Bad Driving

[RoadRunner]

The other day I was exiting the freeway, and the access road had a sign telling them to yield to me. Somebody in a big truck just honked and honked and honked because I was trying to exit to the far right lane. I had the right of way!

I feel better.

[In_His_Shadow]

I can't stand going through Houston. I think you can only be a type A personality to be allowed to live there. The town is waaaaayyyyy too small to accomadate the number of people who live there. They are way to aggressive in their driving for me. Very rude also.

CJ

[ntexas]

did somebody mention Houston?

Ughh, I go to Florida from San Antonio several times a year, and the only part of the trip that gives me the creeps is driving through Houston. Almost like buckling in for a wild roller coaster ride, only I'M NOT SMILING !!!

In fact, I've even arranged to drive through there about 3am to avoid the traffic and grouchy drivers (who are all driving 70 mph). To be fair, I think Los Angeles traffic is WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY worse than Houston, but I don't have to drive through Los Angeles every time I go to Florida (thank goodness I checked my map!).

And I have to agree with Roadrunner ... those folks that won't yield the right of way are just accidents waiting to happen, aren't they? Makes me want to spank them, but I usually just try to get the heck outta their way.

Yep, rude drivers are no fun. I try to remember that every time I get behind the wheel (even when following that person who insists on doing 40 mph in a 55 mph zone). But sometimes my nerves the best of me. The one thing I won't do is HONK at someone just cause they are too slow or whatever. All that seems to do is make an already nervous driver practically panic. Who does that help? Nobody!

Whew ... I think I'm through for the moment.

[blinc]

I'll tell you about a REALLY bad driver. About two weeks ago, we heard a helipcopter flying overhead... looked out the door and it had a search light flicking around everywhere. We live WAY out in the country, so when that happens it's usually one of two things. An escapee from a county work prison or a bank robbery nearby. The helicopter stopped and was hovering right down the road about a half mile. Then it went below the tree line. We could still hear it running though. That was odd.

I asked the hubby to drive down and take a look, see if there were any cops, so we could find out what was what, before deciding to go to bed. (Didn't exactly want to go to bed if there were bad people running through the woods around here).

It turns out the helicopter was a "Nightingale" life flight - a medical rescue helicopeter from Norfok, Virginia, (about 60 miles from where we live). Seems a driver of one car came up behind his friend in another car, they started goofing off while driving. It caused a horrible accident. The car in front lost control and ended up sandwiched between two trees. The guy in the second car helped his buddy out of the wrecked car and they took off, leaving the first guys girlfriend in the wrecked car! (Another car had happend along right after the accident, and the driver witnessed what happend, about the guys leaving). The girlfriend, left alone in the car was in horrible shape... her heart had stopped beating while they were trying to cut her out of the car. The helicopter was there to get her to a hospital as fast as possible after they got her out.

I was so furious when I heard what had happend. How could a guy leave his girlfriend in a car like that? Arrgh! How could ANYONE leave someone injured like that? I've tried to find out how the girl did... I can't find anything in the papers about it. I still get furious when I think of this.

[jamesglewisf]

It makes you wonder if they were drunk or had just committed some crime or were on parole or something.

[kezzer]

Argh!! I had to go to the DR. directly after work today and of course I got stuck behind every slow driver in the entire state of Connecticut!! I ended up being 10 minutes late to my appt. when had I been able to drive the speed limit I would have gotten there 5 minutes early! Oh I was so mad{mad}

[necrominator]

Well my dad often goes to europe, all over, russia, germany, italy for bussiness stuff, and when he gets back he constantly tells me about how much better people drive there.

For Example, people only use the left lane for traffic, so you dont have somebody going in it at 50 mph, and if your done passing the car, you immediatly clear it, allowing people who are in a hurry to get through, there also arnt traffic jams, becuase 3 slow cars drive side by side, and dont let everyone through, and poeple dont stop in the middle of the highway to look at an accident scene.

[jamesglewisf]

Europe varies. When I was in Rome, it was a mad-house. They didn't seem to obey any traffic laws.

[necrominator]

rome ye, i went there, crossing the street is a live or die type of thing, he was tlaking mostly about highways, such as beligium and germany.

[jamesglewisf]

I was only talking about Rome. Everywhere seemed pretty good.

[kezzer]

My hubby got in an accident during work today. Some jerk plowed into him. Totalled his recylcing truck and this jerks mini van. He claimed to be going 25 mph, but when my hubby truned into the street there was no car then BAM! all of a sudden his 9 ton truck is spinning around the road. He's ok, but argh!!! As for the other guy, I don't care! That could have been some one in a small car, and from what my hubby said he did to his van and the damage to the truck, this guy would have killed anyone in anything smaller.

