I've been noticing more than usual lately that there are retards all over the road these days. A few weeks ago, I came within inches of totaling my new TL on the highway as some jackass in front of me slammed on his brakes. I had to swerve around him to avoid an accident. Turns out the person in front of him hit their brakes because he was riding their ass! Then the guy in front of me yelled at me for laying on the horn, as if it wasn't his fault that he almost ruined my 40k car! Also, in the last month of owning the car I've been shifting between 3-3500rpm until I have a couple thousand miles on it to make sure it's broken in nicely, and I've had a ton of people riding my ass when I'm shifting then yelling at me because I'm not accelerating fast enough for them. Do people realize that some people still have manual tranmissions and it takes time to shift between gears? Of course, everytime this happens its with somebody with a piece-o-shit car that I could blow out of the water if I wanted! Can't wait to make these people look foolish!

 

They also don't realize that manuals roll back and go right up your ass even though the TL has roll assist it still pisses me off. Then at lights when it takes that extra couple of seconds to start off because you want to start out normally and smooth, you get a quick honk as if you only supposed to mash the gas and go like an auto and they you are not paying attention.

 

Maybe I'm getting older but in general, people are getting suckier...especially in the driving department. It's not the lack of skill that bothers me, it's the lack of respect for anyone else on the road. It's the "F You, I'll drive how I want" attitude that can bring me to the edge of doing something illegal to these idiots. My fear is that one day I will lose hold of reality and get caught up in the moment. It won't be a good moment.

 

"That's why I just WOT everywhere."

-Ricer

 

Eh, fuck em... they can wait, take your time.

But you are right, people are more and more impatient and "car stupid" now-a-days.

 

My wife seriously runs into all the crazies in our city. She honked at someone moving into her lane and they followed her to the parking lot and pounded on her window. She was rescued by some guys sitting at Starbucks.
What kind of a-hole of a man treats a woman with a kid in the car like that.

 

I thought all you people from were super nice, Eh?

 

There are too many cars on the road and it's getting worse every day. Between the old people living longer and insisting on driving longer and teenagers getting their licenses and driving like crazies and people on their friggin cell phones.
That is really a pet peeve of mine, the number of people on their cell phones. It's against the law in CT and do you think they care?

 

Canadian drivers suck. Specially in the big cities like Toronto. Here, everyone drives slow on the passing lane and pass on the slow lane. Whenever I go south and cross the border people drive like they're supposed to. People actually move out of the way and let you pass.

It's getting ridiculous here as people instantly go to the passing lane after exiting the highway and cruise at 100km/h or less and since they're going speed limit they're not obligated to move out of the way. I really don't know where these people learn to drive.

No one seems to use their signals anymore either. I guess they're expecting everyone else to read their mind as they cut you off at the last second.

 

If someone was doing that here, driving the speed limit in the fast lane, (or really anywhere I've seen on the Northern East Cost), they would have a rear view of my high beams. That's the only douchbag thing I do on the road... that and honking, but you need that to survive here :P

 

Trust me, everyone here does that. High beams, honking and tailgating won't make any difference to the people here. They just won't move out of the way. I have given up a long time ago and just move to the right to pass.

I think the main difference is enforcement. There are state troopers everywhere on the highways in the US enforcing speed limits. Here in Canada, police only go out on long weekends to catch people in a rush to get to their cottage and boast about the large number of tickets they wrote.

 

This is the American disease.

Everybody's taught that he's at the top of the pyramid, that he's the best, that he has no superior, that he is his own sovereign.

It's the understanding of a pecking order that causes people to be polite.

You're going to be polite because you believe that (1)someone might be your equal, (2)someone might be your superior so you owe him politeness or (3)someone might be your inferior so you own him politeness as a courtesy to God and Right.

I'm not explaining this very well, I know.

But it's an epidemic that comes from teaching people that it's inconceivable that anybody could possibly be "better" than you are.

 

Someone did that to my girlfriend that's deserving of a beat down!

That's just insane.

 

People don't wonder so much why I carry a gun (legally) anymore.

 

I'd tell her to write his plate down, go to his house and break all the windows on his car just to keep him off the damn road. I'm sorry but that's just over reacting and criminal of him.

