Kogarashi
07-19-2007, 12:49 AM
...but some people in CT really push it.
I was driving to a local park yesterday for a playgroup activity with my baby in the back seat. On the highway, I'm driving at a fair clip (10+ miles over the speed limit, just like everyone else on the road, and there were still people zooming past me), but once I pulled off the highway and onto the residential street where the park is located, I slowed down to 30 mph, the exact speed limit. I figured this was reasonable, since the area is residential, there's at least two large parks that cater to families with young children, and the road is only one lane in either direction.
Of course, 30 mph wasn't enough for this one lady who ended up behind me. Now, I'm driving a Jeep. A good sized car, if not necessarily a monster in proportions. The "lady" was driving a dinky little thing. And proceeds to tailgate me. I can see her face in my rearview mirror, and she's making all these "ugh, come on" faces and hand gestures at me. She backs off a bit, then rides right up my tailpipe again. She proceeds to do this for about four blocks, back-off then tailgate. I'm midly annoyed by this, but I'm doing the speed limit and, as I said, the area's got homes and kids. I'm not about to speed just because someone behind me is tailgating and making faces.
Then the road widens a bit. It's still only one lane in either direction (with a solid double yellow line down the middle), but since I'm driving close to the middle line, the lady has just barely enough room on my right to pass me. Which she does. And proceeds to gun it just as we're coming up on the first park. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a speed trap right there....
Of course, it doesn't get her far. Not one block from where she passed me, the road is closed due to road work, apparently. She stops, and proceeds to have some sort of conversation with the construction guy telling her to take a side street detour. She turns, and I follow, and I get to watch her gunning it up the hill past several houses. Luckily I didn't have to stay behind her any longer, since was no longer heading in the direction of the playground.
---
Then, of course, on the way home, I get on the interstate that takes me to my street, and see the LED sign warning about an accident just past my exit. The sign warns that the left two lanes (out of four) are closed, and to merge over. There's already a backed up line in the right two lanes, and my exit is a left exit, so I carefully merge left anyway in the hopes that my exit will be before the site of the accident and actual lane closures.
Now, apparently, people in CT don't have any semblance of understanding about lane closures and merging in a reasonable fashion. This means that the left two lanes (despite the early warning of lane closures) are packed with cars zooming on ahead without a care in the world. Everyone and their dog tries to merge at the last moment, which results in major congestion near the bottleneck, and lots of frustration (and likely more accidents).
Luckily, my exit was not closed. Unluckily, a good fifty other cars (no kidding) had the same idea and were also trying to exit there. The exit ramp is one lane, and bends in a very tight curve before meeting the southbound exit ramp and coming to a stop sign (two lanes side by side) as the leg of a T intersection. Despite the exit ramp being one lane, and most of the cars waiting in a single file line, many more cars displayed the CT mentality of cutting in line and merging at the last possible moment. I saw spots in the line where cars were side by side, though once they hit the curve they had to merge as there was no room there. I sat in the middle of the exit ramp, and had at least three cars pass me on both sides. One was forced to merge right in front of me because she did this at the last moment, when the road narrowed and wouldn't let her further.
I finally got to the stop sign and turned right, but into the left-hand lane on my street (it's two lanes either direction there) because the right lane very quickly turns into a right-only lane and I needed to go straight, and I wouldn't have had any room to merge had I done it properly. This car behind me, who had been riding my bumper the entire exit ramp, pulls into the right-hand lane next to me, guns it, and merges in front of me, nearly clipping both my front bumper and the rear bumper of the car in the right-hand lane ahead of her. And then she proceeds to do at least 35 in a 25 mph residential area with a school. :rant:
I can't wait to move back to an area where the majority of drivers are sane, rather than stupid-crazy-entitled. Unfortunately, my hubby's PhD is going to take a while.
---
And the highway incident reminded me of something that happened back in April when I was driving up to NH to visit my former college roommate.
I was driving up the same interstate that the previous anecdote occurred on, when I saw signs warning about the left two lanes being closed (of three). Like a good, sensible driver, I merged right immediately so as to avoid the crunch later on. Cars still zoomed past on the left. After a while, and several orange construction signs telling us to merge, a semi decided to ride the line between the left two lanes so people couldn't keep passing him and trying to merge at the last second. I saw several frustrated drivers, but I personally wanted to cheer for the semi because he was nipping dumbness in the bud there.
Unfortunately, the semi himself had to merge right when the trucks carrying the blinking merge arrows became visible. I gladly let him in front of me. Some of the people stuck behind him proceeded to speed ahead, slam on the brakes when they saw the arrow trucks, and try to merge. At least one had the gall to merge left again once he passed the arrow truck and sped ahead. The whole situation was an accident waiting to happen.
