the expressway artery of life?
... probably have, and it's your own personal Gold Medal Achievement.

There are TONS of these types on the roads. The solution, ugh? "Deal with it!"

Note to Self: gotta go to the Autobahnen some day for some real driving!!!

pjyoung

Would have been the interstates in Montana a few years back, where the "speed limit" was "reasonable and proper". Clear day, straight road, high speed rated tires, clear headed driver....what's "reasonable and proper" in that case?

alfox

"....what's "reasonable and proper" in that case? " Whatever the driver is comfortable with - in the right lane.

pat84

You have to admire a certain person who can so stir the pot with one post. He has done this so many times, he has raised it to an art form. One post will generate a few days worth of responses. I can hear Kinley laughing as he reads all this.

milt721

A few months ago I was traveling in one of the middle lanes of a four-lane expressway. Up comes this girl in a Neon, and I mean fast. She settles in about three inches from by back bumper, even though she can easily pass on either side of me. After a while she makes her move (on the right, of course) and zooms off in the distance. About 30 seconds later I see a cloud of white smoke and see that same Neon spinning uncontrollably across all four lanes of traffic, ending up rear-first in the center wall. (Good thing she didn't have an SUV). I didn't stop to see how she was...

diploid

I would've stopped and blew raspberries. Just my passive-aggressive way of dealing with people like her.

eharri3

People come up on you in the center, with a completely clear lane for passing to the left. But what do they want to do isntead of the common sense thing of passing in the passing lane? They pull to the far right lane and try to out race you and then squeeze through the ever shrinking gap between you and the car in the right lane you're closing on. I can understand this when there's a left lane blocker and the person is unable to pass in on the left, but it confuses the heck out of me when it's relatively light traffic and no kinleys in the left lane.

pat84

It may be they know the rules of the road , but don't know there right from their other hand. What's the name of the hand other than right hand ?

tboner1965

the Kinley* hand 8^)

TB

*Note, this is not a personal attack, but rather my not so humble opinon.

eharri3

The kinleys of the world have no clue what havoc they cause. They're sitting in the left lane doign 50 thinking they're being a credit to traffic safety, and meanwhile people getting frustrated because they can't pass the right way are careening around people on the right with feet or inches to spare. Excellent job kinley, thanks for making the roads safer for the rest of us. I wish there was a kinley or two on every stretch of highway I travelled.

eharri3

Kinley owns a V8 66 Mustang and is considering buying a 2003 Mercury Merauder. Talk about wasted horsepower...I guess he just likes fast cars cause they look pretty.

seminole_kev

well you get to see how fast you can get up to 65, pull in the left lane, and set the cruise.

eharri3

I watched some guy in a new Bimmer M3 convertable, the one that has I think over 300 horses and can hit 60 in under 5 seconds, blocking the left lane at about 55 the other day. I'll never EVER understand it. It's one thing if you got a slow or an average car, but when you got a real 50 thousand dollar plus performance machine and you're gettin in the way of my humble 4-banger compact truck, it's time to consider that maybe you wasted money on lots of power you'll never use. But I guess if you got the money to waste on a high-end sporting machine that will never see 4 thousand rpm, more power to ya. I wanna be clear that I don't advocate driving like a jerk or running an expensive new car into the ground, but one thing's for darn tootin... If Im payin the big bucks for an M3, you're never gonna see me with a long line of cars behind me in the left lane.

dogtrainer

Anyone who is driving slower than you is an idiot. As in, "Look at this idiot blocking my lane!" Anyone driving faster than you is a maniac. As in, "Look at that maniac doing 75!"

Truer words were never spoken.

eharri3

They're there and then they're gone to meet their own fate further down the road. IT's the idiots that tick me off.

jaserb

try to beat you from a stoplight, then slow down. Yesterday I was in the left lane at a stop light, getting ready to barrel down my favorite cloverleaf - a good de-stresser in my little Alfa. An A6 2.7T pulls up along side, in the right lane that ends a little ways down the on-ramp, just before the curve in the cloverleaf. I get the jump on him off the line, but a Spider is no match for that beast and he beats me to the merge easily. He then SLOWS DOWN to about 45 and I have to slam on the brakes through the cloverleaf! Okay, maybe this doesn't rank real high on the inconsiderate scale, but it sure annoyed me. What a killjoy!

