By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I missed the point? Since you dredged up such an old discussion, can you reiterate your point?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
It's impossible.
I have theories about this sort of behavior. Humans are, instinctively, pack animals, and also competitive by nature. There is some kind of "auto-synchronization" subroutine built into the human psyche that causes drivers to mindlessly synchronize to other drivers around them, like a school of fish. We see it all the time in the congested clots on the 4-lane (or is it 8-lane?) open stretches in the bay area. You'll be stuck in this thick, dense hairball of cars going the same sluggish speed, four lanes across, then suddenly up ahead there's nothing for miles.
I can play with this synchronization tendency by passing somebody slowly and watching him/her speed up automatically. Sometimes if I slow down, they slow down too.
It also makes it tough when people sluggishly pull away from stoplights. For some strange reason, Fremont has the most lethargic drivers in the bay area. It drove me nuts while I lived there, and now that I live in Sunnyvale, I not only notice the distinct difference, but am starkly reminded whenever I'm back in Fremont. Often a school of fish ... er, I mean, row of cars, two or three lanes across ... will pull away from a green light at precisely the same agonizingly slow pace, then remain bound in lockstep for the whole open stretch of road, often collectively going 5 or 10 below the limit. So even if you want to get past them, you can't.
It makes me strangely uncomfortable when somebody is keeping me company on the highway for miles on end. Sometimes I'll turn off cruise control and deliberately try to slow down, or pull away. Then I'll return to my normal pace a little while later, and my buddy somehow reappears and resynchronizes to me.
I've always been kind of a loner, socially, so it's funny how this is reflected in my driving patterns, and the fact that I apparently don't share many other drivers' need to synchronize to each other. If that's the case ... I wish there were more loner drivers!!!
I've never made a mistake. Ever.
Actually, every now and then I find I've picked up little things I do without thinking about them, that could lead to an accident. For example, a year or two ago, I discovered that when I was in a line of people turning right and I got to be the 2nd car in line, as soon as I saw the car in front of me move forward to turn right, I just assumed that they were actually going to make the turn. So I would start to move (expecting there to be no one in front) and look left for oncoming traffic at the same time. Much to my surprise one day, I discovered that this driver stopped quickly to avoid pulling out into traffic. I nearly plowed into them. Now, I don't look left until I'm stopped at the front position. I'm sure though that I'll get plowed into one of these days, because how I used to do it is how everyone else around here does it.
Neither have I, I thought I made a mistake once but I was mistaken.
My goober recently was I approached a 4 way stop that I almost always make a left turn at. But it so happened that this particular time I needed to go straight. Out of habit as I approached the intersection I hit my turn signal signalling a left turn, then went straight. I didn't realize that I had the turn signal on until I cleared the intersection. :sick:
Much to my surprise one day, I discovered that this driver stopped quickly to avoid pulling out into traffic. I nearly plowed into them.
I got hit one time that way. I was pulling forward slightly in anticipation of making the turn when wham some teenager went right into me.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Honestly I'm surprised there aren't more accidents than there are. You have huge numbers of cars in close proximity to each other, with mere mortals trying to process all this data ... it's amazing things don't go wrong more often!
Maybe it's that thing do go wrong, but our ability to counter errors (our own, and others') prevents a lot of them from becoming actual collisions.
So we might be dumb, but at least we have certain last-minute safeguards built in
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
When driving my Subaru at night, I will often have an "empty" road ahead. When I do, I use my accessory driving lights to turn night to day as I find it much more comfortable to drive with the extra light. All to often, someone will get the bug to pass me just because I am the only other vehicle within sight, then slow to a speed that either matches or is just barely faster than mine. I always make a point to encourage them to move on by resuming my lights after about a minute of their dallying. I have yet to find one not take the hint.
In other words (faith aside), pass when you will, but do not make yourself an intentional obstacle. It is simply inconsiderate.
AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! This one had me in stitches....
Which is as bad as no turn signal.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
210, please visit a shrink for me, and let me know what mental problem we are suffering. This exact thing has been the subject of countless dreams of mine.
Another inconsiderate practice that I notice often is people who cannot pass another vehicle without slowing down. I frequently travel I-70 between K.C. & Topeka to visit my bro & SIL. The speed limit is 70, and two lanes each way. It isn't uncommon to be behind someone who is going 75 or better, but we come up on a rig struggling to maintain speed up a hill.
