Some days I wish they'd invent teleportation technology...

[blas]

The freeway I take to work is just a little too convenient. There's an exit nearly every 2-3 miles. So some idiot will hop on the freeway, piddle at 45 mph in a 65 because his exit is 2 miles away. It irritates me that I have to go out of my way to give them room and then go around them so I don't end up going 45 as well.

[Pagan]

While it is true that she didn't look Pagan, your comeback was a tad harsh as she did say sorry and stopped.

How was that harsh? She basically started backing up without looking! If I hadn't been looking and noticed that she wasn't, she would have hit me.

[Broomjockey]

While it is true that she didn't look Pagan, your comeback was a tad harsh as she did say sorry and stopped.

Didn't seem harsh to me. "I didn't see you." <--Factual statement offered as excuse for bad behaviour.
"Because you didn't look" <--Rejection of excuse by pointing out abrogation of underlying responsibility.

Harsh would have been "Because you're blind!" or "Try looking next time!" Or something like that, anyway

[Trayol]

I'm sorry, I stand corrected after I reread the post.
It just reminded me of a time when I almost backed into someone when I was driving my mom's Expedition. I had looked, saw noone, was backing up and quickly stopped when I finally saw a small family doing the whole "dear in the headlights" look. When I had apoligized they had huffed away.

[AriRashkae]

Actually, I frequent exits 1-9, with an occasional jaunt to 14 or further. Ugh to the 91-95 connection.

I'd say I know those people. Try driving a Special Needs VAN around there.

To the idiot behind me: I know I'm in a van but that nifty yellow sign with the flashing lights means you have to treat me just like the big buses. Yes, you can get a ticket if you pass me with my STOP lights on.

No, I can't turn right on a red. I don't care if there's no traffic. I am a bus, albiet a small one. I am also authorized and obligated to take down your info when you try to pull into another lane and take the right ahead of me. Yes, this also means I must also stop for railroad tracks.

And when you attempt use your shiny red sports car to back over a 4 year old girl on a bike (in a less than priviledged part of town, shall we say), and then nearly run her over again when you gun it down the streets all of, say, 400', I will call into base with as much info as possible. The police dispatchers know us well. (Cops happened to be right around the corner )

Also: The city is doing construction on the bridge. They have been for over a year. They will likely be doing it for at least another year. The right lane leading to the bridge has not been a "thru" lane for almost 2 years. It is a "Right-turn only" lane. Gunning around the line of people who obey the traffic laws will end up with you plastered into the barrier. I will not let you in* just because you didn't want to wait.



*If, however, you round the corner down the hill, see the sign that says "This lane only for bridge" and stop/slow down and try to merge then, I will let you in. Racing past me across the intersection will accomplish nothing. Be glad I don't drive that direction much anymoe.

[Kogarashi]

Ugh, I'm starting to hate that one stretch of the shopping drive.

Dear Massachusetts Driver: Welcome to Connecticut. Everyone around you is driving 65mph. The signs say 55. Why are you driving 45?

Dear Person Attempting to Turn Left at the Worst Possible Place Ever: nevermind your obvious issues with trying to turn left across three lanes of busy traffic. See that large red object heading right toward you? That would be my large, red Jeep. I have the right of way. You do not. I have a large gap behind me. Please wait until after I pass you before nudging your senseless nose out into traffic. Your car will thank you for it later.

Pop Quiz! When you (as a pedestrian) approach an intersection you wish to cross, and see that the traffic light for your direction is turning yellow, do you...

A. Pause briefly to give it more time to turn red before meandering casually across the now-green lane?
B. Hurry up and cross at a brisk pace?
C. Hurry up and cross at a dead run?
D. Stop and wait for your light to turn green again, or possibly even use the crosswalk signal like sensible people?

The correct answer is, obviously, D. After two years, I'm jaded enough to accept C. as a viable answer, so long as you're making a concerted effort to get across quickly and don't have small children or strollers with you. Of course, my dear Pair of Female Pedestrians, you chose option A., making those of us who just got the green light wait that much longer as you briefly glanced our way before continuing to meander. I don't care if we're not legally allowed to hit you. That doesn't give you the right to jaywalk and impede traffic so. ::shakes fist::

[Daskinor]

Dear Mr H2 asshole,

Thank you for the new car. I know you did not want to give it to me. But your insurance company caved like house of cards with a ferret on top. I know you don't see double solid white lines with a ruble strip in between that often. However your not allowed to cross over them. Especially into a heavy duty Volvo who happend to be merging on from another road. I would of never thought that you would argue that with the cop. Especially since this setup is supposed to protect all the people merging from different roads.

