The Big "Stupid Driver" thread.....
 

So I'm in a roundabout today and some old goober pulls out in front of me. Luckily, I'm already on the brakes lightly and stomp brakes/manage not to hit him. I give him the "what were you thinking" short horn toot. Next light I pull up next to him (he's making left, I'm going straight) and he tells me that I should learn to drive. Apparently, he can't read the "Yield" signs on entry to the roundabout.

Corollary: Electric windows encourage road rage. If he couldn't have put the passenger window down to yell this stupidity, I wouldn't have gotten mad at him.


What's your story(ies)?

roundabouts - aka turning circles, only cause more accidents here in the US of A
because people here are not used to them & don't know who has the right-of-way
They stop in the middle of the circle to let other cars in, or do other types of brain dead things.

And just think, the wisdom of the traffic engineers are trying to retrofit more roundabouts to what were signal controlled intersections, to promote pedestrian friendly areas?????
Am i mistaken, or do roundabouts NOT have a way to stop the cars for the pedestrians to cross the street.

They must be in cahoots with the accident attorneys

There are a lot of people that think Yield signs do not apply to themselves. Stop signs do no apply either. I saw a guy blow through a 4 way stop the other day. He never slowed down at all. He had to be texting or asleep to miss the huge STOP signs.

We have one here that I like to bomb around at lunch, but it has a giant raised flowerbed in the center that prevents you from seeing the oncoming traffic. I think the ones I saw in Europe are a bit more driver friendly...maybe you can see over the flowers in a Big American Pickup, so it would be a Big American Roundabout, but I can't see in the p-car. I close my eyes and hammer it...

they DO make a great skid pad

When I drove a cab I would see how manny times I could go around one before the pasenger said something

I love roundabouts (where I grew up we called them "rotaries"). Of course they are based on the incorrect ASSumption that that people actually are intelligent enough to drive using them properly. The same can be said of virtually all traffic controls - as the collective driving populace grows stupider and more distracted, we will have to invent newer, more "dumbed down" ways to keep all the stupid people safe - so look for more lights all over creation (as if we don't have enough already).

I love them as well... I alter my route to include them when I feel like driving naughty! :D

They added a round-a-bout here where 3 roads intersect (or one turns and the other meets the first in the corner, whatever). I love it. I drove that thing daily twice a day on my commute for about 4 years. In that time, on two separate occasions I had folks come at me GOING THE WRONG WAY. Holy crap! Unfortunately they made it off camber, so even though it was a fairly large radius turn, you couldn't take it too fast (55-60 is the fastest I ever managed).

A year or so ago I was heading south on Veterans Parkway (main drag in B/N). I was in the left of three lanes stopped at Oakland at a red light. I was driving the 951. The light turns green and I spool up the engine to make a fast get away (though I NEVER spun the tires). As I am entering the intersection, a POS maroon Chrysler LeBaron comes from my left, blows through a red light, and makes an illegal left turn in front of me! I had to SLAM on the brakes to not hit the car (and I would have had I been in my truck). Then I LAID on my horn, which got me the finger.

I was pissed! I got back on the gas and got behind the guy and followed him until he got on the interstate. I was about ready to beat him senseless...

here in jersey they're called circles. really. but then we have jug handles.

The girls in Jersey are so fat they don't just have regular old fashioned "love handles"? Their jugs need 'em too?

Back to stupid drivers...

This city is populated by what i call "binary drivers". They drive only two ways: both feet on the brakes, and both feet on the gas. Usually alternating about every 4 seconds. Everyone seems to hammer it as hard as they can until they're 6 inches from your bumper, then the slam on the brakes until their 10 feet back, then repeat. As soon as the light turns green, the entire line of 15 cars hammers the gas, despite the fact that, by certain laws of inertia and physics, they cannot actually all go at once. I need to just cover all of my rearview mirrors so I can't see how often someone in an SUV is so close that they're drafting the 911...

There's a 5 way stop close to my house.

Use your imagination - it has probably happened here.

mmmm jug handles

I can't figure out ALL the older folks (70+) in my family. They go 40 all the time no matter where they are. We are out in the farmland where the speed limit is 55 but they go 40. Then we enter town and it drops to 30 and they just keep on going 40. It's crazy. One minute I need to tell my dad to step on it and the next I'm warning him he's going to get a ticket.

Parliament... Big Ben...

Bad civic engineers->
fender benders->
more body shop jobs created vs: work hours lost->
terror of driving by the general public->
less driving/less gas taxes/less freedom->
"progress"?

Can someone please plow those things already?

The Boston are has a ton of them. A lot of "out of towners" think people in Boston can't drive. The fact of the matter is, most people outside of NY and Boston can't merge. I've never had a problem in a round about in NE, but they're full of idiotic drivers out here in the West. Hell, they can't even merge at a regular on ramp, let alone a round about. By far my biggest pet peeve since moving here.

Look up a map of Seven Corners in Falls Church, VA. Sure loved driving there.