Well, the vehicle ahead will move left as to pass the truck, but for some reason, they slow down until they are only going a fraction faster than the truck they are attempting to overtake. As a result, the pass can take a couple of minutes, instead of seconds. Of course, as soon as they do manage to overtake the offending vehicle, they zip right up to their previous speed. I don't get it, and I see this behavior often.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Another thing I hate is when somebody passes me, but then gets over and slows down. So then if I want to maintain the speed I had been going, I then have to go and pass them.
One of our vehicles is a 97 white Max SE. It has a short black CB antenna (little taller than a cell antenna) mounted in center at top of rear window and is very visible. It also has a radio antenna (stock) mounted on rear fender (up when radio is on which is most always). This car looks just like a cop car in someone's mirror. To further add to their misperception, I sit tall in the seat and usually wear solid darker colors.
When I get on rural 2-lane, have to be careful in gaining slightly on someone who is going same direction and going a little over the limit. As soon as I get in their mirror and recognizable, they slow down usually to under the limit. Then, I have to follow them for miles or wait for an opp to pass. Best strategy I found is to lay back about one block so they can't id me.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I try to keep my complaints restricted to chronic selfish/thoughtless behavior that indicates not mere mistakes, but recurring tendencies reflecting a lack of consideration. I think that's what we really mean by "inconsiderate drivers." Examples would include the usuals: tailgaiting, left lane hoggery, neglecting to use turn signals, slowing down excessively for curves, etc. In other words, the kind of stuff we hear about all the time here.
Driving in the wrong lane is scary but ultimately just a mistake. Now if you were doing it intentionally, then we might have something to legitimately gripe about
A few days ago, I was turning right on red, and I could have sworn there was no traffic coming from the left. I looked very carefully before I turned! Yet as I pulled onto the street, I heard the blast of a horn and saw a car having to slam on its brakes to avoid hitting me. I was startled and horrified to think I nearly caused an accident that would have severely damaged my brand-new car, and would have unequivocally been labeled my fault. Yet I was utterly dumfounded as to where that car had come from. I looked carefully before turning, and didn't see anything!
I'm sure that driver was hurling epithets of doom in my general direction and wondering how an idiot like me could even wipe his own butt, much less get a driver's license.
But hasn't it happened to all of us at one time or another? Or is someone out there ready to cast the first, uh, hubcap?
I saw tissue pieces for almost two miles along the interstate into the city. I even saw some off the interstate on my way to the appliance part store.
Oh there was an S-10 pickup with the back filled with boxes out looking. Apparently he thought you could load-er-up and drive like heck without anything blowing out!!! He probably had been to Sams Club up a couple exits on the interstate. Hehe...
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
While it is rare it has been know to snow in the Midwest by this time of year.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Not necessarily. Picture a situation where the road is clear, so you make your right on red. When you finish the turn, you look up and see a sports car closing very fast on your tail. You are in that lane legally and the sports car wasn't even on the road when you started the turn. A witness tells you that he saw the sports car driver accelerating very quickly. In this case, the sports car driver would be at fault for not taking due and reasonable care to protect the safety and property of things around it.
An interesting twist on this is that a lot of people here have an irritating tendency to come up to the blind spot of the person they are passing, drop to their speed for a few seconds and then rocket past.
And the opposite of this, I see it all the time, is when I'm trying to go 75 MPH, the car I'm behind is going 70 MPH and we're passing a car going 65 MPH. The 70 MPH starts to clear the 65 MPH car and hits the gas getting up to 80 MPH and then cuts off the 65 MPH car. WTH?!? Now I have to go 85 MPH just to pass that car. :mad: If they would just keep going 70 MPH and wait until it is reasonable to make the lane change there wouldn't be a problem.
Better yet, get a toy cop car, record it and play it back louder, while moving over to the left and flashing your lights.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
All said and done, the best my grandfather made out was 50% fault, meaning his insurance covered his damage, and the damage of the vehicle he hit (and the subsequent one), but he did not have to cover the at-fault driver's damage. Oh, and he was cited for an "unsafe turn" while the at-fault driver received no citation. And, there were MANY witnesses who all confirmed the PT driver's excessive speed.
