Um, why? For yelling at him?
Ah, you have been set up by the New Zealand Tourism Board. Every tourist who leaves the country is greeted with some horrific event when they get home just to remind them how excellent their holiday really was.
In about 5 years you will be sitting on the balcony of your newly aquired NZ holiday home, sipping a glass of wine, watching the sun go down.
And we’ll welcome you with open arms.
Seriously, I’m sorry your return home has been crap. I am glad you enjoyed your honeymoon though.
- 1920s SDR
(Only living in Australia temporarily)
Just for those who haven’t been to Boston, let me just say that what Loopydude describes is absolutely, no shit, not even exaggerating, the way driving in Boston is. People do that shit. And they talk and act like that. Dealing with Boston drivers often leaves me cursing the entire city to Hell and wishing desperately for a means of delivering Old Testament style retribution upon the entire city.
And Kalashnikov, I’d like to see a cite to NH law that gives one the right to kill another person one the spot for yelling, waving arms, possessing murderous rage, and contemplating the possible uses of The Club.
I think Babe’s Curse is doing the job quite well…thank you very much… 
It truly has to be seen to be believed. People here drive like idiots. People laugh, but it’s no joke; Bostonians can be incredibly rude and dangerous on the road, and drive their cars like they own it. Shit, people cut me off all the time, and if I so much as toot the horn, I get flipped off. Using your turn signal is seen by Bostonians as a sign of weakness; they will gun their engine to cut you off rather than let you get five feet in front of them to change lanes. They weave between said lanes and straddle them at will. They run red lights multiple seconds after it has changed. A yellow light may as well be a fucking yellow flag at a NASCAR race: It’s supposed to mean caution, but everyone stomps on the gas to squeak ahead. Many intersections, as a result, are a real white-knuckle experience.
Funny thing, I was really apprehensive about renting cars in NZ, because I’d never driven on the left-hand side of the road. Needless to say, I made a few mistakes at first, especially at roundabouts, where the rules in NZ relating to certain turns are a bit counterintuitive to we Yankee types. Sure, when I froze because I didn’t know who had the right of way, some people gave me a little honk of the horn. But you know, they would simply gesture “go ahead”. They didn’t yell out the window. They didn’t flip me off. Hell, I was tooling around busy streets in Aukland, Nelson, Queenstown, the windiest roads I’ve ever seen on the Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua, Te Anau (which actually has a rather confusing layout), you name it; nobody so much as made an angry face at me. I traveled by plane, train, and automobile (as well as helicopter!) from Tuatapere in the south of Southland, all the way to Cape Reinga. That’s about like going from Maine to Georgia, and not once was I ever hassled, or felt fearful, angry, impatient, oppressed, insulted. Hell, I could experience all of that in a day driving in Back Bay or up around North Station during rush hour.
We stayed with a guy we met on our travels at his commuter appartment in Aukland, and he apologized for the “sorry state of Aukland traffic.” I’m like “What, you’re joking, right?” No, he was quite earnest. He felt it was truly awful. My wife and I really did try to take his cordial sentiments seriously and in the spirit they were given. So we didn’t try to minimize his sincerity by pointing out that our home turf is truly a land of vehicular menace.
Fucking Boston. Man, after a month, I was tired of traveling, and ready to be home, too, though I was sad to leave beautiful NZ behind. Three fucking days is all it took before some bastard makes me want to hop on the next 747 I see, one way. Fucking car is a mess, my wife is afraid to get behind the wheel now, I’ve got to deal with insurance and a little prick who thinks he’s going to sue me. And I’m sorry, but none of this is any of my fucking fault. I was driving like a normal human being with more than a ganglion in my skull, and BAM.
Man, Aukland was sunny, warm, cheerful, clean, attractive, even fragrant in Albert Park. Hell, a total stranger put us up after a conversation on the plane, and we didn’t even think to wonder if he was some kind of psycho axe-murdering sex pervert or something. Just a decent, friendly person who wanted to connect and do someone a favor. And, oh, the Botanic Gardens in Wellington! Stunning! The gorgeous harbours in both towns, with their forests of sailboat masts…I saw too little of Christchurch, and wish I had had a chance to visit Dunedin. Next time, hopefully not too long from now. You Kiwis out there have a beautiful, livable country, don’t you forget it. To think, Boston is seen as one of our nicer cities. Right. Fuck.
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LXII/627/627-4.htm
Of course, having the right to use deadly force in self defense doesn’t mean you can keep using such force once the person is no longer a threat. The purpose of it is only to stop the threat. But if you did happen to kill them with your first shot or strike, you would not be found guilty.
There’s more to the law, of course, you can’t use such force if, with the purpose of causing death or serious bodily harm, you provoked the use of force against yourself in the same encounter or if you know that you and any other innocent people can retreat with complete safety.
:rolleyes: That right doesn’t mean start popping caps at the first yahoo to start screaming at you. I don’t see anywhere in the post where the other person was actually threatend, other than verbally, if that at all.
Hmmm… so I hit a car with my own car, and the guy in the other car jumps out screaming angrily, so that constitutes a reasonable belief on my part that he will use deadly force against me? Really, I see nothing in Loopydude’s posts that would indicate that he made any reasonable threats against anyone’s life. Calling anything he did a threat of deadly force would be like calling a home run when a bunt didn’t even make it past the foul line.
I had a similar experience driving down Arlington (I think it was). It’s a 3-lane road, and I was in the right lane. My car was positioned such that my front bumper was about even with the passenger door of the woman in the center lane. Without warning, the woman tries to take a right turn out of the center lane, running into me. When asked what the hell she was doing, she replied “You must have been driving too close to me.”
WFT?? To close to you? I’m driving in a fucking straight line!! You are trying to cut across lanes of traffic without even bothering to check whos there!!
