If only it was.
Anyway, the one that gets me every time is the people that wave you on. I’ll admit there are times when it is useful, or even necessary, but most of the time the normal right of way rules make it completely unnecessary and even dangerous.
I live right off of a 4 lane divided road, with turning lanes carved into the median at most intersections. If I am waiting at an intersection to make a left turn and the traffic is heavy, it never fails that a car in the left oncoming lane will stop and wave me on. The only problem is there are still cars coming in the right lane. They sit there, waving and grinning, while I try to find some hand gesture that will communicate to them that there is traffic still coming in the other lane without using a middle finger. I often wonder if they are trying to see if they can get someone to crash right in front of them or if they are really that stupid. What makes it worse is that it seems that trucks and vans which block the view of the right lane seem more likely to pull this than most.
And the busdrivers on narrow streets. He was trying to make a right turn into the lane I was coming from. Being a bus, the driver swung wide to the left to make the turn. I ended up being face to face with a bus and had to back up 20 feet so he could finish the turn. Annoyance. I’ve been nearly creamed by busses twice in the same month.
I used to commute on the “520” floating bridge across Lake Washington, from Seattle to Bellevue. Two lanes each way, and not particularly wide lanes, at that.
One morning I noticed in the car to my right, the driver was practicing his trumpet with both hands. And because the trumpet was too long to fit between his face and the steering wheel or windshield, he twisted to the right to play.
Yes, he was swerving but didn’t care. I honked… no reaction. I regretted not having a cellphone–or a gun–at the time.
A couple of years ago I was working in Regina, and after work, we decided to go to the bar (Shasty McNasty’s.) On the way there, we stopped at an uncontrolled railway crossing. “Uncontrolled” meaning no arm that comes down across the road, but lights that flash and bells that ring when there’s a train. There’s two lanes going in each direction. There are several vehicles (including mine and my buddy’s) in the right lane; our left lane is empty. So, the bells are ringing, the lights are flashing, and there’s a bunch of vehicles stopped at the railway crossing. Pretty easy to figure out, right? There’s a train coming.
I watch in my rearview mirror as this big old car comes cruising down the left lane behind me, and I’m thinking, “Surely this guy sees the lights flashing. Surely he doesn’t think we’re all just stopped here for no reason.” But no - the guy cruises right through the rail crossing and WHAM! gets hit by a flatbed car. What was happening was the rail guys were switching cars, so I’m assuming the driver of the car couldn’t see the low flatbed. Anyway, the flatbed clips the corner of the car, and spins it around so it’s perpendicular to the track. As this happens, the rail guy who was running alongside the flatbed smashes pelvis-first into the trunk of the car and goes flying over the vehicle and onto the grassy meridian between the two directions of traffic.
There were four people in the car (kids going to their high school graduation.) Luckily, everyone involved walked away, although I’m guessing the rail guy was pretty sore the next day.
And the whole time, I’m thinking, “Why the f#ck did you think we were stopped here? The lights were flashing, the bells were ringing…how much of a warning do you need? How stupid are you?”
I must confess occasional membership to that caste.
Once when driving home from work, I was waiting behind a line of cars in the right lane of three eastbound lanes leading into a large interection in a residential area. Traffic was nearly gridlocked, so I didn’t mind that cars were hardly moving. But this asshole in the front of my lane wasn’t going. Each lane was getting maybe six or seven cars through before the light would change, but my lane wasn’t moving at all!
It’s summer. It’s hot. I’m getting hotter with each change of the lights. I honk. No progress. Minutes pass and our lane isn’t ^&*# moving an inch! By now I’m screaming at the assholes in front of me. I’m ready to kill. People passing me in the other two lanes are starting to look at me like I’m insane.
After a few more prolonged honks, I realize I’m in a lane that during certain hours is okayed for residential parking. What I thought was a driver in the car ahead of me was a jacket slung over a highbacked seat.
I went home and hid out in the bathroom. I couldn’t even face the tropical fish.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hee Hee Hee Snort HA HA HA heh!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA Hee Hee
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hee Hee Hee Hee
Heh. Heh. Ahem.
Well.
Anyhoo,
This is not really my fault, but in driver’s ed they do tell you to always be alert for new things.
