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  #1  
Old 09-05-2012, 08:28 PM
anghrist's Avatar
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Location: Lancaster, CA
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Traffic and idiotic driving.

I swear I'm going to loose it someday. Just totally off the rails one of these days.

I really tired of being honked at when I decide that it's safer to wait on cross traffic than to rip out onto the street in front of everybody.

Sorry, had to vent. Better now.

There is a 'T' junction in my neighborhood. Drivers rarely stop there. Many just blow through it when making a right turn. Others when making a left of the straight will nearly clip the apex of the opposite curb at speed. I have to make a left at this junction on my way home, so for sanity and safety's sake, I come to a full stop, look left, look right, look left, and then if all is clear, I will go.

Today the way was not clear, there was traffic from the left, erratic traffic, non-signaling traffic. Now, if they are driving erratically, I am content to wait. The right-turn signal comes on at the last second, and there is a right-turn signaling car behind that. Well, I guess my caution tried tried the patience of the PlayStation generation driver behind me, because they honked at me before the other cars even signaled.

I must apologize, but I still have yet to master the art of clairvoyance. I really believe that, even if I do, the difficulties or reading most peoples' minds will still prove elusive, due to either their impulsiveness or vapidity.

Oh well, life goes on...

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  #2  
Old 09-05-2012, 08:55 PM
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Yeah Palmdale explains it all.
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  #3  
Old 09-05-2012, 11:45 PM
Jim B.'s Avatar
Who's flying this thing ?
 
Join Date: May 2006
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Exclamation What you need to do.

I drove the Autobahn DAILY for 2 weeks and racked up over 3,000 kms in an Audi 6 (rented a 2012 one) 2.0 turbo diesel.

I drove 130-160 mph safely, legally and serenely EVERY SINGLE DAY. Relaxing as taking a bath, just paid ATTENTION and used the left lane for passing ONLY, like everyone does.

And the Autobahn is smooth and deep, and banked properly and the signs on the roads are VERY easy to comprehend whether you can speak German or not.

Driving is a privilege in germany, it takes a year to get a license and that involves LOTS of time and dedication and money too.

About the equivalent of $2,300 USD

~~~~
n contrast to the USA which by comparison has bad roads and is very ill signed.


And the drivers in USA, where do we start with those morons?

Left lane bandits, tailgaters, road ragers, texting and yakking on handheld mobile by female teenagers, eating (once I even saw I guy eating a plate of spaghetti!!!! in an old Bonneville, music headphnes, no signaling lane changes, trash and debris spewing out of tail gate less pickup trucks, and unskilled drivers whose last road driving was herding a water buffalo in Vietnam, that they were sitting on..


And cars with broken haed and tail lights, bald tires, rotten brakes windows clouded with the exhalations of a million Lucky Strikes, banner cars for the demolition derby, old rust bucket, broken down heaps that would NEVER pass the strict TuV inspections in Germany and NEVER EVER have the chance to get anywhere even close to the Autobahn.


And then, the drunk drivers everywhere.



~~~~

You need to go clear your head, like I did.

Go drive the Autobahn. Get, b uy or rent, a big new Audi, BMW or Mercedes to drive on it.

Leave your mobile hand held phone at home.

IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

I promise.
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  #4  
Old 09-06-2012, 12:36 AM
MBeige's Avatar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim B. View Post
And the drivers in USA, where do we start with those morons?

Left lane bandits, tailgaters, road ragers, texting and yakking on handheld mobile by female teenagers, eating (once I even saw I guy eating a plate of spaghetti!!!! in an old Bonneville, music headphnes, no signaling lane changes, trash and debris spewing out of tail gate less pickup trucks, and unskilled drivers whose last road driving was herding a water buffalo in Vietnam, that they were sitting on..


And cars with broken haed and tail lights, bald tires, rotten brakes windows clouded with the exhalations of a million Lucky Strikes, banner cars for the demolition derby, old rust bucket, broken down heaps that would NEVER pass the strict TuV inspections in Germany and NEVER EVER have the chance to get anywhere even close to the Autobahn.


And then, the drunk drivers everywhere.
That's all too familiar. We should get $10 every time I see a person yapping on their phone while driving. $50 for putting make up.

