Road Rage Random Thoughts Thread

[notalwaysright]

I'm just not going to be able to drive on a specific street on the weekends. I drove this street every day when I was in school, and while it was annoying at times, the drivers were never this straight up insane. It's one lane in either direction. The part I'm referring to has no bike lane. It has street parking. It is narrowish, for this area. It's not really that narrow, the neighborhood I just moved from has even narrower streets, to the point that there is literally only one usable lane, and I had no problems in the 4 years I lived there. You see a person coming toward you and either you or they find a spot to pull over and the other passes and you move on. But not this street, oh no. It has two completely normal usable lanes, there is no need for anyone to move over, and it would be unsafe to do so, because there could be a bicyclist on your side of the street, and you'd either block or hit them.

Here's what people do. They are driving where there are no cars parked in the street parking, and now come to a car that is parked on the street. They have absolutely no spacial awareness, so they don't realize that have at least 6 feet of clearance -including mirrors- in between them and the parked car. They swerve over the double yellow line into the other lane. There is ALWAYS a car in the oncoming lane.

A variation of that. A car comes up behind a bicyclist.* The car goes over the double yellow line into oncoming traffic in order to go around said bicyclist. That happened to me today with two cars in a row. They just assume that I will move over so that they can go in my lane. Okay, in this case I did have room to move over, and I did (a little) purely because I wanted to get home and not be in an accident. I just can't get over how people have no brain at all both in lack of spacial awareness, and in assuming that they can drive however they want and other people will get out of the way. It's like since I had room, they think that I am obligated to drive over to the side (actually driving in the unoccupied street parking) for their convenience. I mean, heaven forbid a person has to go slow for 15-20 seconds in order to wait until it is safe to pass the bicyclist. Plus, how do these people get their drivers licenses if they don't know how to stay in their own lane while passing a car parked on the side of the street.


*this street has a pretty view and so a lot of recreational bicyclists use it on the weekends. I think it's a poor choice, due to lack of bike lane and general traffic in the area. But what do I know? I'm just a person who'd rather not be hit by a car.

[Foxbite]

They have absolutely no spacial awareness, so they don't realize that have at least 6 feet of clearance -including mirrors- in between them and the parked car. They swerve over the double yellow line into the other lane. There is ALWAYS a car in the oncoming lane.

A variation of that. A car comes up behind a bicyclist.* The car goes over the double yellow line into oncoming traffic in order to go around said bicyclist. That happened to me today with two cars in a row.

You must be driving near where I live because this is a daily experience of mine as well. Cars would rather clip my driver side mirror off swerving into my lane than be in their lane a reasonable distance from the parked cars. WTF?

[Aria]

I am a dedicated cyclist now but I feel this must be said.

To all cyclists: GET A BELL! If I'm walking a 5 month old puppy I need to know you're there to control him. He WILL clothesline you and if you came up behind me like a panther I won't even feel bad about it. And if I am biking and you want to pass me because I'm too slow that's fine, but GET A BELL! Then I know to stay fully in my lane for you and not have a start when you're suddenly passing me. Also, the thing about the dog goes double on a mountain trail!

Good grief.

[Nashida]

Dear cyclist:

Put your phone away. You were riding in the center of my lane, coming straight at me, flying downhill as I was trying to build up speed to go uphill, and you had your phone right in front of your face. Facetime? More like FacetimetoputitawayalreadyGOD.

PS: Where the frack was your helmet? Had we collided and I turned you into a road pizza, the two remaining brain cells you seem to have wouldn't stand a chance.

[Food Lady]

Why do you people insist on making a right turn from the LEFT LANE??

[BPFH]

You must be driving near where I live because this is a daily experience of mine as well. Cars would rather clip my driver side mirror off swerving into my lane than be in their lane a reasonable distance from the parked cars. WTF?

I see that on a regular basis, too. I have to make a left turn to get home, and most of the time as I'm getting into the left turn lane, I've got people who think they need to have 40 feet of clearance from someone who's parallel parked taking up about half of the turn lane...

That's the one reason I'd love to have an offensively large vehicle at some point - just something big enough to make anything short of the Peterbilt of Natural Selection back off.

[Nunavut Pants]

That's the one reason I'd love to have an offensively large vehicle at some point - just something big enough to make anything short of the Peterbilt of Natural Selection back off.

After my tiny car was hit again by someone "who didn't see me", I went on a rant about that to some friends. Evidently it doesn't help as much as you'd think. Someone with a massive lifted pickup was hit several times in a couple of years, each by someone claiming not to see him. One was claiming that even after they pried him out of his wrecked car and loaded him into an ambulance, while my friend looked at the new scuff marks on his obnoxious-mobile, made his report to the cops, and drove off on his merry way.

[dalesys]

Railroad tie bumpers? On all four sides?

[BPFH]

Railroad tie bumpers? On all four sides?

Hmm. I do live next to a railroad crossing (as in, where two railroads cross, not where a normal road crosses a railroad)...

[Argus]

Railroad tie bumpers? On all four sides?

I'm sure there is a reason cars aren't already built that way.

[dalesys]

I'm sure there is a reason cars aren't already built that way.

Styling. Aerodynamics. Fuel efficiency. Marketeering. I remember how they whined and sniveled about the 5MPH bumper standard and got it cut back.

[Deserted]

Thank you, driver in front of me, for not having working brake lights. I now know that my brakes work -- really good -- once I realized you were no longer moving.

[Blue Ginger]

To the Assbucket with no rear lights,
Fuck you with a rusty barge pole. It was late, it was dark and there are no effing streetlights on that highway. We were about 600m behind you for at least 5 minutes before we even realised that you were there. And we only spotted you because the lights of that oncoming car disappeared for a second as they went past.

We were honking and signalling for you to pull over to let you know you had NO TAIL LIGHTS OR FUCKING BRAKE LIGHTS. But you did have a very dim numberplate light.
Then when we got to town and pulled beside you, you flipped us off. When we all stopped at the one traffic light in that town, mum got out of our car to let you know about your lack of important freaking safety features and you abused her.

So guess what dip shit, we called the cops, after you passed the servo on the way out of town. We gave you the courtesy of hoping you would have pulled in there to check for yourself. You didn't. So we called. And the lovely only fucking light on your back end illuminated your number plate very nicely.

I doubt the cops would have chased you then and there, but I really hope you got a visit the next day.
(There is no cop shop in that particular town. The nearest ones are 40 mins behind us or 30 minutes in front in the 2nd biggest town in my state.)

[Slave to the Phone]

Once, totally unbeknownst to us, all of our back lights failed. When a pick-up truck full of cowboys came blowing up next to us yelling, it was a little unnerving, so we pulled over.

The cowboys pulled over in front of us, bailed out of the truck and came back yelling at us and pointing at the back of our '65 pick-up, so we thought we were on fire or something and bailed out of our truck and ran to look at the back of the truck ourselves.

Passing cars must have thought they were seeing a road rage thing happening.

Once things were figured out, we were very profuse on our thanks that they took the time to let us know that we could have killed someone or gotten killed ourselves due to a wiring problem.

[KatherineB]

After my tiny car was hit again by someone "who didn't see me", I went on a rant about that to some friends. Evidently it doesn't help as much as you'd think. Someone with a massive lifted pickup was hit several times in a couple of years, each by someone claiming not to see him. One was claiming that even after they pried him out of his wrecked car and loaded him into an ambulance, while my friend looked at the new scuff marks on his obnoxious-mobile, made his report to the cops, and drove off on his merry way.

I had a period where cars always seemed to want to be in the lane where I already was. I now drive with my lights on all the time, which has all but cured the problem.