I’ve had occasion to drive in some of the larger cities in the US - New York, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis, San Francisco…
Without a doubt, Boston is by far the worst.
Well, just to jump on the “me too” bandwagon, that sounds like a crappy experience, no two ways about it, but you honestly haven’t seen anything, quite like the driving in rush-hour Rome.
It’s not the casual fender-benders that people don’t even acknowlegde, let alone stop for, or the shouting / cursing and middle-finger-waving, but the sheer illegality of practically everything that everybody does, all the time.
I mean, driving on the footpath at the traffic lights, to make an “extra” lane. No-one even toots. Niente. It would be fucking hilarious if it wasn’t so frightening.
I thought driving in Houston was bad…
Oh don’t remind me of Rome! Your driver was flipping off someone? Luxury! I was in a taxi in a roundabout and the driver at one point had BOTH of his hands out the drivers side window. I was sure I was about to die.
This very morning there was a guy driving a newish Saab convertible ~90mph on the expressway while reading a book! :eek: It was a big technical manual looking book and it was on the steering wheel, I paced him for bit out of sheer amazement, then pulled a safe distance away.
Loopydude, out of curiosity, what intersection did this occur at? I drive frequently in Boston, and the wildness of the roadways fascinates me.
Jamaicaway approaching Riverway…don’t know the intersection exactly. I think I’ve blocked it out or something :mad:
Let me guess - it was Jamaicaway and Perkins, and you were going north, and the loser was southbound turning left into Perkins.
I have to make that left across two lanes all the time. Basically, if it’s rush hour, I follow the rules, avoid temptation, and don’t try the left turn, but instead continue to the rotary and come around from the other direction, so I can make a right.
If it’s not rush hour, I sit like a Buddha until it’s all clear. I try to put on my left turn signal early so as to give those behind me time to get into the right lane.
Although I have a system for it, I really hate that intersection.
Your description has an uncanny accuracy.
Fuck, I’m getting flashbacks. Fenway, Riverway, Jamaicaway…oh, and that exit off of Storrow where you can either go to Kenmore Sq. or Riverway…they should just rename it all “DEATHWAY”
A’ight Loopydude, I’m dying to know, why does this fucktard think he can sue you? If it went down like you said it did, he’d be found at fault. You can’t sue someone for an accident you are responsible for.
Same thing happened to be in November. I was going straight down a residential street about 3 blocks from my house, through an intersection. Some dumbfuck decided to turn left, right into my car. Totalled my car. When I got my hands on the police report, I saw his only statement as saying “I never saw her.”
The fuck? I was the only other damn car on the road!!! Gah! So, I know the rage of which you speak.
Anyhoo: Kalashnikov, first off, there are 12 people that are in charge of determining someone’s guilt for murder. So it’s a bit premature to make claims such as “he won’t be found guilty.” Also, words alone are NEVER enough to justify the use of deadly force. Even if he said “I’m gonna kill you.” None of the snippets you quoted from Loopydude gave any indication that anything other than words were being exchanged. So The Dumbfuck would certainly not be justified in using any kind of force, really. Certainly not DEADLY force.
Well, at least they’re very narrow lanes.
I once was in Chandler, Arizona, and the roads there amazed me. Straight, flat, smooth, everything. And they had 40mph speed limits. I always figured that the best way to get out of a speeding ticket there would be to show the officer a picture of the Jamaicaway in heavy traffic, in the dark, in a torrential downpour, and explaining that that’s what you’re used to doing 40 in.
For those unfamiliar, the Jamaicaway is a twisty road with two lanes in each direction, and traffic regularly moving at 40mph, oftentimes quite heavy, and it can’t measure more than 28 ft. curb to curb. Pretty much the only road in the whole city I won’t ride my bike on.
I think I’ve dealt with Officer Mcfuckstick before.
Wanna see some aggressive driving? Come to Las Vegas, man. Something about this town attracts the worst of the worst drivers from all over the known universe. Wanna change lanes? Turn on your signal and turn the steering wheel sharply, simultaneously. If you give the other drivers on the road any kind of advance notice, they will floor it to keep you from getting into the lane.
A lot of the hostility seems to be directed at pedestrians. In a town with no small elderly population, most of the walk lights here last just long enough for a medal-winning sprinter to make it across the street. If the little walking man is replaced be the little orange hand before you’ve reached the opposite curb, run like hell. The traffic light will change before a person at average walking speed can cross he second half of the street, and when drivers in this town see green, they go. If there is a pedestrian in front of them when the light turns green, they go. If there is a child on a bike in front of them when the light turns green, they go, secure in the knowledge that they will not be prosecuted for running down and killing the child, because, By Og, the child was breaking the law by riding his bike rather than pushing it across the intersection. (This actually happened last week. I can’t find the words…)
On another related note, I will never understand people who plow into vehicles or even human beings that were directly in front of them, and swear “I never saw him/her/it.” If you can’t see directly in front of you, you obviously are legally blind, if not actually totally blind, and should not be driving a motor vehicle. My favorite story of this happened on New Years Eve a few years back. A woman who had just gotten off work at one of the casinos struck and killed an elderly woman. The woman had bounced up the hood of the car and spiderwebbed the windshield. The driver kept going, got home, called the police and reported that there were kids throwing rocks or bricks at passing cars in the intersection where the accident occurred, and had cracked her windshield. She was caught when she took the car in for repairs and the repairman found blood and hair in the cracks in the windshield and called the police. Even up until the trial, this woman swore she didn’t know she had hit a person. WTF? How do you have something as large as a human being bounce over your windshield and not know you’ve hit someone? Obviously, she concocted the “kids throwing rocks” story to cover her ass when she filed the insurance claim to have the windshield repaired, as this would likely have required a police report.