Look at the woman who nudged my car on the freeway, I caught her on the phone, along the same route, yapping away a few months later:



Tailgating, anybody?
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  #5  
Old 09-06-2012, 03:00 AM
Stretch's Avatar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim B. View Post
I drove the Autobahn DAILY for 2 weeks and racked up over 3,000 kms in an Audi 6 (rented a 2012 one) 2.0 turbo diesel.

I drove 130-160 mph safely, legally and serenely EVERY SINGLE DAY. Relaxing as taking a bath, just paid ATTENTION and used the left lane for passing ONLY, like everyone does.

And the Autobahn is smooth and deep, and banked properly and the signs on the roads are VERY easy to comprehend whether you can speak German or not.

Driving is a privilege in germany, it takes a year to get a license and that involves LOTS of time and dedication and money too.

About the equivalent of $2,300 USD

~~~~
n contrast to the USA which by comparison has bad roads and is very ill signed.


And the drivers in USA, where do we start with those morons?

Left lane bandits, tailgaters, road ragers, texting and yakking on handheld mobile by female teenagers, eating (once I even saw I guy eating a plate of spaghetti!!!! in an old Bonneville, music headphnes, no signaling lane changes, trash and debris spewing out of tail gate less pickup trucks, and unskilled drivers whose last road driving was herding a water buffalo in Vietnam, that they were sitting on..


And cars with broken haed and tail lights, bald tires, rotten brakes windows clouded with the exhalations of a million Lucky Strikes, banner cars for the demolition derby, old rust bucket, broken down heaps that would NEVER pass the strict TuV inspections in Germany and NEVER EVER have the chance to get anywhere even close to the Autobahn.


And then, the drunk drivers everywhere.



~~~~

You need to go clear your head, like I did.

Go drive the Autobahn. Get, b uy or rent, a big new Audi, BMW or Mercedes to drive on it.

Leave your mobile hand held phone at home.

IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

I promise.
Yeah but, no but, yeah but!

Step over the border into the Netherlands and you'll get a very different experience. People tend not to use the horn too much but they're impatient (with a capital 'I').

I used to think it was a population denisty problem - you know too many people too much stress => more conflict. But a visit to Malta will blow that theory out the water...

...I personally think that driving around London is a more pleasant experience than driving where I live (smack bang in the middle of the Netherlands where the population density isn't that high for the Netherlands)...

I'm not sure what makes one place less stressful than another but one thing is for sure if you yourself can calm down and not be on the look out for trouble you'll have the best time of the worst situation.
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  #6  
Old 09-06-2012, 03:21 AM
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might be worth it to see if you can get a cop to sit and enforce that stop sign for a while. we had to do that in my parents neighborhood once.

i was sitting in the left non turn lane today, watched the left arrow go green, the everyone in the far left turn lane goes and in the lane next to me , the lady misses the entire light and then some because shes too busy texting.
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  #7  
Old 09-06-2012, 06:01 AM
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Good luck getting anyone in SoCal to drive safely. I've been to the Riverside/San Bernadino/Moreno Valley area 4 different times and each time it's white knuckled/balls to the wall driving everywhere, compared to other places I've been. Straight roads are ok, but God forbid if an engineer decided to put a curve in the road.

The area I grew up in was bad for drivers turning left...nobody was willing to let you turn. I learned to plan out shopping trips in such a way that I only had to turn right out of a parking lot or from a side road into traffic...unless there was a light.

Where we live now, people will stop traffic to allow you to pull out on a left turn...it's an amazing experience if you've never had that happen.
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  #8  
Old 09-06-2012, 11:59 AM
anghrist's Avatar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim B. View Post
You need to go clear your head, like I did.

Go drive the Autobahn. Get, b uy or rent, a big new Audi, BMW or Mercedes to drive on it.

Leave your mobile hand held phone at home.

IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

I promise.
Jim,

I fully intend to. I've got to get all my nickles and pennies collected and counted up so I can do so. And when I do, it will be in whatever new European Delivery Program car I will be buying. My plan is 2020, so long as our W210 and W123 keep plugging away.

Josh
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  #9  
Old 09-06-2012, 12:06 PM
anghrist's Avatar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kmaysob View Post
might be worth it to see if you can get a cop to sit and enforce that stop sign for a while.
You're making the false assumption that they actually put STOP signs at neighborhood intersections in SoCal.

Like so many neighborhood intersections, this one has no stop signs, there are no lane markings, there are 25mph speed limit signs because there are kids in the neighborhood; however, most people still drive 45+.
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  #10  
Old 09-06-2012, 12:09 PM
anghrist's Avatar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jplinville View Post
Good luck getting anyone in SoCal to drive safely. I've been to the Riverside/San Bernadino/Moreno Valley area 4 different times and each time it's white knuckled/balls to the wall driving everywhere, compared to other places I've been. Straight roads are ok, but God forbid if an engineer decided to put a curve in the road.
Yep,

I fully intend to follow the 1970s/1980s hippie migration route up to Oregon when I retire from SoCal. It may not be as pretty as your Pennsylvania, but it is cooler than this desert and people seem more relaxed.
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  #11  
Old 09-06-2012, 12:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MBeige View Post
That's all too familiar. We should get $10 every time I see a person yapping on their phone while driving. $50 for putting make up.

Look at the woman who nudged my car on the freeway, I caught her on the phone, along the same route, yapping away a few months later:
Surplus chaff and flare packs might be a great deal of fun.

I'm seriously thinking about getting my hands on some salvaged Distatronic and laser distance cruise control modules and playing with these schloobs who don't know how to drive and want to rely on the car to do everything, including tailgate at six inches for them.

The problem is that cars are heavier, more powerful and more stable than ever before, this tends to lul most drivers into thinking that they need not be as attentive to what's happening on the road around them.... and then everything goes pear-shaped.

I think that in 20+ years, it will be interesting to see if there has been a significant increase in traffic accidents from pre-smartphone to post-smartphone eras. My suspicion is that, yes, smartphones lead to higher quantities of fatal/near-fatal traffic accidents.
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  #12  
Old 09-06-2012, 12:48 PM
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I figured long ago that 'I' am the driver and pilot of my car. ...Not someone else in the car or outside the car.
I found that Other people will push you to your death.
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  #13  
Old 09-06-2012, 12:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Kenny View Post
I figured long ago that 'I' am the driver and pilot of my car. ...Not someone else in the car or outside the car.
I found that Other people will push you to your death.
You're absolutely right. I've been agitated the past few days anyway.

Finally got myself back to the gym to workout today. That always improves my attitude.
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  #14  
Old 09-06-2012, 12:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by anghrist View Post
I swear I'm going to loose it someday. Just totally off the rails one of these days.

I really tired of being honked at when I decide that it's safer to wait on cross traffic than to rip out onto the street in front of everybody.

Sorry, had to vent. Better now.

There is a 'T' junction in my neighborhood. Drivers rarely stop there. Many just blow through it when making a right turn. Others when making a left of the straight will nearly clip the apex of the opposite curb at speed. I have to make a left at this junction on my way home, so for sanity and safety's sake, I come to a full stop, look left, look right, look left, and then if all is clear, I will go.

Today the way was not clear, there was traffic from the left, erratic traffic, non-signaling traffic. Now, if they are driving erratically, I am content to wait. The right-turn signal comes on at the last second, and there is a right-turn signaling car behind that. Well, I guess my caution tried tried the patience of the PlayStation generation driver behind me, because they honked at me before the other cars even signaled.

I must apologize, but I still have yet to master the art of clairvoyance. I really believe that, even if I do, the difficulties or reading most peoples' minds will still prove elusive, due to either their impulsiveness or vapidity.

Oh well, life goes on...
The saying: It's better to be SAFE than sorry comes to mind. Practicing that will save you a lifetime of grief.
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  #15  
Old 09-06-2012, 01:11 PM
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I've had recent days like this with unbelievable idiot drivers.
With school coming back for the year, they seem to all be out in force. Maybe they're ragged from getting their kids out on time and then getting themselves to where they need to be on time or what, I don't know.
Just be extra careful these next few weeks until people get into a routine.

I see people like the tailgater picture above and I just make sure I am far and away, even changing lanes to get even farther away from them if I can safely do it.

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