But right of way is not guaranteed. Two drivers may both assume the same right of way, or just not care. It is a wonderful system and harmonic when it works as designed. But Mangetout’s model (I believe) describes when the system fails, as happens, unfortunately, not unfrequently. Of course, if you follow Mangetout’s suggestion and yield to the person who has stolen your right of way, then that person will always assume the right of way. All you’ve done is transferred the right of way. But what’s the alternative? Hit the other vehicle and prove your right of way in court? Mangetout’s post is valid.
Agreed on all of this. Drivers DO have to exercise caution and discretion even when right-of-way is agreed upon by most drivers. It’s just really, really frustrating when you feel like you’re the only person on the road who knows what the order of right-of-way actually should be…
I need a new car.
The next SUV asshole that gets about six inches off my rear bumper and starts flashing his headlights at me is going to buy me one.
Agreed on all of this, too. My peeve is with the new common protocol of driving that seems to be emerging - my vehicle is larger than yours, so I’ll just do as I please, and you can’t do anything about it.
[Alison Skipworth] “Road-hog! Get him, Rollo!” [/Alison Skipworth]
Once these and these make it to the States, you can just drive underneath the fuckers.
Fortunately, the crazy price of petrol over here keeps most of the SUVers off the roads. But there are a few. British roads are generally pretty narrow, too.
They’re just easier to spot, especially those watching movies.
My gripe with SUVs is how they block visibility of non-SUVs. Parked between two, you can’t see parking lot traffic until you are all the way out of a spot. Approaching a corner on our car-filled, narrow Queens streets, we have to stick our nose way out to check for oncoming traffic because SUVs (and vans and pickups) block the view. At least with cars, we can look through the windows. Pedestrians and children darting out from behind a SUV/minvan are harder to spot than ones coming from behind a car (again, the window thing).
I see plenty of horrid drivers in cars. SUVs don’t breed worse drivers, it just gives bad drivers a bigger platform to play with and more visibility. That said, Hummers are just huge piles of shit that don’t belong on the road. They’re past conspicuous consumption and onto downright idiocy.
Yes, but the article points out that there is a tax break for trucks 6,000+ lb used exclusively for work, so the owners of these SUVs claim they are trucks for the purposes of the tax break, but then claim they are passenger cars for the purposes of claimin that the ban on driving 6,000+ lb trucks on residential streets doesn’t apply to them.
Guys, guys, guys…
If you look behind you before you back out, there might be someone there and then you would have to wait…
This reminds me of a poem I once heard:
Here lies the body of good John Jay.
He died defending his right of way.
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he’s just as dead as if he were wrong.
A show of hands–who caught Eve’s reference this time?
Hmmmm, more than usual. Must be because this one was a talkie.
I drive a 1973 Cheyenne C20 Pickup Truck (Long-bed, classic old monster). I’ve run into a few spots where my truck simple does not fit in the spaces provided, so I do the lesser of two evils and take 1 1/4 spots (Rather then centering myself and squeezing two parking spaces).
I do agree with the rant, but I have a reverse rant. Seriously, just reverse your entire rant and you have my retort!
This is my gripe, too. I live in a neighborhood about evenly divided between giant SUVs and hippie bicyclists. Trying not to kill anybody when you can’t see beyond the parked dinosaurs is a challenge. I think they even make it harder during normal city driving—you can’t scan for potential problems as far ahead. And don’t get me started about the shiny monster pick-up trucks who think they are entitled to a parking space and half the traffic lane as well, when there is angle parking.
I’m really disappointed that you’ve misunderstood me so badly; Yes, of course rights of way are established as a system that attempts to make things clear and safe; I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about how people react when things don’t happen like they ought to - piling aggression onto a situation that is already outside of the normal parameters just makes it more dangerous for all parties.
We have all kinds of written and unwritten procedures regarding expected behaviours and safe practices in all kinds of activities, of which vehicular rights of way are just a tiny subset, but I can’t think of any other area where an infraction of the rules is met with such stupid, dangerous aggression as it is in the case of road users.
:sigh:
I drive a mid-sized SUV because it’s the most practical/useful vehicle for me. My Wife also drives a mid-sized SUV for the same reason. For us, they are by far the most practical, useful vehicles.
No other choice really.
Oh, I could drive a 4x4 truck. In some ways it would be better, in some ways not as good as my SUV. In either case, a 4x4 truck would (or should based on their gripes) piss off the anti-SUV people anyway.
I live in an area where most of us have some form of 4x4. Mostly Trucks and SUVS. The “I can’t see around the bigger car is really a bad argument.” In my mid-sized SUV, I can’t see around mini-vans, or any other type of SUV or truck. It hasn’t caused me any problems.
It may be hard for me to make this comparison since for the last 12 years 99% of my driving is done in small towns and 2 lane State highway. But, when I do drive a car (my Moms Honda) in Denver I have no problems. Denver is probably the SUV capitol of the world.
Last summer, I rented a sedan at Dulles INA and drove around Washington and to Baltimore and then Harrisburg PA, and back. I keep track of these anti-SUV threads and was expecting that it would be stressful to drive a car surrounded by all the SUV’s out there.
Note, that I was in an unfamiliar car, driving in an unfamiliar place, going from a place I have never been before to a place I have never been.
There where a lot less SUV’s on the roads than I had expected. Compared to Denver, or where I live, SUVs where down right RARE. In fact, I was surprised to see so many sedans.
I ride motorcycles, drive small cars, large cars, SUVs, and trucks. I Have done so in all kind of conditions, and roadways. I have been driving for 27 years and have never been involved in any type of accident. It’s all about the driver, and nothing about the car.
When anyone complains that there are bigger cars on the road than them (and scare them), I consider that they must not have much confidence in there own driving abilities.
Its not the size of the vehicle, but the size of the balls swinging from the nut behind the wheel.
I always seem to get “right-of-way” even when driving my Fiat Spider…
I scream and yell a lot in the privacy of my own car, but I’m not an agressive driver and I’m more than happy to yield to people pulling out in front of me, merging late, and generally being assholes.
I’ll even forgive the jerks in the huge SUVs/trucks who pull so far forward in the left lane that I can’t see any oncoming traffic, and so cannot make a right turn on the red. Hey, I’ll wait for the light, no problem. The people behind me get pissed, but whatever, I’m usually not in a big hurry.
But if one more person blocks me into the parking spot because there’s only 1/2 inch between my door and their passenger side, I’m going to go ballistic. Just because there is a foot or so between the white line and my car does not mean you should take advantage of that! I didn’t leave that space there for you, asshole! I left it there for me! Fucker, learn how to park.
I’ll third that. . .
Hey, look, if I’m driving my F-150 in the slow lane, loaded down with strapped-down styrofoam concrete forms and I can’t see out my back window, you don’t have to road rage me and flip me the bird from your little Geo Metro as you pass by. I’m so sorry I inconvenienced you–but I’m actually getting some damn work done. Take off, eh!*
That’s okay anyway. I’ll see you three months from now, stuck in a snow drift, begging and pleading me to pull you out. :rolleyes:
Tripler
- NOTE: True story!
Not so much here in Las Vegas, but when I was living in LA, it seemed that SUV drivers (like they need SUV’s in Beverly Hills) were often women who made Paris Hilton look tall and fat in comparison. I would get that little teeny hand-flick out the window as if to say, “Peon, get back as I intend to drive across four lanes to turn left…”
I cannot tell you how often I did NOT let anorexic bimbo by and felt absolutely no remorse.
Forgot to mention old Jay Leno joke:
You can’t see anything ahead of you when you are driving behind an SUV…sort of like doing the conga line behind Dennis Franz.