Aren’t we trying to live in a society?
 

Today while running some errands I pulled into a parking lot that was totally full except for a spot where a guy had parked about a foot into that space. Since I am about the most impatient person ever I made the foolish decision to squeeze into the spot. That’s when I notice his passenger door was freshly keyed. I almost backed out thinking he might retaliate on me if he saw it, but then I figured at 10 o’clock on a Wednesday morning there was a slim chance he had a passenger so I parked there anyway.

When I finish shopping and go to my car I see the whole left side of my car was keyed. Of course I about died, but luckily I had just waxed my car the day before coupled with Mercedes super hard paint most of it came off with some graffiti remover.
There is about a 4 inch area where it dug into the paint and put two 1/8” chips in it.

Now for the bigger picture…
I spend a large amount of my time on the road and have been noticing more and more how people are becoming more self serving. Bullying on the highways and streets has increased many fold. Drivers are spending more time forcing others to drive how they want with tactics like break checking, swerving into others lanes, and even driving in two lanes on highway entrance ramps. What happened to teamwork, can’t we get out of the way of faster moving vehicles, leave openings for people to get out of parking lots etc.?

I am not even sure where this behavior from those who apparently want to be the official pace car of the open road comes from or what rationalizations they use for such behavior but I do know that if every one in the world only cared about their self there could only be one winner. However if people work together as a team maybe we all could get home a little earlier, have room to park, and not have to buff out undeserved key marks from the sides of their cars.

As I see it, the problem in the US is due to lack of driver education and driver accountability.

In Germany it takes about $1500 and more hours of instruction than it does for a pilots license in the US. The behind the wheel test involves about 50km and if the student makes the slightest error they must go back for 10 or so more hours of instruction before they can retake the test. Because these people have put so much into getting a drivers license, they are not about to do something to cause them to lose it which is EXACTLY what will happen if they start driving the way you describe.

In the US, a person must be 16 and their heart must be beating. That's about all it takes to get a drivers license. In Texas now, if they take drivers education, they don't even have to take a behind the wheel test. Once on the road they just about have to kill someone before the license will be taken away.

Have a great day,

That’s interesting. I have noticed how some of my friends don’t understand what could be life saving rules about what solid Vs. striped road stripes are, when to yield, and so on.
I guess Americans are making it up as they go along.

Most American Drivers Suck! The tests are too easy and no one is punished enough for what they do! I have noticed in the last few years alone that the number of people that hang in the left lane on a highway has just about increased 10 fold. So much so that there are big gaps in the right lane and a solid line of cars in the left. I hope that someday we as a country stiffen our driving laws and tests so that we can be more like Europe as far as how hard it is to get a license and how hard it is to keep a car on the road. There are far too many junkers out there that should not even be on a back dirt road let alone a public highway. Personally I am starting to hate driving due to the amount of stupid people on the road.

You think it's bad in Texas? Try living in New Jersey!!!

I've said for a long time (to my wife) that states should have commercials ~ 15 - 20 seconds long reminding people about things like 'keep right except to pass', what the solid /striped lines mean, get up to speed when merging on a highway and other things. I try to be as safe and courteous as possible. I fail sometimes but I'd rather be alive than try something foolish to save 20 micro seconds of time along the commute.

Actually - I'll admit guilt here: What does the double striped lane usually in the far right lane going uphill mean? I can't figure that out. I know it is never OK to pass on the right so it can't be that.

Well everybody does it, so it must be OK...go with the flow, blast your horn, get right on that bumper and intimidate the hell out of them til they speed up to your standards. Pass on the right whenever there is a chance, and even if there isn't one, especially at lights, and don't forget to pack the pistol in your glove box, cuss were in a hurry, and we don't care about your stinky measly life, just get out of my way because I"M COMING THROUGH! :pukeface:............... BB:D :D :D

thats the special lane for those of us that are better than the rest to drive on.... :D

Dude, ditto New York!!!

I saw the show about the autobahn on discovery, if we implemented half the rules they do in Germany the number of people driving with suspended licenses would triple. They actually had a special camera to catch you tailgating, I would wear a blonde afro wig to work all year if they implemented that here in NY :D, you can't drive through a 30mph town zione without some moron on your a$$ because he needs to get to the red light up ahead as quickly as possible :rolleyes:

It requires both education and manners. Unfortunately both seem to be declining in our country.
regards,
Mark

That's why I now drive a Crown Vic. Driving is so peaceful now. :)

That's a great idea Warren.

