Run into any bad drivers lately? I need to bitch...
 

I'm sick and fucking tired of these out-of-state drivers/tourists pouring into our town like locusts and bringing their nasty driving habits with them. They don't read signs, run lights & stops, barge into line, slow down - speed up - slow down - speed up, whenever they feel like it, like they're the only ones on the road. Those are the ones that really get me.....they're entitled somehow...they can cut you off, ride your tailpipe, block your way, take up two parking spaces, threaten pedestrians, but are in no way accountable.... because...???? I need answers.

I'm on the east coast where the drivers are notorious for being some of the worst in the country. And I'm no push-over...I drove in and around Boston and Wash. D.C. for years without having an accident (in fact, I've never caused one)...I broke the law every single day...bullied when I had to...was civilized when deserved...etc. But now I'm living in a small town in a laid back state where folks are almost always considerate, and it's soooooo pleasant. I still break the speed limits when I drive, and pass on the right as I'm reading the sign that says "no passing on right", jump lanes if I need to, drive with bare feet, etc. But not at the expense of other drivers!

Commiserators wanted.

We get a lot of people from New Jersey and Maryland too. I feel your pain.

This is one of the reasons that I like the fact that I do a good bit of my driving late at night.

I guess if you're around Philly, you know about tourists. Here though, where the population is so small, they often outnumber us on weekends! Not as bad as Cooperstown, but close. We get MA, NY, CT, NJ - those are the worst. I wish I could do my driving at night, but sidewalks around here roll up at 9, 10 pm.

Because they are on vacation. :D

(If they are really bad drivers, wouldn't they have to run into you?)

And their brains and consideration went somewhere else.

:) True...and they will if I giv'em half a chance! It's a gd derby out there!

i really think its that way any where you go. people for the most part are dumb and shouldnt be trusted to operate machinery.

Sad, isn't it? I'm figuring out that it's more than the driving though...it's also because many of these folks have bought 2nd homes here. They've driven the cost of real estate sooooo high that the natives have trouble affording to buy. I know on a statewide level this is good news...more taxes, bigger budget which, in this state, helps everyone. And it does have a good trickle-down economic impact. But it's sad for the ones who live here and run the economy to be priced out of their own market.

that is sad and wrong on so many different levels.

Grew-up in FL, so I'm used to it. Driving defensively fixes it, doesn't bug me.
Of course, I can't drive any longer, but that has only been recently.

Try living in my town in the summer. We get cruise ships in and our population grows from 8000 locals (most of which are not in the downtown area) to 10-18,000 people. All downtown. All on foot. All about 60-100 years old. All who apparently can't use crosswalks, traffic lights and can't read signs.

It's not hard to become an angry driver.

Yeah, they're certainly "a bit off" down here behind the wheel. Yet, nothing beats the turn lane confusion I encountered not once, not twice, but three times while driving in Atlanta: watching a driver pull into the center turn lane and then sweep back across two or three lanes of traffic in order to make a right. They also seem to fully intend to make a right, too, as they even have their right turn signal on and twice there was no left to make. How the hell do you get your license and mistake the center lane as being required for any and all turns?

Surely, natural selection will weed these people out. Sadly, they'll probably be removing some good drivers from the pool as well.

Seakdivers -- you in Skagway?

From the other side, have you ever been somewhere and just didn't understand what the hell all the locals were doing?

I was in Canada last year, and they had some weird thing where you could sometimes turn left when the light first turns green. But there was no left arrow. The oncoming traffic would sit there waiting for me, and cars behind me would honk to get me to turn left, but there was no left arrow, so I thought the oncoming cars would start at any time and smash me up if I turned. I hesitated just long enought to lose whatever magic opportunity I had, but pulled out anyway, cutting off oncoming traffic and pissing off everyone behind me who got trapped.

I spoke to someone later that day about it, and I think they said there was like a flashing dot or something in the green light that meant I could turn left.

Anyway, I'm usually a good driver, but wasn't that day.

Here in Clearwater, FL we have a causeway that takes people, many of them tourists, out to Clearwater Beach (aptly named). It's the only way to get there without driving north or south a few miles to another bridge and then crawling back up/down the beach road to Clearwater Beach. It was always a nasty bottleneck just over the bridge at the intersection where the causeway met the north/south beach road and the downtown area. So city planners decided a roundabout (ala England, but in reverse) was the solution.

With a giant, view blocking, fountain in the center...

There were two lanes...an outer lane which forced an exit with lane dividers to the next road and an inner lane which allowed you to circle until you reached the road you wanted, whereupon you moved to the outer lane and automatically exited.

Sounded good in theory, but was a disaster in practicality. No one could understand the multiple lane changes required, they weren't able to merge politely, and you couldn't see what was ahead due to the lovely fountain.

For a short period of time, I lived in an apartment right next to the roundabout. It was always a source of entertainment to watch the natives and tourists alike attempt to navigate around it.

I never had any problems with it, but then I have traveled in England and the Middle East, where not only are there roundabouts, but they drive on the other side of the road!

Stormie

The majority of the public voted to have the roundabout removed. Instead, the city negotiated to remove the fountain in the hopes that it would "improve visibility". Right.

http://www.islandtime.com/photogalle...fountain-2.jpg

Geniuses. The fountain is the only thing that makes the roundabout decent.

