Inconsiderate Drivers (share your stories, etc.)

snakeweasel

That begs the question, can someone who suffers from multiple personality disorder use the car pool lane if no one else is in the car?

fintail

Like this guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bbq6MeFZ-s

:shades:

(hilarious underrated movie too, and good for scenes of a then-new 900 Turbo and other now-departed period cars)

fintail

None of that is a problem, so long as nobody sees you do it

jensad

Dog gonnit snakeweasel you discovered my secret!! Darn darn darn....

Thks for the laugh.

Good luck to all and stay safe.

jensad :shades:

fezo

I had an inconsiderate pedestrian coming back from lunch yesterday. As I am trying to walk on the sidewalk she is in front of me texting while walking and weaving all over while moving very slowly. Just as happy I didn't catch her when she was driving, which she looked just old enough to do.

xrunner2

Inconsiderate pedestrians could get clobbered in city traffic if they are busy texting or talking on cell and step off sidewalk into traffic. Those that do text/talk probably say they can multi-task - walk, text/talk, chew gum all while not stepping on any sidewalk cracks and not bumping into anyone.

fintail

I was in a crosswalk the other day - no phone or other distractions as I was out for exercise...and almost got hit by a woman in an Equinox who was playing with her food. Next time that happens, I am going to kick the car. Of course, on an Equinox, it won't change anything.

snakeweasel

You do realize that it is entirely possible to walk while talking on the phone and be completely aware of whats going on around you.

fintail

Today I saw a woman pull away from a light hitting about 10mph, on a busy 30mph city street, driving an old Vue. She had a notepad held at the steering wheel hub, and she was writing things down. This should result in capital punishment.

I also saw a MDX with a "baby on board" sticker make a left turn from a straight-only lane. That got a few horns going quickly.

the_big_al

I about nailed a pedestrian the other night... dark, no streetlights, or sidewalks for that matter (but plenty of shoulder) he was wearing guess what? Dark clothes, no flashlight and walking the wrong way (meaning he couldn't see me coming). I was almost upon him before I spotted him walking the edge of the road (no white line either).

I can understand the dark clothes and no flashlight bit maybe, if you weren't planning on having to walk in the dark, but at least walk on the right side of the road so you can see what's coming at you. Much easier for you to see me with lights on than for me to discern you from the surrounding darkness, especially when you're in a place that doesn't usually have a pedestrian.

jensad

Wow there were many people zoned out apparently not paying a hoot where they were walking and/or driving.

I think many people are so stress out with the pace of life that they focus on a narrow zone of what is to do next, where am I or just plain lost. I used to see it at Xmas, and other important/special days. But it is also happening in the Bay Area where people seem oblivious to other drivers and that is how people die. Very tragic, jmo.

Hope all posters here stay safe.

jensad

tjc78

this morning on I295 on the way to work. I was just past a construction zone in the left lane traveling around 65-70. A beat up old Saturn in front of me tries to get over to the right, then swerves back over into the lane. Why he did this I don't know as there was plenty of room for him to do so. Now 1 mile later near the next exit he proceeds to slow down (pretty quickly) to around 45 in the left lane, right blinker on trying to squeeze in between two tractor trailers. After almost causing a pile up, he cuts off the truck, then cuts off someone the right lane to just make the off ramp to Route 70. All this while...........you guessed it, talking on the phone!

jensad

Here in Calif we have a law that makes it unlawful to text while driving. In the last several days, CHP officers have cited over 1300 drivers for texting while driving. Howeve, knowing how the CHP operates they make hay now and after several weeks will change their focus.

But I hope law enforcement officers in CA keep up the good work. Nice to see from an old CHP officer who is retired!

Good luck to all and stay safe.

jensad

xwesx

Yikes! 1300 in the "last several days!" Given the density of drivers to law enforcement, well, you can just imagine how many drivers are out there texting rather than driving. It is enough to make a guy paranoid. :surprise:

fintail

I swear, the new "primary offense" status of yapping and texting hasn't decreased the amount of offending drivers around here at all. I see it constantly every time I go out.

fezo

I used to see it at Xmas, and other important/special days.

I live in a vacation area and in-season we are swarmed with such folks! Left their driving knowledge back home...

hammerhead

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_dead_woman_truck.html

jensad

You are right on fezo. Here in CA, aka Disneyland, when Xmas holidays and other holidays the drivers are more nuts (insane) than usual. And I understand it as the "have toos, must haves' ect plus the stress of the weather and the usualy incompentent drivers, swarm into the freeways and do more abnormal driving than usual.