And happen it did. Thankfully, I was up around Hartford (half an hour later) when I heard it over the radio. "An accident on I-91 around exit 14," which is where the lane merges were. :doh:
I was driving to a local park yesterday for a playgroup activity with my baby in the back seat. On the highway, I'm driving at a fair clip (10+ miles over the speed limit, just like everyone else on the road, and there were still people zooming past me), but once I pulled off the highway and onto the residential street where the park is located, I slowed down to 30 mph, the exact speed limit. I figured this was reasonable, since the area is residential, there's at least two large parks that cater to families with young children, and the road is only one lane in either direction.
Of course, 30 mph wasn't enough for this one lady who ended up behind me. Now, I'm driving a Jeep. A good sized car, if not necessarily a monster in proportions. The "lady" was driving a dinky little thing. And proceeds to tailgate me. I can see her face in my rearview mirror, and she's making all these "ugh, come on" faces and hand gestures at me. She backs off a bit, then rides right up my tailpipe again. She proceeds to do this for about four blocks, back-off then tailgate. I'm midly annoyed by this, but I'm doing the speed limit and, as I said, the area's got homes and kids. I'm not about to speed just because someone behind me is tailgating and making faces.
Then the road widens a bit. It's still only one lane in either direction (with a solid double yellow line down the middle), but since I'm driving close to the middle line, the lady has just barely enough room on my right to pass me. Which she does. And proceeds to gun it just as we're coming up on the first park. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a speed trap right there....
Of course, it doesn't get her far. Not one block from where she passed me, the road is closed due to road work, apparently. She stops, and proceeds to have some sort of conversation with the construction guy telling her to take a side street detour. She turns, and I follow, and I get to watch her gunning it up the hill past several houses. Luckily I didn't have to stay behind her any longer, since was no longer heading in the direction of the playground.
---
Then, of course, on the way home, I get on the interstate that takes me to my street, and see the LED sign warning about an accident just past my exit. The sign warns that the left two lanes (out of four) are closed, and to merge over. There's already a backed up line in the right two lanes, and my exit is a left exit, so I carefully merge left anyway in the hopes that my exit will be before the site of the accident and actual lane closures.
Now, apparently, people in CT don't have any semblance of understanding about lane closures and merging in a reasonable fashion. This means that the left two lanes (despite the early warning of lane closures) are packed with cars zooming on ahead without a care in the world. Everyone and their dog tries to merge at the last moment, which results in major congestion near the bottleneck, and lots of frustration (and likely more accidents).
Luckily, my exit was not closed. Unluckily, a good fifty other cars (no kidding) had the same idea and were also trying to exit there. The exit ramp is one lane, and bends in a very tight curve before meeting the southbound exit ramp and coming to a stop sign (two lanes side by side) as the leg of a T intersection. Despite the exit ramp being one lane, and most of the cars waiting in a single file line, many more cars displayed the CT mentality of cutting in line and merging at the last possible moment. I saw spots in the line where cars were side by side, though once they hit the curve they had to merge as there was no room there. I sat in the middle of the exit ramp, and had at least three cars pass me on both sides. One was forced to merge right in front of me because she did this at the last moment, when the road narrowed and wouldn't let her further.
I finally got to the stop sign and turned right, but into the left-hand lane on my street (it's two lanes either direction there) because the right lane very quickly turns into a right-only lane and I needed to go straight, and I wouldn't have had any room to merge had I done it properly. This car behind me, who had been riding my bumper the entire exit ramp, pulls into the right-hand lane next to me, guns it, and merges in front of me, nearly clipping both my front bumper and the rear bumper of the car in the right-hand lane ahead of her. And then she proceeds to do at least 35 in a 25 mph residential area with a school. :rant:
I can't wait to move back to an area where the majority of drivers are sane, rather than stupid-crazy-entitled. Unfortunately, my hubby's PhD is going to take a while.
---
And the highway incident reminded me of something that happened back in April when I was driving up to NH to visit my former college roommate.
I was driving up the same interstate that the previous anecdote occurred on, when I saw signs warning about the left two lanes being closed (of three). Like a good, sensible driver, I merged right immediately so as to avoid the crunch later on. Cars still zoomed past on the left. After a while, and several orange construction signs telling us to merge, a semi decided to ride the line between the left two lanes so people couldn't keep passing him and trying to merge at the last second. I saw several frustrated drivers, but I personally wanted to cheer for the semi because he was nipping dumbness in the bud there.
Unfortunately, the semi himself had to merge right when the trucks carrying the blinking merge arrows became visible. I gladly let him in front of me. Some of the people stuck behind him proceeded to speed ahead, slam on the brakes when they saw the arrow trucks, and try to merge. At least one had the gall to merge left again once he passed the arrow truck and sped ahead. The whole situation was an accident waiting to happen.
And happen it did. Thankfully, I was up around Hartford (half an hour later) when I heard it over the radio. "An accident on I-91 around exit 14," which is where the lane merges were. :doh: