CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

So after a meeting in Bethesda this afternoon, I am on my way home and decide that I need to go get some gas. Of course, there are no gas stations right around my complex so I decide to go to the one that I usually fill up at.

Along the way, I am driving northbound on 16th St. in Silver Spring. For those of you not familiar with the area, the street is relatively wide (3 lanes in each direction) and bordered on one side by an apartment complex and the other side by a strip mall. There is a center median that divides the north- and southbound lanes.

So I am traveling northbound and come to a stop at a light, right before the strip mall. I am located in the far left lane. The light changes to green and I accelerate to a comortable cruising speed and come over a crest. As I come over the crest, some crazy lunatic driving a Hyundai XG350 decides right at that moment to pull out of the strip mall and come to a complete stop blocking the two left lanes of the three available lanes about 150 feet in front of me as I am traveling about 40 mph.

Immediately, I get off the gas, get on the brakes, check my mirror and pull hard right around the idiot, crossing two lanes of traffic (which luckily were empty at the moment) and barely miss the guys rear bumper by a matter of inches.

It is experiences like this that make me want to completely rewrite the entire procedure for handing out licenses because it is idiots like this that nearly get people killed all the time. He should never have pulled out into the street with approaching traffic unless he was sure he could make it across and he should never have come to a complete stop, especially since there was room for his car where the median was located.

It is also experiences like this that make me appreciate buying a car like the TSX that handles so well. Without the sharp handling, I might not have made it around the idiot's car in that emergency lane change.

Moral of the story, the average American driver is completely incompetent and has ridiculously poor judgement, so you need to drive defensively to protect yourself.

Also, after that incident, apparently something came loose in the vicinity of the front passenger side suspension so that when I go over speed bumps now, there is a noticeable thunk sound. If the sound does not disappear (e.g. was just something that got caught in the suspension) then I am going to take the car in to have it looked at.

jlukja

So, idiot drivers are not limited to California. :shakehead

This very same situation happens all the time around where I live. To make a left turn cars pull out of the supermarket parking lot and stop across the westbound lanes while waiting for the eastbound lanes to clear of traffic. Sometimes I think to myself that if I was driving an SUV I would just say "F&$K IT!" and broadside them.

Glad you came out of it OK.

greendestiny

my 7th grade teacher told me this....... "Drive Defensively, Buy a Tank"

xenonhid

You should visit Seattle! Great City~! But Crappy Women Drivers in their BMW's!

fuckleberry

bloody moron that Hyundai

Was the crest blocking the view ahead ?
I'm off the gas pedal whenever I can not see like 4-car length ahead

vbgirl76

As us Virginian's say...."D@mn Maryland drivers!" If you see a bad driver on the road, you can be 75% sure that the car has MD plates. hahaha! It's nice to know when I drive in MD, there is at least one person who knows how to drive (i.e. you).

batman

Drivers like that are the reason why we should be able to legally hit people in the head with hammers. I have never gotten road rage until I moved here.

biker

I try to avoid MD altogether.

kboosman00

Glad you and your baby are doing okay...

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Should not have blocked his view. From his position, he could easily see the top of the crest and the stoplight is just beyond the crest. And even if he wasn't paying attention to the stoplight, he saw me come over the crest, rolled a bit at the stop sign he was at, came to a stop, and then accelerates out and stops as if he was intentionally trying to cause a crash.

You had to have been there to see it because the guy stopped, looked over in my direction and has this look of total fear in his face when he realized what he had gotten himself into. It was his lucky day that he ran into me (no pun intended) and not someone who would have just stomped on the brakes.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Will you come up if I agree to buy you a drink? It's not so bad up here.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

I'm originally a Californian. We know how to handle our selves on the road.

fuckleberry

I mean was the "crest" blocking YOUR frontal view ?

vbgirl76

That's why!!!! I'm originally from Los Angeles and learned how to drive there. Talk about culture shock coming out here where people think the left lane is the slow lane and the right lane is where you are supposed to pass everyone.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

:shakehead Nope. I had a clear sightline over the crest.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Another LA transplant!

wclark

that same thing happened to me, this this guy was pulling out into my lane and just freakin stopped right there, I hit the brakes and veered right just missing jack-kniving the guy. I would have been so mad if my car got hurt again.

jimstsx

HAHAHAHA....

Your 7th grade teacher has me laughing!!

jmathew34

these types of situations happen to me during my commute from md to va and back...
damn you VA/MD people that can't drive.

ahhemm, CG, isn't time for you to change your handle?????????

jmathew34

hey, how you doin'

welcome to the forum!!

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Nah...even though I don't drive one anymore, my heart still belongs with the carbon gray.

And hey, did you get that wheel fixed yet? We should get together for a drink sometime this week before I leave for Cali on Friday.

desktop

Situations like these would make my hair go gray if I were in your situation. Your fasting thinking and reflexes saved you for sure.

CGTSX2004, Glad to hear that you dodged a potential headache/disaster!

peter_bigblock

I'm originally from Bethesda, moved to the Midwest and I figured drivers (and people in general) were more patient and relaxed here. Nope. In Des Moines (maybe 500,000 people total), people drive exactly the same way -- no courtesy, no common sense, too fast where it isn't warranted, too slow where it isn't necessary (e.g., left lane).

And the cops? Ha, the cops just sit in their little hiding places waiting to gather a little after-tax revenue from someone going 51 in a 45 (or some such).