To really complete the package though, you need to add some accessories (if you haven't already):
1) At least one magnet-mount antenea (of course, don't even connect it to anything).
2) Clear driving lights mounted on the rear deck of the interior, pointed rearward. (Again, they needn't be connected to power. They just need to look like there might be red or blue lights in them)
3) A vanity plate that consists of a fairly random number/letter combo. Anything that's not standard. Most states use something like a 3 letter/3 number or 3 letter/4 number combo.
(My dad was a police chief in a small town, and the plates on his partrol cars were the radio call signs for that car: 7B-335 and 7B-336)

Heck, you may even be able to fool the cops.

Jeff Pierce

The car's trunk lid had two antennae on it. They were removed before the car was sold by Fairfax County. The screw mounts were left with lots of coax. I originally used a spare mag mount but visited a local Ham radio store and bought the correct style. They are mounted in the reverse order the local cops use, most cannot tell.

No lights, I don't want to go there.

Standard Virginia 400 year plates, 1607 - 2007.

Cops do look, I wave.

I also behave myself. The other drivers do too. ("Hmmm, that could be a cop, I'd better not do that, I could get a ticket, I don't want the hassle.") :)

Warren, great way to get some space. Do you still have the 300SE, and are you attending the DIY at ASC on the 20th?
regards,
Mark Duval

I still have the 300SE.

I'd like to attend the ACS DIY, but I have front suspension repairs to do, I also want to replace the coolant hoses, it couid use a new serp belt tensioner and pulleys (probably could do the tensioner there). I have the spring compressor and all the parts.

Not to mention valve seals. CIS rubber bits.

I just replaced the exhaust.

It's a money pit. :( I haven't been driving it. The CVPI is so much fun. It actually has power!

I want to attend the picnic the next day.

I'd better get cracking!

I've noticed that on the freeway, especially in rush hour, the number of cars in the fast lane is at least 10 fold the numbers of cars in other lanes. Every single one of them tailgating the other, but in the slower lanes there's plenty of more space in between cars.

Luckily for me, the rush hour commute that I through is on Interstate 280 from San Francisco to Standford and for the most part has an average speed of around 70mph. I make my 35 mile commute in around 30 minutes.

Due to this high average speed I use my cruise control and set it a 70mph. On 280 it's 4 lanes in each direction and I stay in the middle two lanes. What I've noticed that really irritates me is that for some reason people just love to drive right on my ass, even when there's no other cars around and they could easily go to the right or left to pass. I don't get it? It takes at least 5 minutes for them to finally pull around. Now, I don't know if I'm wrong here, but since I'm not in the fast lane I don't feel that I should get over for them. I doesn't make sense to me.

Oh well...

I had to check my road rage today. On the way home I was driving in the right lane. A Civic passes me and then we hit a red light. He floors it when the light changes, only to pull in front of me and slow down to make a right turn 50 yards ahead. I didn't slow down - I went around him at the last moment, keeping as much in the right lane as possible - hopefully scared the 5hit out of him. I'm normally pretty tolerant of bad road manners, but for some reason this really irked me.

Don't be too quick to criticize slow left lane drivers in the US.

I stay right as much as possible since I drive the speed limit, but what often happens, is that there will be traffic merging and entering the freeway. I have no choice but to move to the left lane to let the merging traffic in (they have the yield sign, yet would rather sideswipe you than yield), or I could hit my brakes (turning off the cruise) and slow as not to inconvenience those who are suppose to yield in the first place.

So as soon as I get over to the left lane, the merging traffic matches my speed, and a car will come speeding (breaking the speed limit and the law) up from behind and wonder what in the he11 I'm doing in the left lane going the so slow (speed limit), waving arms, swerving, or flashing lights cussing that I should learn to drive or get off the road.


[sarcasm]I really should not be allowed to drive, since I drive the speed limit. All the poor drivers out there who are deprived of their right to break the law and drive above the speed limit when they get behind me.[/sarcasm]

I find myself telling other drivers (to myself); "It's not my fault the speed limit is so low, I'm just obeying it!"

I'll get over as soon as I can, be patient.

Think about this, if one was driving the max speed allowed by law (speed limit) in the left lane, then there is no way for that person to impede the progress of any other driver, UNLESS that other driver is breaking the law by speeding.


BTW: I've spent a total of 6 years driving in Germany at max speeds on autobahns, and know the 'stay-right' rule very well. I've driven on several race tracks, and road raced motorcycles, so I’m familiar with speed. There's no reason to speed on the highway (I don't agree with the low speed limit though, but obey them) and and then criticize those who choose to obey the laws.

