MOVE, gosh darnit!!!!!111!!!11!!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Sorry about the language in my title but

No, not really that bad just a quick little sighting...I stopped at the grocery store and was driving up the lane that goes across the front of the store to turn into the parking lot, and 2 women presumably walking back to their car were ambling down the middle of my lane...they clearly saw me coming (they weren't 15 feet away), but did they move over? NO! of course not. I know the pedestrian has the right of way, but that's so you can CROSS the street, not walk down the middle of it!

On another note, I almost got in an accident on my way to work because some guy came through the cross "street" that connects 2 streets on either side of the train tracks and didn't bother looking to see if anyone was coming before turning (there's no stop sign or anything). Slammed on the brakes, he was halfway across the road, and THEN he thinks to look back the other way to make sure no one is coming. Grr.

[ArenaBoy]

I know the feeling. Idiots abound in cars. I had to help a friend move to Michigan State and her and I decided to go to a grocery store and get some food. As we were entering the parking lot some dumb-ass flies right through causing me to slam on my brakes.

I know the pedestrian has the right of way

The car gets the last word and wins the argument.

[Rapscallion]

There's right of way, and then there's right of weight. That's where the problem lies.

Rapscallion

[Shabo]

Although, assuming you live through being hit, you could always sue...

I had one lady, a ways in front of me, put on her right blinker and start to turn. I slowed down a little so she would have plenty of time to finish the turn and I could go on my merry little way. There was a guy waiting to turn left onto the same street that the woman in front of me was turning onto, so rather then doing the logical thing of letting him fend for himself (he would have been able to turn eventually) she decided to STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TURN!!! Who does that? She lets the guy go that wanted to take the left, but he sees me coming and doesn't want to cut me off. I have to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting this stupid wench, as does the person behind me, and the person behind them. After we come to a complete stop, the car taking the left goes through and the lady taking the right finishes taking her turn. You may be wondering why I didn't just go around her. Well, had there been no car taking a left in the opposing direction, I would have had room to. But the "right" lady didn't leave me enough room to get around her and stay on my side of the road. What a moron. It's women like her that give women like me a bad rep for driving.

[BookstoreEscapee]

If I'm in slow moving/stop-and-go traffic and someone's trying to get out of a side street, I have no problem letting them in, but when there's traffic moving along behind you...you don't stop!!

This lane I was in has several (3 or 4) moveable stop signs in the middle (on the line) too, so pedestrians have no problem getting across, because cars have to stop at every other lane into the lot.

[LewisLegion]

I had to add my own little driving rant story. Okay, picture this. Four lane road, two lanes going each direction, and a turning lane between them. I'm driving in the near lane...ie, the one right next to the turning lane. The car just ahead of me in the lane to my right is stopped.

The reason they are stopped is because a trucker is attempting to pull out of a parking lot into the lanes going the other direction. There is no traffic going that direction but the road is decently heavy going the way I'm going. So, I'm nice and I stop beside the other car to allow the trucker to pull out.

Now, who doesn't know that big mac trucks MUST SWING WIDE in order to make a turn? Apparently...the truck driver didn't know it.

He pulls out in front of us and cuts his wheel sharply, trying to pull into the turning lane WITHOUT entering the empty opposing lane at all. He's going very slowly but he doesn't seem to realize that in his quest to remain completely in the turning lane without crossing over the line that the only path his trailer can then take to straighten out is OVER ME.

So I'm sitting there, car to my right, truck to my left, watching the back double set of tires on the trailer coming closer and closer to me, aiming more and more to roll right over my hood and crush my tiny little corolla, and I have no where to go. I can't even back up because I now have someone else sitting parked on my bumper.

I honk. Truck keeps on going. Tires are getting closer. The side of the truck is very close to clipping my mirror.

The guy on my right sees what's going on (thank heavens) and pulls up over onto the sidewalk, then into the driveway the truck just vacated. I crank my wheel over to the right as far as it will go and pull my car as far over into the right lane as I can, crank around the back of the truck, and head off down the road. My hands didn't stop shaking for an hour.

[solemnwarning]

I think you should need to pass a common sense test and a test on using these "mirrors" before being allowed to drive anything bigger then a 2-4 seater ford POS...

[Broomjockey]

I think you should need to pass a common sense test and a test on using these "mirrors" before being allowed to drive anything bigger then a 2-4 seater ford POS...

In Alberta (can't speak for elsewhere) you need a Class 1 operators licence which requires a certain number of hours training, and a specific exam which includes all aspects of operating the vehicle. It's like any other motor vehicle driver, people either have a bad brain day, they lucked out and just barely passed, or their skills have atrophied since obtaining the licence. Frankly, I think that more "small vehicle" drivers need to be taught how to drive around big trucks, from the number of times people have cut them off and then done stupid things like slammed on the brakes, or drive in the blind spot of the truck.

In Lewis's case, yes, that driver sucked, but how many rants do people have about regular drivers?

[wagegoth]

I've driven into work the last couple days, instead of taking the bus, because of some outside things I've had to take care of.

