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It is unfortunate I was not driving my old car which I sold recently. The guy would have had to hit me. Sometimes, I begin to think it would not be too bad to suffer the consequences of beating the crap out of one of these imbeciles!
Then there's kinley, who is probably the guy you passed, target3.
Kinley, I think next time, I will probably pull up next to the guy, blow him a kiss (that usually gets them going) and hit the gas - leaving the person in the dust.
So My. Accent is hot doggin it through traffic, I guess tryin to look cool for the 4 girls he has crammed in the back seat. HE cuts me off to squeeeze into the left lanein front of me. Fine by me. Ive traveled this road about 2000 times and happen to know we're approaching an onramp on the left. I get right and sail by easily while he slows down behind merging cars then gets behind me. I prepare to get back to the left again as I know right after the entrance from the left there's another from the right. But Mr. Accent apparently decided he doesn't want to be stuck behind me anymore, and he's willing to risk his life to be 1 car ahead. So I signal and begin to move over to the left, and he moves left at the same time but then keeps moving over to the merging lane we just passed, the last 10 feet of which he uses to fly by me and nearly clip my bumper off and rear end the guy in front of me as he squeezes in. I think nothing of it, take a deep breath, and just try to relax, and dont even honk.
We approach a stretch where the road both curves and slants downward, making it almost impossible to see ahead more than a dozen yards or so. I am keeping a good distance so when traffic stops suddenly I have no problems. The guy behind me almost rear ended me, but more importantly, two cars ahead, Mr. Accent has made contact with the rear bumper of the car in front of him, I guess because he was too busy looking for the next tiny gap to squeeze through and get 1 car ahead to notice traffic stopped. I honestly feel bad for the other guy, but I was quite happy to see that Mr. Hyundai will either have to pay lots of money out of pocket for a new bumper or watch his premiums skyrocket, that is assuming he has insurance. And to boot, after spending all of 350 bucks on extensive mods to his car to make it look pretty he's gotta drive around with a messed up bumper for awhile.
I cant' repeat precisely what I yelled out here because I've been chastised even for submitting posts even with curse words with the middle letters replaced with exclamation points, but the jist of it was that he got what he deserved for driving the way he did. Unfortunately I dont think anybody heard me, as the 4 Asian girls from the back seat plus the driver were talking heatedly into their cell phones, probably telling the people they were trying to meet up with to party(Thursday night is college night after all) that they will no longer just be late, they probably won't make it at all. I wonder if the driver thinks all those stunts were worth it now. It's just too bad he couldn't scrape the guard rail or somethign without touching anyone else.
Pulled up on the right at the stop light to buzz ahead of the car in front of me while in fairly heavy traffic. He kept pulling into the parking lane to get ahead of a car or 2. For about 10 blocks he did this and somehow his incompetence and other drivers' refusal (we were sick of braking to protect our cars when he lunged back in) to let him in left him half a block behind at the end. And he looked pissed every time we went back and forth. At one more red light i can see this moron get into the right from that half block back and hit the gas. Well the light turned green and every car went straight away with no room in between. He rear-ended a parked van and I'm sure I heard a roar of laughter.
This OF jumps on the gas to get ahead of me at the last light going north out of Monroe. He then cuts in front of me to turn off where I was turning. On the eighth mile of expressway before my turn off he maintained a good speed, but he turned there and slowed down. I was stuck behind him at five to ten or more under the limit for about seven miles. Every curve he slowed to forty or slower, and used part of the oncoming lane and the shoulder several times in each curve.
When I finally got a chance to pass, of course he speeded up to make it difficult, but there was enough road and I got by. He tried to tailgate me, but when I went through the next two curves he couldn't stay close even using more than his share of the road. At the third curve he gave up, and I lost sight of him in the mirror. I'm not sure if he was drunk, stupid, had bad handling tires, or what. Incidentally, I have sixty series "H" rated tires and put 38 PSI in them for the trip, and I put on a fresh set of struts a week before leaving. My car was not fighting me in the curves at reasonable speeds. Tires like he had should be illegal.
Harry
The person was also probably not drunk, but rather a typical jerk.