MarkC

Brabus,

I had to check your location to be sure you were not a Californian. There is no other state in the union that has more ahole discourteous drivers than here. I don't care how much testing you do, it will never correct the ME NOW attitudes of Americans. This country has got to get its act together or be buried by the EU. We can not continue acting like spoiled children. We have been here 200 years while the rest of the world goes back thousands of years. I love driving in Europe, because of the courteous drivers. Christine and I are going to Hawaii next year, because she has never been. The following year we want to go back to Europe. This time I would like to spend time in Eastern Europe. I have always wanted to go to Krakow.

Warren,
I have actually given alot of thought to your idea. I hate American cars, because they are pieces of junk and haven't owned one for decades, but the thought of an old highway patrol cruiser with a luggage rack that looks like a light bar and a broomstick that looks like a shotgun would certainly clear the left lane of aholes. I drive fast and have not had an accident or citation in 30 years. I don't think that people driving fast in the left lane cause accidents. I spend alot of time on the road and to me, people weaving in and out at speeds higher than traffic flow and people sweeping across several lanes of traffic in the last instant to take an offramp cause the accidents.

Zeronero,

I don't know about Mark C, because he is keeping a secret identity, but you live in California which is known for ROAD RAGE. You keep driving in that left lane and pissin off other drivers. You just need to reflect on one thing and ask youself one question. Which one of these drivers is a tweeker high on crystal met with a loaded 45 automatic. In that state of mind there is no thought given to firing a shot through the passenger window and splattering your brains all over the windshield. It has happened you know. HAVE A NICE DAY


Peter

I also drive Highway 280 going N&S from San Francisco to San Jose as zeronero. This is a beautiful 4 lane wide open road. Daily, drivers move right over to the fast lane and hang there at about 62-64 MPH (the limit is 65MPG). No matter what any body does, they just stay there.

Traffic slows and bunches up behind them and they gradually has to work its way around to the right. Often there are near misses. I was told that the CHP is now ticketing slow drivers in the fast lanes regardless of their relative speeds just because of the problems they cause.

BTW, my favorite horrible driver situation was coming down from the Sierra Mountains with my family in the 300e. We were in the right lane headed west and came upon a lady driving in the left lane. I will rarely ever try to past on the right.

I changed lanes and waited for her to move over. She did not and instead slowed down! I flashed my lights and she slowed down to 50 MPH. I decided to carefully pass on her right and she repeatedly and aggressively swerve at me, close to forcing me and my family off the road! We were horrified.

Now I must admit I was pissed and wanted to take some dramatic action, but instead hung back and watched her increase her speed back to just below the posted limit of 65 MPH.

Several other cars tried the same to pass her on the right. Same response: She owned the road and she was not going to let ANYONE past her.

Haasman

Hassman,
If I were a juror, I would have to vote for justifiable homicide while trying the defendant. There are two other reasons I don't drive in the #1 lane. First of all and not that important, I have noticed that the RGs will ticket drivers in that lane before the #2 lane. The major reason I don't drive in the #1 lane is , because if someone looses control on the other side, the first car they will take out is in the #1 lane. I always play for position. I naver drive with the knats. Knats consist of a group of drivers who don't know each other, but for some reason must drive in a group. If one loses a wheel or swerves while reaching for a soda, they are all involved. I tought my 2 girls many years ago to pretend they were invisible while driving, and to this day they have never been in accidents.

The problem you see on the roads today is partly due to the fact that the entire US uses the driver's license as an ID card. A driver's license is as easy to get today as a business card, it only takes more standing in line.

Beasts...
 

Amen.
I rarely drive my '86 420 anywhere I might have to park it among the beasts.
It's been keyed twice since I've owned it (about 1.5 years). And it's 20 years old! Some people are so stupid, jealous, ignorant, mean, criminal...
I'm getting started.
And I live in a relatively rural area, where the adjacent suburbs are relatively conservative. Can't imagine what it's like to live in a city and drive a new Mercedes-Benz or other high-profile car.
I wish I had time; I would park it and sit and watch it, just to catch one beast keying my car, and whip his ass right there. It would be so delicious. I would pour whup-ass all over him.
People are getting more selfish, arrogant, "lovers of self, rather than lovers of God" Read Romans Ch. 2 int he Bible; Paul has people and modern times figured out pretty good (with God's inspiration, of course).

I live in the Barossa Valley in South Australia and road manners are no more common here than anywhere else in the world it seems.
You would think out here that life goes a little slower than in downtown New York. Maybe it does but the drivers don't.................