That's classic! The roundabout is also good for other businesses, too, since you can't escape the island after 5pm or at all on weekends thanks to traffic. They'll never replace it with a simple intersection -- local restaurants and hotels will lose too much business.

God, I hate that thing. The moment a drawbridge opens, you're stuck for at least twenty minutes.

We had a traffic circle locally that was horrendous due mostly to a large population of first-time drivers (temporary NYC transplants) from the University. They added a fly-over which took the University traffic mostly out of the equation and shrank the circle to a rotary. It actually works well although I still hear complaints from folks who haven't bothered to learn the thing.

I used to live in Beijing.

Cars are sort of a new thing there.

And traffic laws... what traffic laws?

The one for my video card gets cranky sometimes ... oh, wait, you meant something else, didn't you?

Open letter to "the guy behind me, right on my ass"

There is a car right in front of me that determines the speed at which I can travel. There is a car in the lane next to them, going roughly the same speed, and there is a line of cars, in both lanes, going roughly that same speed, very tightly packed, for as far as the eye can see. Question: what the fuck do you hope to accomplish here? Are you fucking retarded?

Okay, that was two questions.

Fella like that kinda makes you want to switch your lights on and see if he mistakes your taillights for brake lights, doesn't he?

I always wanted an old beater of a truck, enough insurance to cover just the occupants, and short sections of telephone pole for front and rear bumpers.

Oh, yes, that would have been sweet, indeed.

It is fun watching that hood dip isn't it?

My wife had one yesterday. She was at an intersection, trying to make a right turn on red, but she couldn't see around the van stopped next to her because it had pulled too far out into the intersection. She decided to wait for the light, rather than risk pulling blindly out into traffic. Another vehicle came up behind her, and also wanted to turn right. That driver leaned on the horn, and shouted at her because she wasn't going. Not just a little. He was yelling and honking until the light changed.

After the light changed, and they both made the turn, the driver behind her zoomed past her, and she was able to see it was a courtesy shuttle for a local car dealership.

When she got home, she called the dealership and told the manager just how courteous their driver was.

I'm seeing more and more commercial vehicles, with the "How's my driving" signs, that have at least part of the phone number obliterated.:haha:

Every single day on my ride through Cupertino I see people DWA doing really dumb stuff. Most dangerous 3 miles in the valley.

DWA ... Driving While Assholes?

Hit the flashers and let 'em blink once.

That would include me. I was just there two weeks ago, on my way into Chester and I know for a fact that 90% of our trailers have the numbers sprayed out. I do NOT encourage this, nor do I indulge. I leave em as I found em.

Except for the last one, which we shall NOT discuss. Or that bent railroad either!

Brian

Brian, I think you meant to post on the "Run OVER any bad drivers lately?" thread.:)

I'm a sales rep - I drive for a living. I typically spent about three hours a day in my big, powerful, anonymous (and mind numbingly boring to drive) company car. At least once a day I'm privileged to experience the joy that is Queensland’s M1 Motorway. It's actually a pretty good road, just full of idiots.

It's been raining here for the first time in several weeks. People forget how to drive in the wet, and still insist on sitting four inches from your back bumper, regardless of conditions.

Yesterday, wet roads, 110kph, middle lane, moderate traffic, I'm being tailgated by the typical wombat; the traffic in front of me brakes for an unknown reason. Because I had heaps of room between me and the car in front of me, I had no problem, but the guy behind me wasn't so clever. He's stomped on his brakes, no ABS, and started fishtailing - first a little left, then a bigger right, then a much bigger left which has turned him around completely. He didn't hit anything, but was left facing oncoming traffic, in the wet, in an 110kph zone, on the motorway.

I totally wish I could go back and point and laugh while he recovered from his "brown trouser moment".

Today, wet roads again, right (fast) lane, 112kph, heavyish traffic. I'm driving just over the speed limit in a heavily policed stretch of the Motorway. There are cars in front of and beside me, so I can't go any faster or change lanes, even if that was my inclination. Another dickhead in a small 4WD (that's an SVU to you Americans) is right up my arse with his lights on beam, getting more and more agitated at my not getting out of his way.

(Memo to tard: - This is Australia, not the Autobahns of Europe, small penised speeding inbreds in cheap tin boxes are NEVER going to get me out of their way by flashing their lights, no matter how close they get to my back bumper. Mine's a company car, dickhead, you can run into it from behind all you want, it's not gonna cost me a cent.)

I resisted the urge to hit the brakes to see if I could spin him too, instead relying on the old favourite: click the cruise control back by 2kph a few times and see just how agitated he could get. It worked, he eventually went round me. I think his blood pressure may have been a tad higher than earlier. :p

You just see soooo many idiots. [sigh]

My husband loves to play that game. Except instead of fishtailing, they just rear-end him, and then they turn out to be uninsured. I can't tell you how much I hate the "tap on your brakes to teach him a lesson" game.

Scott, when he was Scott, when he was he, used to tell a story... where this big old pickup truck was tailing him or his friend, with all its beams on, going down I95. So they slowed down. And the truck continued to ride 'em. So they slowed down some more. And more. And more until they were going like 10 MPH... and then the tailing truck gets rear-ended. The ideal outcome!

But at the same time, do have the money for a large caliber handgun that they happen to have with them at the precise moment that you'd like to twist their heads off...