I also recently had a guy pull the same thing on me that eharri3 just went through. Now I have a couple of old golf balls that I carry in my vehicle (just in case I am provoked - although I seriously doubt I would ever use them).
I was driving on Rt 17 South in NJ, heading toward where I-80 crosses over in Lodi. The road is kind of winding, 2 lanes each way with no real shoulder, and it's bumper to bumper. I was in the right lane, as that's usually the best in stop-and-go traffic. We very slowly come up to where the road is supposed to open out to 3 lanes, and instead it narrows to one, with only the right lane open. As we come to the spot where the road narrows to one lane, people actually zippered properly, except for one special person.
I let a car in in front of me and move forward a little, but the next guy in line in the left lane *really* wants a double. He refuses to pull in behind me, even though I had perfect position. So what he does is pull into my lane (well his 2 right wheels, anyway) directly abreast of me, with the rest of his car in the closed lane. I assume he had to start dodging cones and such, because he started trying to work his way to the right but I held position, centered in my lane normally.
At this point I'm torn between righteous anger (what does this 'special person' think he's *doing*?) and total hilarity- I briefly peeked into his car at one point (had to, for safety's sake to see what I was dealing with. he looked more like an accountant than a gangster) and saw his and his wife's faces, he looked to be almost gibbering with rage and frustration, and his wife looked like she could literally die from embarrasment. The guys in the car in front of me were visibly laughing.
After about 3 carlengths of progressively less success trying to drive 2 abreast, he suddenly veered left through the barriers into the roadwork area and zoomed forward. I didn't see him again, so I assume he managed to cut back through the barriers some carlengths ahead.
I didn't notice until later that he had put scratches on my driver-side mirror, apparently from his passenger-side mirror, or I might have called the cops. Doubful if they could have done anything, though.
Tonight I went to the mall with a friend and we bought some stuff. This particular mall has a ring road going around it, with aisles of parking on both sides and occasional feeds connecting it with local highways and such.
As I was leaving I drove to the end of my aisle and stopped, in preparation for making a left turn onto the ring road, with someone right behind me with the same idea. The left was clear but I saw some cars coming from the right. I had enough room to get in front of them without inconveniencing anyone if I goosed it a little, so I did. I made my turn and sped up to the speed of traffic.
Just as I did this, I saw someone start to pull out of an aisle to my left. I assumed he was also making a left turn, which would be fine as the road I was on was two lanes each way and I was in the rightmost as I needed to make a right shortly. Fortunately I was instinctively slowing down anyway.
He didn't make a left, and he wasn't quick. He slowly drove directly across the road, from an aisle on one side to an aisle on the other. I guess he didn't notice all the cars coming from his right- me and at least 2 cars behind me. But what he did when he *did* finally see the cars was priceless. He hit the brakes and stopped. Perpendicular to and blocking the lanes with traffic.
You know in a panic stop from 30 or so you can stop in about 2 carlengths? I stopped almost touching his front passenger's side door, and fortunately noone behind me rear-ended me.
I was literally speechless, with mixed shock and anger at his stunning stupidity and incompetence. But I stopped being angry when I saw the look (from maybe 8 feet, she was in the passenger's seat) of utter terror on his wife's face. I felt bad that the wife nearly had to have her legs cut out of the twisted metal of their car, and from the look on her face she felt bad about it too.
So I'm driving in the leftmost lane on I-275 northbound to get to Borders. It's nothing unusual, a pleasant drive, except that I'm being tailgated badly by a girl, blonde and youngish, with a squarish face, in either a Contour or Taurus, darkish silver. I'm not thinking too hard about it; my Prelude is fairly new and I'm still enjoying the thrill of driving it. I-275 has been under construction for a while, and a sign up ahead says that my lane is ending, merge right. I hit the gas to pass a white, light truck and switch to the lane to my right. Psycho Girl catches up quickly and also merges right, behind me and in front of the truck. She continues tail-gating for a minute or two.
Status quo persists for a minute or two. Traffic in my lane slows to a crawl as we approach the construction and the merge point, but traffic in the lane to my left (which we were in a few moments before) is still whizzing by at 40mph--people staying in the lane until they *have* to merge right. No biggie, I'm not in a rush.
