I live in MA, most people driving around here are pricks, which is fine I’ve lived here most my life it’s to be expected. I am one of the minority of people that occasionaly stops to let someone, out making a lefthand turn or whatnot.
Whats been getting on my nerves lately is the number of people that make no effort to thank me for my good dead.(The number of angry people behind me seems to have remained consistant.) I feel that if I take a bit of my time to be curtious and let someone into the lane they should have the decency to let me know it was appreciated. A simple wave is all it takes. If the want to keep both hands on the wheel or one on the wheel and the other one their cell phone a nod would be acceptable too. It’s the fucking people who don’t really look my way and just pull out like they were entittled to my generosity that makes me want to ram them. As they would likely be found at fault for the accident its very tempting to do so. One of the hold ups is it’s hard to know if they are just gona wave late or not wave at all.
Well thats my rant anyway. If I let you go give me a wave. If you don’t go fuck yourself.
Yeah, i know i shouldn’t get worked up about it, but i fucking hate it when i let someone in and they can’t even be bothered acknowledging the courtesy.
Of course, you never know beforehand whether the beneficiary of your good manners is going to be a nice person or an asshole, so i continue to let people in and take some comfort from the ones with some sense of gratitude. With the others, i just hope they run out of gas on the freeway on a 95 degree day.
I used to drive 128 every morning. I was always astounded by the arrogance of many other drivers. My tension headaches stopped when I stopped driving to Brighton every day. More power to you.
Well, I will say this: I got angry at some kid in a large truck who assumed that I’d slow down to let him merge before I actually did it. But he waved thanks, and that made me less angry at him.
I no longer drive but I am nonetheless a pedestrian. If someone slows down to let me cross the street I make sure I give them a hearty wave of thanks.
What’s happening to Massachusetts and Boston? It seems as though this area is increasingly gaining a nasty reputation. Not the most scientific reference, but while watching “Family Feud”, the question was “What city has the rudest people?”
There were 4 answers on the board and they were:
New York
Los Angeles
Boston
Chicago
Wow, Boston is nowhere near those other cities in terms of population so I’m guessing our rude, nasty, grouchy temperment is more than making up for the fact that it has fewer people.
I’ve wave to people for doing what they are suppose to do, like when I am making a left turn and they stop as not to block the box which allows my turn. Why - because It sometimes appears like they expect that, they are just stopping where they should so you can give them that wave and feed their ego. Then when I complete my turn they normally creep up and block the box - selfcentered bastards!
You know what irks me? When a driver “courteously” stops in the middle of traffic to “let someone through” (especially on a left turn or other traffic-crossing turn) who was supposed to yield anyway, thus disrupting the expected flow of traffic and pissing off everyone behind them. And yes, when I’m the recipient of this “courtesy,” it pisses me off as well, because now they’ve included me in their dumbfuckery. Especially when I had a gap three cars behind them that would have served me just as well, or when they can’t see that the other lane I need to cross is still moving along at a good clip. It’s not “being nice,” it’s messing with the system, and dangerous to boot.
I hope this isn’t the situation you’re describing.
Q: Isn’t a good deed its own reward? You know you did the right thing. You should sleep well enough at night knowing that alone. Yes, there are rude people in the world, but knowing that and knowing that its not possible to change that fact should help you to be able to smile about it and to let it go.
Ramming someones car is road rage, though, and is never justified. (Even if it seems so, the DA will make sure it looks otherwise to the judge/jury.)
I agree with Scarlett67. Be careful that your courtesy doesn’t cause confusion. If you have the right of way, and you stop for me, I will hesitate because I’m expecting you to go and don’t know if you are being courteous or absent minded. After I hesitate, you will then think I’m not taking you up on your offer and go. I will have, by then, realised that you wanted me to go. We end up both going, then both stopping, then doing the whole, “you go”, “no you go” thing. The safest way to drive is to take the right of way when it is yours to take, and don’t offer courtesies that go against the road rules.
It’s not clear from your post if you are doing this kind of thing. If you were, and you did it to me, I wouldn’t wave thanks, because I’d be pissed off.
Fuck the fucking fucks who can’t bother to wave thanks. That is one of my biggest pet peeves of driving. I wave thanks even if I’m not sure if the person has done me a favor, just in case.
[Screaming George Costanza]WE’RE LIVING IN A SOCIETY HERE![/George Costanza]
I’m with Scarlett67. Holding up the people behind you so that you can let me in just makes traffic problems for all of us.
What’s even worse is if I’m trying to make a left turn and some dumbass stops so I can get through. Um, no. I can’t properly see the other lane, the one I’m trying to pull into. I’m not going to go until I can see, so you can just sit there all you want.
You’re not doing a good deed. You’re taking a normal, everyday situation and acting abnormally, making everybody else unsure about what to do next.
Dude, if you have the right of way, TAKE IT. Don’t be an asshat and wave me through - you’re doing nobody any favors by taking it upon yourself to be some sort of arbitrary traffic cop/peace missionary.
FWIW, I always flip off people who “wave me through.” They just don’t get it. Hopefully, I pissed them off enough that, next time, they’ll do what they’re supposed to do and take their right of way.
You guys do NOT want to come to Seattle. That behavior is the name of the game here. Pedestrians don’t even bother to look both ways before walking into traffic because they’re so used to drivers slamming on their brakes and bringing a line of cars behind them to a standstill if they see a person on the sidewalk who appears to be thinking about crossing.
The city even encourages this - they’ve started putting in these horrible crosswalk lights that flash the instant a pedestrian punches the cross button. There is no pause for a break in traffic, no timing the lights with nearby stoplights, they just flash instantly, so pedestrians push the button and stride confidently into the crosswalk without checking to see if a truck might be barreling towards them.
It’s a bad sign when the worst drivers are put in control of the city traffic planning department.