I'M HATING IT!!! I'm having to deal with all this stupidity, and I'm getting to work stressed out and angry, then I dread having to drive home.

One of the biggest driver problems in my area are the number of unlicensed, often illegal immigrant, drivers. No insurance, of course, no real driving skills, they simply buy the cheapest car they can and start driving on California freeways.

I can't wait to go back to riding the bus.

[solemnwarning]

In Alberta (can't speak for elsewhere) you need a Class 1 operators licence which requires a certain number of hours training, and a specific exam which includes all aspects of operating the vehicle. It's like any other motor vehicle driver, people either have a bad brain day, they lucked out and just barely passed, or their skills have atrophied since obtaining the licence. Frankly, I think that more "small vehicle" drivers need to be taught how to drive around big trucks, from the number of times people have cut them off and then done stupid things like slammed on the brakes, or drive in the blind spot of the truck.

In Lewis's case, yes, that driver sucked, but how many rants do people have about regular drivers?

A small car can't do too much damage (comparatively), a huge-ass lorry is capable of just flattening a line of cars...

EDIT:
<rant>
Watching old people drive around here is scary, a deaf, senile 90yo could drive here if they wanted. I can't, after all 15yo's are too young! Until I'm 17 I'm a retard incapable of doing anything besides sitting in a char drooling! It's a good thing dangerous people like me are kept off the roads.
</rant>

[BookstoreEscapee]

In Alberta (can't speak for elsewhere) you need a Class 1 operators licence which requires a certain number of hours training, and a specific exam which includes all aspects of operating the vehicle. ?

In the US you need a special license also -CDL (Commercial Driver's Licence) I believe it's called. I get nervous going to work when I am in the left turn lane, and the trucks are making the right out of the access road to where I work. There's the B&N Distribution center, a Costco DC and they are building another warehouse there as well. So there are a lot of trucks. Honestly, though, I have only seen one accident involving a truck and he just got stuck on the grass and his trailer was across the road blocking traffic. Don't know exactly how he did it but it didn't involve anyone else, thank goodness.

[Shabo]

From what I've seen, the big mac truck drivers are more competent than most other drivers. But I've never seen anyone that didn't know to turn wide in a mac truck. Maybe he's not used to pulling a trailer? Stupid git.

[Dragon_Dreamer]

It's not quite truck related, but some limo drivers have the same issue. :P

Near my house is a sharp S-curve, literally just shy of 90 degrees. The outside of the curve is a wide, dirt-lined, shallow ditch. The inside of the curve is a stone wall that has been there since before the road was. Most drivers attempt to take this curve at 40-60 mph, and end up in the ditch. That's why it's there. Once in a blue moon, a larger truck or SUV will scrape the dirt wall. There have been surprisingly few injuries (and as far as I know, no major ones), so my family tends to just call for help as soon as we hear the screeching of tires and the *thump.*

During the Republican convention of 2002, a limo driver became wedged between the ditch and the wall. Apparently, he took the turn too fast, got his front tires stuck in the ditch, and tried to turn around. That's when his bumper managed to get stuck against the wall, until the tow trucks pulled them out. As usual, no one was hurt.

There is no way to straighten this S-curve anymore than it is, as it runs directly between the corners of two houses. When the road was built around the 40s or 50s, it followed a Lenape trail that went a few feet in front of the house on the outside of the curve.

Not only was this a safety issue, because it went so close, but that front yard was also where all the plumbing was buried. So the owner at the time (my great-gramma) sat out on the front porch with a shotgun, and threatened to shoot anyone who built the road there.

For some reason, all they did was make that sharp turn when they came to the two houses (cutting through the front yard of the one with the stone wall), and went between them until they were out of easy shotgun range, then made *another* 90 degree turn to get back to their original route. The other turn is an intersection, so there's generally few problems with it.

So many people make the mistake of taking that turn as fast as they can. They only tend to make that mistake once. :P The rest, meet the *other* hazard on the same road, further down. That part goes over a ridge. The incline is steep enough that if a car is going fast enough, their tires *will* leave the pavement momentarily. There are also railroad tracks at the apex of this ridge. Go too fast going up, and it's bye-bye undercarriage!

[tollbaby]

*snicker* as for the big trucks turning....

The other day I witnessed something incredible. An 18-wheeler was pulling out of a side street and turning right (well, he was waiting to, anyway).

This MORON woman decided she could get around him and turn right *faster* than if she waited her turn. As soon as there was a break in traffic, she started turning, but so did the truck. He never even had a CHANCE to see her from his cab, and he took off half the roof of her car before he managed to come to a complete stop. At this point, I was off to the mall, so I went out the other exit, but when I got back, she was getting a lovely lecture from the policeman about proper procedure when large vehicles WITH WARNING SIGNS AND DIAGRAMS are turning It was a beautiful thing. I wonder if her insurance covers stupidity....

[Primer]

I wonder if her insurance covers stupidity....

There's gotta be a spot on the forms by now...:"cause of accident--Stupidity"
If there isn't, there should be!