-Jason

dave330i

I have similar problem with people trying to achieve zero lateral acceleration through the turns. Espically if they're driving a performance car.

jaserb

if not for the fact that he obviously tried to beat me to the merge, THEN decided to drive like an 85 year old woman. Either blast your way onto the freeway (I couldn't have kept up with that car) or let me go first so I can!

-Jason

ps - The guy works at the same company - I walked right past his car today. Yes, I kept my keys in my pocket!

wishnhigh1

I hate that...people that are willing to beat you off the line but brake down to a grandma pace once they actually get in front of you.

eharri3

You're slowing down at a light and realize you need to get over, but the person next to you wants to 'race to the light', accelarating for as long as possible up to the light and then put on their breaks at the very last second.

nippononly

I do a lot of freeway driving in the San Francisco area, and I have observed a trend that has been more and more obvious with every passing year around here: the reversal of the lanes on the freeway. The leftmost lane is the lane for all the slow cruisers doing the speed limit or less, and the lanes get progressively faster as you move right. The most reliable lane to pass in is the slow lane unless you are right at an on-ramp, because no-one will ever stay in this lane! "Grandmas" doing 10-15 below the speed limit (somewhat rare, but you do see them) will come onto the freeway and IMMEDIATELY move to the next lane left, then the next. Not all make it to the "fast" lane, but enough do to make it impossible to pass on the left around here. This, despite signs every 1/4 mile or so that say something like "slower traffic keep right". This is a dangerous trend, because of the occasional slow truck that still IS in the right lane, and because of the on-ramps with merging traffic.

On a related note to some of the posts I have read above, I think it is SO irritating when someone changes lanes right in front of you without making any attempt to match your speed, so that you wind up having to slow down a lot or change lanes. They could have waited until you passed to change lanes, they could have sped up to match your speed once they were in your lane, but they do neither. Better than both would be if they sped up to match your speed in their own lane, THEN changed. And how about some signals out there??

alfox

I've seen that too. The same thing happens at failed intersections.

When I was working in Boston my office used to look over Summer Street where I could watch the intersection at Dorchester Ave. In heavy traffic, left turn traffic would block the thoroughfare, and when it in turn became blocked up by traffic on the block they were entering the lights would fail to control traffic. People would just jam the intersection until they could go, whether the light was red or green. The result was that for a time, traffic would be going on red and stopped on green. Then it would slowly reverse again.

People here drive the way pigs eat - with both front feet in the trough to keep the next pig out!

eharri3

Without a doubt, that's true. The following groups normally head straight to the left lane on a highway: wannabe speeders who think they're flying at 66 mph, the self-proclaimed traffic police who want to decide what the safest speed is for everyone else, and the cell phone talkers and scared older drivers who want to be in the lane where they have to make the fewest lane changes. The passing lane has basically been taken over by people want to exert the least amount of effort possible while driving. Meanwhile the the right lane, which is where all these people would be if they didn't have brains the size of peanuts and a complete lack of consideration for other drivers, is sometimes completely empty and the place to go if you really want to move.

I often make great time driving mostly in the right lane, temporarily hopping to the middle when I pass on ramps and passing cars in the left and middle lanes as if they're standing still.

Also... I had someone do that other thing to me just the other day. Im doing about 80 in the fast lane coming up on two cars in the middle, one kind of close to the other's bumper. The car behind had plenty of time to get over before I got there, and there was absolutely no cars behind me. So what does he do? Waits till there's maybe two feet to spare and jumps in front of me.

mlm4

OK, folks -- answer this question for me, and justify your answer please:

When approaching a traffic signal that is not operating (dark, i.e., due to a power outage), you should:

a) Treat the signal as a stop sign;
b) If you believe that you have the right of way, proceed through the intersection normally;
c) Speed up;
d) Slow down (but only stop if necessary).

Now imagine this scenario: a six-lane, divided surface road, carrying heavy rush-hour volume, intersecting with several smaller but equally important cross streets. Think about your answer in terms of not only yourself but also from the perspective of your fellow motorists.

Also, indicate the state you live in, and how drivers there handle this situation. Later, I'll tell you about how drivers in Central Florida do.

(There may not be a satisfactory explanation, but I need a sanity check!)

diploid

It's the law of the jungle in NJ.

mlm4

Perhaps it is a matter of perspective, for I foolishly allowed my common sense to get the
better of my judgement. After all, how can I argue with more than 90 percent of the
motoring public?

