Cager / Driver annoying behaviors

[NorCalRider]

bump....

 

[christofu]

I think it should be mandatory for all learner drivers to attend a six month intensive course in queueing theory and hydrodynamics.

I agree all these things mentioned above are exceptionally annoying. The difference is that I can articulate precisely why their actions actually slow the movement of traffic.

Network capacity management theory is also an excellent tool for explaining why just a few morons can fuck up traffic for everyone else.

 

[Silly Sod]

Sup Thump;
Well said mate... On the scale of
one to Road Rage... I'd give you a one. I
totally agree with you and do live by that
philosophy.

Havin' said that when you get the
three "280" pace drivers that block all
three lanes... I get do get a bit ansy and will do what
I can to get by them...and turn my tinted helmet
towards them as I blow them off... The nerve!!!

On the same scale I'd say I'm a three...

I love ridin'... I love using the three full stops...
and just got into the apostrophe...

Seriously...put me in a cage and I
am not a happy camper...put me on a bike, there
is nothing we can't overcome or overtake which
is one of the reasons I ride... You gotta love
it babee!!! Oh I just noticed I like usin' the
bang a lot... Wasn't that a Seinfeld episode!!!

Peace out!!! [Silly yelled into the night sky]!!!
=Silly Sod

 

[sukemeister]

another peev

And is going on with freeway on-ramps? I was taugh to adjust to the flow of traffic. Why does it seem everyone else feels traffic should adjust to them as the enter the freeway at 45mph???

 

[Joebar4000]

they feel offended if passed because they DESERVE to be in front no matter how slow they go

Have California change the laws. Make everyone take a driving and written test every other year and reduce the fee's, since they'd make more money anyway. And for anyone that gets in trouble for reckless driving, dui, etc, create a class that incorporates certain aspects of the CMSP class and courteous driving techniques, contributed by the repected motorcycle community of course.

I've been to traffic school, it doesn't do jack for the fools. There needs to be some type of program that makes people think.

<edit>

Aside from making them watch Red Asphalt.

Don't think you need the frequent testing so much as just make it really, really hard to get the licence and make it easier to lose it.

For example, in the UK, there isn't even a written test re-take - once you take your test, the licence is yours for life. But, they are trying to make you take it again at age 50, at least.

The main difference is education - I took 2, 1 hour lessons, for 3 months - and I got 3 minor faults but passed (in the UK). The failure rate is over 70% for first time testees... seven teeeeee percent. What is it here? 2%?

Here, I got off the plane, booked the DMV appointment, quick read of the book, took the test, 100%. No lessons - and I even did the 3-point turn and ended up on the LEFT! The tester said 'oh well, you did everything else perfectly, I'll overlook it' !!!!

If you miss ONE observation, signal, cut over ANY line while turning or drift out of lane by so much as an inch it's an instant failure in the UK. And the UK has an easy test compared to Germany.

There's also the fact that cops in the UK are usually more interested in HOW you are driving compared to how fast (that said, you go fast past a school, kiss you licence goodbye for a few months at least).

The judges are also much more liberal with handing out short-term driving bans, including 'driving without due care and attention' which can be anything up to not using your turn signal when changing lanes (tho you'd have to do something else really stupid to get a ticket for that). But that on it's own is 10 points (out of 12).

The whole 'rolling road block' is amazing - but I also think the cops are partly to blame for that. I got a ticket for momentarily speeding up to get past someone, then slowing down again - even tho it's SAFER to get past as fast as possible, then slow back to normal speed. Passing is the most dangerous everyday driving manoevre around, but people dawdle and creep alongside each other at .0000001mph difference in speed. The speed differential between lanes is almost nil, so there can't be any 'flow' once these jerks just line up and sit there at exactly 64mph. But the cops seem to be only interested in booking people for speeding, not bad driving.

If it was me, I'd have everyone take a bike test before they could even get in a car, so they have some appreciation that what they look at through their car windscreen is REAL, loud and violent, not sanitized and safe.

 

[Mike95060]

I read an interview with Mario Andretti once when he was asked what the biggest problem with driving in america was. His answer, left lane hogs that have an, I am driving the speed limit so kiss my ass attitude.

I cant agree more. It more than anything else creates dangerous driving situations. Yes driving fast causes more SERIOUS accdents, but i have yet to convinced that it creates more FREQUENT accdents. I know i can cruze the interstate 75-85 mph all day without any serious danger, accept from people who are not paying attention and making a hazard of themself.

I hope i am alive when america grows up and finally becomes mature about, well everyhting. Driving, Alcohol, drugs, sex...

