Why can't people learn to drive.

[salmonriverjohn]

That's a fact Riot. I know all the old "smith and wesson didn't make just one and throw the mold away" sayings, but I've seen more than enough nasty stuff in my life to know whats worth it, and when to say when. Situations escalate into real life and death decisions in seconds at times. Me, I would rather avoid those decisions for as long as possible.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

*bump* to this.

LET IT GO...too many Type-A personalities in this world, I swear. Everyone wants to race at the light, reach for a gun at the first middle finger or call the police after being cut off. Just be the bigger man, swallow your pride and keep driving! If he would have continued to follow I would have just pulled into a police station parking lot and watch the bugger peel away like he was running to the bathroom with explosive diarrhea.

Unless you're stark raving bonkers a biker learns fast to just hit the throttle and get out of there, take a turn off suddenly, etc. For some nutty reason cagers (those on 4 wheels) think they are in an armored tank and at war in some Mad Max adventure or something

 

[Blitzkrieg]

That's a fact Riot. I know all the old "smith and wesson didn't make just one and throw the mold away" sayings, but I've seen more than enough nasty stuff in my life to know whats worth it, and when to say when. Situations escalate into real life and death decisions in seconds at times. Me, I would rather avoid those decisions for as long as possible.

As my dear departed dad always used to say, avoid lead poisoning if possible and if it's actually flying then give them a case of it

He was in WW2

 

[billdeserthills]

To the OP, I think you are right, there do seem to be more people driving that either don't know how, or are too busy with other things to do a good job. My personal favorite way to respond to The Finger is with a big grin & a happy wave, the reason being that it really tends to piss iff the Flipper if you pretend like he was waving to you instead of flipping you off. Really works & I have been doing it for years. Give it a try, you'll be suprised at how well it works!

 

[Blitzkrieg]

To the OP, I think you are right, there do seem to be more people driving that either don't know how, or are too busy with other things to do a good job. My personal favorite way to respond to The Finger is with a big grin & a happy wave, the reason being that it really tends to piss iff the Flipper if you pretend like he was waving to you instead of flipping you off. Really works & I have been doing it for years. Give it a try, you'll be suprised at how well it works!

Some bikers with really bad attitudes in the old days and when confronted this way would get in front of you, reach into their pocket and pull out a bunch of nuts and bolts and such and toss them back over their shoulder at your windshield

 

[Redcap]

Some bikers with really bad attitudes in the old days and when confronted this way would get in front of you, reach into their pocket and pull out a bunch of nuts and bolts and such and toss them back over their shoulder at your windshield

Sparkplugs too.

 

[billdeserthills]

Some bikers with really bad attitudes in the old days and when confronted this way would get in front of you, reach into their pocket and pull out a bunch of nuts and bolts and such and toss them back over their shoulder at your windshield

Lots of road rage here in Arizona, My happy wave has defused several situations that could have turned bad & if people don't like my happy wave they can always eat some lead, I'm just trying to piss off people who have flipped me off without having to shoot them... Always worth a try to give a response that doesn't include your middle finger first.

 

[mjbskwim]

Here's some of the thing they do around here (they being the comatose,heavily medicated centurions in Sequim)
Honk at you when you pass them when they are doing 23 in a 25.
Speed up when you pass them including..
Go 5+ MPH under the speed limit..only when you can't pass
Go at least the limit if you can
Speed up to not let you back in
Get pissed and honk,shake fist when my 1 ton's bumper comes back in the lane 3 feet in front of them
Speed up over the speed limit when there is a passing lane
Slow down even if you are a half mile behind,so they can control your day
Pace the car in the other lane so NOBODY can get by and actually go the speed limit

I thought it was just the old folks but it seems the younger generation likes this stuff too

First week I lived here,I went through a stop sign at Home Depot,not endangering anyone.
A 80 yo man calls me a bubbleguming idiot.
I just asked him how old he was and if he wasn't the idiot for calling someone he didn't know names.

Just a bunch of brow beaten office workers that never had any control in their lives,that want some control somewhere,I guess

 

[Kevatc]

Today, while on a short road trip to look at a used car, I drove through a small town near the Idaho border. The wife and I decided to stop at the local ACE hardware, so we drove there as well. Since every ACE hardware has a different paint department with different equipment and apparently no employee ever read the instructions, they all make different colored paint.

We decided to skip it and go to the original ACE which is closer to our house, instead of pulling in, I made a turn into the entrance of the store, paused and checked then pulled back into traffic. This was a four lane highway(with center turn lane) back the way we came. 400 yards down the road in a red truck was what turned out to be a crazy old man with serious mental health and direction issues.

