Rant: Driving Etiqette

[Superman]

Friends,

Have a great weekend probably ignoring this post, but I just gotta say....

I hate COLOSSAL SUV's (Cadillac, Expeditions, etc) that need to be right in front of me. I normally drive with a great deal of patience (well, as much as I can muster and at 47 years old, I'm much better than I used to be) but when one of these things gets in front of me, I take evasive action. And when one might be considering getting in front of me, I get close to the car I'm following. Why? simple. I want to see ahead of me. So, along with the benefits of driving an SUV (height, false sense of security, quiet ride, insulation from your surroundings, etc), you get some down sides and one of those is that it's going to be hard to get in front of me. Hey, that's the price.

And we have folks acting in ways they would never act in a grocery store line. cutting in front, etc.

Folks pretending they didn't know they were in the wrong lane, one that must exit, so they stop and wait until someone (who's been in a non-moving traffic jam for 30 minutes) lets them in.

But here's the deal: Let's say you have two lanes of freeway going in your direction. Thru traffic is in the left lane because you're coming up on a major turnstile and the entire right lane will exit. That leaves a mostly empty right lane, but traffic from that other road will very soon be merging onto the freeway, so that right lane needs to stay open because it's going to get full. Well some *******s like to use it to pass several cars who are safely, respectfully cruising. That's antisocial behavior and I'm tired of it. My options are to get into that lane and do nothing, eventually merging back to the left just before merging traffic takes that (right )lane - or use the right lane to pass folks just like the *******s. The *******s very often are driving COLOSSAL pickup trucks. I'm driving a Porsche. I'm thinking:

"Hey, if it's time to play high-horsepower *******, I'm in. Here's my ante." No one is better prepared to play that game than we are. We're driving Porsches, for cryin' out loud. I hate this idea, but the *******s are causing traffic to flow poorly because of these games.

[MysticLlama]

Completely agree. I hate being behind things when I can't see around them, it makes me nervous. Along the same lines, I have problems with people who don't look past the car in front of them and thus have to slam on the brakes because they can't anticipate something.

I was driving along in relatively moderate traffic the other day, everyone going 60, no slow downs, just a lot of cars. I was about 4-5 car lengths back or so behind a car that was probably 2 car lengths behind the car in front of him. This guy hit his brakes no less than 50-60 times in a period of about 7-8 miles. Can't you just give a little space and anticipate if you need to slow down or speed up a little. It's more work driving when you have to jump back and forth from each pedal every 10 seconds.

The other thing is that people in WA don't know how to merge to save their life. I think that the driving test should include merging, and unless traffic makes it necessary, pulling onto the freeway at <50mph (in a 60 zone, I'm being nice here) should be an instant fail.

[stevepaa]

I think there was a study done that showed most traffic jams were casued by people changing lanes in order to try to get ahead.
I need a bumper sticker that says JUST STAY IN YOUR LANE.

I have seen just too many rear enders in front of me to not keep my eyes on five cars ahead.

[911boost]

Holy Cow I agree with Supe. I drive my Taheo every once in a while to work (50 miles on the interstate) and drive completely different than if I am in any of my other cars.

On a related note, as it is suppossed to be in the 60's today, I commuted to work on the BMW (52 MPG, enough said), and I had this idiot lady in a Navigator just putsing along in the left lane, towing a U-Haul trailer. Now for the Dangerous part, the trailer had zero brake lights! I kept my distance, but since I couldn't see around her, or see the lights on the Lincoln, I was having a hard time figuring out how she was driving (speeding up / slowing down almost instantly). After about 15 miles, I started getting really nervous that I would get squished from behind because she was going to lock up her brakes, and I could stop no problem, it was the folks behind me I was worried about. THe right lane was clogged with Semi's, so when I finally got a chance, I did something I very very rarely do, and passed her on the right with a quick flick of the wrist.

I was not suprised at all to see her =:

A) on the phone
B) tailgating the shiznit out of the car in front of her

Needless to say I broke the speed limit for a bit getting as far ahead of her as I could.

