Question from someone who happens not to drive: why are motorists, qua motorists, such aggressive, unforgiving assholes? You take perfectly nice people, who in normal life will go out of their way to avoid confrontation even when another party has committed a faux pas and caused some minor inconvenience, then you put them them on the interstate and they become Dirty fucking Harry.
And it’s not just some kind of stress-induced temporary insanity, since even when these folks are back in the real world, they’re still promoting their Dirty Harry solutions, and getting into arguments about who’s doling out necessary street justice and who’s just being a twit.
And, my god, the rationalizations. “Well if people don’t impose consequences he’ll never learn.” Debatable, but that’s not why you’re doing it. No one’s out there thinking about their civic duty; it just feels good to needle the jerk who angered you. This impulse is certainly understandable, but let’s not pretend that it’s laudable.
Because it’s the rule! It’s the proper etiquette, of course, but it’s also the rule, like turning off your engine and prepaying after dark! There are signs!
So, this is some kind of threat? Don’t dare honk at me?
(pssstt… BillFish, as I’ve said, I rarely honk at folks. Maybe you should check your own reading comprehension.)
Sheese.
I think the OP was probably in the wrong for not pulling all the way up. It usually just works better that way and keeps things moving. But not knowing the layout of the gas station, it’s hard to say. The fellow that honked at the OP was also in the wrong. There was no need for that.
BillFish is clearly in the wrong when he says that he will block an intersection if someone beeps at him.
And if someone doesn’t pull up, don’t be surprised if someone gets mad and honks their horn.
IMO, that makes someone a bigger asshole than the guy doing the honking. I don’t care how much of a tough guy someone thinks they are, one day they will piss off the wrong person. Maybe someone who thinks their a bigger badass or a copy who’s gonna had out a ticket on principle.
And if I witnessed a cop handing out a ticket in a case like that, I’d laugh and laugh and laugh.
It’s common courtesty to do so. It makes everything easier for everyone involved if you just pull all the way up. Having to go around you and possibly back into the front pump area is a hassle at many stations.
I’m boggled that anyone doesn’t know this or understand it.
Because,
(a) The rule isn’t an empty bureaucratic waste of time (like many OPs), it’s a perfectly fine custom that most people understand makes things work better. The rules shouldn’t be followed just because they are rules, but because they make getting gas a better experience for everyone, and
(b) The OP didn’t follow them, and it’s their failure to follow the rules that provoked the jerky behavior.
It’s like covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue. Or giving faster runners space to get around you. Following rules isn’t always being a drone, it’s just not being an asshole.
I think the pulling up rule applies if you’re dealing with a gas station like this one. If there’s only one entrance and one exit.
However, many gas stations are now parking lot style, like this one, with multiple entrances and exits. In which case, “pulling forward” might very well block someone coming in from the another entrance.
I don’t go to the first kind of gas station because I don’t have a toy car, and I don’t go to the second kind of gas station because I don’t go to Forbidden places.
I’ll admit that I don’t always pull forward when I go to gas stations because I know how the pumps work in my area. Sometimes I know the closest one works better. But yes, these gas stations have two-way exits. And this doesn’t apply to the OP because this wasn’t his reason, but I don’t think that ‘pull forward’ is the hard and fast rule.
These are the people who walk on the wrong side of the mall and stand to the left on escalators and think people are assholes when they don’t like going around them.
Looks like this fella just doesn’t get it. I imagine him blithely going about his day, having no clue why there always seem to be so many pissed off people wherever he goes! :rolleyes:
Seriously, are you so brain damaged that you actually believe these are comparable?
Not sure when is the last time I used my car horn. But yesterday I brought home a 62 Corvair, with a big shiny ring in the steering wheel to press that gives as satisfying “HONK.” I think I might have to cruise gas stations looking for Pabstist and his ilk to give that bad boy a work out.
Mr. Magoos are everywhere on the road - leaving a wake of near-misses and frustrated drivers behind them wherever they go, all pleasantly unaware that they are doing damned near everything wrong - they don’t get into accidents, so they must be good drivers, eh?
I almost rear-ended someone yesterday who stopped at a green light, too. He wasn’t even turning. He just stopped at the light.
He was on his cell phone. I think he stopped because he saw someone stopped in the left turn lane next to him and never even bothered to look if his own light was green or red.
This was just a few minutes after I had to swerve around someone driving in reverse down a street because apparently they missed their turn.
Yeah, I honked too. Right after I had my heart attack. I was full of adrenaline the rest of the morning.
How does “pulling forward” work at multi-entrance, multi-pump locations, such as this one?
For instance, the white car has probably entered the lot from the right. The motorcycle at pump #12 has probably entered from the left.
Should the motorcyclist have “pulled forward” to pump #16, if he could have? What if another car was pulling in from the right, along that same line of pumps? What if the OP “pulled forward” in the way you suggest, and someone drove up nose to nose to him and started honking?
A lot of you seem to be forgetting that “forward” is only forward from your point of view.
Sure, no solution is perfect, as gas cap locations are not standard. But ISTM that if you always pull forward as far as you can, you reduce the possibility of drivers (including you) having to reverse to maneuver to and from the pumps.
Take the white car. If it stays where it is, and the only spot open is the one in front of it, the next car will have to either pull or back up to that pump (depending on gas cap location). Either way, white will likely finish fueling first, and will need to back out.
If white pulls up all the way and second car fills on same side as white, it can simply drive around the pumps and enter behind white.
I won’t go through all of the possible permutations here, but I think aggregate maneuvering is less if the first car pulls forward. I suspect more people find reverse slightly less comfortable that forward, especially when you factor other vehicles, pedestrians, and gas pumps into the equation.
I have a Jeep. Gas cap on the driver side. Most cars in my neighborhood have gas caps on the passenger side and do what posters on this thread say they should do and pull up. I then have to back into a pump. I guess my point is that pulling up does not always make it easier, sometimes does not matter, adn therefore the benefits are situational.
However, honking when there is not a emergency or need is asshole-ish.
I just reverse and don’t even bother with a dirty look (mainly because it doesn’t bother me). I don’t see what kind of asshole would feel the need to honk and be a dick for not pulling forward in these situations.
I drive a Nissan Versa, which has the gas cap on the passenger side for some reason, and I have to deal with this quite a bit. Even so, I’ve never had anybody honk at me and I’ve never honked at anybody else. Is it so inconvenient to back in that honking is condoned?
I agree that it’s simply common sense to pull all the way up to the furthest pump, but how does the horn honking ass know that the other pump wasn’t in use when the OP arrived?
I have to think that gas stations where some of you live are completely different then where I live…or something.
Typical gas station here has ‘one way’ signs. You pull in (and all the way through). If your gas cap is on the drivers’ side, you pull up to the pumps on that side. If it’s on the passenger side, you pull up to the same row, but on the opposite side. Our gas pumps have nozzles on both sides of them, so depending on the location of your fuel door, you can still pull through in the right direction without any issues.
Do your pumps only allow you to pump from one side?