Well, it's been said, it is not that we are not capable of driving sensibly. We just don't.

I'll tell you something. Every other day, I rollerblade out along Rt. 1A(coastal road), and not a day goes by where at least one person(some juvie) screams out the window "Dork", "****head", "Moron", "**tch",...!?

I am really disgusted. I am thinking of packing some microtech, and recording their vehicle's plate and sound recording. Then I will report it.

Americans are capable of driving well. But this nation, as a whole, even grown, is still at it's mother's dugs.

I was in Reno this weekend and it was the first time I've ever seen a yield sign on a freeway on-ramp. It doesn't make any sense to me why that sign would be there. I always thought that your suppose to stop and wait for the cars your yielding to pass, so if there would be traffic then stopping would be mandatory if there was a yield sign until there's no cars around. Besides Reno, I've only seen yield signs in situations where the speed limit is low, or where there would be a stop sign but instead is a yield sign. Since your suppose to speed up to get onto the freeway doesn't that make things more difficult and dangerous. Reno does have the most massive freeway construction project that I've seen going on at the moment so that could be why they have the yield signs, but as a permanent feature, I can't see it.

But I'm not driving in the left lane. There are fours lanes in each direction, I don't go in the left lane because I'm not going fast enough. I keep out of the right lane due to merging traffic. So, I stay in the two middle lanes since they are the easiest to be in. It seems that no matter what I do, pissin off other drivers is my thing.

I bet you if I tryed driving on the shoulder someone would be right on my ass.

If I were a giant and I had a huge fly swatter, I would sit by the side of the freeway all day and enjoy myself swatting cars driven by aholes. They would be flattened to the ground and everyone else would drive over them. Once a week the highway patrol would scrape off the swatted cars and send them to a recycler. Most of the cars would probably be Handas and Mustangs. :o

Whatever happened . . .
 

Whatever happened to the notion, clearly printed in my driver's license study materials in 1976, that drivers on the roadway (esp. an interstate or other higher-speed road) *share the responsibility* for making sure merging traffic gets into the flow safely? The merging drivers themselves have primary responsibility, of course; and nobody says you should dive unsafely into the center lane just to let somebody in from the right. But the idea of adjusting your speed so that merging traffic can either get in safely ahead of you, or can fall in behind you, seems to have vanished . . .

. . . Oh. Right.

I used the horrible terms "responsibility" and "safely," and had the unmitigated gall to suggest an American driver should let someone onto the highway *ahead* of him. Question answered. My bad.

Bad Drivers
 

well i really don't believe education is the problem. i really think it is accountability. how many of us have seen "blood on the asphalt [or highway??] is that movie on your mind today. likely not.

i call this mentality "THE KING KONG SYNDROME" why you ask well... it seems that once an individual enters their car they seem to feel invincible that no one can touch them. so they do all sorts of crazy and hazardous driving. i feel they do this because they feel they have no accountability.... my example is... you take that same person who just cut you off or slammed on the brakes or committed some other infraction and you put him in a grocery store with all the lines full and it's 6pm on Friday they would never even attempt to cut in line. why? because now they know they can be singled out and held accoutable for their actions.

we have become a "no harm no foul" society with so many of these jerks thinking they can get a way with it because they are in their car and you can't touch them.

with that said there also doesn't seem to be any shortage of "AIRHEADS" on the roads either!

just my two cents

[QUOTE=MarkCl]Originally Posted by MarkC
. . . there will be traffic merging and entering the freeway. I have no choice but to move to the left lane to let the merging traffic in (they have the yield sign, yet would rather sideswipe you than yield), or I could hit my brakes (turning off the cruise) and slow as not to inconvenience those who are suppose to yield in the first place.[/qoute]


I never wrote that I go into an occupied, or soon to be occupied lane. When you drive the speed limit and others drive 10-20 over, it doesn’t take long for a driver, several car lengths back, to catch up.

The roads I‘m writing of all have yield signs for merging traffic that enters the freeway. So, merging traffic must yield to traffic already on the highway which is the right lane (where I normally drive unless I’m passing [very rare] or when other non-yielding traffic merge into my lane from the on ramp [cooperating with traffic patterns]).