This winner was in the left lane going 35mph, some demented old geezer who probably moved up from California last fall and wanted to be my new best friend. He sped up pulled beside me and layed on the horn while he shook his fist screaming about something. He swerved into my lane and tried to hit me or cut me off and was in a blind rage. I flipped him off and then he slammed on the brakes and pulled behind me. Apparently, having made a quasi U-turn hundreds of yards in front of him and not into his lane of travel was upsetting him something fierce.

After following me around for a couple of minutes I pulled into a parking lot and drove him around in circles as he screamed out the window and into his cell phone at me and/or about me. I finally stopped and told him to F-off and stop following me. He went on about, how U-turns were illegal in Idaho, I cut him off and he was on the phone to the Idaho highway patrol and they were going ot come arrest me for making a U-turn. We were not in Idaho, still a mile away and we were actually in the middle of a town in Washington state. I told him to choke on a dick and headed for home.

Now if he kept following me, I was going to stop at the police station and let them handle the demented old geezer. It was all of three blocks away. Instead he sat in the parking lot screaming into the phone and that was the last of him. I had a witness to the entire show, my wife had the day off as well and was sitting there quietly watching the show.

This is not the first crazy ranting idiot I have ran across over the years. Having to drive for work, I get to meet them often, sometimes far too often. They never know the traffic laws, much less follow them. They always manage to drive to slow in the left lane or to fast in the right, never use blinkers and rarely stop for signs or lights. Worst of all, they really think they own the roads, not just their lane, but all lanes.

Is it just me or is this crap getting worse? Spokane added a few traffic circles and I hear people complain all the time about how hard they are to drive through. It's a traffic circle, it is not like they had to figure out the area of a triangle in order to pull out. ?

I occasionally drive a ten ton truck, when these idiots try and merge they pull right under the hood so close you cannot see them. Apparently, they do not understand the truck won't stop until it is on top of their car. I've watched more than a few nearly merge with my right front tire, which is as tall as the car they are driving. Very few of them even bother to look where they are going.

Did anyone ever actually read that driver's book they give you before you take the driver's test? It has a lot of really useful information in it.

Are you in customer service??? LOL!!!

 

[mjbskwim]

Some bikers with really bad attitudes in the old days and when confronted this way would get in front of you, reach into their pocket and pull out a bunch of nuts and bolts and such and toss them back over their shoulder at your windshield

Well that hasn't gone away just yet.
That's one thing I have to say about this area.They don't mess with the bikes.Always give some following distance.
I go across the bridge and I always need to tell someone to back off.

One of my favorite is to try to get the car to pull over.Then I wave and drive off.

 

[billdeserthills]

Here's some of the thing they do around here (they being the comatose,heavily medicated centurions in Sequim)
Honk at you when you pass them when they are doing 23 in a 25.
Speed up when you pass them including..
Go 5+ MPH under the speed limit..only when you can't pass
Go at least the limit if you can
Speed up to not let you back in
Get pissed and honk,shake fist when my 1 ton's bumper comes back in the lane 3 feet in front of them
Speed up over the speed limit when there is a passing lane
Slow down even if you are a half mile behind,so they can control your day
Pace the car in the other lane so NOBODY can get by and actually go the speed limit

I thought it was just the old folks but it seems the younger generation likes this stuff too

First week I lived here,I went through a stop sign at Home Depot,not endangering anyone.
A 80 yo man calls me a bubbleguming idiot.
I just asked him how old he was and if he wasn't the idiot for calling someone he didn't know names.

Just a bunch of brow beaten office workers that never had any control in their lives,that want some control somewhere,I guess

For most of that stuff I love to wave & smile, nothing pisses those people off more, the friendlier you look the more pissed it makes them. I'm not against passing on the right & spraying a car with rocks & dirt in a pinch, really works fast on those going under 25...
Those bubblegumers can honk at me all they want, since I know that indicates I have pissed off a jerk it is sweet sweet music to my ears!

 

[Rapid1]

well, what do ya'll expect? a multiple choice question test, a run around the block and your good to go for life.

you can really tell a lot about a person by their driving habits. frankly, there are two sides to the OP's story and we are only hearing one side...no offense intended...but the action and reaction speaks volumes about both. I too have a difficult time with the drivers that see themselves as road monitors, so to speak. I admit I have given the "I'm number one" response a few times myself.

