Driving to work this morning. A ten minute drive, about 3-4 miles. Coming out of my neighborhood, I'm nearly T-boned by someone who, for some reason, swerves INTO the entrance area for the neighborhood, where I was waiting to turn, and only just swerves back out in time to avoid hitting me. Turning right onto Griffin Road to my office, the two lanes immediately merge into one. However, someone decides he has to come up on me from behind at about 60 MPH and then swerve around me on the shoulder after the lane merges. Still on Griffin, which is a two-lane road, and I look to my left and see an H2 swerve into my lane to get around someone who has the audacity to only be doing the 45 MPH speed limit. Comes within about three fit of a head-on collision with me. This is just on my way to work this morning. Three near-collisions in ten fucking minutes. No wonder insurance rates are so high in Florida.
I bet that person was trying to get around a slower driver. Or, someone ahead of him was trying to turn left (and couldn't because of the "wall o' cars"coming his way) so he went around the car on the right (the entrance area). Happens a bazillion times a day around here. Today I had to flick my lights on and off to try to tell oncoming drivers their headlights were off. Early morning, rainy day.....why would you need lights?
Well, UA gets angry if someone waves hello to him This is more just, as the day goes on, chronicling things that annoy me. Such as having my mom call to ask if we need change out here, and when I say no, she still insists on telling me exactly how many singles, fives, and tens we have in our "bank" back home. Annoying, but what can I do? She's my mom, I can't be cross at her. Just gotta grit my teeth and say "Thanks, mom!"
Now imagine a 22 mile commute each way just chock FULL of those kind of drivers. Now imagine having driven 20+ miles each way to work since 1978! How I'm not in a looney bin or jail by now, I don't know.
I know what you mean, I have about a 30 mile commute of the same nature, but I've only been doing it for a year and already I am trying to figure out how to attach a rocket launcher to my car!
I'm still tryin' to figure out the goofballs who cruise in the passing lane when the highway's empty ahead of them, and won't move over when you come up behind them.
Don't know about y'all, but I've been cursed lately by this strange cabal of drivers that seem to drive normally when I'm a good distance away, but the instant I move behind them in the same lane, they gradually begin to slow down. Last night, on a 50 mph road, I got stuck behind a van that started at the speed limit, but by the time I had the chance to pass, was doing 19. They never turned, swerved or did anything but drive robotically forward, just gradually slowing down. Happened three times again this morning, almost getting me flattened by an 18 wheeler when they suddenly braked in the middle of a turn, going from about 20 mph to 5 miles a month for no reason.
that even seems odd to me! I'm constantly getting the people who have a 10-car-legth empty spot in front of them, and when I start to pass them they floor it to close up the gap so I can't get in front of them. If I actually do manage to make the lane change, they then drop back to 10 car legths again and resume their orginal speed. WTF was that all about?! Then there's the polar (bipolar?) opposites, who freak out when I pass and get in front of them. Even if there's plenty of room, they'll flash their lights or blow their horn, or come up behind me and start to tailgate with their middle fingers flashing. I mean, in each case there was absolutley NO problem, NO incident, until they created one.
If you coulda got in my lane behind me, you're not getting into it in front of me. Nobody is special. You can wait in line like everyone else. My safe following distance does not indicate a slower speed, nor is it an invitation to pass me just to advance another car length.
One thing I hate is when I'm driving along the expressway and am trying to change lanes,some fucktard pulls up besides me. Whenever I speed up to pass, he'll speed up right along with me, and when I start to slow down, he'll do the same. Asshole will stay right alongside me and keeps doing this for over half a mile before he finally decides to stop being an ass and lets me over!
Then what make you so fucking special you won't let anybody change lanes in front of you, even if there's plenty of room!? Let 'em in, then let up on the gas a little until your precious excessive safe following distance has been restored - voila! Nobody's been troubled! No incident has occured! And you can wait in line like everybody else! Geez! You miss the point every time. i.e.: And if I can't get behind you? I always try to choose the biggest opening to change lanes into. Most of the time around here there ISN'T enough room between cars to safely change lanes, because everybody tailgates, eberybody tries to block, and even if they don't I feel it's unsafe to squeeze into a 2-car-length gap at 75. Therefore, I need to seek out the biggest opening and aim for that. If, then, some twat acts like you and tries to block my entry into this vast, perfectly reasonable void, only to resume acting like they're NOT in a hurry after I succeed, I can't help but wonder at their complete lack of compassion, courtesy, common sense and reason, and wonder why such a patently hostile, beligerant attempt to fuck up another person makes them feel better about themselves. Again, please define this apparently excessive distance you like. I used the example above of 10 car lengths. Using the rule of thumb of 1 per 10MPH, that means that distance would be safe following distance at 100MPH. Are you so nervous that you're uncomfortable even at 10 car lengths? At 65, no one should have any cause to complain about me moving into that space, and anyone trailing would only need to extend another few lengths back to resume your precious excessive safe following distance. See, I'm not being one of those "the road is MINE! ALL MINE! I'm rich, I'm a happy miser!" guys. I'm just movin' along lookin' to go a bit faster than the schlub who's blocking the left lane when he should, by all the rules of the road, be in the right lane. On the other hand, Al, you're sounding exactly like those "I'm special, it's All-Mine" people that you're complaining about.
