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Grab another gear, people!!!
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Is humor considered trolling?
Do I need to explicitly say out loud everytime I'm joking?
If the speed I purported to to drive was offensive to you, I apologize...
Was there a speed/highway related trauma in your life?
A cop and/or a traffic court judge will be the final arbiter of someones driving habits. I'm on the road all day long and am fairly appalled at some of the nonsense I see out there, makes me wonder how they got a license at all. I just try to be the best driver I can be, I cant control what other people do.
Just last week I arrived at the scene of a fatality accident right after it happened, an 18 year old was texting while driving and crossed the center line and slammed head on into a semi, not a pretty sight.
Just last week I arrived at the scene of a fatality accident right after it happened, an 18 year old was texting while driving and crossed the center line and slammed head on into a semi, not a pretty sight.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Even the roaches move faster in NYC. I miss the energy level sometimes.You need to move to NY. People will accuse YOU of being slow.
I remember my first job in Manhattan a million years ago... at lunch time, my boss (uncle) sent me to McDonalds to get us food in Union Square. The line was out the door. I laughed and thought it was going to take hours. I got my order in and had a bag in my hand in less than 10 minutes. I was dumbfounded. There had to be at least 30 people in front of me, but they had their routine down.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Now that's what I'm talking about! No messing around looking at canned tuna and blocking up the aisle while dithering about whether it should be in oil or in water. Read the label on your own time and get out of my way! And your little dog, too!
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
This is actually the serious side of things. I ride a motorcycle most days, and the idiots texting spook me a lot. Speed is not what kills so much as not paying attention and being an idiot. If speed was fatal, we would probably all be dead. Speed at the wrong time makes stupid more fatal than it would have been on its own. Pay attention, don't be passive aggressive, don't be a jerk, and fer chrissakes, PAY ATTENTION!
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
One last thing - I'm not in a hurry or wound up. Just hyper. Now, please get out of the way. Thank you.
I'm not in a hurry. I always leave early. I'm not that hyper. But I do pay attention. I don't text, talk on the phone, eat or drink while driving, and I keep my head on a swivel. I know the traffic laws. Don't give the right of way to someone who doesn't have the right of way. You are being polite to them, and taking a right away from me. Don't do left lane cruising. Don't change lanes or make turns without using your turn signal. These are all simple enough that a 16 year old is expected to follow them, and yet people disregard them constantly.
I don't do road rage, however I am uncompromising in my expectation that drivers follow the rules of the road. People ask me why I'm so angry. I'm not angry at all. But I do ask them why they are so STUPID.
I'm confident that more than half the drivers here in Colorado don't know there is a state law which only allows driving in the left lane when passing. There are signs here and there, but they are ignored. And to be realistic on behalf of the good folks of the State Patrol, the process of pulling these people over and warning or citing them probably poses more hazard to the public (and to the officer) than just letting them drive on. That really does matter.
OTOH, the traffic load on our underfunded freeways is so heavy that there are times when one must either join a mile-long line of traffic driving in the passing line and stay there just to eventually get around the mile-long much slower traffic in the right lane. We've all been in such situations.
I normally expect other drivers not to use turn signals, not to check their blind spot before changing lanes (so I don't drive there), nor to recall the right of way rule (most of them don't know there is such a rule). That's just part of a long list of competencies I don't expect to see, and I guess that's part of defensive driving. It also allows me to be pleasantly surprised when they do these things. Some of them even avoid holding up faster traffic, use the passing lane as intended, and use their turn signals when entering and leaving it. I appreciate them!
OTOH, the traffic load on our underfunded freeways is so heavy that there are times when one must either join a mile-long line of traffic driving in the passing line and stay there just to eventually get around the mile-long much slower traffic in the right lane. We've all been in such situations.