 

[Billness]

It's got to be Mario's reason ... I commute over 17 and see this all the time too.

The worst is when you're heading out casually, just ahead of the mass tourist exodus and you get two sunburned families of four chugging along side-by-side at 35 while the kids are smearing cotton candy on the pleather and Mommy tells Daddy "show that hotshot back there that he'd better slow down like us, for the sake of our chillllllldren."

Much love for knowing you don't know the road (my boss had a foot of titanium in his femur because someone missed that one) but for the love of God do it in the slow lane ... I don't want the brakeless truck behind the blind corner to slam into me OR you!

Mike, you think we'll live that long?

 

[christofu]

The main difference is education - I took 2, 1 hour lessons, for 3 months - and I got 3 minor faults but passed (in the UK). The failure rate is over 70% for first time testees... seven teeeeee percent. What is it here? 2%?

Here, I got off the plane, booked the DMV appointment, quick read of the book, took the test, 100%. No lessons - and I even did the 3-point turn and ended up on the LEFT! The tester said 'oh well, you did everything else perfectly, I'll overlook it' !!!!

Failure rate in Australia for first time testees is over 90% and that's despite the fact that about 75%-80% of new drivers go through professional learner-driver schools that specifically drill you for several months in the exact tests that you're going to have to go through.

When I came here I did my driving test right away (in a rental car since I didn't even have a car yet). I broke the speed limit (doing 28 in a 25 zone) and failed a few other things (like failing to slow down to 15mph at the exit of an alley). The instructor just shrugged and said, "well you obviously know how to drive" and passed me even though I should have failed (exceeding the speed limit is supposed to be an automatic failure). I couldn't believe it!

 

[christofu]

I read an interview with Mario Andretti once when he was asked what the biggest problem with driving in america was. His answer, left lane hogs that have an, I am driving the speed limit so kiss my ass attitude.

I cant agree more. It more than anything else creates dangerous driving situations. Yes driving fast causes more SERIOUS accdents, but i have yet to convinced that it creates more FREQUENT accdents. I know i can cruze the interstate 75-85 mph all day without any serious danger, accept from people who are not paying attention and making a hazard of themself.

I hope i am alive when america grows up and finally becomes mature about, well everyhting. Driving, Alcohol, drugs, sex...

There are several major studies that show that the lowest accident rate among drivers (i.e. the "safest" drivers) are those that go about 10-15 mph faster than the other traffic.

It's not until you get into the top 2% of fastest drivers that the accident rate approaches that of the SLOWEST 30% (yes, THIRTY percent) of drivers. In other words, people who drive at or below the speed limit are at significantly higher risk of being in an accident than people who are cruising along 10-15mph faster than the speed limit.

The insurance companies actively lobby state and federal govs to keep speed limits low, and then buy radar guns for police. All so the police can issue more tickets!

By federal law, the speed limit is SUPPOSED to be set at the speed at which the 85% percentile of motorists is safely traveling. However, in practice, it is almost always set 10-15 mph below that. Hence, everyone "speeds" and the police get to issue more tickets (and the insurance companies get more money).

Which brings up another point... unless you're in that top 2% of speeders, you're actually LESS likely to be in an accident than someone bumbling along at the speed limit. So why do insurance premiums go up for people who get speeding tickets? They really should go DOWN for people who get a speeding ticket.

 

[christofu]

I cant agree more. It more than anything else creates dangerous driving situations. Yes driving fast causes more SERIOUS accdents, but i have yet to convinced that it creates more FREQUENT accdents.

By the way, when speed limits were federally set at 55 years ago, the fatality rate did not change.

When the 55 mph mandate was lifted, the fatality rate did not change.

When Montana removed all daytime speed limits the fatality rate actually went down

 

[budman]

Ya that is what I am talking about..Get speeding tickets and rates go down... :tsc

Interesting stats....!

 

[thump]

I've come to the conclusion that there's a basic wiring fault in humans that seems to affect a percentage of people and gives them the idea that what they are doing is right and what others are doing is wrong.

I have that fault too and what's really annoying is that it's intermittent and really hard to trace! And to make matters worse I can't tell that it's happening when it's happening, only afterwards when I think to myself, 'Did I really say that '.

Anyway, what I'm rambling up to is this.

Why the f*ck would anyone NOT move over and make space for a person approaching from behind who is travelling faster than they are?

Why not?? It's just a basic courtesy, isn't it? I don't understand how that thinking works. How can it possibly make a contribution to driving pleasure, safety or our quality of life to impede the progress of another traveller?

