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Problem is, you could pull out all the "Connecticuts" and insert the name of any state in the Northeast and it would be just as true. Except 5, that's a NJ thing all the way!
(no I don't even drive a German car)
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I clearly want to go faster than he does. So he puts on his right turn signal. Hurray! And proceeds to change from the left side of the lane to the right side of the lane. Oh, dear. Is he a jerk, or merely a little.. slow?
Perhaps he just needs encouragement- so I flick my brights, to ask him to move over (there are 2 nearly empty lanes to the right). He does nothing. So I pass on the right, at which point he puts on his brights. And holds them.
Start off as a moron, and add jerk to the resume.
So I slowed down and LLC'ed.
Gave me pleassure to see two of them in the ditch. Also saw two older front wheel drives in the ditch (Escort and Somerset).
Some folks just don't understand that heavy, wet snow pulls when you hit a ridge of it where wheels have pushed in along the tracks.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I too like seeing the SUVs ditched and crashed in the snow...as I slowly but steadily plod along in my big heavy old RWD car.
I have noticed a few bad driving trends that seem to be getting more popular in my area. First off is cellphone talking while driving. This has to be stopped. Second is braindead idiots sitting there with a finger up their nose when the light changes. Wake up! And third is the worst...people (of a certain age and gender demographic it seems...) who will pull out in front of you from a side street and expect you to slow down to let them in. When you pull out in front of someone a half block away when they are going 40mph, it causes problems. It's especially bad in my fintail of all cars...like it is invisible. When a 40 year old Mercedes t-bones a 5 year old Civic at 40mph, one car (or driver) will be much better off than the other.
Actually how it happens to me is a slight variation on your's above.
With me, I'll see somebody sitting on a side street way up ahead with all day to go without bothering anyone....but they don't. Instead they wait...and wait....and wait until I'm almost right there and then pull out in front of me doing 5mph! Never mind the fact that no one is behind me. (argggggggghhhhhh)
If I sound like I'm being too harsh, I used to stop for the people doing that, but get screwed as I'd miss the light because they took forever to get out infront of me, or simply never went at all (Fintail's finger in nose people?)
Then saw a guy reading the newspaper.
How can they drive if they can't see?
-juice
About 10 yards behind was a red Mustang, slipstreaming I suppose, with the driver woman applying mascara!
I kid you not. These two vehicles left the interstate a few miles down at the next exit. I thanked God.
I have adopted a couple of new strategies. The first deals with the aforementioned driver who's in such a he11-fire hurry they can't wait until you go by, instead he must pull out in front of you and then drive 10 mph under the speed limit. In this case, I pass the driver, then pull into the lane in front of him (all while signaling and without making any radical or agressive moves), then I gradually slow down to about 10 mph less than he was driving. As it turns out, most of these drivers don't like the taste of their own medicine. I just hope they're getting the point.
My second new strategy deals with merging onto the freeway. Here, our freeway entrances are posted with merge signs instead of yield signs. Apparently, many drivers here don't know what "merge" means because many times when I enter the freeway, drivers refuse to move over into the left lane even when it's completely empty. As I'm coming down the ramp, I will observe the traffic on the freeway. If the left lane is open and there's a vehicle in the right lane that's not moving over, I make sure I'm doing the speed limit and that my turn signal is on, and I slowly pull over into the right lane. Doing this I've forced people to move over into the left lane, and have even drew a few penalty flags (people flipping me the bird). So what? Merge means merge, and as long as the left lane is open, I've got the right away to pull onto the freeway. They need to move their butts over without having to be forced over. Idiot drivers!
Many people in my area seem to think an on-ramp is merely a little road leading to the freeway, and that you are supposed to accelerate once you hit the freeway.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
The other pet peeve is the lane changers. Why can't these fools just stay in their lanes? I see it every night. The traffic is heavy, with all 3 lanes of the freeway traveling at about the same speed. There always has to be a few jerks that are running back and forth across every lane, 10 times per mile. Of course they never signal, and if I'm in the left lane, behind other cars, they seem to think I should move over for them and let them pass. Da%##it, I want to get past just as much as you do, wait your turn! If I'm in the passing lane, I'm passing! If the traffic clears ahead of me and you are still behind me, I'll move over, OR I'll floor it and get out of your way.
The truckers are just as guilty as the 4 wheelers with this one. They see you coming up on the left side to pass, and they pull out in front of you to pass another slower truck, and proceed to pass at .001 mph faster than the slow truck. Takes them 5 miles!
Maybe thats why most of the other drivers are drinking;)
Maybe I'm evil, but I enjoy watching video of in Europe when the pull people over for reading books and the like. Warms up my heart to see people getting punished for not paying any damn attention to the road while driving.
I see a ton of people every day who are not paying one lick of attention to the road. Really, really ticks me off.
Totally had forgotten about that.
I had a run in with a guy who apparently thought like you do, a month or so ago. I was in the right lane going 70, I saw him coming up the ramp from the right and assumed he would get in behind me if was going at a normal speed. However was in a big old hurry, and at the point at which he could begin to merge his front wheels were off my rears. By now there was an approaching car in the left lane. I maintain my speed. Mr Merger is PO'd and gets in right on my bumper, so close I can see only hood behind me, no headlights. He swings left as soon as he can, pulls beside me, flips me off, swerves at me, and takes off.