 

In my opinion, LA has the worst drivers. I lived there for several years and not only do you have to put up with some of the worst traffic in the world, but the people there are frickin crazy. Just glancing at another person parked next to you will result in a "finger" or sometimes worse. Solo drivers constantly clog up the carpool lane, drivers constantly cutting-off other people, no signaling when changing lanes, crazy motorcyclists weaving in-out of traffic, drivers throwing out garbage doing 70mph on the freeway!...list goes on and on. When you see televised police chases on a daily basis, you know the city is screwed up.

 

If someone yells at you for using your horn then you just use it even more to piss them off. It really makes my day to see someone bouncing around in their seat, upset and cursing because I used my horn.

As far as having the worst drivers, it's bad anywhere you go. People are human, we all do the same things, have the same tendencies.

 

I think I understand where you are going but for me it's as simple as the way I was taught growing up;
No one is better than anyone.

 

Talk is cheap. I want to see you on 11 o'clock news

 

Are you sure you really believe that?

You would not believe that you should automatically accord a recipient of the Victoria Cross or the Congressional Medal of Honour a respect?

Let's suppose you run across General Powell in his antique Mercedes in the middle of a Beltway traffic jam? You know it's him over there trying to make his way over...are you sure you wouldn't instinctively accord him a little respect?

Let's suppose you are in Toronto on Yonge St when The Queen's motorcade passes. Are you sure you wouldn't stop what you are doing and face the motorcade until it was past?

Buddhists are taught that they never know when there is a Buddha facing them. Every person you run across might be Enlightened. So every person should be accorded a measure of respect and circumspection.

What I am afraid of is that this American idea that nobody is better than anybody else has turned into a philosophy and feeling that nobody is better than you, and this is where all the trouble is coming from.

It's dangerous, IMHO, to totally forget that you might, just might possibly, be dealing with someone who is your social superior for whatever reason.

And the other side of this argument is that you might very well one day run across someone who is clearly your inferior for whatever reason. It's possible that God's democratic lottery has put him into the Dalit class, or maybe he's just faced a string of unfortunate economic circumstances, or maybe he is blessed by an intelligence that is simply inferior to yours.

To this person, you owe the obedience you would always give to God's least creatures. To this person and these people, you owe a service to try through your best efforts to equalise them.

To pretend that these differences do not exist, I think, is to invite an inherent social pathology that is evinced as impoliteness...rudeness.

 

I'm guessing you've seen lots of this then...

http://jalopnik.com/5523205/the-ten-...in-la/gallery/

 

People ARE selfish drivers. They will sit in a passing lane KNOWING fully well that you want to get past them, yet they won't move because they know it won't hurt them if they don't.

However, if a police officer throws on the siren, they move to the right with the quickness because they know they will get a ticket otherwise.

Very selfish indeed.

 

It happens...everywhere.

 

my car has manual transmission-I have no problem accelerating using low rpm's. How long does it take you to shift. My break-in period consisted of driving my then new tsx from the dealer in PA to my home in NC (700+miles)i do lots of highway driving and try not to tailgate an keep watch of what the cars further ahead are doing.

 

I don't see anything bad about those at all. I see much worse behaviour here on a daily basis.

 

^^ I think you gotta read the sidebar to see what these people did... it's pretty crazy horrible stuff.

 

You are right and let me re-phrase. I am not better than anyone else.

 

I read through every single one of them. Common occurrence here.

 

Contrary to popular belief, there is no "fast lane". The Left hand lane is the "passing lane", if you are not actively passing someone, move the f' to the right. All of the lanes on any given highway have the same speed limit.

Now you may be ready to me but this is not just a matter of semantics. If the left hand lane were the "fast lane" then all you have to be doing is driving "fast" to occupy that lane. Now the question becomes, how fast is fast? The left lane is for passing, not for traveling. When you travel in the left lane, you are the jackass that is preventing other drivers from passing and are interupting the flow of traffic.

 

Pot this is Kettle. Kettle this is Pot.

 

You are correct and that is in fact the law as it is written. The left lane is the passing lane. If you're not passing, you can't be there.

 

Well, you can be there, you just shouldn't.

 

Law passed in NJ years ago.

 

That sucks... I thought Massholes were bad enough.
Very true... it's a passing lane, either pass the car next to you or get out of the way!