People, I think, have been driven so totally insane by traffic that they do things in their car they would never do in person. Personally, I refuse to drive in a hurry, to trade my safety or others' for a few minutes. The sad truth is that the car enthusiasts I know are all very good, safe, considerate drivers (who, on occasion, like to really get into it when conditions are appropriate). The horrible drivers I know aren't really car- or speed-freaks, they're just oblivious to conditions, traffic, safety, and everything else around them. They're only aware of what time it is and when they have to be somewhere. Everything else is chatter to them.

CG, good job using your car to your own benefit! Hope your right front susp turns out ok.

sauceman

CG, good job on the avoiding. And I can definitely relate to the fact that all of the driver education program should be completely revised.

TSX.Fury

TSX.Fury

NHBTSX2006 has been played out already

biker

Well, if you put it that way.....

Looks warm enough to take the bike out this weekend - any place that has Guiness?

jmathew34

wheels not fixed yet, another week or so

how long are you in cali for? need someone to babysit your tsx?

jlukja

CCColtsicehockey

I vote for more pictures of you and your car too.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Haha...unforunately, not this weekend since I'm gonna be home in Cali. But I'll PM you when I get back into DC and perhaps we can figure something out.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Benz_05_TSX

iTrader: (1)

You should come to vancouver, the CHINESE mid-age women here are INSANE@!!

they drive like they own the street, never check mirrors and they drive huge cars like S500 and 745s.....so, its a nightmare!

bradykp

The problem is, cops don't enforce the laws that would really make people drive a little better. Speeding is obviously something they should enforce, but only in conditions where it is wreckless speeding (bad weather, weaving in and out of lanes, etc).

cops never enforce the laws such as having your lights on when you're wipers are on (i wish they just required lights to be on all the time, since so many idiots forget, even at night! let alone in crappy visibility).

then there's the great law that you cannot pass in the right lane. of course, i would never pass in the right lane, except so many IDIOTS in new jersey insist on going BELOW the speed limit in the TWO left lanes. honestly, how could there be 3 and 4 lane roads, and i need to be in the right lane to pass someone? are people really this stupid?

blinkers: people from New England: NO, blinkers do not alert those behind you that they should speed up before you change lanes. They actually WARN those behind you that you will be changing lanes, not to mention those in front of you in case they also plan on doing the same. If those behind you are alert, they will wait for you to change lanes, not the contrary. Will you ever get this right?

OK, i know we're all very curious, but i would like to enforce the death penalty on all drivers in NJ who insist on slowing down to look at accidents/police writing tickets/fireman getting cats out of trees/etc. NOTHING P's me off more than when i'm stuck in traffic for 30 minutes, i get 2,000 feet up the road, and all of a sudden i'm doing 60 again cause everyone in front of me is done looking at the cop with the car pulled over. COME ON!

oh, and if cute little animals run out in front of you, consider this: whats worse, hitting an animal, maybe getting a small dent in your car (excluding deer/bear/turkey/etc). or: slamming on your breaks, having 10 people behind you rear end you, and having nothing left in your car. oh, but the animal made it across right? so it's all good.



i could keep going, but my blood boils just thinking about driving in NJ. there's a valid reason why insurance rates or so frikkin expensive here.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

^^ Reason I refuse to ever live in New Jersey

rpcmx

Yeah, I'm from N.J. so I totally feel your pain, but it isn't limited to there. I feel like if I have to drive another mile in Atlanta, I'm going to eat my head. I saw TWO serious accidents within a mile of each other (and within 10 minutes of each other) today... and the reasons are so clear: there are two lane roads made into four lane roads (by cutting out the shoulders on both sides), the highways are like 12 lanes and are smaller than my current car (A4), and people have NO idea how to drive. Drive right, pass left was never taught down here, not to mention that no one has any idea what's going on... they cut a road to pave it FOUR WEEKS AGO, and just got down to repaving it today. It's like, what are you people thinking??

By the way, the one accident I saw happen, a man was on his cell phone with three kids in his car, and pulled out into traffic to make a left turn... luckily the guy coming was able to swerve and hit him on the front and not t-bone the passenger cabin.

-rpc

just re-read this post, totally needs a </rant>.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Actually, I could go on forever about this topic so it doesn't get a [/rant]

peter_bigblock

What burns me the most is the two speeding tickets I got in the past year, both for something on the order of 78 in a 65. I'm driving in a straight line, far from the cars in front of me, keeping my distance, keeping my eyes open, not on my cell phone, signalling my lane changes, only in the left lane to pass, and driving smoothly and respectfully. But because it's so much easier for cops to just sit on their asses in their little hiding places and let the radar do the work, they've become nothing more than revenue collectors.

Sure, it's all under the guise of "safety", but the arbitrary way they stop only speeders but are never around when some idiot is changing lanes with no signal, on his cell phone, cutting people off and then whips across four lanes at the last minute to hit his exit -- they're no more interested in safety than they are in promoting gay porn.

I'm getting a Valentine 1 as soon as the budget allows. I'd rather give them my money than the ridiculous highway patrol. Lazy ignorance combined with power.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Honestly, with better driver training and a government that actually makes an effort to do proper road maintenance, we could easily be like the Germans and driving on our own versions of the Autobahn.

CCColtsicehockey

that would be great however it will never happen