Bill

[Superman]

Thank you for your support. Driving seems to be the most popular place for anti-social behavior. People do things there they would never do in person. And it bottles up traffic.

Hate to give you lib-haters more fuel, but this is kinda like the difference between libs and cons, between capitalism and socialism. With socialism, we make small accomodations for the good of the order (like "stay in your lane"). With capitalism, it's every man for himself - take what you can get (like diving into the open lane to gain two car spaces).

One works well for everyone, the other works well for the super-aggressive..... who pretend (incorrectly) that everyone has the same opportunities.

[Superman]

Excellent story, Bill. People who can follow another car going highway speeds at less than one car length JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND PHYSICS and should not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle. Time and again I have heard authorities refer to driving as a privelege, but it is treated as a privelege only in Europe. In America, it is considered a right. And you can use any lane, you can follow at any distance, you need not use your turn signals, you can have brake and tail lights burned out, but you just cannot exceed the slow speed limit. That's exactly the opposite of how they do it in Europe.

And finally, Deadheads should not be siding with conservatives. Whaddya say to that?

[turbo6bar]

The SUV "problem" could be solved if they would put heavy duty truck suspension under the beasts. I regularly drive a 7000 lb. Dodge 2500 diesel truck. It has enough suspension to handle 2000 lbs in the bed and tow a farkload of trailer. Damn, this thing punishes the kidneys. When I brake to go over railroad tracks, mommies in SUVs hit the gas and leave me in the dust. A rough riding vehicle makes you less apt to act like an ass, and perhaps forces individuals into smaller cars, when possible.

[Superman]

I think they should be barred from the "passing lane" like the big rigs are in some areas. fine if you want to drive one. Just don't entertain any thoughts of being aggressive.

[StevoRocket]

Using a cellphone while driving should be an instant one year ban. And 100 lashes on bare skin. And a four hour session in the stocks outside K-mart with bad eggs thrown at you, with the local drunks pissing in your ear.

Thats better - rant over.

[Drago]

When I'm driving my wifes SUV I purposely look for brown '83 SC's to pull in front of. Especially when driven by 46 year old liberals with new haircuts. But hey, that's just me...

[cbeers]

Supe you are dead on.

I read above that people in WA can't merge to save their lives, well guys, try Cali for awhile. Here people can't even DRIVE to save their lives!!!!

And I do own a big fat truck too. But when I am in that thing, I drive like a Grandpa. Before owning the 911, I used to think the F-250 was fast. Yeah right!! Now I see it for what it is. BIG, SLOW, and SLOPPY!

And this is a well kept heavy duty truck........


They are just such different vehicles. I was just telling my wife last night how I wish that the U.S. had MUCH more strict requirements before issuing a license.

-Chris

[rrpjr]

You had me until the socialist-capitalist balderdash.

I agree on your first count and moreover find SUV’s objectionable on the face of it. They are swollen, steroidal automotive mistakes. At a time when technology is the art of contraction and efficiency, these things are explosions of pointless excess. Is this intelligent, appropriate and socially responsible design?

As for the accommodating socialist and grasping capitalist equation, nice try. My sister the socialist drove without regard to life or limb, her own or others, and my friend the anti-communist Gulag survivor and Nietzsche-quoter drives like Jeeves. I get muscled around all the time in LA by numberless SUVs that continue to sport those winningly blue “Kerry for President” bumper stickers ("War is not the answer", except on the roads), and my tigrish-capitalist friend the real estate broker pokes her car around the streets with the prudence of a mother pushing a perambulator. As you see, I can generalize, or particularize, with the best of them. If you want to buy the leftist as cooperative claptrap, don’t join a college faculty and don’t drive in San Francisco or Berkeley. It'll bust your illusions wide open. Nope, opportunism and bad behavior on the road are apolitical.

[Superman]

rrpjr, I still wonder if the biodiesel Subaru-driving libs aren't perhaps just a tad less agressive than the Lincoln or Crown Victoria-driving eat-the-competition-before-they-eat-you capitalists, but that's not my point here. I was pointing out that one economic system is fueled by greed (or the nice term we use, "enlightened self-interest") and the theory that everyone benefits by that greed. The other economic theory, or at least the one I hold in my heart, is that we give up a little so that everyone benefits.