But then this is Ca and we do drive fairly safe and real fast in the big metro areas and at holidays. I liked the way you said it, "Left their driving knowledge back home" .

Good luck to all and enjoy the new day.

jensad :shades:

snakeweasel

Yesterday I saw.....

1.) a Dodge Intrepid whose brake lights never went off even though they accelerated to 40 MPH. Yep it was a gray haired old man at the wheel.

and

2.) The contradiction of the week, a Hummer H1 with environmental license plates. Yeah they are concerned enough for the environment to pay an extra $20/year for environmental plates but not concerned enough not to drive a very environmentally unfriendly vehicle.

tallman1

We just got back home after a 2-week vacation driving in 8 western states. No major issues... just a few LLCs and inattentive drivers.

However, while driving through Idaho and Oregon on Friday one of those "where is a cop when you need them" moments happened... twice.

First in Idaho, a young woman with a couple of guys in their early twenties blew past us. Freeway speed was 75 and we were doing that. They were going waaay more than that. I saw them in the mirror and said something to my family as they blew past. Not long after that, one of Idaho's finest flew by with lights flashing and pulled them over.

A couple of hours later we were driving on the freeway in Oregon and some big GM boat blows past us. I figured what were the odds?... but sure enough, an Oregon trooper came up with lights flashing and ran him down.

We had enough cars pass us on our trip and we passed some but these two were really moving. I never saw where either of the troopers were hiding. Perhaps they were on an onramp or there was a trooper in a plane.

stever

I don't think Idaho has enough money to put the troopers in the air much. Probably was hiding behind a big clump of tumbleweed.

oregonboy

Hey, this is the era of the cell phone. If you drive waay stupid for long enough, someone will call the law. Then it's a question of whether there is an available unit within intercept distance.

It is quite a coincidence that you were in the right spot to witness it twice in one trip.

imidazol97

Had a Sonata moving fast pass us on I70 going to Columbus Friday. Ten miles later the OSP had him stopped.

He was from out-of-state. I guess speed limit signs mean little in Missouri.

I'm often amused by the speeders and tailgaters, mostly from southern states, who back off to the speed limit in Ohio when we pass an interchange on the interstate. Then they speed back up as soon as the interchange is past. Ohio State Patrol cops almost never are sitting on ramps or hidden on the interchange overpass in some way.

snakeweasel

Here in IL the state police are rarely hiding out at interchanges. However there are a few interchanges that are known to harbor local police watching that small portion of the Interstate that goes through a small corner of their jurisdiction.

imidazol97

>Interstate that goes through a small corner of their jurisdiction.

A Cincinnati suburb has a few hundred feet of I275; it was landlocked--no ramps within their juridiction. A few years ago there was an uproar about their avid speed enforcement. I believe some laws were changed to limit the ability of certain speedtraps to operate.

hammerhead

Hard to hide behind those tumbleweeds when they're tumbling!

snakeweasel

Took a short road trip today and came across the following.

First there was the guy who came up behind me in the left lane somewhat fast flashing his brights. The only issue was that there was someone in front of me, and there was someone infront of them, and there was someone in front of them, and there was someone in front of them and so on and so forth. So moving over really wouldn't have done him much good.

Funny thing is that once traffic cleared in front of me I hit the resume on the old cruise control and left him behind in the dust.

Then there was some clown in a van towing a pop up camper who in their infinite wisdom decided to speed up and match my speed. Well since traffic was coming up behind me I decided to speed up so I could move to the right (this time there was no traffic in front of me that was slowing me down) and this clown decided to speed up. :sick:

Finally I was last in a short line of cars on an on ramp merging onto an 4 lane Interstate. As we entered onto the interstate the car directly in front of me went straight across all 4 lanes of traffic directly into the far left lane. Of course this car quickly fell far behind all the other cars.

oregonboy

the car directly in front of me went straight across all 4 lanes of traffic directly into the far left lane

And there he remained until his exit came up, whereupon he cut straight across all 4 lanes of traffic directly into the exit ramp. :sick:

3233

Here in Georgia cops tend to hang out on the overpasses, so it's a habit to back off right before going under the overpass. The funny thing is, people here usually don't realize that radar guns have a range of half a mile or more...so by the time they near the overpass it's too late. What I call the state "welcome committee" hangs out just north of the Florida border on an overpass, so almost every time I head up I-75 I see a handful of cars pulled over right past the GA border.

