Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Light traffic volumes this afternoon, didn't see many yappers, and most people seemed to use their signals. Weird. Had a tiny young likely new driver woman in an GLK tailgate me for about a mile - I don't think she was being aggressive, just bad driving style - as the road wasn't crowded, and she had plenty of room to go around, and didn't appear to have any emotion or movement at all.
F01? What was that? A fighter jet of early vintage? What's it doing on a public road?
It's too bad the video doesn't include the alleged incident that sparked the confrontation, but I've been in a situation like that before and the first thought going through your head isn't, "gee, I should film this for posterity."
It's for the children.
(it's safer for a few of them to be awakened briefly than to be hit by cars while sleepwalking or whatever.)
Got behind a woman I won't describe, Honda Pilot, green turn arrow, she stops and dawdles so we miss the light, I honk (which apparently wakes her up), she lunges forward, then freezes, then tries to reverse - she gets back a little and then scares me with her lack of attention and awareness, so I honk again, she stops and I feel relieved.
Saw several phone yappers/texters, and few turn signal users.
One of my worst-ever encounters happened while I was on my road bike. This was several Aprils ago, in a beach town in NC. The middle section of this barrier island can get a bit congested, and my 16-17mph in the headwind actually kept me with vehicle traffic pretty well. A college-age female driving a CR-V with MD plates pulled out of a side street and forced me to brake... and then brake-checked me again.
I gave her a well-deserved earful and invited her to return to MD when I passed her before making my left turn at one of two signal lights on the island.
Bikes Sharing the Road
A few dummies out today - 7er was going to turn from a fast street, changed its mind mid turn, slams on the brakes to a near stop and gets back in the flow - luckily the car behind it braked early. Saw a Civic make a fast and stupid right turn from the left lane, luckily the lane was free. A few crosswalk blockers while I was on foot.
Yesterday morning, early around maybe 0540, saw a tractor trailer on a city street - it was in a turn lane, so I made my turn. I watched it, and it breezed through and kept going straight, but I was blocks ahead by then. Then sped up - I got up to 40 in a 30 and he was closing fast. Then suddenly he slowed down, and was out of my line of sight as I returned to a normal speed. Weird.
Maybe get out of that sleepless "blue" state and try another blue state nowhere near as bad. Northern Illinois. Not Chicago. Yes there are many goofballs, drivers on cell phones, etc, but apparently nowhere near as bad as the Sleepless area.
The problem here is lack of speed, being timid, and being oblivious. It's probably no better or worse overall than the intentional jerkiness you get in the northeast or maybe southern CA. It'll be hard to find the ideal driving place, unless one moves to Germany outside of a big city.
BINGO!
Only 1 of my trips to Germany, I got to drive the autobahn(north of Koln).
I was in HEAVEN!
South of Koln is where I have experienced my fastest German train ride - 289 km/h according to the train.
From Stuttgart headed towards the Swiss border, areas between Munich - Nuremberg, from Nuremberg north and west, and the 'bahn that runs near the "romantic road" all seem to have tons of "freier wildbahn" areas - long stretches of low density low construction smooth unrestricted road where anything is possible.
Nothing inconsiderate but lordy, the freeway traffic in Seattle just keeps getting worse. After 2 miles of bumper to bumper, I was finally able to hit the HOV lane and get back south of town. At least the surface streets were okay.
I was out in Bellevue after 7pm, ridiculous traffic on 148th, horrible light sequencing, dawdling "drivers" making it 100x worse. I was nice anyway, guy in a Sentra beside me needed in to the turn lane where I was sitting waiting for a negligently maintained signal (thanks, "engineers"! multiple times sat at red lights with no cross traffic) to change, I let him in.
While on foot, saw a couple little grey heads in a Chevy Captiva turn the wrong way into a bank drive-thru - and pressed on like it was nothing. I am not sure how they got out.
I suspect they were somehow able to wedge their way into a u-turn.
I was going about 65, same as everyone else, but I don't know what the speed limit was.
Maybe the candy red Fiesta made me stand out from the crowd.
The chase guy looking pretty eager, like waiting for the word 'go'.
After we passed them, I see the chase guy coming up from behind.
The strange thing is, his car is spewing a ton of white smoke from underneath.
He went by, then pulled right in front of me, and a couple of seconds later he yanked the car into the break down lane and stopped.
Maybe he looked in his rear view mirror and finally saw the smoke? Strange.
Saw a local cop make a right turn on red, oncoming left turn had a green light, he just barged out and forced his way in front of an oncoming car - no lights or sirens. Must be nice being both very well paid and untouchable.
At the start of the ride, I was on one of the roads with a bike lane, still just getting into it. Traffic from a side street out of the adjacent neighborhood has a stop sign, but the driver of a 2nd-generation Chrysler LH (from that angle, the Concorde, 300M and LHS all look the same) didn't understand the need to yield to cross traffic, and I had to brake to avoid ending up through a side window and into the back seat.
And then about a half mile from the end of my ride, coming back into Seneca from the other direction, the road that leads back to where I parked does not have a bike lane. An upper-middle-aged woman in a Cadillac also chose not to yield to the cross traffic that does not stop as she entered from the left, to go in the same direction I was. I was riding in aero, and not sure putting myself behind her would have been any bargain. I was maybe 6 inches from the edge of the pavement, and she missed me by a foot, certainly less than two with the front corner of her car.
