This is a rant (lame, deal) about all those fucking drivers that have no clue a world might actually exist outside their own. Yes, of course I have a specific one in mind.
I’m driving down a two lane (one in each direction) road in my town where the speed limit is 45. Is used to be even faster, but they slowed it down recently. It isn’t uncommon for people to drive right around that on that road, but rarely under. So there I am, on my way home, and sure enough I get caught behind someone doing about 35 or maybe a touch more on the road. I got ticked off. I mean why is this guy out here if he can’t deal with it? WTF!? Not too big a deal, as a few miles up the road hits a four way intersection and chances are they will be turning and I’m going straight. But before that, I get more ticked off, and I check my mirror and there is a line of cars behind me. This idiot really shouldn’t be here.
And then it happened. I saw the real idiot.
As we approached the 4 way the road opens so there is a right turn lane, center lane and left turn lane. I can see the driver since they are going right and I’m going straight. I looked over, and there is a 16 or 17 year old kid driving. His dad is in the front seat next to him and he has the look that I know I had the first time I took a car up to 45. I felt so bad for him. I felt like an idiot. This poor kid is trying to learn how to drive and some asshole behind him is crowding him just a little because 38 in a 45 just isn’t good enough. What a jerk I was. Living in my world, forgetting there are legitimate reasons people do what they do, even if it isn’t the norm. Fucking idiot drivers living in their own world forgetting that an entire other world exists outside their own.
My driving has changed dramatically over the years. All those people who I harassed between the ages of 16-25 – a belated apology.
Now I view driving as an attempt to get from point A to point B alive, and nothing more. If I’m late, oh well. Better than causing an accident with injuries.
If you have ever watched some seriously injured person by the side of the road – I’ve sat through two multiple helivacs on expressways – it gives you some perspective. Driving is SO dangerous, but it is so normal that we usually don’t percieve the risks.
I drove fast when I was a new driver. Much calmer now.
If one is not confident about their driving, then DON’T.
Too old/young - too bad to operate a car?
Still no reason to do something dumb like tailgating.
IMO
Yeah, I get that ‘ohmigawd please forgive me’ feeling in the pit of my stomach when I know I’ve fucked up My universal sign for ‘sorry’ now is one hand up, palm forward, and a really abashed look on my face… I still try to be considerate of others on the road, slow drivers may irritate me but they don’t piss me off anymore… much (I live in an area that’s flooded with tourists in the summer, please forgive me )
The very funny thing is - last time another driver was seriously pissed off at me was last weekend - and I didn’t do a bloody thing wrong. Merged onto a 4-lane and THOUGHT I had plenty of time - I guess I didn’t take into account the fact that the moron in the van behind me was doing 120 km in a 60km (I sped up - he passed me as I was going 100kph and pulled in front of me with about 2’ between our cars.) He had the nerve to roll his window his window down and ask if I knew what a yield sign was. I asked if he knew how to use his bloody brakes, as he was in a 60kph zone. :mad: (Would he have bothered if I was a man? Doubt it.)
I think that harassing new/young drivers is a duty… nay… responsibility of seasoned drivers to make sure that the young learn how to drive in the real world. I mean, really, I am pretty sure that the posted speed limit is more of a suggestion. Does anyone regularly drive under the posted limit?
This exact same thing happened to me when I was on my temporary license, though the roles were switched. It was, admittedly, partly my fault as I hadn’t noticed the switch in speed limits from 25 mph to 35, but I still wasn’t going much under 30. I guess my mom next to me was still worried about my inexperience, since she didn’t correct me. Some asshat was tailgating for about a mile, then PASSED me on a no-passing zone-- this is a winding stretch of road, there’s a reason for the double lines! I was so pissed. There’s no reason for that, did she really reach her destination that much sooner?! She could have hit someone on the curve, and I would have felt like it was my fault. :mad:
Not that the situations are entirely comparable, cmosdes. At least you had the grace to feel bad about it, and certainly don’t appear to have done anything that would endanger other drivers in the process.
Here in the UK, learner drivers by law have ‘L’ plates - red letter L on a white background about 6 inches high, on the front and back of the car. it usually helps to ensure that people give the car a bit of leeway.
Latte - No, I didn’t really do anything to endanger anyone. I did crowd a little, meaning I was not 2 seconds behind him, but I also wasn’t right on the bumper. Also, they were in a minivan and I was in a little Toyota Corolla… which means the only one I was endangering was me, really.
RussellM - In the US, at leat in Oregon, there are cars with “Student Driver” plastered all over them, but not learner plates. But in this case the guy was learning to drive in his parents’ car so the car wouldn’t have all that stuff on it. From behind, it looked like just another clueless driver. That L you talked about would have come in real handy for me when I was learning to drive a clutch on hills that I swear would have rivaled some of San Francisco’s worst ones!
I think I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but it’s good enough to repeat.
A friend of mine is a fucking genius. MIT/PhD, used to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He got so tired of people tailgating that he came up with the following solution:
He re-wired his reverse lights to a small dash-mounted toggle switch. If we was foing, say, 65 in a 55 mph, and some dickweed was on his ass, he would calmly flip the switch. It worked. 100%. And no, he never caused an accident.
Doing 65 in a 55 zone and being tailgated means that your friend
is a lane blocker. And the fact that he would go to so much trouble
to provoke road rage by wiring his break lights to the dash board
instead of simply moving the fuck over means that your friend
is a sociopathic asshole who gets off on the small amount of
control he can wield when he gets in the drivers seat.
Your friend is a sick fuck who proves the point that lane blockers
are the leading cause of road rage and that they do it on purpose because they like being tailgated.
I’ve never once come across a lane blocker doing the speed limit.
Next time you see your friend ask him a question:
If you are speeding, how can you possibly begrudge someone
who wants to go faster?
There’s a difference between wanting to go faster than the person ahead of you and sitting directly on their bumper, for which there is no excuse. Have people forgotten the 3 second following distance rule? If you’re sitting a car length or two off my bumper and I get a flat tire, or a deer runs across the road or anything else you might think of, you’re not going to be able to react in time, especially the retards like the guy I saw one time who was practically driving up the flat bed trailer in the lane next to me at 80 mph. I’ve timed people who’re tailgating the cars ahead of me – some people have less than 0.3 seconds following distance! You’re not Superman. Just back the hell off – it doesn’t save you -any- time.
Why is pulling over not an option? Because that’s not what that lane is for (I assume we’re talking single lane with a ‘trouble lane’ , that’s what’s referenced int he OP – divided freeways are of course another story). Tailgating is never justified. Never.
I’ve never once come across a lane blocker doing the speed limit
Dear Riven,
the (single lane) road thru my suburb has a 2-3 km section of 60kph. I always sit on the speed limit, and 9 times out of 10 on the way home each night I end up with a queue behind me. So who is in the wrong here?
What if someone is doing 56 in the left lane (non-UK) in a 55 zone you don’t see how someone can be lane blocking and speeding?
All that is required to lane block is NOT going faster than the car on your right. It matters not how fast you go. It matters how fast you go relative to everyone else.
My universal sign for ‘sorry’ now is one hand up, palm forward, and a really abashed look on my face… I still try to be considerate of others on the road, slow drivers may irritate me but they don’t piss me off anymore… much (I live in an area that’s flooded with tourists in the summer, please forgive me