I also like how you blew a gasket when the cops called me an ambulance after I stood up and could not put any weight on my black and blue foot. Or the fact that I was bleeding out of my right ear. I was also real impressed when you 5'8 self yelled at a cop when he sighted you at fault. Especially since he was 15 cars behind you up hill.

I never had it so easy dealing with an insurance company before. They paid all my medical bills, and I got my full normal pay out of them. Not to mention 75% of that amount as pain and suffering. All I had was a broken foot and a ruptured ear drum. I think it was the fun fact you out right lied to your insurance company about what happened. My insurance company was perfectly willing to represent me in court over this as well. I think the two companies don't like each other.

I found most of this out from my new cop friend after he checked up on me, and made sure that I did not get any more trouble out of you. That your insurance company would not cover your H2 because you lied on your statements. Then tried to get the cop in trouble when he told the insurance company that you are a liar.

Total damage to my Volvo 3,400 to the H2 11,500. Why in the hell does anyone buy the damn things.

[Pagan]

Total damage to my Volvo 3,400 to the H2 11,500. Why in the hell does anyone buy the damn things.

Ummm, because they're compensating for the size of a certain part of their anatomy that the are lacking in? Oh, sorry, was that a rhetorical question?

[Geek King]

Total damage to my Volvo 3,400 to the H2 11,500. Why in the hell does anyone buy the damn things.

Seriously. I can see buying a Hum-Vee. They're sweet off-road, and less likely to be damaged off-roading than anything else available to the public up to the really heavily modded supertrucks. I'd choose one over anything non-treaded for that purpose.

In comparison, H2s and H3s are cheap crap. They're big. That's it. Save the money and buy a panel van if you want big. Oh, wait, that wouldn't have the hummer name, would it? And people are still stuck in the high school phase where you have to have the big brand names to show off. Never mind that there are better options available, with equal safety, for the same money or less. Dopes.

Glad you came through it all ok Dask. Give the cop a thumbs up for me when you see him next. He sounds like a good guy.

[hecubus]

I don't drive myself, but I do spend quite a bit of time on the road, taking the disabled transit bus to and from dialysis. That being said:

To the moron in the really loud blue pickup,

A: Try using your turn signal when you change lanes
B: No, you cannot make a U-Turn at an intersection. I don't care how bad you want to get to Denny's. Oh, so you're gonna do it anyway. Great.
C: Try using your turn signal when you turn into the Denny's parking lot.

That guy was a real triple threat.

And, to the driver of the semi in the lane beside us,

I see you have your turn signal on, but, you still might want to wait until the back of your trailer actually clears the front of the bus BEFORE you change lanes in front of us. And by the way, plan ahead next time so you don't have to cut across two lanes of traffic within about 100 yards to get to where you're going.

[protege]

Plenty of idiots on the roads today and yesterday...

The dumbass in the dump truck yesterday stood out. This fool, was cruising along at a blazing 25mph in a 45 zone...and couldn't understand why everyone and their mom was passing him, and giving him a certain hand gesture. At least he had his flashers on, but still. If your vehicle can't maintain highway speeds...send that piece of shit to the junkyard.

While we're at it, what's the deal with the idiots who go roaring past me, only to cut me (or the car ahead of me) off...and then slow down to the same speed I'm going? I'm sure it takes them down a few notches, when they get into the passing lane...and that lane's moving slower than the one I'm in.

As for Hummers, I think their owners are attempting to "compensate" for something. It's not like those vehicles are fast (yet to see one over 65mph!), stylish, or even "rare." People buy them simply because they're large and expensive. Not me, I'd rather get another sports car with that sort of cash

[Andara Bledin]

Oooh... I just remembered a winner I got to see on Monday.

I have just gotten on the freeway, and there is an interchange split coming up.

I, of course, have moved into the lane to allow me to keep on the same freeway and am cruising along at a spritely 10mph (rush hour, don'cha know) when just after the split becomes a solid white line, this dipshit in a sedan nearly stops in her lane, which had been moving at about 40, and changes lanes to get in front of me.

Well, mostly in front of me. If I hadn't hit my brakes, she would have run into me because there was no freaking room for her to merge.

I honk at her to let her know that 'yes, you're a freaking moron' and she gave me this wave like we're old friends or something. *grrrr*

Then, not two miles later she does the same exact thing to move another lane over. The guy she almost hit that time also honked are her reckless ass, and got that same stupid wave.

She made a point to wave at me for a long time when I passed her. I get the impression by her flippant waving and her kid's expression (did I mention that her pre-teen kid was in the pasenger seat?), that she does this all the freaking time.