This is where it gets weird.
Psycho Girl is following me almost bumper to bumper and I'm coasting at < 5mph in heavy traffic in my lane. Psycho Girl then goes *back* into the left lane, presumably to either rush up ahead to the merge point, or just to see how bad the traffic is. My presumption was wrong, she swings into the lane to my left, and maintains her current speed, staying behind me. I'm like, "huh?" Traffic starts to backlog behind her but she's going 3mph and staying right behind me, and to the left. I aim my driver side mirror straight at her and notice her staring at my driver side window, putting on lipstick, messing with the dash controls, and lowering her window, raising it, lowering, raising, etc. People behind her are honking now. I'm troubled. I slow to a stop. She stops. I speed up (as much as I can... there's a car in front of me) and she matches speed. This continues for about ten minutes; I'm on the phone with my sister relaying the bizarre behavior. The white truck behind me is giving her plenty of space so that she can merge right, behind me, but she's staying right where she is.
Traffic is at a crawl and we're still a solid five minutes from where the left lane actually disappears. Some impatient people behind Psycho Girl, tired of honking, try to drive onto the shoulder/grass to just pass her and get to the merge point more quickly. Two do so. The first is an Impala. After it, a pickup truck veers onto the shoulder and passes her. Then---another pickup truck tries to pass her on the shoulder, and she cuts him off, veering herself right into the shoulder to block him. He has to back off and get back behind her.
He tries again, she does the same thing. He tries a third time with all the torque in his mighty American V6, and she veers into the shoulder towards him so quickly that to avoid collision he swerves to the left and flies right into the center grassy ditch that separates the northbound and southbound lanes of I-275. He's down for the count. TKO.
Psycho Girl gets back into her lane, as before staying just a foot or two behind me, and one lane to the left. She's still glaring at my car, but now she's let her hair fall and I can see her lips moving as though she's singing or muttering. She looks pissed off but it's hard to tell, and it's starting to get dark, the sun has just set below the trees.
I'm wondering if it's time to panic. On the cell, my sister is suggesting that I hang up and call the police immediately. Just then, speed picks up a bit, her lane ends and she is forced to merge right, directly behind me as before, once again virtually bumper to bumper. I can see her talking and looking very cross in my rear view mirror, she is that close. Traffic picks up, and I see a nice open stretch to my right. The time has come to do some non-instrumented top acceleration tests on the new Prelude.
Traffic opens up and I punch it to make my escape. The needle had swung past 105mph when I took my foot off the gas.... no Psycho Girl in sight, whew. I see 6 Mile Road's exit up ahead (Borders) so I get off the phone with my sister and change to the rightmost lane to take the exit... only to see Psycho Girl slowly but surely behind me once again, closing fast, phasers armed. "" I say to myself. I call my sister, she suggests the police but I figure that I'm so close to a crowded Borders bookstore, I'll just head right there and see if it's coincidence still or not. Maybe she's just a bad driver?
If only that had been the case. She tailgates me all the way until I'm in the parking lot. There is a nice empty parking spot right in front of the store, and people around, so I pull in there and turn off the ignition. Psycho Girl inches past me, goes into reverse, and reverses right into my rear bumper. Hard. Then with the sound of old tires screeching, Psycho Girl takes off from the parking lot. I'm shaken but ok.
I don't think I did anything to Psycho Girl. I had one of very few silver Preludes in the state of Michigan so it's plausible that she was dumped by some guy who drives the same car (or something) and became pissed after assuming I was the same person. She never got a good look at me, always staying left and to the back of me, as though she wanted to inch forward enough to see me but was worried that I might see her. (Maybe she didn't realize I could see everything from the mirrors?) Maybe this was some very bizarre form of flirting. If so, I'd hate to find out what her idea of sex is. (Probably involves a pickaxe and hydrochloric acid.)
Why did she try to run anyone who passed her off the highway? This I've never understood.
All this got reported to the police, of course, but I never caught a license plate number or even the model of car, only that it was a Contour or Taurus from the front grille. Therefore, the police promised to investigate, then returned to ticketing people for going 2mph over the limit on Ford Road.
