I think this is my second Pit thread, but I think I got the hang of it now after reading all these other masterpieces. So here it goes…
Ok, so i’m driving home today. Now where i live, we’re in close proximity with Mexicans (not Hispanics, which i am, but mexicans as in the ones from mexico) i live in hell by the way which is laredo, tx if you havent heard of it i’m not surprised. so anyway, being in constant contact with these stupid fucks, you’d think that i’d be used to the way they drive. These people never cease to amaze me i swear to god. So here i am driving down the street when i come to an intersection with a red light. In front of me is none other than one of the silly bastards. He stops then proceeds to make a right turn which we all know is perfectly legal if that person has made sure that all oncoming traffic is clear. Apparently no one explained that rule to this fuck in driver’s ed because coming from intersecting street was a flood of traffic. So, what does he do? The only logical thing of course. He STOPS in the middle of the street then proceeds to back up to get out of the way. He forgets of course that there are other motorists on the road so by this time, i’m already at the little line that youre not supposed to pass (dont know what its called). The genius continues to back up expecting me to reverse as well. Meanwhile, there’s already cars behind me so there’s nowhere for me to go. I let out a loooong honk to let the guy know that there’s no space for him, so he decides to finally complete his right turn. Bear in mind that this guy blocked oncoming traffic for at least 20 seconds (which we all know is a very long time when you should normally be moving) when he could’ve just finished his turn and gotten a honk or two from the drivers that were already coming toward him. WHAT THE FUCK?
The line is referred to as the stop line.
The only reason I’ve ever heard of Laredo is that there was a song out maybe a year ago by that name…
Anyhow, your experience sounds like a trying one. But, don’t lump all of Mexico into fault for this occurence. There are plenty of drivers who do worse everyday in the United States and maybe Canada (no cite for Canada).
Flood, I lived for two years in Laredo…but I was in diapers so unfortunately I don’t remember it. (Or maybe fortunately?)
We get a lot of Mexican nationals who come here to San Antonio to shop, however…and I’m always a bit alarmed when I see their plates, because they do have a…shall we say…haphazard driving style. 
But if you’ve ever seen the roads in Mexico–which I’m sure you have–you’ll understand why. Driving through Mexico is like going on safari. It’s the kind of thing you look back on with wonder. “Did I really do that? How did I come out alive?”
Shh, they’re not supposed to know about me!
Damn! There I go, shooting off again…
I live in El Paso. (So I’ve sort of heard of Laredo).
Here a lot of cars have Mexican plates as well (some of the people driving such cars are actually Americans who are avoiding Texan taxes but I digress). Some do attempt to adjust to American driving habits, but some do not. I’ve seen some reckless stuff, like driving in reverse on fairly major streets, cars straddling the boundary of two lanes, or behaving as an imaginary third lane existed and the like. But if you have ever driven 5 minutes in Juarez, Mexico - you’d understand why. There you simply do what you can to get somewhere else.
It’s probably rare to see a car that isn’t a late model with a relatively intact front end.
flood, sounds like Los Angeles. 
I can’t help noticing that everyone here is assuming is implying that bad driving is always the fault of the other guy - especially if the other guy is a foreign national. My roomate has exactly the same rant - except it is about women drivers.
Am I making a point here? Yes. Whenever we (and that includes me) see, for example, bad driving, we feel a need to blame a whole section of society, not just the individual. Now, if the driver of the offending vehicle happens to identifiable (Mexican plates, an SUV, a woman, old, whatever), we have a winner! All school buses/mail trucks or wahtever are bad.
On the flipside, when we see the exactly the same manoveur carried out by one of our own, we blank it out. If you’re a guy and you see a woman drive in a hare-barined fashion, it’s easy to say “Stupid women drivers”, but if a guy does exactly the same thing, we do not even register it and certainly dan’t say “Gosh aren’t men such bad drivers”
So let’s not call Mexicans bad drivers, because that way lies FeistyMongel 
Yeah, what’s the deal w/ labeling Mexicans bad drivers? We all know it’s the Asians who can’t drive. 
Hey, Tapioca, I’m a woman and I’ll freely admit that a lot of women suck at operating motor vehicles. My best friend puts on mascara and lipliner while screaming down the freeway at eighty five miles an hour. I’ve seen my whole life in single cels more than once while she is driving.
She also cuts people off, peals out of parking lots, honks her horn at people who are driving normally just because they happen to be in her way, and tailgates even in the far right lane.
I love her dearly, but if I were ever caught near her on the road, I’d flip her off and scream about dumb blonde bitches driving gaz-guzzling SUV’s.
And to the man who didn’t yield to oncoming traffic, i.e., me, today…I flipped him off, too, and screamed a lot about two-headed monsters with dicks for brains and pocket-knives for penises.
My road-rage has nothing to do with prejudice, and everything to do with improving my own driving by releasing negative energy.
ahem
Article 23, section 1(a)(ii) of the Convention on Road Signs and Signals sets out no right turns on red. Most of the USA does not follow this international convention, including Texas (Transportation Code Title 7, Chapter 544.007(d)(1)).
Anyone care to hazard a guess as to whether most of Mexico follows the international convention or not?
Prior to the 70s, we in Ontario faced a similar situation with many American drivers not realizing that right turns on red were permitted here.
Hard to be annoyed with one who is doing one’s best according to the rules with which one is accustomed.
We have very few Mexicans or Asians in Miami, but the level of suckage in “driving” “skills” is truly astronomical. But I have traveled to many Latin American countries, and have seen MUCH worse.