I will get over or slow down for someone merging, but Ive been burnt too many times by people trying to second guess what I am going to do. I slow down, they slow down. I speed up they speed up. I move over and they are merging so slowly that I didnt need to. So my philosophy now is that if traffic is not heavy and Im cruising along, I am going to continue on at the same speed in the same lane, unless I can see ahead that I need to make an adjustment. I am not going to make an adjustment at the merging point for someone coming on. It is the responsibility of the person merging to adjust their speed so that they will merge into an opening and not have to bully someone into making an opening for them.
About the truckers. I recently finished truck driving school and I can tell you from what I learned in this course, these truckers who drive 10-20 MPH over the speed limit, tailgate, and weave in and out of traffic should be arrested for wreckless endangerment. If a trucker is following you within a car length or two and you had to stop quickly, he'd run right over you. Trucks take 4 times the distance a car takes to stop. The guys you see doing this, and there's a lot of them out there, shouldn't even have a CDL. Once I start my new job, which will include driving the big rigs, I'll be chewing some [non-permissible content removed] if/when I see other truckers doing this crap. There's absolutely no excuse for truckers to be driving like this because they know better!
As far as people driving their cars with cellphones in their ears why do not to talk to somebody that bad? When your done driving home from your work you can call that person you need to call and use your homephone. There is no reason why you have to call somebody while in your car driving.
The hard part is how am I going to fit into the equation.
Some of the worst drivers often have kids in the car who are "learning" from watching their parents. A new generation of bad drivers is on the way.
Are you always alone in the car when you drive? Unlikely. When you have passengers, do you ever talk to them? I thought so.
There's no inherent difference between hand's free cell phone use and taking with the occupants of your car.
You're attempting to address one symptom, not the real problem. The problem is people not paying attention to driving. There are any number of ways that can manifest itself, and if you legislate against any single one of them then people will find other ways to not pay attention to the road.
Next you'll be trying to outlaw car stereos. (Some commuter types I know *really* get into their audio books.)
In fact, I actually feel safer driving and talking on the phone, than I do driving with a passenger. I don't know why but at least I can make phone conversion utterly mindless, and I can always hang up, so it rarely is a major distraction. Whereas every now and then a passenger will say "so what's the meaning of life?" and I'll start swerving.
But as I said above, punish inattentive driving (of which cell phones are one of the biggest culprits I see day to day). Just punish all of it.
Bottgers, I read the above and I read your response to kmag's post and determined that 1) YOU are the one that doesn't know what merge means and 2) you do NOT have the "right away" (also known as the "right of way") to pull onto to the freeway. The driver on the highway has the right of way and although you need not "yield" in the legal sense, you are obligated to find a speed appropriate to merge into traffic--remember YOU are merging with flow of traffic, not the other way around.
If the left lane is clear, I certainly always move over, because it is courteous. However, if the other driver is doing the speed limit and staying in the right lane (as he should be), the onus is then on you slightly slow down to pull behind him or slightly speed up to merge ahead of him. If you were to do this to me "forced people to move over into the left lane", you can be certain I will stay with you until the police have pulled you over, not because I'm a traffic [non-permissible content removed], but because I would assume you are either drunk or driving recklessly. Again, I'll emphasize a driver not moving over if able is not courteous or civil, but it certainly isn't illegal (as LLCing is).
And let me assert that someone on the other end of a cell phone conversation is *much* easier to "tune out" than someone sitting next to you who *will* not be ignored.
That said, I agree with you totally that what needs to be enforced is attentiveness while driving. After all, if selective or simply non-enforcement of current regulations is leading to something like anarchy on the roads, what good exactly is it going to do to pass more regulations?
Of course, in heavy, cramped traffic, those in the right lane need to try to figure out what the merging car will attempt and make an accomodating maneuver if required, but only when the merging car really has no other option than to elbow its way in.
This ain't rocket science...
But...IT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT to try to teach them a lesson. They will almost certainly NOT get the point, and a bad situation will just get worse.
What if you tried to "teach" one of these drivers, and a serious accident occurred? Even if you are legally in the clear, do you want to deal with car insurance, physical injuries, police, car-in-the-shop and all that headache?
If for some reason you were to actually end up chatting with such an offender, I bet you'd find that he/she is actually a fairly nice person. Lots of bad drivers are normal people; they just have different standards of driving than us car nuts.
Surely you jest! Maybe you are driving in some other part of the country than I am, but truckers have become just as inconsiderate as the "4 wheelers". Not trying to get into an argument here, but have you ever listened to a CB radio? I use one on the interstate. It's great for getting a heads up on what is going on up ahead, but you really get an insight as to what they are thinking. Lots of them brag about how they intimidate the "4 wheelers". Sure, most truckers are OK, but there are a lot of them that should be locked up. Give them a wide berth, and don't stay nearby for long, and ladies... be careful what you are doing/wearing/not wearing in your car. They can see everything from up there.