Therefore, I am going to immediately fire off a letter to my representatives in Tallahassee demanding that the state's motor vehicle laws be rewritten, for as they stand presently, they do not meet the commonly-held beliefs and expectations of said motorists. After all, this is a democracy, is it not?

Among my recommendations will be:

The definition of "speed limit" shall be the MINIMUM speed at which a motor vehicle may
be operated; insurance points will be DEDUCTED for operators who routinely drive at the highest possible rate of speed without causing injury or damage.

Vehicles traveling in the same direction shall yield to traffic approaching from behind.

Lane markings and warning signage shall be considered guidelines and not rules.

High-speed tailgating and lane change maneuvers shall be recognized by the Department of Education as "arts," and be accorded an appropriate share of the state's educational
endowment for the advancement of said "arts."

A yellow traffic signal indicates "go fast." Red: "go faster." Signals are guidelines, not rules.

Motorists who complain in public forums about the lack of enforcement of the motor vehicle laws, and thereafter are found to be in violation of these same laws, shall be honored at an annual dinner to be hosted at the governor's mansion.

New public information campaign: "Patience is a virtue that we cannot afford."

Emergency vehicles shall be disregarded at all costs. Motorists found attempting to yield to emergency vehicles shall be fined one shilling and required to attend sensitivity training. Motorists who single-handedly manage to foul the progress of an emergency vehicle shall be given free tickets to a professional wrestling event of their choice.

[In case you haven't figured it out yet, this little dissertation is "tongue-in-cheek." If you take any of this too seriously, you may need a nap. And a hug. But not from me. In fact, I may need the nap and the hug myself.]

When facing apparent defeat in the heat of battle, motorists shall attempt to save face by immediately leaving the roadway and becoming presently mired in the muddy shoulder or median. The highway patrol shall dispatch a tow truck within four hours (or longer in the event of inclement weather).

New state motto: "To All Who Ply These Highways: May The Best Man/Woman Win"

Use of mobile communications devices (such as cellular telephones) is strictly permitted while operating a motor vehicle.

Use of child safety seats is optional if the child is operating the motor vehicle.

Pedestrians and bicyclists shall use the public roads at their own risk. No exceptions.

And finally: Honda vehicles with lowered suspensions, bazooka tailpipes and "No Fear" decals are exempt from any and all anti-cruising and anti-noise ordinances.

[There. I feel better now!]

im_brentwood

HA! I live in Orlando too!

My favorite is right across the street from my lot.. there is a left turn lane (This is on Lake ave in Maitland.. next to 17/92) where we have soem spectacular crashes.

Really amusing ones.

And, since I live in Golferville, err.. SW Orlando.. I get to take I-4 every day!

New Rules:

When merging into 65-70mph traffic into the passing lane, please do so as soon and as slowly as humanly possible. This will keep people on their toes. Also, this will compact your car, and as we all know, compact cars save energy!

If you vehicle is equipped with rear fog lights, please use them! After all, surely it must be foggy SOMEWHERE!

If you see a fender-bender on I-4 in Rush hour, please slow down to 10mph. After all, a Buick Century with a dented fender and bent bumper is a rare sight indeed.

Also, where was the big interesction with the lights out? If it was like Colonial at Semoran or 17/92 at Semoran or something.. that would be quite amusing to watch. Almost as amusing as if it happened on I-drive or something!

Bill in Bay Hill

spudgal

I have a new rule:

Drivers must use turn signals to guess which way the car in front is going to turn.

I have to say my "favourites" are:

1.Women driving Expeditions at 50 mph while putting their make-up on. Get at least one a week coming up behind me. And I'm female!

2.Folks who think the gap I leave between me and the car in front is just for them to pull into - especially when I'm driving a 3/4 ton pickup. It gets even better when towing a 30ft boat/trailer rig!

3. Drivers who pootle along in the left lane of a 2-lane freeway for absolutely no reason at all. Came across one on I-15 between Las Vegas and LA. No cars on the road for miles, just this white minivan doing 60 in the left lane. Bizarre!

Anne in Las Vegas

ghulet

The answer 'should' be 'a', except when you realize the guy behind you didn't even notice the light at all (off or on), so he's bearing down on you at 50mph while you're stopped. Of course, the people in lanes next to you are flying through the intersection oblivious as well; the bright side is that you can witness the collisions when they occur if you are stopped.