One time I was making a right turn onto a street that was one way. The intersections are pretty narrow, so everyone turns wide. After all, it’s a one way street, right?
Well, sometime since the previous week, the street had been converted to two way traffic when they opened the new police station that had been built there. I very nearly had a head-on collision with a police car.
Las tyear, I was minding my own business, cycling along a coutry road. This was in England by the way. I didn’t pay much attetion to the oncoming car. Then I felt a dull thud on my arm and I just about collpsed into a ditch.
I had been hit by a raw egg. Being hit by an egg travelling at probably 80mph+ is no joke, neither was the large gash on my arm. I was left wondering what those guys did for an encore? Slabs of concrete off a bridge?
my story First snow of winter in Wichita around 1991. I’m driving down a 4 lane getting ready to go onto the interstate. Small car passes me with a fresh looking dent in the side and I figure that this guy is new to snow driving. We both get on the interstate and he takes off like the road is completely dry, while I felt 35 was about right. About 30 seconds later I see him spinning round in the middle of the road before coming to a stop on the shoulder without hitting anything. I pass him and assume that he had learned his lesson, but about a minute later he passes me again doing about 55. He gets several hundred yards ahead and starts looping again! This time he smacked the barrier hard enough to put the car out of action.
friends story He was driving a little Mazda Miatta, the lights turn red, and he is the first at the line. A giant semi stops behind him, then forgetting that he is there, slowly pulls up to the line pushing the Madza out into the traffic!
Several years ago Mr. Scarlett and I were driving down a four-lane street that became two lanes as it went over a bridge. A few blocks before the bridge we came up behind a vehicle towing a pickup or van (don’t remember exactly). Anyway, there was a woman in the vehicle being towed, apparently to steer it or something, and the towed vehicle had no lights on it whatsoever. And it was large enough to block the lights of the other car, so we could not see brake lights, turn signals, etc. They were swerving all over between the lanes, at about 20 mph. We slowly followed them over the bridge.
On the other side of the bridge, our single lane divided into two again – one went straight and the other curved off to the right, with a divider between. Well, these idiots appeared to be going straight, for which we were eternally grateful because we were going right – but at the last possible second, the guy swung over to the right, cutting us off, and STOPPED – backing up traffic across the bridge behind us. No warning for this of course, because the guy had no lights. No hand signals, either. Illegal as hell. We waited a few seconds, and then Mr. Scarlett tapped the horn. The crazy woman started waving at us, smiling idiotically. Mr. S made a few more appropriate gestures (not the finger, but more like “What the hell are you doing?”) then hit the horn again. Then the guy in the first car GETS OUT (remember, he’s parked in traffic) and comes back to our car to curse out Mr. S at length. After an exchange, he finally goes back to his car and continues on. We stopped at the grocery store on the next corner and called the cops. He was going so slow, I’m sure they were able to find him and have a little chat. What an idiot.
Here’s another: we were driving down a country road and saw what looked like a bicycle rider weaving back and forth. It turned out to be a middle-aged woman who may or may not have had a mental disability (really) riding a motorized scooter down the middle of the road (more or less) and TOWING A KITE BEHIND HER. She was laughing hysterically as we carefully passed.
Two incidents that I witnessed (I could have testified if need be), both about four or five years ago:
I was driving on “Victoria Street,” running parallel to California Hwy 91 in Compton, about 10 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. I was in the No. 1 lane (next to the center line). A small Toyota was proceeding in the No. 2 lane, to my right, as we both approached the cross street, Wilmington Avenue, and the light turned red. Both the woman driving the other car, and I, stopped for the light. After a short while however–the light is still red for us–this other driver pulls forward into the intersection, against the light, and collides with a car going northbound on Wilmington, crossing legally through the intersection!
I could hardly communicate with the driver of the car on Wilmington–he only spoke Spanish. The woman who ran the red light spoke English but from what I saw she was at fault. I told the policeman–who spoke Spanish and English–what I saw. I later gave a detailed statement to the woman’s insurance company and never heard anything about it again.
Not long after that I was driving north on an arterial street, Prospect Avenue, in south Redondo Beach. I approached the intersection of Camino Real when I heard a siren. It was an ambulance coming southbound. I properly stopped before the intersection. The siren is sounding and the red lights on the ambulance are flashing, but this sleek little red sports car zooms through the intersection, westbound on Camino Real–and smacks into the ambulance!