So, yes, definitely a hard sell. :sick:
- You are waiting to make a right turn. You're facing east and want to turn north. The light is red.
- To your left (south) is, say, a gas station, and it is south of the intersection.
- You look, see no cars and make the right turn.
- Unbeknownst to you, the Corvette pulling out of the gas station onto the N/S road going north pulls out at the same time and floors it.
- You are rear-ended about 100 feet north of the light.
There is no way that the turn wasn't safe, but I agree, might be a hard sell.
Like the sow in the black H2 trying to menace her way through traffic today. Excessive lane changes, tailgating, and speeding (and by that I mean maybe 20 over). Of course, the local revenue collectors are always a couple miles away on a wide clear road perfect for relatively safe speeding, and cherry picking. Oh well...she tried to cut in front of me after a light changed...too bad her should-be-illegal vehicle just couldn't keep up.
100 feet might be too close though, for this transition point.
LOL! You come up with some zingers!
My commute is pretty tame, mainly because it's against the flow of traffic. Meanwhile on the opposite side of the divided highway that takes up most of my commute, almost every blasted day, I see a rear-ender has occurred, and the traffic is backed up, massively.
And I don't live in anything resembling a major metro area!
Oh yeah, and an H2 being floored when the worthless driver realizes that the car beside her isn't going to submit is a sad sound and a sad sight.
What? Do you want to make a right or a left?
There is no way that the turn wasn't safe, but I agree, might be a hard sell.
The fact that you didn't see the traffic is irrelevant. If you were hit after making the turn you didn't make it while it was safe to do so. Whats going to happen in a court is that it will be presented that the light was red, you went through it and were hit. It would be a hard sell to pet the blame passed on to the other guy.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Not funny. Pretending to be a police car is a serious offense probably resulting in jail time. The CB and antenna were put on car within one week of purchasing new in Jan 97. Took awhile to realize that our car looks like a cop car from a vehicle's rear view mirror ahead. It definitely was not intentional.
Recent white, black or maroon Chevy Impalas are used as unmarked police cars in some areas of my state. I too am apprehensive, even when going at or under speed limit, when a black, white or maroon Impala comes up behind me (without light bar) thinking that it may be an unmarked cop car.
Saw this over a year ago in Palouse Country, E. Washington, & guess the Wheat farmers haven't much to do in the Winter.
I used it to deliver pizzas for about a year, and that could be a real experience. I had a few people hesitate to come to the door because they thought it was the cops!
This car was silver, which was really common on the 5th Avenues back then. And it had been an unmarked car, and didn't even have the spotlight on the A-pillar. Still, I guess it just screamed "copcar".
There was a little incident with the forums ... I had to repost.
It's pretty ridiculous to think somebody could get ticketed for what essentially amounts to getting hit in their own driveway.
Imagine a slight twist to the situation: you're turning right at a stop sign, not a red light, so "waiting for it to turn green" is not an option, but otherwise the situation is identical. To your left is a sharp blind curve, probably with a recommended lower speed posted for drivers coming from that direction. You stop, look carefully and see no cars, begin your right turn, and then the fool who comes careening around the curve at excessively high speed smashes into you.
Your fault? No way. You did everything you reasonably could to assure a safe turn. Unless the offending car is particularly loud, you may not hear it unless your windows are down. And in below-freezing weather, people aren't going to crank down their windows at every intersection -- nor should they have to.
The same kind of thing could happen in a "right on red" situation. The fact that right on red is legal in the first place indicates it is deemed safe if one takes sufficient precautions -- otherwise it would most certainly be illegal. So if you take sufficient precautions and get hit anyway, it's not your fault.
But my example above is a little bit of a straw man. In real life, things aren't always so clear-cut, and police will have to interpret the scene of the accident.
You guys are missing the point, which is that when I begin the turn, the Corvette isn't even on the road. I used a Corvette simply because it has the acceleration power to make this happen. In real life, I've almost been hit a few times by this situation (I can tell it is, because as I'm making the turn, I see the driver down the road pulling out and it's too late to reverse the decision to turn on red). Not by Corvette drivers, but by stupid motocycles with too much power.