One theory of driving: Stay in your lane even when you might be able to cut off the car two cars in front of you, don't pretend you didn't know this open lane is 'exit only,' etc. It just balls up traffic and if we all just showed a little courtesy then we'd all move along smoothly and safely.

The other: Pretend you belong in the HOV lane, pretend you didn't know this lane is 'exit only,' and zoom around cars every chance you get whether it balls up traffic or not. If you CAN cut that other guy off, then you have every right to do so.

I'm not suggesting that libs drive like Theory One, though I wonder if maybe they do overall. I'm not suggesting that cons drive Theory Two, though I get cut off by MANY more Bush/Cheney stickers than libs (Washington did not vote for Bush, so it's not like most cars have Bush stickers). No, I'm not saying that. My point is that the survival-of-the-fittest theory cramps up traffic by greedy drivers, and I think that's no different from politics or anything else. The greedy guys who think they can get ahead under greedy policies and behaviors....are self-serving in their support of those policies, rather than being charitable and cooperative. This bunk about everyone having the same opportunities is not true. And I can show you this in traffic with my Porsche. Sometimes I think "Okay, if you wanna play that game, listen to what a flat six engine sounds like above five grand." But that just exacerbates, or creates, the problem.

It is self-interest that makes cons put forward the argument that everyone benefits from this greed. It's self-serving to take that dishonest position.

[skipdup]

This thread makes me want to go drive my Denali or my Scout.

Sup- Aren't you confusing political with social beliefs/standards. Conservative political beliefs are not tied to the idea that rudeness is acceptable toward your "neighbor". I mean, I believe you're really off on that. I agreed with your point, until you got to the political bit.

And just to clarify... I consider bad driving (as you describe above) to be, before anything else, RUDE.

Anecdotal as it may be, the most polite people I have ever known were conservatives. The rudest (and angriest) people I have ever known were liberal. But again, that's simply been one persons experience and I have obviously known some very rude conservatives and very polite and nice liberals. My point is, I don't think you can tie the two together.

AND, everyone can rest assured that at least two people (my wife and me) operate their SUV in a safe and efficient manner. We won't keep up with a Porsche, but we can operate on the roads without being a danger or impedance. Somehow, I doubt we're the only ones. Please, keep your hands off my SUV!

On a side note... About this hating SUV thing... What do people think will be next on the "hate" list if SUV's are made to go away? Maybe old sports cars??? People need to be careful what they wish for.

- Skip

[rcecale]

There would be a lot less traffic out there period if all those anti-war, anti-bush, anti-anything-but-their-own-ideology, protest marching, non-job-having-so-they-have-all-day-to-do-nothing-but-disrupt-the-lives-of others-to force-their-own-agendas-down-the throats-of-the-working-(read: productive)masses would start their marches later in the day. Preferably after us working folks are already on the job!

Randy

[rrpjr]

Superman: I find your conflation of politics and driving, as I did your comparison a while back of behavior in the sandbox to future political affiliation, interesting but flawed.

First, and I admit this in my own case, it is not easy to know the politics or ideology of a person cutting you off. If you are inclined to make a stab at it at all, you are likely also inclined to grab at the evidence available to you, as incomplete and perhaps misleading as it is, such as bumper stickers. We are ranging into highly speculative areas here. It’s fun, as pigeonholing usually is, but that may be the extent of it.

Your characterizations of capitalists have the feel of caricature: "Greedy," Darwinian and "self-serving." I trust this reflects your experiences, or your thoughtful extrapolations from observing society. But I don't accept it. It ignores or fails to appreciate the complexity of capitalism, the way self-interest is bound up in group-interest in modern Ameican life. It ignores the resounding success of the system on behalf of the human body and spirit – in producing prosperity and freedom to degrees hitherto unknown to man. It also ignores the coincidences of rising prosperity and increased charity. Your characerizations seem to belong to a texbook socialist screed and do not apply to capitalism in America.