Back on topic, I had a brief encounter with an inconsiderate driver. I'm on I-85 north of Montgomery, AL, and I'm in the left lane keeping up with the flow of traffic, doing about 85. A guy closes in on me quickly in a lifted Chevy pickup truck. No big deal, if he wants to go 95 that's his choice, he'll get pulled over most likely. But when I moved over and he passed me I saw that he was on his cellphone, which kinda freaked me out-driving a large pickup well above the speed limit on a fairly busy road takes all of your attention, and talking on a cell phone in that situation costs valuable reaction time that could end up killing him and others at that speed. To add insult to injury, he tossed a large soda out the window that nearly hit the car behind him. I'm pretty liberal about speeding, but to see him drive at such a high rate of speed while distracted, and littering to boot, really ticked me off.

jensad

Thanks for the tip snakeweasel. We are flying to O"Hare to drive west to Rockford to visit with our son and his family in late Sept. I have always seen Ill Highway Patrol officers on the side of the road and indeed I noted last time about 4 along the highway on the stretch from Chicago to Rockford.

But as to the driving, I find Ill drivers are pretty courteous or they are careful to avoid tickets. Thanks for the tip.

Good luck to all and stay safe.

jensad

elias

driving a fast-capable/rare car considerately in the left lane without tailgating whatsoever often causes other drivers to drive insanely to catch up.

it's happened to me hundreds of times, maybe more.

boy-racers do insane things to catch up to me in dense highway traffic, and/or to cut me off as if they think I will try to block them.
Other times they catch upjust gawk and give thumbs-up and try to get me to "exhibit speed" inappropriately.

Inevitably these boy-racers take the next exit after they zigzag through traffic to catch me.
This has happened literally hundreds of times. Never has there been a chick behind the wheel. Yesterday it was a debadged Mitsu Evo. ..

ps - i know it's the car not me the driver correlating with the boy-racers zigzagging to catch up - it's happened 0 times in ~400k VW TDI miles and at least 100 times in 80k pontiac miles!

snakeweasel

If someone has to zig zag through traffic to catch up to you that would mean that at the very least you are driving far faster than the flow of traffic and at the very worse zig zagging yourself. Either way I would consider that inconsiderate.

mako1a

That business where drivers call in to report bad drivers is for real here in Virginia.
My mom listens to the police scanner all the time and tells me they
put the callers name and vehicle description over the air along with the violator.

I verified this by putting some local police frequencies in my 2 meter ham radio and scanning. Sure enough it's true. That and the mile marker makes it real easy to find out who called and who they called about.

Yes I'm licensed and no I haven't told any violators who it was that called them in.

elias

no snakeweezy, both of your assumptions/interpretations appear to be intentionally incorrect: neither was i zigzagging through traffic nor was i driving faster than the flow of traffic.
And to reiterate, the issue never happens when I drive VW TDI!
(eventthough I can/do drive even faster in the VW than the GTO, thanks to the VW "stealth"!)

(Also, I included enough data in my post for you to reasonably know that your interpretation was incorrect, sir! )

tjc78

eventthough I can/do drive even faster in the VW than the GTO, thanks to the VW "stealth"!)

The good 'ol radar gun doesn't care what you are driving.

xwesx

I agree; you post does not indicate that you passed these boy racers and they then "drove insanely to catch up." Rather, they are more likely driving along, or just accessing the freeway, and see your car up ahead in the distance. It is not difficult to spot a given car quite a ways off if you are looking for it (or that type of car... not saying they are on the hunt specifically for Elias!).

elias

I must conclude that I am being inconsiderate by driving an interesting/fast car, no matter how courteously.

courteous best regards here and on the road to slowpokes and leadfoots alike!
:shades:

xwesx

And to those of in between... well... look out! :P :shades:

snakeweasel

I will stand by what I said. You must have passed them for them to see you (Most people don't look more than a couple of cars ahead). If they have to race to catch up then you must have passed a a fast pace.

I stand by this.

snakeweasel

Lets be serious here, how many people actually look that far down a busy highway? Plus that if someone saw an interesting car a few hundred yards ahead a small increase in speed (5 MPH or less would catch you up very quickly. Especially from a distance where you would be able to notice an unusual car.

jwilliams2

Gee, I believe he said that he was "driving considerately in the left lane without tailgating" and in "dense highway traffic".

Seems to me that says it all. Don’t know how anyone could possibly assume he was driving “faster than the flow if traffic” or “zig zagging”.