the drive between eugene and portland can be one of the most frustrating drives for me. I try not to get ticked off but when I'm deadlocked next to a big rig, 10 cars in front and 10 behind me, while some chump is going 66mph to pass 5 trucks, it's pretty tuff. there was a thread about road rage on this board where many of you thought this was perfectly fine, along with brake checking and yada yada. I'm sure those thought of themselves as safe, attentive drivers but look at what it really was...a serious accident waiting to happen. 21 cars and 5 trucks crammed together, and what do you think the result would be when a tire lets go on one of those semis. with all the fine training that those drivers have had, wouldn't be too bad, right? LOL the worst thing people can do is impede the flow of traffic. I think if you are going to be in the left lane, you should be going the speed of that traffic or don't go there. you think a cop is going to write you for going 75mph with 5 other cars to pass? if you can't drive that fast safely, then you should be on the freeway at all. if the police wanted to really make the highways safer, they would enforce the "slower traffic, keep right" rule. I believe it causes more road rage than any other stupid thing drivers do. I'll worry about my own speeding tickets, thank you. usually, if I'm speeding much at all, it's to distance myself from those tightly packed, expert drivers. if everyone got the heck out of the way it would go a long way to reducing all sorts of bad behavior behind the wheel.

If we really wanted to save lives...we would make drivers license testing more than a formality and the penalties for serious violations/accidents more meaningful. just think of how many lives we could save, road repairs and insurance costs and all that OIL. I would wager that if people really had to know how to drive to get a license, the highways would be a heck of a lot less jammed and I could drive to portland without having to resort to showing how "I'm number one". LOL

 

[mjbskwim]

OK y'all want to see thee worst drivers there ever was,just go drive around all the Boeing muts.
They sit there and punch rivets all day and then mess with everyone on the freeway.
I actually had to stop carrying a gun in my truck cause I was afraid I would start shooting them.
Not that a lot of them didn't need it.

 

[Cougfan2]

Are you in customer service??? LOL!!!

That's funny!

 

[JGRuby]

Everyone seems to either selectively forgets or ignore that the speed limit posted is the maximum speed that you are suppose to be driving not the minimum,. If you are going faster than the maximum speed you are breaking the law and are now part of the problem. You are not required to drive up to the speed limit but betweent the max and min speed limits, and normally the minum speed limit is 10 mph under the maximum. These speed limits apply wehter you are in the left or the right lanes. When someone gets on my *** when I am doing close to or slightly over the speed limit - that individaul is telling me that he has little or no respect for the law or myself. Why would or should I want to get out of their way?

Respectfully

James Ruby

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Everyone seems to either selectively forgets or ignore that the speed limit posted is the maximum speed that you are suppose to be driving not the minimum,. If you are going faster than the maximum speed you are breaking the law and are now part of the problem. You are not required to drive up to the speed limit but betweent the max and min speed limits, and normally the minum speed limit is 10 mph under the maximum. These speed limits apply wehter you are in the left or the right lanes. When someone gets on my *** when I am doing close to or slightly over the speed limit - that individaul is telling me that he has little or no respect for the law or myself. Why would or should I want to get out of their way?

Respectfully

James Ruby

Because the law says you have to.. you're not a cop and are not in charge of ambient speeds. Move over for faster traffic

 

[JGRuby]

The law only says that I need to be between the max and min speed and by you speeding you are endangering everyone on the road. I choose not to move over and if you dont like it send a cop after me. You have no legal right to break the speed limit and I dont have to support it. Too bad try again.

James Ruby

 

[gunnails]

The law only says that I need to be between the max and min speed and by you speeding you are endangering everyone on the road. I choose not to move over and if you dont like it send a cop after me. You have no legal right to break the speed limit and I dont have to support it. Too bad try again.

James Ruby

===============================================

Ever notice those those signs posted along side the Hwy that say keep right except to pass?

 

[gunnails]

I stopped road raging years ago, at least I have tried my best.

I still get upset now and again, but cursing at someone or giving the finger I will not do anymore, I just give a wave, I do a lot of waving.

To me I look at it as a control issue, to me the mark of an adult is to always keep myself under emotional control in all situations, anxiety goes up then correct responses go down.

If someone is tailgating me or cuts me off and I allow that to upset me then I have in fact given the offender control over me, not good.

Who knows maybe the offender is having an emergency of some sort. I know if I was to meet the offender under different circumstance, face to face that we would get along just fine. Can't we all just get along.

It should also be pointed out that the interstate freeways of the US were built for comfort and safety at 85mph, to say some one who is exceeding the speed limit by 10 miles an hour is putting your life at risk is ridiculous.

 

[JGRuby]

Ever notice that you are doing the speed limit or slightly above and for some people you still aren't going fast enough. I agree with staying over in the right lane except to pass is a good rule, but going faster than the speed limit is illegal. Passing someone and then taking the exit ramp a quarter of a mile ( or less) down the road, stepping on the brakes and such is asking for trouble. I am not a police officer but I am trying to be a law abiding citzen what are you?