I don't think I'm the one missing the point here. First of all, I'm me. Not some other asshole you encounter on the freeway a thousand miles from me. When I don't let someone around me, it's for a good reason. When traffic is heavy, you get immediately into the lane you know you'll eventually need, and you fucking stay there. If that means you go slower than you'd like to match the flow of traffic, so fucking be it. I completely and utterly refuse to accommodate people who won't accept this reality, and think they have the special right to weave through everyone else to "win." For example, merging lanes. They are not there for passing. I will usually only let one person from a merging lane into my lane in front of me. One. And that's if they've accellerated enough that I won't have to hit my brakes. After that, I shut it down and the people behind me will just have to learn to share the road and let people in. Every situation is different. If you're not a pushy, annoying asshole who can't use a turn signal, I'll probably let you in. But if you were already in my lane and are just perceiving my safe following distance as a lesser speed than the rest of traffic, or if you give the impression you're about to cut me off, your ass can stay back there. How other people choose to drive is not my fucking problem until they inconvenience me. I should not be punished for observing a safe following distance by having to let a half mile of commuters in front of me at every goddamn on-ramp. Allowing one car to merge in front of me satisfies all courtesy, as far as I'm concerned. Everyone after that can just duke it out with the tailgating morons behind me. One car length for every 10mph. It doesn't matter how much space there is if you don't move far enough out in front of me before you attempt to merge. Or are you under the mistaken impression that the traffic into which you are merging is expected to adjust to you, rather than the other way around? Every day I see someone who wants to merge in front of me but doesn't pull out far enough first. If our relative position after your lane change effectively puts me in a position of tail-gating you until I hit my brakes, fuck you, you can either accellerate or wait. If you're doing your job right, I shouldn't have to adjust my speed or tolerate even the slightest annoyance, and that is the standard I apply. You either satisfy it, or hit the brakes and wait for the next slot. Yeah, I deal with people like that every day, too. My advice is to get the fuck over it. Take the first position you can get and be happy with it. Because it is not my responsibility to put forth one iota of effort to accommodate your self-important need to go faster than someone. Once again, I'm not from your area. Don't attribute your frustrations to me. If everyone drove like I do, there wouldn't be any problems. There is a right and wrong way to do it, and it amounts to more than going as fast and passing as many people as you can. I'm rarely the slowest vehicle in sight. I am more alert and vigilant than 90% of the other motorists I see. When I'm in the left lane, it's because I need to be for passing or freeway interchange, and if I'm doing at least the speed limit, you have absolutely no legitimate fucking complaint whatsoever. I'm not having the "left lane" argument again. There can be no legal obligation to break the law, period, end of fucking story. Always back and forth with this bullshit. The only things wrong with my driving are a bit of excessive speed when the road is open and I think I can get away with it, and a lack of tolerance for people who can't be troubled to do it right.
I have a simple response to people who cruise in the fast lane below the speed limit and won't move over: Instead of tailgating them, I pass them on the right. Of course I only do that when there's no traffic in that lane.
That's exactly the situation I'm talking about that got your canned response in the first place, and what shooter does is exactly what I'm saying I do, and now what you say you do too. What the fuck were you even ragging on me for in the first place? I go past people who are too slow in the passing lane, and when I come up on slower traffic in the right lane, and there's a large enough opening in the left, I get into it. What the hell, guy?
All situations are different. Shooter specifically laid it out as another motorist driving below the speed limit on an otherwise open road. From your description, I get an image of you trying to weave through rush hour traffic because the person in front of you isn't speeding as you'd like and the person next to you has committed the grave offense of leaving enough space to avoid a rear-end collision. When both lanes are full as far as you can see, you just fucking accept it, stay where you are, and slow the hell down. The people next to you should barely have to make any adjustment at all if you're changing lanes properly. Whether or not I'd let you in depends entirely on your demeanor, but I'll tell you right now I'm not very tolerant of people who think they should get to advance ahead of everyone else in densely-packed rush hour traffic. Like I said, get in the lane you need, and stay there until your exit. Why should I have to fall back just to serve your impatience when I can see the same endless row of cars in front of me?
I'm think I'm gonna buy myself an ol' beater car/truck, drive up to Omaha, find UA, and drive around him doing all the things that piss him off! Passing him on the right, passing him on the left, blocking him in, tailgating him, etc... That sounds like fun!
Trying to pass me doesn't piss me off, unless you cut me off in the process, or passing me doesn't get you anywhere, because there's an endless line of cars in front of me. I will not be fucked with, and I will not let you play the "advance one space" game. That's just fucking stupid, and people who do that make traffic that much worse.