Sometimes it’s best not to make assumptions....

snakeweasel

Gee you're right, no one ever (either intentionally or unintentionally) misstated what they were doing and/or were ever oblivious to the fact that they were inconsiderate.

Gee I would suspect that many of the people that are discussed on this forum would have said that they were driving considerately.

Hey today on the way home I found myself behind someone who evidently didn't know what a gas pedal was as she was driving 10 MPH under the limit, came to a corner and made the turn very slow and very wide then proceeded down the road at between 5 and 10 MPH below the limit (all the while on a two lane road) and slowed down almost to a stop as she crawed the last 100 feet or so at a walking pace before making a left turn.

I would suspect that if you talked to the driver he or she would say that they were driving ok and "considerately".

xwesx

From the perspective of a rational driver, it might seem rather ludicrous. I have watched kids do exactly as I suggested above and sometimes those cars they were chasing were likely a 1/4 mile up the road. 5 mph doesn't catch you up fast at all when you have the mindset of a child... a quarter mile would take a whopping three minutes to close!

Besides, since when did showboating involve subtlety?

xwesx

today on the way home I found myself behind someone who evidently didn't know what a gas pedal was as she was driving 10 MPH under the limit

It usually seems like the folks who decide that pulling in front of you (driving on a two-laner like you describe) close enough to force you to slow down rather than waiting for the vast open space behind always accelerate to 5-10 mph under the limit and decide that is a very pleasant speed.... :sick:

snakeweasel

as I suggested above and sometimes those cars they were chasing were likely a 1/4 mile up the road

A quarter mile up the road is a good distance and its hard to identify makes and models of cars at that distance. So unless the car has something very unusual about it or the driver is using binoculars or the car was originally much closer I don't see most drivers recogbizing it as a unique car, expecially in heavy traffic.

jwilliams2

I am much too considerate to suggest an Edmonds poster would be oblivious or inconsiderate. I would expect most feel the same, although there are always exceptions.

snakeweasel

I am just saying that we see our actions differently than others see them. And we tend to be more forgiving for our own actions than others.

I would guess that if you had someone following each of us without our knowledge you would find that each one of us does inconsiderate things and if we are asked about it we would see nothing wrong with what we did.

Thats how you get 80% of the population stating that they are above average drivers.

xwesx

1/4 mile? Not at all. Keep in mind that I'm talking approximates, here, so please don't get stuck on the details. A good driver should be scanning the road at about 1/8 of a mile (only half that distance) in order to remain well informed of the roadway ahead. Things as small as dogs and cats are noticeable at that distance.

If you know what you are looking for, 1/4 mile is not too hard to spot. I could name you any vehicle's make and model from an eighth mile at about 50% accuracy (newer ones, especially, can be pretty tough with so much convergent design), so you really don't think it is possible to pick a "sporty" car out at 1200 feet off? These kids do this stuff regularly - they live and breathe cars - and they can spot the lookers. Sometimes, if you're watching your surroundings regularly, you can actually see those kids pull their "weave" maneuver (it isn't all that uncommon, at least around here during the summer, anyway) in an attempt to catch up to a suspected target, then settle back in to traffic after a ways when they realize the car is not what they first thought it to be. For example, not every Mustang is a Rousch (sp?) or a Cobra. Who wants to challenge a "lowly" GT or a V-6 to a race? How embarrassing.... :P

I guess that is not possible in the Chicago area because it is so choked with congestion so much of the time, but unless you're on an arrow-straight (and flat) road with heavy traffic, you really can see and generally identify vehicle types 1/4 of a mile distant. For these kids, that's all it takes as they just want an excuse.

jwilliams2

Oh, so sorry. I didn't realize that's what you were saying. I thought you opined he was doing something he clearly stated he wasn't. And stood by it even after clarification. My mistake. Total misunderstanding. I will go back and read this again more carefully. Oh wait........

snakeweasel

I could name you any vehicle's make and model from an eighth mile at about 50% accuracy

1/8th a mile is different than 1/4th of a mile. Things look a lot smaller from a 1/4 mile back than they do an 1/8 mile back.

Once you start getting a 1/4 mile away its much harder to tell different makes apart. Sure you could tell the difference between a truck and a sedan or a sedan and a station wagon, but much harder to tell the difference between two sedans or a coupe from a true sports car.

you really can see and generally identify vehicle types 1/4 of a mile distant

Key word is types not specific vehicles.