driving etiquette...
 

you ever get into one of these situations while driving? you're going down the road, all in a good mood, or rather feeling generous. you see a car that needs to pull into traffic from a parking lot or side street. you flash lights and slow down to let the person in, AND THEY JUST STARE AT YOU! you flash the lights again, wave them in. they edge forward, AND STARE AT YOU SOME MORE. so this is were you think, "forget it" and start to accelerate. and this is also the exact moment they snap to, and realize you are letting them in so they go, and you .....argghhh!

why???!!!

Fact of life: there will always be stupid people. :(

I prefer them to the local version I have to tolerate.

Beautiful empty mountain roads, a clear day, sweet running car, you're in a great mood, maybe some Rolling Stones on the stereo....

and then some idiot in a rubbish car cuts in front of you from a side road without stopping, he either didn't look in which case only your excellent brakes and hairtriggger reactions avoided an accident, or when they had vision judged it so he could be in front of you and you only had to slow down a little.

They then take minutes to reach a normal cruising speed, which is about how long it takes to reach a spot where you can safely overtake.

All that is needed is a little courtesy and consideration for others, sometimes these specimens aren't even driving a car but a tractor and wagon.

Re: driving etiquette...
 

Happened to me so many times that I never even think of pausing for someone else now. Don't do the unexpected unless you want to confuse everyone. But I live in SoCal. That's just the way it is.

Zeke, you are wise. i will do the same for the northern californian's i share the road with. at least it will save on brake wear.

cliff

I NEVER stop to let somebody in from a parking lot, nor do I pull into traffic if someone stops to let me in. It is very dangerous. Particularly when there are two lanes of traffic. You stop, but the traffic in the next lane doesn't. The guy pulls out into the second lane and WHAM! My wife got totalled out one time by somebody doing that. You could also subject yourself to being rear-ended by someone not expecting you to be stopped in the middle of the road.

Funnily enough had that happen twice to me last night on the way home...

One guy just pulled out in front of me....he misjudged my speed and pottered across looking very confused as I braked hard to avoid hitting him.....luckily there was nobody behind.

He then managed to provide me with his non- verbal opinion of me...never mind,.....

The other was sitting waiting for me to drive past, even tho I had to stop for a red light. Now I know he was waving me on, but I couldn't run the light now could I.

I think is does boil down to drivers not really paying enough attention to the effects their actions have on other road users....

Sadily this measn we all have to driver with more attention for those 'creative' moments with other road users....

This was popular in South Carolina, for reasons I could never understand. Deserted road at 5am, driving to work. I am the only car on the road. Only car. Nobody else on the road, either out in front, or out behind, as far as the eye can see -- and that's quite a ways, because it's really flat there. Two lane road, long, straight, no cars. Except me. And some ********* parked at a side road in a '73 Chevy pickup truck that hasn't done better than 15mph in about 20 years and looks like it has more rust than paint. I'll see him, from a distance, sitting by the side of the road, waiting to pull out, and I'll quietly assume that he intends to wait for me -- he's waiting now, right? I'm getting closer? It's a 50mph zone, so the longer he waits, the closer I get, so the less sense it makes to pull out in front of me, and the more sense it makes to wait until I pass to pull into the massive empty space behind me, right? <sigh> Apparently not -- at the last second, he pulls out, screeching tires and grinding gears and a mechanical racket to raise all he!!, and I'm slamming on the brakes to avoid a 5am collision on a deserted piece of roadway just north of Nowhere, SC.

I don't get it.


Dan