As for many others, what area are you in sphinx99 that the truckers are always courteous.
Cellphone. I watch people on cell phones and they are not reacting to what's going on around them. There's something about communcating ont he phone that's different than talking to a passenger.
They are trying to concentrate and read the voice inflections to infer the other person's meanings. In real live conversation it's easy to hear the intonation and get the meaning. I've used a cellphone and it's distracting. I occasionally use ONSTAR and find it's less distracting than Nextel.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
As far as some of you disapproving of my merging tactic, I don't really care what you think. I'm sick and tired of having to always give in to idiot drivers just because they're too busy blabbing on their cell phones to pay attention to what's going on around them.
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Ive had plenty of cars actually speed up and try to get past when they saw me trying to merge. Everybody assumes you'll slow them down so nobody wants to end up being the guy you merge in front of. But then you get a long line of cars all too lazy to move over a lane and nobody wants anybody else in front of them and it can get aggravating. What a surprise it must have be for some of these people who try to crowd me out when the situation switches from them being next to me not giving ground to me pulling away going 25 mph faster than they are and disappearing in the distance. I did this to a newer Altima just the other night. There seems to be plenty of people out on the road who get on the merging lane and then forget why they even bought a car with all that horsepower in the first place. I do not. I paid alot of money for it. I like getting my money's worth.
On merging, sometimes I do the same as the guy who's getting beaten up here, and hold my course. I've had waaaaaay too many close calls where I slowed down to let someone into a hole only to see them slow down, or sped up to get past someone trying to merge only to see them try to race me. I know that I can't anticipate what's going on in the mind of the person trying to merge. I wish I could, but I can't read minds. So, I kind of trust that they can read my cruise control and constant speed better than I can read their unknown acceleration, and I let them make the adjustment. If they feel that they can pass me, they are welcome to floor it and get ahead. If they don't feel that they can pass me, they can brake and get behind. Either way I'll try to maintain a steady speed.
Occasionally I will slow down or speed up if we're side by side, the lane is ending, and I can visibly tell that they are try to get ahead [or behind] me, just to make it easier.
"I could care less if people don't want to do the considerate thing and clear out of the merging lane."
I'd love to clear out of the rightmost lane but some of us want to be able to drive at the speed limit without being forced to drive faster by the Speed Racers because they feel that everyone should drive like them. On some freeways at some times, even the second-to-right lane is going 5-10mph over the limit, and if I'm in that lane I'm sure Joe Racer will come here calling me a LLC or something. (At the minimum I'll get the usual tailgating.) Being in the right lane seemingly is the only place where I can drive at legal speeds and not have everyone on the road holding it against me.
But if I'm in the right lane, then I'm inconsiderate to the mergers?
Man, you really can't win.
As for truckers... maybe a tiny handful of times in my 8 years of driving, like 2-3 times, I've seen a real jerk behind the wheel of a big rig. I remember once one of the big dump truck type things with the open bin in the back came barreling through traffic, tailgating, weaving in and out, forcing people out of his way, following cars at 2 car lenghts or less at 7, and THAT was probably the worst I've ever seen. He had pretty much everyone he encountered on that stretch of road on the phone to the police.
A few other times I've seen truckers start to move over like they didn't notice a car was there. I even had it done to me once. A couple times it just seems like they get frustrated with getting blocked out of lanes and just proceed to move over and leave it to the next driver over to stop being a jerk and let them in. I find them more irritating than anyone else, especially with their 15 minute uphill passes at a .0005 mph speed differential. I think with few exceptions they should be barred from the far left lane.
But it's what Ive seen people DO around trucks that scares me more. Like the idiots who will hover in a truck's blindspot without passing for miles at a time. It's stupid enough to do this with cars, but with a 100 foot long, 10 thousand pound vehicle? I dont know what the heck it is that attracts some drivers to other vehicles' blind spots, but I am always intrigued by the phenomenon where the car will be in the process of passing, then pause for an extended period of time in your blind spot before proceeding.
Then there's the drafters, who will hunker down 2-3 car lengths directly behind a tractor trailer where they are completely outside of the driver's field of view. Is the savings in gas mileage really worth it considering the driver of that behemoth in front of you has no clue whatsoever that you're even there? Or those who will be stuck behind a truck in the left lane then fly by him on the right as soon as a gap opens up even though he obviously wants to do the right thing and get over. This will often trap a big rig in the left lane and and snarl traffic even more.
Look, I fully agree in being courteous whenever possible. But saying that someone who is in the right lane at the speed limit is inconsiderate and saying on the exact same hand that someone driving the speed limit in the left lane ALSO is inconsiderate, really takes the cake.
I stand by what I said: you really can't win. No matter how a person drives, it's going to piss off someone else who expects others to drive their way. All you can do is try to avoid pissing off the minimum number of people possible, and not make eye contact with those who do get upset.
The first time the guy drafting the trucker takes an alligator (that's what the huge pieces of rubber are called when a big rig blows a tire) in the windshield, I guarantee you they will stop drafting. It's not a pretty sight when this happens.