I hope she tries that on some guy who's itching to get himself a knew car. I'm not sure if I want the kid to be with her at the time... he might still be salvageable, and it's not his side of the car she keeps trying to ram into other cars on the freeway.

^-.-^

[Pagan]

Dear Asshole in the gold truck,

I am soooo sorry to have inconvenienced you by stopping at the the light at Ellison & 523 because it had turned red. You had somewhere that was oh-so-important for you to get there that you felt perfectly justified in gunning your engine and screeching around in front of me to complete your turn. That's fine, I'm sure that the people that were in the intersection and had the green light didn't mind having to slam on their brakes either! The irony is, had you been a civilized human being, you would have been able to make your turn in 5 seconds, since there was only one car in each lane coming across. Jackass.

[Kogarashi]

To Mr. Blinker-Happy: while I appreciate that you had your blinker on while driving down the road, I did not appreciate nearly getting T-boned by you because you were not, in fact, slowing down to turn into the parking lot before my turn, and rather decided you would go straight through the intersection despite the large, red Jeep making a turn in front of you. Quite frankly, you're worse than the people who turn without signalling. I'm also fairly certain my elderly passenger did not appreciate nearly having her door crushed in on her. I'm sure my toddler in the backseat would've liked it even less, nor would I have liked needing to replace the carseat. Perhaps next time you would be better served listening to that little clicky-clicky noise in your car that is trying to alert you to the fact that your blinker is still on.

- snip merging-after-the-last-minute story-

People pull that stunt all the time here in CT. I-91 splits down by Exit 1. The right-most lane of four becomes Exit 1 into the city, the left-most lane merges onto I-95 Northbound, and the middle two lanes merge into each other before merging onto I-95 Southbound (and causing no end of traffic delays due to said merge). Well after the line turns solid white and begins separating the two I-95 ramps, cars still cut across because they were waiting until the last minute to merge for the direction they wanted to go. The lane splits are marked well in advance, at least as far as Exit 7.

Edited to add this one from today....

Dear Pedestrian, crossing signals are your friends. Pay attention to them, and maybe you won't end up a greasy smear on the road.

So I was driving downtown for some errands, and came across one of the larger intersections of the not-quite-downtown-yet area. Two streets intersect. Street A is two-way traffic, with three lanes on the north side of the intersection (two southbound, one of them a right-turn-only) and two lanes on the south side of the intersection. Street Q, the cross street, is one-way with three lanes total. Since this makes the intersection rather large (and lopsided), this intersection follows the common New Haven tactic of having the crosswalk signals change so they all say "walk" at once. Because Street Q is one-way, the crosswalk where traffic goes into the intersection stays on "walk" longer than the other three, since the two-way street can't enter Street Q from that direction.

Hope that wasn't too confusing.

Anyway, this young woman (my guess is University student, by the carryout tray and shoulder bag) walks up to the intersection right after the crosswalk signals turned to "don't walk" (minus that one that stays lit longer), and Street A (the two-way traffic) got the green light. Pedestrian doesn't bother to look left or right, just starts barreling across Street A without even hesitating. Right as traffic starts moving.

She stops short in the middle of the northbound lane when she realizes that, wonder of wonders, the cars in front of her are moving. Then she glances up to see traffic on the other side of the intersection inching toward her (luckily for her, they were caught behind someone making a left-hand turn). Then she finally looks up and sees that the traffic signal is green for the street she's trying to cross. She spins around and, amazingly, walks back to the curb instead of finishing crossing the street.

Not once did she actually look at the crosswalk signals.

I thought I left these immortal nutjobs behind in Utah.

[protege]

Anyway, this young woman (my guess is University student, by the carryout tray and shoulder bag) walks up to the intersection right after the crosswalk signals turned to "don't walk" (minus that one that stays lit longer), and Street A (the two-way traffic) got the green light. Pedestrian doesn't bother to look left or right, just starts barreling across Street A without even hesitating. Right as traffic starts moving.

Quite a few CMU and Pitt students do that too...and then can't understand why they either get hit, or have a close call. So many, in fact, that they had to *re-time* all of the traffic lights along the main drag! Oh, and many of these same fools will run out into traffic without looking at all Further proof that an education does not mean one is smart

Then there's the idiot this morning. This woman, in her Mitsubishi, decided to ride my bumper for several miles. As soon as traffic opened up, she floored it and passed me...only to have to stop at the next light. I got caught by the same light, and ended up right next to her. She laid rubber at the next one, got caught by it...and I ended up next to her *again.* Repeat that over the next few blocks