Moral of the story: when in Michigan, Beware of Psycho Girl.
The end.
Plus, I was genuinely scared of psycho girl.
Wow... that looks nasty... the story say fog was probably the cause, so inconsiderate drivers probably not the focus... but (no pun intended) you're playing with fire if you screw around on the road.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/oct02/86864.asp
Sometimes those white out conditions CAN sneak up on you and leave you no good options. Like what do you do while cruising along the interstate at 65 and suddenly hit a fog bank? Do you slow down? Slow down FAST? I've seen folks just maintain speed and blindly (literally) forge ahead. And this quote from the news story seems to indicate that a lot of that was going on...
"They were dealing with zero visibility," said State Patrol Sgt. John Jones. "Witnesses said cars just kept driving into the fog at a high rate of speed."
38 vehicles involved... amazing
PF Flyer
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This could be a geographic oddity or something? Generally, fog banks don't appear out of nowhere on otherwise bright and sunny days, but are rather pockets of extra water on a day that is foggy overall. If there's a little fog in the air, assume that it might be much, much thicker a mile down the road.
To me, person who doesn't run headlamps + fog = inconsiderate driver.
Jeffrey Acura has a NSX in the showroom? I hate to say it, but that might be worth a trip. If I show em the S2000, maybe they'll let me touch the NSX. Or maybe not.
I avoid I-94, I remember the afternoon I was in my boss's 911 4s on I94 and we cracked two rims on the same pothole (passenger's side, both). Somehow the car amazingly tracked straight as we pulled down from speed and drifted onto the shoulder, but the rims had a small crack in each, and the tires were totally flat. Only recent trip on I-94 was when my fiance was at Ford in Dearborn doing some research on a project her university collaborates with Ford on, and I had to pick her up from the "think" building after work every day. It is very disturbing to have to pull up into a Ford parking lot while driving a Honda. I got some nasty looks. On the other hand, I got to see some of the Ford Ranger EVs. She got to drive one and said it costs $40k and she almost trashed the steering "felt strange."
Sphinx Type 99
What I do, however, is when someone is considerate to me, I DEFINITELY let that person know!!! A head light flash, a wave, a smile, blink the tail lights etc!! Sure beats a stiff middle finger and hopefully MY or YOUR acknowledgment brightens someone's day!!
A routine example, when I am moving along in the #1 or passing lane and someone ahead moves to the right before or at the point when you are legally behind him (ie not tail gating), as I pass I put my hand high enough as I go by and WAVE. I have NEVER had someone mistake that and try to climb up my backside in retaliation. If they,(the p person I just pass) is wanting to get back into the left lane after letting me by and is legally upon me, I MOVE to the right! If he doesn't pass for a length of time, I move back into the #1 lane if that is appropriate. Then move back into the right lane, again if that is appropriate.
When it is raining out, sports cars are usually at a disadvantage. In my Corvette Z06, the OEM wide grippy (1G and slightly beyond) Y rated tires are just the ticket for hydroplaning. I have driven in driving rain on AZ interstates (2 in of rain that morning). Believe you me, I got off the throttle almost every time I saw a puddle!!
Yeah, yeah, I know, they are ALL driving that fast, yada yada... (I've raised teenagers - I've heard the line!) No, actually they're not. There may be other fools, but not all of them - and not the majority by a long shot. And even if they ALL were driving 85+ in traffic in tghe rain, then they're ALL fools who need a sanity check before they pile up a bunch as in Wisconsin.
My dime's worth - take it or leave it.
Actually if you are ok with some of the unknowns and the knowns it is relatively alright. The problem is that most folks drive like they don't know what the unknowns are or if they know they discount it and drive like normal dry traction rules are in force!! An easy example is idea dry vs idea wet stopping distances. Not to mention that puddles can be the perfect platform for lost of traction due to hydro planing.
That's a fact.
Knowing that most of the traffic around you is unaware or uncaring, it makes sense for the aware and capable drivers to make some allowances for them. After all, a bufoon can cause a pile-up more easily than a capable driver for the simple reason that you can't tell what they are going to do.