I normally expect other drivers not to use turn signals, not to check their blind spot before changing lanes (so I don't drive there), nor to recall the right of way rule (most of them don't know there is such a rule). That's just part of a long list of competencies I don't expect to see, and I guess that's part of defensive driving. It also allows me to be pleasantly surprised when they do these things. Some of them even avoid holding up faster traffic, use the passing lane as intended, and use their turn signals when entering and leaving it. I appreciate them!
I will give an elderly driver a pass if they are going around or slightly under the limit so long as they're in the slow lane where they belong.
I learned how to drive from my father, a long haul truck driver. The millions of miles he put in behind the wheel provided valuable experience he passed on to me.
He taught me defensive driving and how to think ahead while I drive.
In one situation in particular, I find those skills particularly valuable. Driving in roundabouts/rotaries. They are easy to navigate if you pay attention to the other drivers approaching and in the roundabout ahead of you.
-Mike
He taught me defensive driving and how to think ahead while I drive.
In one situation in particular, I find those skills particularly valuable. Driving in roundabouts/rotaries. They are easy to navigate if you pay attention to the other drivers approaching and in the roundabout ahead of you.
-Mike
Roundabouts are proliferating here in Northern Colorado. They're also a prime spot for traffic obstruction when some drivers come to a dead stop if there's another car within 50 yards of entering the roundabout. They seem to have trouble understanding how long it will take traffic to enter, or how to look at the other traffic to see where it's going. Too bad, because it's usually easy to see whether another vehicle is going through or making the circle.
Hopefully this will improve as familiarity with this traffic device grows. Personally, I find roundabouts with no traffic present to be excellent places to practice apexing at moderate speeds. There are a few roundabouts locally which are set up so that I don't even need to slow down if I'm going through instead of turning - but I have to hit the apexes just right.
They are proliferating here as well.
The ones around here have a bazillion signs and markings on the road with how to navigate them, but people still don't get it. I am hopeful, as you are, that over time things will improve.
Like school zones, I have chosen to avoid them as the driver competency levels are too low now.
Things are about to get real crazy around here as they are preparing to start building a diverging diamond interchange, the first of it's kind in Washington State, at one of the busiest intersections in town.
-Mike
The ones around here have a bazillion signs and markings on the road with how to navigate them, but people still don't get it. I am hopeful, as you are, that over time things will improve.
Like school zones, I have chosen to avoid them as the driver competency levels are too low now.
Things are about to get real crazy around here as they are preparing to start building a diverging diamond interchange, the first of it's kind in Washington State, at one of the busiest intersections in town.
-Mike
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Good thing they are experimenting there instead of up here. I don't know if my inner motor could deal with the dithering that will surely cause.
Just more incentive for us to move away. It's already nutso in that area anyway, and now this on top of it will make traveling through that area unbearable.
I have no idea who these bozos are that think adding more convoluted intersections will alleviate traffic.
The problem here, in this exact part of town, is not intersections. It's the fact that this area is growing at a record pace while the city and county has basically rolled over and is letting anyone and their momma build whatever they want, and yet the infrastructure hasn't been upgraded in decades.
They are trying to play catch up now by adding a lane here and there, but it does no good to add a second lane for a half mile, then funnel everyone back into one lane. Stupid.
Add now to the mix the semis that routinely travel up and down these exact same roads as the hundreds of cars all day long since some other genius decided to allow unchecked industrial growth right next to unchecked retail and residential growth.
More than half the guys and gals driving those semis have no idea what they are doing, so they drive down the middle of the road, taking up both lanes, between the roundabouts while driving 15-20MPH in a 35MPH zone.
The ones that do know what they are doing take up both lanes just to preserve their own lives since you have the self absorbed folks driving 50-60 up and down through there while talking on their phones trying to out run the semis.
-Mike
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I cannot like this. Just sympathise and be grateful it is there and not here.
Yeah, it's rough out there in the islands
What annoys me is when someone brings their cart into crowded spot, instead of leaving the cart someplace out of the way & squeezing into the crowded space.
If they want to read the labels on EVERY product, please don't block up the entire aisle with the cart while doing so!