I don't get this town... they are too incompetent to get their brain around two drivers making non-conflicting movements at the same time at a 4-way stop, yet they don't know how to yield to cross traffic when they are the only one with a stop sign.
And then for good measure, there was the idiot trucker at the Watterson/71 merge as I was driving home from the parks. Traffic on 71 was slow, probably from someone running someone else out of road at the end of the half-mile merge lane. As I was getting on, this trucker wasn't letting anyone in front of him. The car in front of me fell back and blended in behind the truck. When the lane cleared, I was too sick of all the BS of the day to let 2000 feet of good pavement go to waste, so I (necessarily) gunned it to get by the truck (he forced me half way onto the shoulder) and then blended in when I approached the real end of the merge lane.
Hopefully I can get through Derby Day next Saturday without facing too much more idiocy, or without completely going off on someone who deserves it.
Oh, like most luxury cars sold in SoCal, this E Class didn't have turn signals. Must be a CA thing... they pay for the extra pollution controls by taking out features like turn signals.
For example, a truck pulls out right in front of me to turn left onto a residential road with the perfectly imperfect timing of forcing me to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him (they were coming out of a driveway on the right from a condo complexes parking lot).
I was just going to stare them down silently as he drove by, but since he had his hand up to his ear with a cell phone I had to honk at him. He honked back amazingly, so I honked again as we went our separate ways.
For someone to make two horrific driving mistakes in the last 4 seconds to honk back at me shows some real gall.
Well, starting the day after the swap, the weather turns cold and we've had three separate snowfall events in the last week! This morning, the temp was about 30 degrees, so that snow slicked the roads up in no time. I debated plowing the neighborhood again, but after I got my little Fiesta up to the main road with its summer tires, I didn't have any sympathy for my neighbors any longer. :P
. Gave about 2 blinks of turn signal and over she came. Her lane still had about 3/4 mile to go before it would end: only the rightmost lane went off to a surface exit.
She didn't try to speed up. It was just "Hello," here I am. Sheeesh. As I passed I see a librarian or retired teacher (stereotype alert) with 3 other ladies stuffed into the vehicle all peering out their windows as if they are afraid for their lives. PS, traffic was very light at 8:30 am going away from downtown. I looked for a "I love Seattle" sticker on rear to see if she was one of those timid drivers that Fintail sees in Seattle..
I was very nice and only tooted twice. However she slowed down to about 45 after I passed. If someone can't drive on the freeway, stay on surface streets. That's what one of my wife's friends does here around Dayton. Scared of freeway.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Gotta chime in about the horn honking from earlier, too. When an idiot honks back after a poor maneuver, it really shows their mentality.
Your excellent descriptions paint pictures in my mind of various people types when you describe them. This driver had straight hair down to collar with a mixture of gray and black. Glasses with plastic frame.
She had to be in a panic when the 2 lanes on left of 4 end up merging onto I70 on the left side. So she found herself in the middle of fairly busy I70 traffic, in the third lane of 4 lanes after the I70 pair merged on the right.
Of course I'm probably wrong and they were heading to Hollywood Casino, new in town and Ohio, to game for a while and have lunch.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
On the way home today, saw a Corolla make a free right turn. Unfortunately, the young woman driver turned wide into the left lane (4 lane arterial, center turn lane), and a BMW 5er GT was already there, moving along at maybe 35. BMW guy quickly hit the brakes, swerved, and honked. City revenue/law enforcement officer was sitting on the other side of the intersection, didn't blink an eye. At that time was behind a Lexus RX doing "the creep" - pulled up at the light a ways behind the car in front of it, and every several seconds would move up maybe half a foot. Why do people do this? Then while on foot saw typical downtown idiocy - lots of phone yappers.
Anyway, one time I was coasting up to a red light in the right lane on a 4 lane (2 each direction) street. This bozo pulls out right in front of me from a gas station, so I change lanes to the left lane. So does he, cutting me off for a 2nd time within 2 seconds, forcing me to hit the brakes again. Then he proceeds into the left turn only lane. Then swerves back again into the leftmost straight lane, where I was, forcing me back into the right lane. All within ~ 150 ft. I finally hit the horn, just a quick 2 second honk, nothing excessive. The female passenger rolls down the window and gives me the finger with and yells at me with an enraged look on her face.
BTW, this was in Canada, home of the most polite people on earth :P
We need more of these:
Where ‘Share the Road’ Is Taken Literally (NY Times)
I've rarely received a finger from a honk, but have received a honk back. That will usually prompt me to lay on the horn, especially if I am in my old car which has a horn louder than modern cars. In that war, I win :shades:
Here's a horn that will draw some attention. Especially if put on a Mercedes Benz. How would the sleepless drivers react.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfwH37gv0Wc
I wonder if a musical horn would wake up the stupid, or if they'd just tune it out even more. Not uncommon to see dolts do nothing when an ambulance or cop with a screaming siren (very loud here) comes up behind them.
Maybe you would need a 3rd vehicle that would be more appropriate to that horn. A jacked-up, beater pickup. Or a Charger.
This statement appears every once in a while & reflects the author having a large degree of envy &/or jealousy. Why not be happy for the success of others?
"Jealousy" is a lame red herring style accusation made to distract or deceive, IMNSHO :P
And yes, a good one for speed bumps - we must stay safe!