I'm certainly not an anti-speeding zealot, but driving more than 10 over in the rain, in traffic, is goofy IMO. It has it's own dangers when you are alone on the road, but a knowledgeable and experienced driver, with good equipment, can compensate and make a safe high-speed passage. Experience comes with years and an array of past mistakes. I shiver when I think of most drivers <25 driving that speed in the wet unless they have been to performance driving school.
While some folks might consider this perverse, I am of comfort knowing that she can induce skids, 180's and 360's, four wheel power and no power drifts, and know how she AND her car reacts, and under "panic" braking!! She was also best in the slalom portion of the class. The instructor beat her time, but I think you would expect that.!
Harry
If it's not raining things pretty much behave as normal, though things might be a little harder on your washer blades than normal. If bug build-up gets to be a problem just pull over and wash the windshield with a real winder washer/squeegee.
ghulet- She might have been a tourist from NJ.
Harry
"Did you know the seats in Vero's expensive econobox hurt his back on long trips ? He'd be better off in a Cavileer. "
You know the type... one light pointed at the ground just inches in front of their bumper and the other angled up, directly into the rear view mirror of the vehicle in front of it. How clueless can these people be??!!
So here is my question to you, the participants of the Edmunds boards (a group more automotive-aware than the general public)... When was the last time that YOU had your lights aligned??? Does anyone align their own lights? Where did you learn this skill, do you use any special tools, how is it done?
-james
All that is required is some sense of what is needed, and a wall to aim the lights at from 100 feet or so. A straight dark road with no traffic works too. I know that the left light on my Passat is aimed too low, and I need to do this when I get a chance.
I was headed west to work on I76(Why the heck do all my horror stories start like that?) and find myself behind a big dump truck who is in turn stuck behind a newer S10 which is going somewhat slower than traffic that's passing him in the right lane.
Dump truck driver's getting frustrated. I can tell because we're goin up hill and he's loosing momentum and will soon be stuck in that annoying situation where he's forced to slow down so much that impatient car drivers keep passing him on the right and he gets trapped in the left lane.
But Mr. S10, for a reason that will soon become apparent, takes no notice of the big Mac Truck emblem in his rear view. The dump truck finally gives up on being patient and swings to the right lane to try to pass on the right. Of course the S10 suddenly decides he's gonna speed up just enough to match pace with the car next to him. All the while the dump truck driver has down shifted and is gathering up all the speed he can to try to squeeze in front of the S10, getting closer and closer to a Volvo sitting in the right lane minding his own business, until now the Volvo driver is seeing the Big MAC loom in HIS morrors. Plus the truck driver looks like he is seriously thinking abou just moving over and forcing the S10 to slow down and let him in or else be crushed, but he just stays there. Finally I got a little scared for everybody's safety and gave the S10 a sharp blast of my horn to let him know his obliviousness is about to cause an accident and maybe loss of life.
Finally, the Volvo driver gets scared and actually moves left into what SHOULD BE the passing lane in front of the S10 to let the Mac truck by in the right lane, then gets right again. I veer into the right lane and as Im passing the S10 I see the idiot is yakking away on the cell phone, probably hasn't even realized any of what just took place. I cut in front of him sharply and without signalling, but with a car length between us just to be safe. I guess seeing the way I jerked in front of him angrily woke him up, cause he then got over.
That's what drives me insane about people who talk and drive, when they cause hectic situations like that and you look over after and they're still just sitting there yapping away, totally oblivious that they just nearly caused a multi-car pile up. So many people swear they can talk and drive with no problems whatsoever, but really you just assume that because to the best of your knowledge you have never caused any trouble while talking that you were aware of. But sometimes you can get really deep into a conversation without realizing how much attention you're taking away from the road, and you dont notice half of the havoc you cause.
I commend all those who invest in hand free units or who keep conversations short and to the point. To the rest of the cell phone drivers, I only hope that when you finally cause an accident you plow into a bridge abuttment or have some other type of single car accident that lets those around you get away unscathed.
But I think your a little harsh with the bridge abutment thing...just let them get into a one car accident that maybe bends a wheel or dents a fender...something that results in no phyisical damage to the person, but does result in a financial damage in the from of higher insurance rates or something.