I miss my '73 Honda. Four "dash" indicator lights - two of which were malfunctioning. Turn signals didn't blink, so I used the hand signals that nobody else seemed to remember from driver's ed. A speedo and a tach that also could never operate at the same time (and also didn't have Km/H). Finally, if there wasn't oil under it, then I needed to check there was still any in it. My worst habit was likely when passing and a tendency to cut back in closer than another car would. I'd still be accelerating at that point though. So while not particularly dangerous, it probably unnerved more than a few other drivers.
This is my second biggest pet peeve, right behind the idiots who go around lowered railroad grade crossing signals. If I'm doing the speed limit, you pull out, and I have to touch my brake pedal for any reason, you have failed to yield the right of way, and thus committed a citable violation.
Between the antique vehicles that don't have signals to begin with, people who have broken signals, and off road farm and industrial equipment, seeing these is an almost daily occurrence here.
I prefer people driving over the speed limit in a safe manner (subjective I know) to this. Especially when the driver turns into the wrong lane doing this.
There's also the idiots that try to merge onto a highway where traffic is moving at 60-70mph, or more. And they try to get on going 40-50mph, and then stay at that speed for the next 1/2 mile or more.
That's one of the things I love about my new Mazda3. Reviewers harp on it not having a great 0-60 time, but the 40-80 time makes me feel a lot safer when I'm merging. Too damn many roll right up into your blind spot while the acceleration lane is running out. It's nice to be able to hit the gas and be able to get enough distance to merge safely instead of having to squeeze in.
My car is great at accelerating as well, the 0-60 time is good for a 4300lb car, the 60-90 is great, and from around 70 to 90-95 it accelerates harder the faster I'm going.
I need something to do while the burger king guy takes 15 minutes to fuck up an order with 3 items on it. Let me say another thing. If you are working in the tiny space of a fast food joint with a drive through window and you are worried about the smoke from the outside, you should really get on disability. I have worked fast food and know what those kitchens are full of, and unless you are sucking directly off an cigar, you really are really breathing in worse in the kitchen with all those almost food substitutes smouldering in hot grease. Get a fucking bubble. I smoke in my car.
... and another thing! Entrance/Exit ramps to the interstate. Entrance ramps - you should be going the speed limit of the interstate BEFORE you get to the interstate so you can merge safely with the rest of traffic. If you don't, and there are cars behind you, then you are placing them in danger when they try to get on the interstate at lower speeds. Exit ramps - just the opposite. Don't slow down before the entrance ramp, that's what the exit ramp is for.
My first traffic accident was rear-ending a car that had stopped on an interstate on-ramp, just at the moment I was checking my mirror to merge.
My worst traffic accident was when a guy pulled out in front of me at a cut-thru. He had three lanes to choose from so of course he chose the lane I was in. Less than fifty yards in front of me. So I swerved to miss him and he swerved to stay in front of me. Hit hard enough to bounce my car - a Chevy Cavalier - across a concrete median and into the oncoming left turn lane which luckily for me was empty. Folded both front wheels under the car’s body and bent the frame. My insurance didn’t total the car, they fixed it . . . which ended up costing them more than totaling it would have. Anyway, three PG county cops went past without stopping, then a Maryland state trooper came. Multiple witnesses told the trooper that it was 100% the other guy’s fault and that’s how insurance treated it. My seatbelt saved me from serious injury that day.
With BMW's hard on for technology, I'm genuinely surprised they haven't gone that way yet as default. the iDrive comes with that option in the Nav package but there's still a turnable knob and the air condition still has knobs too. Unlike Honda
Seat belt! When I rear-ended that car, Gravity went 90% out - I remember hanging in my seat belt in the direction of travel.
Both of my accidents involved elderly ladies pulling out from a dead stop from a side street directly into the side of my car as I traveled down a main road. Like my car was just invisible or something.
I've been in five accidents in the last decade. Four of those times, my vehicle was legally parked and I wasn't in it*. The one time I was actually driving, a woman slid into the back of my truck while I was stopped at a red light. * That particular string of luck started back in 2010 when mall security struck and totaled my truck. They were doing 60mph in the MALL PARKING LOT and hit me hard enough that my truck turned sideways, TURNED SIDEWAYS and smashed into the Suburban next to me, pushing it up on a curb, breaking it's front driver's side wheel in half at the hub.
My wife has been rear-ended twice (shut up) in the same car - once while stopped for construction, waiting for the man with the big STOP sign, and once while stopped for a red light at a major intersection. At the construction incident, the person who hit her was a teenage girl, who leapt out of her car and whined "Why did you stop??" Mary was so astonished at the question all she could do was grunt and wave her arms at the flag man, who waved 'hello' with his STOP sign at the girl. The second one was a young mother who was too busy fussing with her "little guy" in his car seat to notice traffic lights.
Let's not overlook the wonders of pedestrian idiots, either. Like the jogger who ignores the sidewalk so that he can run in the road, usually facing the wrong way on top of that. Or the ones who think the painted marks on the blacktop generate a deflector shield and they therefore don't need to look for approaching cars as they step out into the road. Or that extra special nimrod who walks right behind your car as you're backing out of a parking spot. The ones who cross the street at a slow amble, taking a lengthy diagonal path rather than just moving their dumb ass straight across.
I think I've just gotten to the point that I loathe driving now. If it's not the inattentiveness it'll be something else. Not a day goes by where I *don't* nearly get into a collision and it's always because they're not paying attention to what they're doing. Although one amusing thing a few weeks ago, I was at a stoplight and some dude in an oncoming car had duct taped a dildo to the hood of his car as a hood ornament.
The thing is, I still very much enjoy driving. An open, empty road on a nice day, top down on the Mighty Jeep or sunroof open on the Crimson Avenger and I am quite happy. Or in the winter time when it's snowing, I'm in 4WD in the Mighty Jeep amusing myself by counting the overconfident SUV drivers who are sideways in the ditch.