Is it selfishness? resentment? Is it that the slower driver somehow thinks they're helping humanity by preventing speeding?

Has anyone got any idea what's going on?

I just don't get it

 

[NorCalRider]

Just like most people should not be allowed to have children because they are such moronic screwed up idiots - most people should lose their drivers license for bad driving as determined by the level of increased blood pressure and rage that they create in me with their ridiculous behavior.

 

[Joebar4000]

By the way, when speed limits were federally set at 55 years ago, the fatality rate did not change.

When the 55 mph mandate was lifted, the fatality rate did not change.

When Montana removed all daytime speed limits the fatality rate actually went down

*cough*

Germany, no speed limits out of town, lowest fatality rate per person per mile travelled...

It's INNAPROPRIATE speed that's the problem. Doing 60 past a school at 3.15pm = bad.

Do 140 in the desert all day long with virtually no risk except a mechanical, and these days those are rare, even at extended top-speed runs.

THUMP! You make too many assumptions! You think they might actually be looking in their rear view mirror more than once every half hour....

Ever noticed the 'swerve, turn signal, LOOK, then swerve back' thing going on?

You know, not, mirror, signal, manoevre, but:

Move, bump, move back. Then look and give the finger because it's YOUR fault you were in the place I wanted to be but couldn't be bothered to look at.

I think the deliberate blocking is relatively rare, 90% of them are just innattentive. And after all, why would ANYONE want to go faster than they are going?

 

[aminalmutha]

Yep, left lane hogs are the worst. Part of my commute is on Hwy. 99, and usually, I'm doing 75-80mph, if some dipshit isn't in the way. A good percentage of people run about that speed; quite a few slower and a couple faster. However, yesterday was a prime example of one person fucking it up for everyone...

Traffic was moving along fine until I got to a line in the fast lane going 60mph. The rest of the freeway was going that speed too; a big blob of cars. We round a bend and I see that, about ten cars ahead of me, there is an Astrovan with noone in site beyond. WTF?!?!?!? Then, when the b!tch gets to her exit, she just pulls across all lanes of traffic to get off the freeway. I felt like kicking her teeth in. I think a lack of common sense and courtesey is to blame.

 

[COOLER]

I've been wondering the same thing for years now. it is my pet peeve i would say. i cut them off at the last minute just to watch them go haywire! i picked morons!

 

[NorCalRider]

*cough*
I think the deliberate blocking is relatively rare, 90% of them are just innattentive. And after all, why would ANYONE want to go faster than they are going?

I completely disagree - deliberate blocking, deliberate speeding up to prevent a pass is intentional. It is a completely intentional, however, completely AUTOMATIC / NOT PRE-MEDITATED. It is just that the f'ing arsehole people that do it don't even realize what they are doing because they are likely to busy beiing blanked out / without thought due to their total idiocy.

 

[Chim Chim]

This thread reminded me of a little incident that occured to me on Hwy 5 coming back from LA... So there I am cruising along at 80ish in my Nissan truck. Typical Hwy 5 on the weekends, witless fucks in Mini-vans doing 70 in the fast lane. No biggie, most people get the clue and move outta the way after a minute or two. If I have a fair amount of space I'll give people a quick highbeam flash.
So anyhow, I come up on this new caddie CTS side by side with a u-haul truck and flash my brights, at this point I'm about 100yrds behind him.... nothing. OK so I wait behind this guy and go to pass on the right when it's clear. Fucker speeds up to block me (fat old guy, wife with big hair). This happens a couple of times till he's finally blocked in his lane and I leave him behind. Now fucker pulls in behind me with his brights on. I let it go for a minute and then realized he wasn't going to get tired of it anytime soon. Hmmm.... what to do... roll down window, drift to right, reach in pocket and grab big hand full of change, lob. Suprisingly, he lost intrest in fucking with me after that. God I hate stupid people.

 

[NorCalRider]

what to do... roll down window, drift to right, reach in pocket and grab big hand full of change, lob. Suprisingly, he lost intrest in fucking with me after that. God I hate stupid people.

Yeah - that's a serious serious serious approach to dealing with those idiots - big question: are you classified as "a change or nut tossing traffic code of conduct enforcement citizen"? If not, you get my vote.

 

[waytoofunky]

I thought it was just me!!! I got my wife this new Toyota Echo, and it's amazing how many Beemers love to pull around it and act indignant like there's no reason it should be on the same road as them.

That's why they bought it, I suppose. Psychologically getting even for feeling abused all their lives.

Nobody passes my bike.