Being married, you find out that you do a many of things wrong, such as the laundry, loading the dishwasher, and cleaning in general. I am ok with this, I have come to accept it and continue to ‘study’ from the master. Now this brings me to driving. I wouldn’t consider myself a bad driver in the least bit (does anyone really consider themselves a bad driver?..), but my wife would disagree. Although I never critic her driving skills, such as slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting the car that is slowing down a mile ahead of you, she seems to take great pleasure in criticing my driving skills. Usually I just remind her that she has been in 3 accidents, 2 of which were her fault and myself having been in only one, which really shouldn’t count, as I was STOPPED and someone rear-ended me.
So I was driving by myself the yesterday and noticed that I was weaving in and out of traffic like a pro nascar driver… for no particular reason, except to go faster than they were… I wasn’t late, I was actually running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I then realized that maybe I do have a problem driving. They tell you to be a defensive driver in drivers education classes, but it seems that somewhere along the line I decided I liked being an offensive driver, a “Get there as fast as I can” person. I don’t consider myself reckless, I don’t travel at excessive speeds, just a little faster than everyone around me… I tried to not let this beam of enlightenment bother me, but I found myself thinking about it again as I drove to work this morning. I tried to justify my driving style by saying that although I live in a smaller city now, I learned to drive in a much larger city and spent a good deal of time the first couple years driving in Detroit, where EVERYONE goes 90mph about 3 inches from the car in front of you… This really isn’t a good justification, but it made me feel a little better as I passed the cars infront of me.
I think this is pretty typical. Most women don’t really “like” cars as much more than a way to get from point to point, or maybe to show off with. My gf used to be on me for catching up to traffic and then having to back off. I know she had a point, but I kept on going faster when I had the chance, and changing lanes to pass people. For one thing, just flowing along was boring.
It almost seems like other drivers have one objective: to get in front of me. No matter what it takes.
I drive the speed limit. Unless I need to make a left hand turn, I drive in the right lane.
And there is always, always, ALWAYS some asshole whose main point in life is to pass everyone, weaving and dodging in and out of traffic, trying to “get ahead.”
And guess what?
We all have to stop at that same red light.
And at that red light, when I look over at Mr.-I-Have-to-Be-in-Front-of-You…he never, ever makes eye contact.
Ok, so no big deal, right? Wrong. I’ve been rear ended FOUR FUCKING TIMES in the last year alone.
Yeah, they all had insurance…all except one. And that one cost me a shit load of money. Suing him didn’t do jack shit. He didn’t have a job or money.
As for the others…yeah, it didn’t cost me any money out of my pocket initially…but it cost me a lot of TIME. And it costs all of us a lot of money in the long run because we all pay higher insurance rates because of the assholes who just have to get somewhere 30 seconds faster than if they just obeyed the law.
My mother is an Asian woman and drives like one. Fun Facts:
She NEVER shoulder checks when changing lanes. Ever. She claims taking her eyes off the road for 0.2 seconds to shoulder check will result in her losing control of the car. It is simply against her religion to do shoulder checks. She will slow down to much slower speeds than surrounding traffic in order to change lanes without shoulder checking.
Until very recently she did not know how to use the headlights. It is possible that she may have known at one point, when she drove in a country where DRLs were not standard, but when she moved to Canada, she simply drove with the day lights on, at night, thinking that those were her headlights. The slight inconvenience of not being able to see fuck all in front of her at night never tipped her off. It took me a number of tries to convince her of the whole concept.
She has NEVER checked her tire pressure, thinking it was something that was to be done during 10,000km maintainance, or something. She was absolutely astounded when one of her rear tires disintegrated on a recent drive from Calgary to SAN DIEGO, and wanted to sue Hyundai.
On the same trip, she descended the Rockie Mountains while leaning on her brakes. I found this out when she saw me downshifiting when going down long slopes, and asked me what I was doing.
Of course, my insurance rates are about 3x as high as hers, since middle aged women are the safest drivers of all, and I must have my car registered under her name in order to reduce my insurance rates.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m against cutting people off, or diving into their blind spot. I know the people you’re talking about, and what makes me mad is that I’m never willing to drive like that to catch up to do whatever I’ve fantasized about doing, which is only like throwing a burrito at them. So there they go, off into the distance.
And I guess the same of you to me. Nothing personal.
I don’t tail gate, I don’t slam on the brakes when people are close behind me. I would say I am a safe driver, it just seems that unlike you, I don’t care to “go with the flow”… I am not sure if the root of my driving pattern is due to wanting to get somewhere faster, or if it is just that I don’t really like being in the car. I haven’t decided yet. I am a very alert driver, much more aware of what is going on all around me than most people I know. My “situational awarness” is very good during times like these. I don’t if it is from all the years I have spent playing video games (mostly flight sims) or what, but I seem to know what is going on around me at any given moment. This has actually saved my life once. My wife and I were driving down a major interstate when a large piece of wood flew off the truck infront of us and can tumbling towards my windshield. I quickly changed lanes to avoid said piece of lumber. My wife was totally freaked and was amazed that I didn’t even “check” the other lane to see if it was clear. I already knew that it was because I knew where the cars behind me were.
Now, I am not saying this is the best type of driving style, but it seems to work for me. I still am not sure why I drive this way, maybe one day I will find out…
Nothing personal.