Where I live, in Pennsylvania, the law of the road is that unless you are at an intersection that is posted with a sign that says ‘No turn on red’ or ‘No right turn on red’, you may make right turns on red provided that it is safe to do so.
Some people ignore the last part of that and make right turns on red any time they please. These people, and they are of all colors, creeds, national origins and genders, have significantly reduced the life of my ABS because they think that they should make that right on red when I’m less than 50 feet from the intersection approaching a green light in my direction of travel.
This ‘right turn on red’ rule, however, is so ingrained in my head that I tend to assume it exists everywhere. In order to avoid problems, if I am in another area driving with someone else in the car, I will usually ask them if I can ‘right on red.’
I have driven in various places across North America, and I think the most dangerous driving conditions I’ve been in (no particular order) are:
- Boston, MA
- Providence, RI
- Philadelphia, PA
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Hartford, CT
- Bridgeport, CT
- Toronto, ON
- Orlando, FL
- Cleveland, OH
- Phoenix, AZ
- Hackensack, NJ
My experience with driving is considerable and doesn’t seem to mesh with my age because I worked for PennDOT for quite some time and spent anywhere between 40 and 50 hours a week driving. The #1 place that it’s dangerous to drive due to buttheaded fucknuggets: in a construction zone anywhere.
I hate construction zones, people do very stupid and dangerous things in them, and the only thing worse than driving through one is being on the ground in one. I firmly believe that part of driver training should be standing in a construction zone on an interstate highway. If you’ve ever had the experience of someone thundering past you at 60 - 70 mph six inches away, you’ll become much more aware of what an implement of death that two ton steel rocket you’re encapsulated in is really capable.
The scariest road experience I have ever had was being the ‘cage man’ on the back of a construction truck. The cage man’s job is to stand in a little metal frame cage (Think 3’ x 3’ x 3’ with an open top) attached to the back end of a flatbed pickup. It rides about a foot and a half above the ground. You’re in the cage, the truck is going in reverse, in a travel lane of a freeway, and your job is to pick up the orange construction cones that block off the lane for a temporary (one day or less) closure. I had less adrenaline in my system jumping out of a damn plane than I did every time I had to pick up the last cone.
My apologies for the hijack there, had to get it out of my system.
You know why Mexicans are such shitty drivers? Here’s a story to illustrate the reason.
I have Mexican cousins. One is very close in age to me. When she went to get her driver’s license in Mexico City, she and my aunt brought the DMV (or whatever the Mexican equivalent is) officials wine and cheese. They told them it wasn’t enough. So they left, got more wine and cheese, returned, and my cousin was given her driver’s license. I’m not even sure if she could have taken a test. From the way they told me this, it didn’t really sound like a viable option. Bribery was the only way.
I can’t believe my cousin went two months before having her first accident.
The Streets of Laredo
Trad., adapted and mangled by MrVisible
As I drove out in the streets of Laredo
As I drove out in Laredo one day
I spied a young driver wrapped up in white linen
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay
“I see by your cell phone that you are a driver”
These words he did say as I boldly drove by
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
I’ve been rear-ended and I know I must die
"‘Twas one intersetion I used to go drivin’
Once intersection I used to give way
First I’d pull out, and then I’d reverse and
I got rear-ended and I’m dying today
"Let six irate drivers come carry my coffin
Let six traffic cops come to carry my pall
Throw bunches of roadsigns all over my coffin
Throw roadsigns that I don’t adhere to at all
“Oh, beep the horn slowly, and play the tunes lowly
And play the Dead tape as you carry me along
Take me to the valley there lay the sod o’er me
For I’m a poor driver and I know I’ve done wrong”
As one who has done more driving in Mexico than he wanted to, I am here to tell you that you can do pretty much anything you WANT to on the road there, so long as you don’t hit anyone or anything or run over anyone’s chicken.
Lynch mobs can spring up spontaneously over a squashed chicken.
Weirdly enough, the ones I run into up here (north of San Antonio) don’t seem to drive any worse than anyone else. Up here, it’s the snowbirds that make us mental…
(snowbirds being elderly folks who spend the winter in trailer parks hereabouts)
I’ve been to Mexico only once (Cancun), but while we were there we regularly watched large buses literally hit each other out of the way to pick up tourists and passengers. I saw taxis doing the same thing. We also had to stay well away from the street when walking because it wasn’t uncommon for them to drive up on the curb for no apparent reason. Dangerous. :eek:
The absolute worst drivers anywhere in the country are in Utah. I have been shot, I have been stabed, and I have been never been so in fear of death as riding a Triumph Bonneville 750 through Provo Utah. Topeka Kansas comes in a close second though.
Ahh… Mexican drivers… Well, now I am happy to be from Monterrey, the only first world city in Mexico, where we have some respect for law and order, dammit!
Here is a brakdown of Mexican drivers, taken from my personal experience of seeing drivers from the following areas of Mexico:
Monterrey
Mexico
Guanajuato/Leon
Chihuahua
Cancun/Quintana Roo
Chiapas
Baja
Acapulco
Vera Cruz
and others I can’t remember
Now, here is the way I see it
5% of drivers: Will, if they see you on the street, will swerve or stop.
5% of drivers: Will, if they see you on the street, will swerve to hit you.
90% of drivers: Will, if they see you on the street, have one thought, and one thought only in their heads: “I hope he doesn’t mess up my car”
Not only that, but a large amount of Mexicans learn to drive their father’s truck from their father at age 9. Often where they live their are few roads, and no one to hit, anyway. So they can’t really be expected to learn laws and driving customs.
ñañi, who learned to drive a stickshift at age 14 from his cousin.