I NEVER speed up to block anyone, what you wrote suggest that, I have no problem with anyone getting in front of me (everyone passes me on the highway anyways) as they enter the free way, BUT if they are going slower than the speed limit as they enter, and I see that there could be a close collision if one of us don’t alter our course and yield, and there is a clear lane to the left, I will go into that clear left lane. I will not speed up to allow some in behind me, as I’m already going the max speed allowed by law (I’d drive a 120+ and leave most everyone on the road behind if it was legal...I have 6 years of experience driving those speeds on a regular basis, 100mph feels comfortable). It’s not my fault the speed limits are set so low, I merely obey them to avoid getting a ticket.

The next lane to the right lane (could be the left lane on a two lane road) is the lane I usually merge over to as to allow merging traffic a space to be in as they enter the freeway (even though they are the ones that have the yield sign). But I only do this if it’s clear, and sometimes the merging traffic will match my speed, or slowly go from the speed limit to an amount over. While I’m in the lane next to the right lane, waiting for the first opportunity to safely get over to the right lane, someone will be going much faster than the speed limit and come up behind me and tailgate me because I’m driving the speed limit. So, I can either slow down to 50 and get to the right lane behind the car that just merged (I don‘t do this, because it makes the speeding driver even more furious) , or hold my ground and wait for the merged car to go faster then I am so I can get over to the right lane as soon as I possibly can. Sometimes then, the car tailgating me will whip it over to the right lane and pass me on the right before there is room for me to go right. If they would have waited a few seconds I would have gotten over to the right lane as soon as I possibly can. And I do as they squeeze in between me and the car in the right lane, arm flailing about in protest to me going so slow (which is the max speed allowed by law) in their lane.



What the US really needs are speed cameras like they have in Germany. Police don’t pull over speeders there, they have unmarked and unsuspecting type cars that set up a sophisticated speed trap which takes photos of the car as well as fixed pole mounted cameras (usually at the entrance of a town which is set at 50kph). The offender is given a ticket via the mail. If we had this, most everyone would then be driving much slower at the speed limits. The slower traffic pattern would likely cause even more congestion, and then legislation would be forced to raise the speed limits to reasonable amounts, thus eliminating some of the reasons road rage exist today...By speeders driving at speeds that seem logical to them, yet are higher than the speed limit and which are not compatible with the few drivers who do consciously drive the speed limit.

Remember, the road is a means to get from point A to point B, it is not a race track.

I live in Maryland and most entrances onto a highway will have a long enough lane to allow a driver to get up to the speed limit and get onto the highway. Most of the time there rarely is a problem unless the traffic is a bit heavy. Other problems come when the lane is too short, and of course keeping an eye out for large and slow accelerating vehicle is wise when one is a habitual right lane driver as I am.

It would be nice if one of the moderators would either deep six this thread or more it over to the political BS forum.

Sorry, Mark, I didn't mean to imply that. I was railing against most drivers in America today.

I try not to exceed speed limits either out of fear of tickets, but sometimes you have to pick up the pace a little or get run over. New Orleans isn't anywhere as congested as larger cities, but the people here barely know how to start the car, let alone drive safely. Even three decades ago, when I went in to the DL bureau office and asked for "study materials" for the driver's license exam, the clown behind the counter peered at me as though I had a rutabaga on my head. "Y' wanna *study* for it?"

FYI: "Yield" means that you do not have the right of way... and that cars coming from the other direction do.
What you describe is what's required at a "stop" sign. (yielding is implied)
At a "yield" sign you must yield right of way to the other traffic, but you are not required to come to a complete stop. (Note however that if an opening does not present itself in the space leading to the intersection, then you must stop at the intersection until a suitable opening is presented. Contrary to what many drivers seem to believe, just because you are approaching the end of the on-ramp, you still do not have the right of way.)

BTW, "yield" signs are at every interstate on-ramp on the East coast. I'm surprised they're not present on the West coast... interesting.


Jeff Pierce

So, say that intersection is a freeway on-ramp; if traffic is heavy with no opening then the vehicles merging on the freeway from the on-ramp should yield to the drivers on the freeway by stopping.

I see the use of both a merge sign and a yield sign contradictory to each other.

That's exactly correct. That is what is required by law. Drivers on the freeway are under no legal obligation to create space for you to merge.

The merge sign is a cautionary sign (it's yellow, correct?) Drivers are not required to obey this sign (or any other yellow sign), it is simply there to warn the cars on the freeway that they are approaching an area in which they are likely to encounter merging traffic. Or to inform vehicles on the on-ramp that they need to merge with freeway traffic.
The yield sign, on the other hand is red and white. It is a traffic control device which must be obeyed. It is telling you that you do not have the right of way when merging onto the highway.

Jeff Pierce