I parked (legally) and went over to the ambulance. Fortunately no one was hurt, and the ambulance was able to continue in its response. I was later visited at home by the ambulance company’s insurer.
I agree with the rest of the Teeming Millions who post here–sometimes I think some drivers’ brain stems have popped loose when they get behind the wheel!
Late last fall my buddy from work and I were on our way to a child care site visit when we saw an incredibly dumb accident in downtown Portsmouth, NH. We pulling the van up behind a dump truck, when the light turned green. As we all started going,just as some idiot in a little SUV (I think it was a Suberu) on a side street decides it’s the perfect time to run his red light and drive across our lane. You wouldn’t believe what a SUV that’s been hit by a dump truck looks like. Thank God the guy in the SUV didn’t have a passenger, since his vehicle no longer had a passenger side to speak of. The dump truck, on the other hand, had a broken headlight. Fortunately, neither driver was badly hurt. What was the guy in the SUV thinking?? I’ll admit though, the dump truck got going faster than I’d have expected too, but it was slightly downhill, so that had to help it gain speed.
I live in Panama City, FL. The drivers down here are so bad that I could probably write a book on this subject. I’ll keep it down to the really outstanding ones. The police down here really bug me. I’ve been pulled over for changing lanes without signaling. In my defense, it was after midnight and there wasn’t another car in sight (except for the cop sitting a parking lot). Yet, I see cops down here regularly weaving through traffic without using their turn signals. So anyway I was sitting at a red light in the right lane. Next to me there a cop in the left lane. To his left there was a left turn lane with no one in it. The left turn arrow turns green and the cop shoots straight ahead. Luckily the guy legally turning left from the other direction hits his brakes and the two stop mere inches from each other. Of all people, I’d think cops should know the difference betweeen a left turn arrow and a green light. And no, the cop didn’t have anywhere to go. He backed up to his lane a waited for the real green light.
The next one happened on the Tamami Trail(sp?) that crosses the Florida lower pennisula. Keep in mind that there is a passing lane in the otherwise two lane road about every ten miles. This guy in a Mustang decides he can’t wait anymore and pulls into the oncoming traffic (my lane) to pass. I really wasn’t paying much attention, until the guy ahead of me suddenly swerves into the shoulder giving me a good view of this a**hole coming right at me. I managed to get out of his way along with the car behind me. It was pure luck that no one was killed.
This last one is more of a complaint than a incident. Imagine the situation posted earlier.
The thing that bugs me is when I’m in the turn lane waiting for an opening in traffic and the driver waiting to turn the other direction pulls perpendicular to traffic in the median and blocks my view of oncoming traffic. I don’t know what the law is, but it just seems like common sense to wait in the turn lane until there is a break in traffic, then proceed through the median. I know this isn’t IMHO, but what do the Dopers think?
Many years ago I was waiting at a red light, and in front of me are a couple of cars waiting in the intersection to turn left from the cross street, onto the street I’m on (does that make sense?) Anyway, teh one in front is a big old Chevy Blazer, and the one behind him is a little Alfa Romeo. Their light turns yellow then red, and the driver of the Blazer decides that instead of rushing trhough the intersection, as most people do, he’s going to back up. Right up onto the hood of the poor little Alfa Romeo.
Not so many years ago I saw my classic Type-A boss driving down the freeway. He had a cell phone cradled in his left shoulder, and he was actually holding on to the steering wheel with his left hand, but he was using his right hand to write down whatever the person he was talking to was saying, using the center console as a desk. Where was I while all this was happening? The back seat. AAAAAHHHHH!!! Let me out of here!!
Needless to say, I never got in a car with him again.
I was driving to Vermont in a blizzard a few years ago on a two lane divided highway. The visibility was close to zero, the road was icy, and traffic was moving about 20-25 mph in both lanes.
Suddenly this person in a SUV goes flying by, probably doing about 65-70. The problem was that he wasn’t in any lane. He was driving in the median to avoid the slow traffic.