 

Nice point on the passing lane, i bet 90% of the people on the road have no idea! Almost had another accident today, on my way to the Acura dealership no less! I'll take some of the blame on this due to how close I was to the car in front, but another stupid person had me ripsh*t, tell me you havnt had this happen...
A car with a women driver (surprised?) pulled out in front of me with just enough time to get out of my way if she gunned it, but of course she accelerated as if she was the only one on the road. I came up about a car length behind her, when suddenly she decided to jack on the brakes to let someone in front of her pull out of a sidestreet. I immediately slammed the brakes on and my car screeched to a halt with about a foot to spare, and the person in back of me almost hit me as well. I laid on the horn and flipped her off while cursing, but she just drove off without a reaction. For the next few miles, my brakes didn't feel right, i thought I may have stuck a caliper from smashing the brakes hard, but after a little driving they came back to life. I was so pissed when it happened that I thought of following her to ask what her problem was, but thought better of it, but wtf, thats twice in the last couple weeks!

 

[QUOTE=JrcTL;11972601]Nice point on the passing lane, i bet 90% of the people on the road have no idea! Almost had another accident today, on my way to the Acura dealership no less! I'll take some of the blame on this due to how close I was to the car in front, but another stupid person had me ripsh*t, tell me you havnt had this happen...
A car with a women driver (surprised?) pulled out in front of me with just enough time to get out of my way if she gunned it, but of course she accelerated as if she was the only one on the road. I came up about a car length behind her, when suddenly she decided to jack on the brakes to let someone in front of her pull out of a sidestreet. I immediately slammed the brakes on and my car screeched to a halt with about a foot to spare, and the person in back of me almost hit me as well. I laid on the horn and flipped her off while cursing, but she just drove off without a reaction. For the next few miles, my brakes didn't feel right, i thought I may have stuck a caliper from smashing the brakes hard, but after a little driving they came back to life. I was so pissed when it happened that I thought of following her to ask what her problem was, but thought better of it, but wtf, thats twice in the last couple weeks![/QUOTE



Yes there are lousy female drivers along with the lousy male drivers. I am a female driver. The more I read your posts the more I realize your not so good driving skills. I also drive manual transmission vehicles averaging 30,000+miles a year. I never had an accident (knock-on-wood). I do admit I have done some stupid things driving. I think the majority of drivers have.

 

The reality of it is that almost every time someone does something stupid in front of me, I see it coming ahead of time. Yes, there were times I got righteously indignant over the stupidity of the person and yelled and screamed. There have only been a few times where drivers did something really dumb in front of me that almost caused me to wreck (and I didn't have a clue it was coming). If not, I would have had many more accidents. The situations where I didn't see it coming were NOT the ones I got mad at and flipped off the other guy. Those were the ones I had to collect myself and look around to see what else had happened.
So to all of you out there who slam the steering wheel and flip people off. Admit it, you saw it coming, there was no big deal, the other driver did something stupid...get over it and move on. Why ruin your own day and raise your own blood pressure?

 

Don't know if anyone could have seen this coming. One time I was driving along a 2 lane road. Speed limit was 70km/h but everyone was going 80km/h including myself. I was on the left lane as the road switches to a one lane road up ahead and the right lane will have to merge in. There were 2 cars on the left lane ahead of me nearing an intersection. The intersection is a major one and each direction has a left turn lane. Usually there's a line of cars wanting to make a left and this time was no exception.

As I neared the intersection, there was a lineup of cars making a left to the left of me, and 2 cars on my right. The car that was in front on the right side at the very last minute decided that they wanted to make a left turn right when they were at the intersection. So what did the dumbass do? He turned left right before the line and basically stopped at my lane since there was a lineup of cars making a left. Since it was very last minute and the bastard never signalled, I had to slam on my brakes really hard and stopped a few feet away from him.

There was another car behind me that did the same. Good thing they weren't that close to me. All I could do at that moment was shake my head and wonder why people would put their life on the line just to make a stupid turn.

And you know what? This wasn't the only time someone basically came into my lane and stopped. There's too many stupid people out there and I'm afraid that the next time it happens I won't be as prepared.

 

Something along the lines of "those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it." Your last paragraph pretty much states that you should have seen it coming.

 

So if someone suddenly turns into your lane and stops without any warning at all you should see it coming? My friend T-Boned a taxi who was to the right of him and decided to make a U-Turn an my friend couldn't stop in time. Should he have seen that coming too?