@Triedaq And the problem is made much worse with earbuds than with an open system. I lived in San Francisco in the 1970s where I was often forced to listen to loud boom boxes on public transportation. At least with the earbuds they are keeping the loudness to themselves.
Off topic, but your mention of Dave Brubeck in the 1960s made me recall the greatest concert I ever saw: Ella Fitzgerald in the Hollywood Bowl in August 15, 1956. I was only 17 but was absolutely spellbound.
we walk much faster than most of the college students. We call these slow walking college students “geezer wannabes”.
While we live in different parts of the county, we apparently encounter similar people, Tridaq!
I am a bit younger than you (a mere 66 1/2) but I am always amazed at how I manage to speed past all of the other folks–including many young ones–who are walking in the same park that I frequent.
I think that my best “walking story”–which has amused several friends–goes back a few months. I was almost at the turn-around point on my usual 2.5 mile power-walk, when I encountered a young woman (probably no more than 30) with her 3 children, just entering the path from a nearby parking area.
She gestured at the path through the state park and asked–with a disdainful expression on her face–If we continue along this path, is it all like this?
My surprised response was…Well, yes, you will see the historic canal, dense growths of trees, wild flowers, babbling brooks, and wildlife all along this path.
Then, with a burst of inspiration, I added, However, about 1/2 mile ahead, there is a pedestrian bridge over the canal, and that will give you access to the Rose Garden!
She looked at me as if I had three heads and said, A half mile? I don’t even want to walk to the end of my driveway to get my mail!
At that point, I wished her a good day, and resumed my walk–at a speed at least 6 times faster than she was walking as she ambled back to her car. All I can imagine is that she expected…Disney World… or some such attraction in the park, and lacking that, she had no interest.
Hello – I think this one’s getting a bit off track, if you wouldn’t mind redirecting it back to driving. Thanks!
@cdaquila Thank you for the gentle reminder.
I admit not reading the original post when I joined in. I have just read it, and I have exactly the same concern as the OP. I live on a narrow, two-lane (1 each direction) country road that winds through the hills. There are no shoulders, just drainage ditches. One of the turns in the road is around a blind hill. There is a “Slow to 10 MPH” sign. The drivers in the lane furthest from the hill are making a left bend. Almost all of them cut the corner. I’m talking about left wheels over the center line. They absolutely cannot see anyone coming in the opposite direction until it’s almost too late. It amazes me that there have not been any serious crashes there yet. (They would be crashes, not “accidents.”)
I simply do not understand why it’s so difficult to stay in one’s own lane. Power steering takes all the work out of it.
I once almost hit a motorcyclist on that corner. As he was leaning into the corner, his face was approximately in line with my headlight. I managed to swerve enough to miss him. When I got to work (as a college teacher) I mentioned it to my students and wondered why anyone would drive that way. One of my students was a motorcyclist. He said, “Because it’s fun!” I note that he had once hit a brick wall on his motorcycle and had suffered some permanent brain damage.
" if you wouldn’t mind redirecting it back to driving"
Sorry!
The young woman who didn’t want to walk to the end of her driveway was apparently driving a Ford Explorer, and it appeared to be about 8 years old. I didn’t have a chance to engage her in discussion about any issues that she might be having with that vehicle.
;-))
@Triedaq what you should do when you’re passing the college kids is say “Out of the way old timer/grandpa/ma!” 
@bscar2–What I have said to this kids as I pass them is “Careful–geezers coming around you on the left”.
I miss being able to run. I used to go to the gym at noon and run 2.5 miles every day. Unfortunately, ten years before I retired, I developed a heel spur and that was the end of the running.
They are about to start building a movable center barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge. Currently there are plastic reflector poles that are moved to divide the directions of traffic (sometimes 3 in each direction, sometimes 4 and 2.) Anyhow, there have been any number of terrible head-on collisions when one driver drifted through the line of reflectors into oncoming traffic. But the rate was far worse 30 or 20 years so now. More recently still they lowered the speed limit and increased the speeding fines and it fell even more. It has gotten to the point those accidents are quite rare, though most of us are still looking forward to the hard divider. The falling rates over a long period suggest people have better control of their cars, not worse. Older cars had sloppy steering and suspensions and tires that did a bad job keeping the car on the road. I suspect many accidents were due to that.