[Karenluvs6]

WOW! Kezzer, I sure hope he is ok.
that's terrible.
see, for these reasons, I hate to drive anywhere.
There are too many nuts out there!
Put some ppl behind the wheel of a car and they think they've turned into superman or something....like they are indestructible in there!

[dreuby]

I'm a UK cyclist - if said what I thought about UK drivers our moderators would be round with a bar of soap to wash out my mouth!

My dad says that round where I live, they don't park their cars, they just abandon them in the street. When we complained about the holes in the road, the council told us it's cheaper to pay compensation than to repair the roads!

Talking of Rome, we had a great spoof car advert on a TV show a few years ago - showed the design plans, then the assembly line, then it crashing and rolling. The voice over was "Designed by computer, built by robots, driven by italians". {toothy}

Apologies to any italians - all my italian friends drive well!

[blinc]

drebuy! That was too much! {toothy}

I hate getting behind slow drivers too Kezzer. We have a major highway around here that leads to the bigger towns. The problem is getting behind the farmers and their tractors/combines. It's so frustrating to be going somewhere, I usually give myself an extra 15 minutes to make an appt., but every now and then get stuck behind of line of cars. BECAUSE there is a tractor going down the highway at 12 mph. Not for just a quick little trip either, I'm talking going a couple miles down the road. Arrrgh! (There's very few places to pass on that highway).

People who tailgate!! Aaaaaah! I hate that! I really, really hate it when someone gets up on my back bumper. I can't make the people in front of me go faster... and if you want to go faster then I am, go around me!! Don't tailgate me through passing zones when ya could have passed me ya idiots!! (I'm not a 'slow' driver either, so they really bug me).

[blinc]

AAAAAAAAAH!!
*primal scream*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
{flame}

Slow/stupid driver strikes again! Aaargh! I seem to have the worst luck for getting behind lousy drivers! Maybe because it's on Hwy. 13?

I had to take one of our dogs to the vet this morning. Since it's about a 45 mile round trip, thought I'd take the GEO. It's a little 4 cylinder car, great gas mileage, but stinks at having any get up and go. I'm cruising down the highway at about 62/64 mph or so. (which is great speed for a GEO as it takes about a mile or so to reach that speed! *grin*)

This woman pulls out onto the highway in front of me. She's just yacking away to the other 3 people in her car... I have to hit the brakes to keep from rear ending her. Meanwhile her itty bitty brain must not know how to move her mouth AND push the gas pedal at the same time, because she's only running 35 MPH!!! (It's the main highway)!

I know there's a nice long place to pass about a mile up the road, so I putt along behind the woman til we get there. Ready to pass: Throw the car back up into 4th gear, and romp on the gas pedal (If there is such a thing with a GEO) and shift back into 5th. Woo Hoo, I'm flying now {rolleyes} get up to about 50 mph and am passing her, when she quits yacking long enough to look over at me. She kind of jerks her head in surprise at seeing a car passing her and you know what she does? If you guessed mash her gas pedal, you win the prize! NOW she's pulling AWAY from me in the right lane, because she's got this big honkin car that probably has a V-8! Meanwhile, since my little Rubberband car now can't keep up, let alone pass, I pull back in behind her!

Follow behind her for about 2 miles, while she keeps her speed up to 55 mph. Then I start seeing her head moving, then her hands waving... she's yacking to her friends again. 55, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 35, 30, 25 MPH!!!

ARRGH! Behind her for another 3 or so miles til the next place to pass comes up and I just lay on my horn and point my finger at her (not that one), mouth the words STUPID! Finally get around her! AAAAAARRRGH! That ticks me off so bad! If you can't talk and drive, then do all of us a favor - get the heck off the road you idiot!!

Ok, I may have a slight problem with road rage.

[kezzer]

OOh, just reading that was making me angry for you, Blinc! I hate people like that. Those are the people who cause accidents.

[Alec]

I'm sick and tired of people running red lights. What? Are you late to your tennis lesson? Get over it. Nothing is that important that you need to risk the lives of others. Grrrrrrr...

[theyeti]

We have lots of red-light running around here. I think part of the problem is the yellow lights being so short. People see the yellow at think "I can beat it!" but then it changes so fast, right while they're entering the intersection. You have to be careful about going right away on a green light these days.

[Grimey]

{smash}I almost got driven off the road today. {smash}

Man, was I spitting nails.

Of course, that meant all of the cars behind me had tire blowouts, but that was the price they paid for being followers instead of leaders. {smash}