You are also assuming that the capitalist who risked his personal wealth on expanding his business in a way that will produce 100 more jobs as well as the ability to provide maternity leave to his employees is somehow “greedy”, I guess, if his expansion accrues to his own personal wealth, if not his immediate liquidity. Having stretched oneself for one’s dream and being rewarded for it, which is what capitalism is about at its essence, isn’t it – the chance to dream and to risk the attempt to achieve it, to test oneself against elemental forces and other men, because this an undeniable human longing – you are assuming that he will take certain other kinds of risks as well as demonstrate anti-social "competitiveness" on the road. This doesn't translate. For one, the competitiveness required to succeed in business is anything but anti-social. It is, in fact, a highly refined skill that has more to do with patience, emotional maturity, and the ability to withstand disappointment and hold to one's resolve -- exactly not the type characterized by bad drivers, who are not so much “competitive” as immature and retaliatory.

Isn’t it just as possible that the expression of capitalism satisfies some innate drive in man to compete and achieve and to acquire the emoluments of a good life as a result, and that this will in turn moderate his primal frustrations and make him a more considerate driver? Isn’t it just as possible that the apparent “cooperative” and accommodating” socialist is in fact repressing some basic aspect of his human nature off the road, and that as soon as he gets in a car, alone and behind the wheel of a monstrously powered vehicle, he becomes an unleashed menace of primal rage? Makes sense to me.

There is a basic paradox to human nature which socialism never accepts or internalizes – the idea that combativeness and competition are part of the full play of man’s nature and lead, or can lead to, greater good all around. Capitalism is in fact the more honest and adult system – it accepts man’s imperfectness and honors his capacity to dream. It doesn’t deny the former, and therefore will not abrogate the latter for the sake of perfection.

I can only cite my own experience growing up around CEOs and captains of industry. I found them, in the main, a jolly and frank group of people with very little personal rage issues they needed to work out on the road. My father was a capitalist of a high order, a high-flying CEO of a major corporation, and he drove a Porsche with all the gusto we all like to think we bring to our own driving, and with as much safety as joy.

Skip: I don’t hate SUVs. I just find them objectionable and incoherent. I don't want them banned. I just hope people stop buying them.

[mikester]

I'm BEING REPRESSED!!!!

Oh...no....wait - I'm driving a little Xterra - that doesn't count does it?

Today I Was out driving the Porsche with the windows open and the sun roof open and late for work so traffic was light. I got to work waaaaaay to fast but along the way was cut off by no less than three suv's driven by women and every single one of them were on their cell phones - no lie.

Now I go to the post office and park on the street. I come out to my car and this old fella in an olds is trying to parallel park in front of me. There is nobody behind me and I've got the engine started and the car in reverse. He starts backing in and I'm talking to my buddy on the phone (yep - I'm on the cell phone) and the old guy just keeps on backing so I start backing up too and he just keeps on backing and backing until I am out of my spot and he is in it. He turns his car off and gets out like nothing happened. IT WAS FANTASTIC!

Hey sup - I think he was about your age with a walker (you said 86 right?).

[ubiquity0]

I wonder if rising oil prices are going to have any affect on sales of the new 500hp SUV beasts? It can't help.

Its getting so expensive I'm thinking of hooking my O2 sensor up

[island911]

Originally posted by stevepaa
. . . people changing lanes in order to try to get ahead.
I need a bumper sticker that says JUST STAY IN YOUR LANE.

Dude, First TSA, now this? You've really got a thing about lines.

bumper sticker !? -- I think you ought to tattoo it on your forehead.

[Drago]

Sup, I'm comin' for ya...you know I'm out there...

I'm going to pull in front of you in my big Ford Exponential with the chrome 22" spinners, then I'm going to slow down, weave in my lane, speed up, slow down...then swerve across three lanes of traffic 'cuz my cell phone went off. Damnit, I spilled my double-half-caf-mocha-frapa-whatchacallit and it's all your fault so I'm flippin' ya the bird....whew, I feel better. Where was I?