They’re also getting closer to building suicide netting to catch jumpers, a very worthwhile project. Most research suggests a deterrent to suicide can be effective as it is often an impulsive act. The handful of people who have survived a jump from the bridge say they realized what a terrible mistake they had made just after jumping. The system of nets hang well below the railings and don’t hurt the views significantly. It’s a very worthwhile project.
There are signs on the Golden Gate Bridge saying “No U Turn”. I always wondered who would be stupid enough to go that. Several years ago as I was driving north across the bridge on a clear, sunny day, somebody coming south hung a u-turn in front of me. He hit the car in front of me, but I was able to avoid colliding with them. Fortunately, traffic was light, and nobody was going fast. So there were no serious injuries, but northbound traffic was blocked for a while. This was not a case of inattention; it was plain ol’ stupidity.
After being caught on the bridge in stopped traffic for an hour once before, I always carry a book on the seat next to me.
Sometimes I wish I had Marvin the Martian’s ray gun. Some idiot decided to pass against the double yellow on a busy suburban street, pulled out and began driving on the wrong side of the road directly toward me a couple days ago. Damn near had a head on crash. It was after dark so I couldn’t tell make, color or license plate or I would have called police.
Unfortunately, vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among teens. We encourage all parents to enroll their teen drivers in this program or something similar before they are given the freedom of the road.
kaleem
Would teenagers be safer driving old clunkers with manual transmissions that jump out of gear and so far out of line that they pull to the right and exhausts so loud they can’t hear their music?
Nah. Just a large spike sticking out from the steering wheel pointing towards their neck
You are not the only one noticing a decline in drivers and people overall. I am looking to get a dash camera for this reason. I have pretty much settled on a Chinese model 0806 as it looks like a good value for the features it includes. Some of the stuff I have seen lately is just nuts. People blatently passing where they cannot see and I nearly go off the road to avoid a head on collision. A clunker Dodge Caravan with a smashed in front left corner pulls out from the left and comes across three lanes of traffic and nearly creams me in perfect visibility with no reason to do this. My only rational thought is that they also wanted their front right corner and headlight smashed in to match the other side of their beat up van. Then I was driving past the entrance/exit to the local Wal-Mart (this is some dangerous driving at times) and some van pulls out right in front of me, forcing me to basically lock up the brakes to avoid hitting it. Then it started doing like 15 miles an hour and never sped up so I began passing it in the left lane. Without signalling, they pulled right over into my side and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting them once again. Then I followed them about a mile and was unable to pass on the right as everyone else was flying by in the right lane and with all the traffic trying to get around, I was stuck right behind this terrible driving slow poke. Then they come to a screeching halt in the left lane and sit there, then without signalling or anything just turn into a parking lot across the right lane from the left lane they are in. People trying to fly by in the right lane then have to slam on their brakes. People are honking and glaring. Somehow there wasn’t a crash this time but the van showed its experiences with many dings and scrapes. I would post dash cam video of such drivers on the local police Facebook pages with the license clearly visible to let them deal with this.
I work on computers and deal with really stupid people all the time. I am not just talking about computer illiterate people which are common but people who are just downright stupid and unreasonable so nothing really surprises me anymore. I mean people want to trade sex for computer repair and all. No thanks as they have all been nasty and one was another man! I posted an ad not too long ago that said “Video Game Console Repair -Repairs for your XBOX, PlayStation, WII units, and more.” The first question I got was “Do you repair XBOX units?” REALLY??? Seriously you can’t fix stupid. I used to think there was no such thing as a dumb question but not anymore! Of course I have to tell my girlfriend and she just rolls her eyes as she has heard all kinds of other stories from dealing with these people.