About 6 or 7 miles later we came across the wreckage. There’s the SUV, nose first in a river. The tail of the truck was pointing straight in the air. Apparently this guy didn’t realize that if the highway bridges a river, they don’t put a bridge in the median.
I don’t know if anyone was hurt. Several other cars had already stopped to help so I didn’t bother stopping myself. However, I couldn’t help thinking that if this person had gotten killed, it was one less idiot gene in the gene pool.
Last Saturday I was driving north, on the Harbor Freeway (I-110), to the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. At one point a slow-moving tow truck (not towing a vehicle) crossed two or three lanes, oblivious to the three drivers (including me) right behind him! I’m surprised he didn’t get rear-ended. Good God, Mister, don’t you use your rear-view mirror? Or your sense?
This is another San Francisco cable car incident. I was walking down Powell Street. I pass a cable car stopped mid block, the gripman furiously ringing his bell at the woman double-parked on the tracks in front of him. She looks all indignant, puts her arm out her window, and waves for him to go around.
One summer, about 12 years ago, I was commuting to work. Traffic was backed up and going nowhere, but that wasn’t going to stop this one guy! I was in the extreme right-hand lane, and I saw him in my passenger-side rear view mirror, barrelling along the shoulder, passing all the stopped traffic on the right.
I was driving a total junker at the time, so after the fact, I entertained the notion of swerving to the right and letting him plow into me. I would have loved to hear him try to explain it to the police. He hit me from behind, so he’s at fault. And what was he doing on the shoulder? I swerved to the left to avoid something, (wink wink), and didn’t figure anyone would be driving on the shoulder.
This happened recently. I live on a street that intersects with a divided four-lane highway. There’s a flashing light at the intersection because of the firehouse on the corner.
I had to turn left (north) onto the highway, and was getting ready to take advantage of a break in the southbound traffic. I got it, but could see it wasn’t going to last forever. So I started to edge out, aware of a northbound car, but still knowing that I could time it to get across the lanes and make the turn in time to get behind it.
Well, the stupid woman apparently thinks I’m going to smash into her (even though I’m inching along) and she starts to slow down and give me the fish eye. Don’t people understand the ebb and flow of traffic? Sheesh.
I see this kind of stuff all the time, because I’m on the road all day. The thing that really amazes me is people who pull out right in front of me. Apparently they don’t see the big white pickup truck with stripes and letters all over it.
I swear, I gotta remember to turn off the Cloak of Invisibility[sub]TM[/sub].
Heh. I love it when an a-hole gets thiers. I used to have a 60 mile daily commute and more than half of it was on a 4 lane. I live in Minnesota and I can’t tell you how many time I had cars pass me going blue blazes only to see them a few miles down the road either on their roof or in the ditch. There have been at least two dozen times when it was snowing and blowing so hard that visibility was almost non existent but I could just barely make out a pair of headlights in the rear view mirror, riding right on my rear bumper. They’d follow (read: tailgate) me for a few miles, and some of the drivers were even kind enough to flash their brights at me a few times. Pretty soon I’d see the headlights drift into the left lane when they’d pull out to pass…but they never did. It was like there was some kind of vortex back there that would suck them into a black hole because they would just…vanish. In a split second. Gone. Either that or the combination of a lane change, accelerating to pass, zero visibility and slippery conditions somehow caused them to lose control and end up in the ditch. As much as I like the idea of the black hole, the latter is probably more accurate.
While riding my bike through the rush hour traffic i often see these things:
Women putting on their make up
People with a ciggie in their mouth and lighter in one hand with cell phone and or makeup kit in the other
A guy do 65mph in a 35mph zone (i was the passenger)
A man in a battery powered car you know for disabled or elderly people driving up the wrong way of the motorway
Somebody crashing into another person and the person who caused the crash gets out and runs away (due to lack of motor insurance usually and or road tax)
people in a hurry go half onto the pavement to skip one or two cars waiting to turn
some guy turning into a backstreet off the main road and comming out 5 junctions down and nobody letting him back into the queue until and he ends up further back in the queue than he originally was
Drivers who cannot see Bikes and tend to go through you rather than around you
Drivers who can see Bikes and tend to go through you rather than around you
Drivers who can see Bikes and bully you in their cars (ie reving and bumping your rear tyre)