driving to work this morning.....

[T77911S]

this is open to venting about current idiots of the day


so I am in the left lane. 2 cars in the right just ahead of me. of course I am going a little faster than them.
well the second car pulls into my lane and goes the SAME speed as the guy he was behind, which is 57. why?
so the car in the right lane eventually speeds up to 65. now the guy in front of me speeds up to 65. (this is not uncommon, happens a lot)

then we all get behind slower traffic and we are doing 60.
now some A$$ wipe is riding my bumper. remember I am behind at least 2 other cars as are the people in the right lane.
nothing like turning on your washers to get someone off your A$$ but it really did not work even though I saw he had to turn his wipers on.
get this, then a little while later when he moves back up on me he flashes his lights like I can really move over or if I did he would actually get some where.

[Jims5543]

I Just move over and let the jerk behind me meet the jerk in front of me and let him tailgate the crap out of him for me.

[stomachmonkey]

Oh god.

That is every day all day long around here.

Makes me insane.

Then we’ve got the situation where you have a car in another lane but ahead of you. You’ll be approaching a light that goes red and you’ll each be the first car at the light but for some reason the jack wagon will decide to switch into your lane.

Why?

[rfuerst911sc]

The roads are polluted with uni-brow knuckle draggers , I like the dopes that are racing to get to a red light . Or the constant lane changers to get one car ahead geez if you are that late to work how about getting up 15 minutes earlier ? Just another example of " it's all about me " syndrome .

[pavulon]

Commuting 80 miles of 2 lane highway each day is entertaining. I've had to re-frame it in my mind to 2 hours of blue-hair, deer, Amish buggy, tree truck, milk truck, snow plow and texting idiot slalom.

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by T77911S

get this, then a little while later when he moves back up on me he flashes his lights like I can really move over or if I did he would actually get some where.

More likely is that once he finished texting he moved back up on you and flashed his lights in response to your unnecessary/provocative use of your windshield washers.

_

[David]

I read an article, that of course I can't find now, that described the subconscious thought process of drivers. It described a sort of herd mentality that drivers have that makes them drive the same speed as the drivers around them even when they think they want to go faster. It said you have to make dramatic changes in your speed to break away from these drivers.

[doug_porsche]

Yep, I call them "besiders".

Driving is not at the top of their current to-do list.
They get out from behind the car they are following to beside it so if the other car stops, they won't rear end it.
They frequently get in the other cars blind spot so it's easy for them to regulate their speed off a "fixed" visual queue, the car they are not passing.

I jokingly call drivers the most competitive herd animal in existence. They will fiercely elbo, cut you off, push their way to get to the front of the pack, and then, passively aggressively, go the same dang speed as the herd.

[ckelly78z]

My rant is about people on a 4 lane highway (2 lanes in each direction, split by median) not using cruise control, and randomly speeding up/slowing down. These dingbats stay out in the left lane, and hold up responsible traffic who have maintained a certain speed for miles. I will actually slow down/speed up a click or two to get away from such people.

My other favorite is when I move out of the slow lane to get in line to pass a slow truck, and leave a few car lengths between me and the car ahead of me, that some dip****e comes out of nowhere, and tries to stuff his SUV into because he is in a much bigger hurry than anyone else on the road.

[Deschodt]

The above...

And then you get to the city... where people lose their **** on 4 way stop signs when a pedestrian decides to cross, the sequence goes to hell because people can't count to 4..

Then there's the weirdos on unicycles, skateboards, electric scooters, who magically turn from road users into pedestrians into road users again at each intersection so they never stop for anything, and it falls upon you to guess their next move...

Then there's the regular motorcycles and scooters who squeeze between lanes and come 1/4" from your mirrors and then camp there in front of you smack in the middle of 2 lanes, so you don't know if they're right lane, left lane, but they suddenly own both now, and go slower than all the people they just passed...

I can't wait for telecommute to become the norm.

[Gogar]

I don't enjoy the besiders,

But I also don't enjoy dickheads who insist on aggressively "educating" every left-lane driver either.

[vash]

happens all the time. it's nuts.

but something snapped in my head. i'm all Zen now when i drive. might be the result of commuting from Pacifica CA to Half Moon Bay, CA for 10 years.

i am unusually cool as a cucumber. i seriously quit giving an eff about it. i still get upset at stupid crap i should just let go of..but driving isnt one of them. its weird as hell.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

This is one BIG reason why self-driving cars are an inevitability and at least to some extent, a welcome innovation. Human beings are proving themselves daily to be too stupid to successfully and safety operate motor vehicles on the roadway system we've invented for that purpose.

And obviously we can't count on licensure / regulation / government to make it any better. We all know that any idiot who can fog a mirror can get a license (governments make lots of money from people buying / owning cars and driving). Heck, you can buy a car without ever showing you HAVE a license!

[GH85Carrera]

I don't understand the besiders.

The interstates around here have 1/100 of the traffic of California. I often cruise along in the right lane and catch up to some vehicle that was just going along in the right lane. It is obvious, if I came up from behind I was going faster than them. I pull into the left lane to pass and they speed up to match my speed just so they can stay next to me. WTF?

So I speed up more and they speed up more. It is like they are not wanting me to get around them. I have to either speed up a lot or wait until we catch up to a truck to get them from beside me. It is like scraping mud off the heel of my boots on the curb. They never catch back up to me, the are happy to latch onto some other car like a sucker fish.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by vash

happens all the time. it's nuts.

but something snapped in my head. i'm all Zen now when i drive. might be the result of commuting from Pacifica CA to Half Moon Bay, CA for 10 years.

i am unusually cool as a cucumber. i seriously quit giving an eff about it. i still get upset at stupid crap i should just let go of..but driving isnt one of them. its weird as hell.

Wish I could be that cool. I just gave up driving distances on freeways unless it's absolutely necessary and then I only leave a 10 am.

Yesterday about a mile from my house someone in a compact turned into my lane and had I not driven into a coned off construction zone I would have hit their passenger door. I'm not sure they even saw me but a few hundred feet later they whipped in front of another driver going back into the lane they were in originally. Gain — 2 cars...

...with a red light coming up. The worst part is that I would have been considered at fault.

[vash]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Wish I could be that cool. I just gave up driving distances on freeways unless it's absolutely necessary and then I only leave a 10 am.

Yesterday about a mile from my house someone in a compact turned into my lane and had I not driven into a coned off construction zone I would have hit their passenger door. I'm not sure they even saw me but a few hundred feet later they whipped in front of another driver going back into the lane they were in originally. Gain — 2 cars...

...with a red light coming up. The worst part is that I would have been considered at fault.

where you live: all bets are off. i'm good for a week of Nameste driving. after that..dunno. total wildcard.

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Then we’ve got the situation where you have a car in another lane but ahead of you. You’ll be approaching a light that goes red and you’ll each be the first car at the light but for some reason the jack wagon will decide to switch into your lane.

Why?

I only do that if I am in the right lane. I try to keep it free for people turning right.

[Tobra]

I do that too Neil

Way too many with no particular place to go, and all day to get there.

[look 171]

Sad thing is that they don't realize what they are doing is wrong

[ckelly78z]

So many of these fine drivers described in some of the above posts are cruising around on expired/suspened licenses, have multiple DUIs, no insurance, or subpar (state minimum) insurance coverage, texting while driving, or are whacked out on drugs looking for their next hit.

Let's all be careful out there !