Damn! It seems like every other day in the local paper, I read about another car wreck that has killed or maimed some poor soul. It seems people don’t know how to keep their cars on their own damn side of the road!
Just yesterday, I turn down a local one-way street, and meet some dumb asshat driving the wrong way up the road. This is a two-lane, one-way street. After swerving around that asshat, I meet another asshat trying to make a left turn across traffic from the right-hand lane!
Oh, and I just love driving on the I-95 lately. See, Maine, like most states, requires drivers on the on-ramps to yield to drivers already on the interstate. While in most states it is simply understood, in Maine, we make it bloody obvious by posting one of these on every on-ramp.
While I try to make it easy on people trying to merge in by moving to the left-hand lane, I cannot do this when I have traffic overtaking me on my left. That’s when the sign comes into play, moron! YIELD! Pulling in front of me in a 70 mile per hour zone when you haven’t even gotten up to 40 yourself (seriously, do you even know how to use a fucking on-ramp?!) is not yielding the right-of-way! I don’t even mind slowing down a little to help you out, but for Christ’s sake, you need to do your part and get up to speed! If my gutless four-cylinder Honda can match the speed of traffic, then you certainly can do so as well.
Where the fuck do all these people learn to drive? How the fuck did they ever manage to pass the test? Hell, I’m wondering if any of them could pass an IQ test!
The other day, someone behind me drove up on the median in order to get into the left turn lane. Yesterday 2 different people tried to merge without blinkers and even with me into my lane. The second time it was only the hand of fate and an empty right hand lane that prevented a collision. I can only assume the hot sun is baking their brains into puddles.
My theory is that driving is too easy. Or at least it seems easy enough that otherwise intelligent people are convinced they can effectively multi-task while doing it, when they should be focusing 100% of their attention on the incredibly dangerous activity of driving.
Yeah, that. And it’s summer.
I swear people go on vacation and leave their brains at home. Some strange phenomenon causes them to unlearn all the rules of (reasonably) safe driving as soon as they drive in unfamiliar places.
I check license plates. Anything out of province, out of country or looking vaguely rented (especially RV’s - CanaDream, I’m looking at you) gets a wide berth these days.
If we took all the asshole drivers off the roads, the roads would go to shit because there would not be enough revenue to maintain them. But at least cars would no longer need air bags, or even seatbelts.
This. My father was killed last Friday when his motorcycle was struck by someone putting a CD into the player. That better have been awfully important music.:mad:
I’ve been driving for more than 40 years and it’s clear to me that so many drivers simply drive as if the rules of the road–including posted signs–are for someone else.
And “keep to the right side of the roadway” is one of the rules most often flouted.
But these same drivers scream bloody murder when a cop tickets them or a judge fines them…
Yeah, but for every good cycle jockey, there’s a bad one. Like the Moron who thought popping a wheelie in traffic on Rt 3 made him look smart. I was exiting, but saw how some of the cars were scattering just to keep from hitting him.
Baker, I’m sorry for your Dad’s passing. Its just not fair how he’s gone while wheelie-dickless still draws breath.
I know that road rage is a horrible thing, but I have to work VERY hard to keep mine in check when I encounter assholes that mosey along in the left lane of the interstate, completely oblivious to the traffic around them.
I’m talking about a situation where there is no other traffic in the right lane, and you come up behind them on the left with the intention of passing them. What, were they absent that day in Drivers’ Ed when we were taught that the left lane is for passing? And that if you’re not passing another vehicle and there’s no heavy traffic in the right lane to prevent you from moving over, then you have NO FUCKING BUSINESS being there.
More often that not, flashing your lights or honking your horn has no effect on these clueless morons. They just go poking right along, forcing you to pass them on the right. Most times, of course, they’re either talking on their cell phones or yacking to their passenger.
I have to strongly resist the urge to pull in front of them and then slow down to a crawl, just to give them a taste of their own medicine. I have sense enough to know that this would be dangerous, so I don’t. But I’m SO tempted.
Each summer, the State Patrol and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety team up with local police departments to do intensive safety patrols and checkpoints in the area where I live, and each summer, I hear folks ranting and raving about “real crime” and “real criminals” and why the police aren’t out there taking care of that. And each year, I get mad about people’s definitions of “real” crime. Three times as many people die in traffic accidents each year, versus intentional homicides. Tens of thousands are injured annually due to traffic incidents. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in the attempt to repair the damages to people and property. It’s real crime.
This past summer, I posted a middle-of-the-night screed about this very thing, and one of the replies was pretty thought-provoking: A cop friend of mine pointed out that we, as a society, accept traffic fatalities as “normal,” just the cost of doing business. Every high school class loses one or two kids to an “accident,” (it’s almost never called a wreck,) usually because of some sort of irresponsible or negligent behavior - drag racing, drinking, whatever. It’s “distracted driving,” not “criminally negligent refusal to pay attention to the damned road while you’re piloting a couple of tons of steel at high speed.” And yeah, we all think that that other guy should hang up and drive, or slow down, or speed up, but our own driving is perfectly fine, right?
If negligent behavior in traffic were actually penalized in the same way that other irresponsible, negligent, and potentially harmful behavior were treated by the courts, perhaps we’d all look at driving a little bit differently?
I’m driving in it because I wish to pass the car that’s ahead of me, and you’re not supposed to pass on the right. I have moved over to the left lane from the right to signal this intent. The driver ahead of me has no business being there, as he/she is not engaged in passing another vehicle, and the right lane is entirely clear.
I was on I-95 between Baltimore and DC and a guy came off the on-ramp flying past me. Only this was during a blizzard and only the center two lanes had been plowed and about 2" of snow had fallen since.
I saw his taillights, then headlights, then taillights, then headlights. He ended up spinning off the interstate and finally came to a halt a few feet from the trees off the shoulder.
It is a common misconception that you are not supposed to pass on the right. Passing in the right hand lane is perfectly legal on roads with two or more lanes traveling in the same direction, like a freeway.
Passing on the right on a two lane highway with one lane going in each direction is usually illegal, with exceptions, like if the vehicle you are passing on the right is stopped to make a left hand turn.
This random link is for the state of Maryland but these rules for passing on the right are typical. Pick another state to check if you desire.
Yes, it is legal in most states/jurisdictions to pass on the right. It’s not as safe as keeping right except for passing, or slower traffic moving to the right lane of travel, but it’s legal.
Georgia’s legislature passed a “Slowpoke Law” last winter, which took effect on July 1, explicitly stating that slower traffic is required to move right except under limited circumstances (traffic/road conditions, left turns, etc.,) regardless of the speed you’re traveling*. So, even if you’re going the speed limit, or above the speed limit, you’re required to move over for overtaking traffic. Simple and safer, IMHO. Judging from the reactions of some drivers, however, you’d think that this new law required that they kick puppies and rip the heads off of fluffy little bunnies. “Oh noes, I’m already doing the speed limit, I don’t have to let people past me!” Stupid fuckers!
*Actually, a clarification of an older law, which required drivers to move right for overtaking traffic if the driver is going under the speed limit. The new law - introduced by a current legislator who used to be the head of the State Patrol - removes the language regarding speed limits. It’s common courtesy, it makes the roads safer, traffic flows better, makes it easier for emergency vehicles to respond (by reducing the number of people in the fast lane,) etc. The objectors seem to think that they’re the speed limit police, though, regardless of whether their cars have any flashing lights on board.
We saw the aftermath of one of these during a light snow on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Little red sports car was on the shoulder, pointed the wrong way, with its rear end bashed in by the nearby cliff face.