A day later we are leaving my place and there was a blue F150 pulled over basically blocking my county road where it meets a regional highway. The people are just sitting in the truck doing something and don’t seem to care that they are blocking a road. I had to drive around them on the wrong side of the road and my GF was like “Why don’t they just move a few feet?” I told her I could tell them I repair XBOX units and then they would ask me if I repair XBOX units so they are just dumb and there is no fixing stupid.
People just don’t seem aware of what is going on around them. I am sure some of this is texting but some of it just seems to be people in general. The story about people going to a park and not liking the walking trail doesn’t surprise me one bit. There is a similar discussion on another car forum I am on and someone sold a cheap used car on Craigslist and the person called him wanting to return it 4 days later for a refund because they had lost the car keys! He just hung up on them. I mean really, the collective intelligence of this country is going down the toilet or something.
Some of them are a bit crude so be forewarned but also pretty funny IMO. Here’s one for X-Box repair and there are a number of them about cars in the archives.
The guy tweaks a lot of people on Craigslist and the back and forth is real. Maybe you’ve dealt with him before… 
Check out Don’tevenreply.com and X-Box repairman about 30 lines down.
OK, so I’m not Pollyanna, but really it’s amazing how well we actually do get along with each other on the streets and roads of the world. The population is truly diverse, with people speaking many different languages, different religions, different values, vastly different driving experience and different understanding of what driving involves and how it works. Most vehicle operators have no idea at all of the forces they are unleashing. And yet we still mostly get there without too much banging into each other, most people do drive on the correct side, most people do look before they go, etc. The accidents are not as frequent as you might expect.
I watched traffic flow in and out of an intersection in Saigon where 6 streets crossed, absolutely no traffic control at all, no signs, no signals, no mandate to keep right. They made it for the half hour I watched. If you wanted to walk across the street you just do it, slow and steady, and the traffic flowed like water around you. Amazing!
That being said, when IQ testing was developed the average IQ was standardized at 100, meaning roughly half the population would be lower than 100 and half would be higher. There are some not so bright people out there driving around, and we all know it.
Wentwest, I agree with you. When I observe the way people operate vehicles (I’m hesitant to call much of it ‘driving’), I’m truly amazed that we don’t see widespread mayhem on our roads. Of course, when I think about how life starts for each of us (two half-cells joining together), I’m amazed that the whole thing works in the first place. The news media inundates us with problems caused by our differences, but I consider our similarities to be much more remarkable.
Perhaps one reason you might think that cars aren’t as stable as they used to be is that many now employ electronic vs. hydraulic steering, which is the case with my '13 Sonata. I noticed immediately that if I look away from the road at all the car will wander without hesitation. The steering is so sensitive that you are constantly correcting the steering vs with previous cars when it would take a longer while before the car would wander when you let go of the wheel, assuming the road was without much of a crest. Even on a real flat highway without any crest at all if I just nudge the wheel a little bit it starts to wander in that direction vs returning to center. Now I just read in another forum that there may be an adjustment to the computer that the Hyundai tech can make so that it’s less sensitive so I might have that checked out.
I’ve been noticing recently several drivers who drive while texting. I can usually spot them from behind because they struggle to stay in their lane. Then as I pull up along side them to pass, I can see the phone being held up. In fact, I’m seeing it so often, it’s beginning to give me a bit of anxiety. The other day I pulled up next to a young woman at a stop sign on a university campus who was reading a text while driving, and I said something to her through her open window that I’m not proud to have said. I immediately regretted it, but I’m hoping maybe I made an impression in spite of my anger.
On some of my longer nighttime drives, I see a lot of drivers driving with no lights on other than their daytime running lights. It’s happening so frequently, usually at least one idiot per trip. I’m beginning to think DRLs are a bad thing because so many people don’t realize their DRLs are the only lights that are on when they drive at night, especially on rental vehicles.
I’m thankful my current daily commute is short and doesn’t involve freeways.
So no, it’s not just you. 