@VCDdriver -When you go from a “k” sound ,which has the tongue against the roof of the mouth, to a “v” which does not, you pass through a neutral vowel sound as the tongue leaves the roof.This is phoneticaly called a schwa. You may go very quickly through this, but there is a perceptible vowel sound, no matter how short, between the “k” and the “v”. And, I’ve always heard and used KIB-itz, not ki-BITZ. (And I don’t speak Yiddish)
@VDCdriver, I don’t want to take this any further off course, so check your messages in a minute.
“I’ve always heard and used KIB-itz, not ki-BITZ”
Then, you are in the minority of non-Yiddish speakers who pronounce it correctly!
yeah @MikeInNH. I lived in Plymouth mass for 2 yrs. I had an almost identical thing happen to me there. I guy in a pick up turns left off the main road in town well after his green arrow had expired, he was going fast and never slowed down. he cuts me off, as I was turning right on a green light then he slammed on brakes to enter the gas station on the corner. I slammed on my brakes in my 75 ford and just was able to miss t-boning him. the guy behind me was not as quick and slammed his jeep into my bumper. he guy was a local, and was drunk. he pumped his gas, told the attendant he d come pay him later and sped off before the cops arrived. he got off scott free. the guy behind me totaled his jeep and got the blame. my old truck had a small dent in the step bumper , small dent in tail gate and a loose exhaust afterwards.
Boston area drivers are the most dangerous I ve encountered. and the most selfish and inconsiderate.
and everybody was sueing everybody! people did not let their kids out to play because if the neighbor boy got a bloody nose some one was getting sued.
Boston area drivers are the most dangerous I ve encountered. and the most selfish and inconsiderate.
Yup…Even after 30 years of living here…I’m still amazed how bad the drivers are.
Some of that lane blocking behavior is borne out of necessity in this area. If you waited for both lanes to be clear before pulling out, you might never get across. Not to mention the self centered fools that will pull up to the car in front of them stopped at a light or whatever and block you from pulling out until traffic once again starts moving and someone has mercy on your soul.
The proper way 
to execute the lane block is to stop normally and then gradually pull out in increments until an oncoming driver can no longer drive around you. Then the other lane usually stops to let you completely out.
But too many people come barreling up and end up in the roadway without stopping short first, scaring the heck out of everyone around them. Or, they start pushing their way out without even waiting at all.
Some of that lane blocking behavior is borne out of necessity in this area. If you waited for both lanes to be clear before pulling out, you might never get across
I’ve seen very very very few places where it MIGHT be necessary. But 99.999999999% of the time it’s not. It’s just because the driver is self centered jerk who gets off on blocking traffic. Every single time it happened to me…it had NOTHING to do with being necessary. Unless you consider being necessary because the driver might have to wait 30 seconds for traffic to clear instead of 5 seconds.
@ Barkydog,actually it was pointed out to me years ago this is safe behaviour because if the person is making a left turn and the person behind cant see the lights of the lead car they may gun it and run into the car turning as you slow(I thought it was weird too,till this was pointed out to me.havent read all the posts,someone else may have already pointed this out{have seen people signal as they were making a bend in the road}-Kevin
I observed this a few years ago . . .
A bum blatantly stepped off the curb and jaywalked from one side of the street to the other, to get to a liquor store.
All of a sudden some cars had to slam on their brakes, to avoid hitting this whino.
The first guy stopped in time and managed to avoid hitting the bum. But the guy behind him wasn’t so quick, and he rearended the first guy. They get out of the car and start arguing.
In the meantime, the whino is walking into the liquor store, not a care in the world. When he walked out a few minutes later, with his brown paper bag, the 2 guys were still arguing by the side of the road.
I felt really bad for those 2 guys, especially for the 2nd guy, because his rates probably went up.
So, even though drivers have to be prepared to stop at all times, there are sometimes other factors
Coulda been a kid on a bike as well as a “bum”. Don’t forget a lot of these folks are veterans who just haven’t quite made it back to civilian life, and are somebody’s son, brother, and maybe somebody’s father.
I suspect using the right foot to brake goes back to manual transmissions. You needed a foot for the clutch, and it was safer to have the foot operating the clutch not be the one needed to brake. Otherwise you might have to abruptly remove your foot from the clutch to brake in an emergency. Better to let the left foot handle only the clutch.
I was taught back in the cretaceous period that it was to prevent slamming on both the brake and the gas at the same time in the event of a sudden attempt to stop in an emergency. People who brake with their left foot have a tendency to do this.
It also prevents having your brake light illuminated by pressure on the pedal (often intermittently) while you’re cruising along, and it prevents dragging the brakes unknowingly. Elderly people in particular have a tendency to do these things if they’ve been driving all their lives using their left foot to brake. They “rest” their foot on the pedal, and their sensitivity as to how much pressure they’re putting on the pedal isn’t what it was when they were younger… I know mine isn’t.
Mike, you may have left off a 9. ??? Sorry but there are many places on the north shore of Boston that REQUIRE this at certain times to get across. Contrary to your “only taking seconds” reference you will sit there until the rush hour is over before both lanes are clear enough to enter. You apparently have not driven everywhere yet or are perhaps the luckiest person alive if you have driven through Salem as one example without ever having had to do this.
@mountainbike I got my driver’s license in 1954 and ever since I got my first car with automatic in 1965 I’ve driven with both feet when using a car with auto.
It gives me better control, and no, I don’t wear out the brakers by riding the pedal. Last week I was in the company of 2 very thickheaded guys and they threw a tantrum when I said I drive with both feet. One called me a menace on the road!
Yep, kids are really very intolerant of diversity these days.
Precambrian, Doc? {
Many people do this. I happen to prefer it the other way, but using both feet is the preference of many. My having driven manual tyrannies most of my life might also be an influencing factor.
the same mountainbike: I have always preferred manuals and have owned about 3 manuals for every 1 automatic. I was a commercial driver for almost 12 years and have encountered too many odd drivers to count. I encountered another one about 2 weeks ago. I was driving a fairly curvy 45mph back road and was in no hurry so I was just cruising. As I exited one of the two fairly sharp curves at 25mph a female “driver” in a Tahoe pulled out in front of me. Although the remaining curves were quite gentle she proceeded at 5 to 10mph constantly braking! She even braked going uphill! I don’t think she was using the brake pedal as a foot rest. I think she was just terrified of any curve. She is not the only one I have observed displaying this very odd driving behavior. I was very confused until I read a study where various drivers were put on a skid-pad. Over 60% of these “drivers” were uncomfortable with lateral acceleration exceeding .2 Gs! I don’t think I could feel .2 Gs.
Ah! POINT 2 G’s, as in 2/10ths!. For a moment I didn’t see the period!
Seriously, I wonder of it’s the lateral forces or the average car’s understeer that makes them uncomfortable. I remember driving a Chevy Astro van years ago (owned by the college I worked for) that gave me the willies at every curve. That poor thing would understeer and wallow around every curve. Turn the wheel a bit to correct for a too-large arc radius and the thing would just lean more. Turn it a little more and it would cut into the corner. Let the steering straighten a bit to correct and it would go back into a too-large radius. I had to slow at every curve to keep from crashing. The van was entirely checked out and aligned, but it was just a very poor handling vehicle.
The lady in front of you may have had normal aging problems. Just before my cataract surgery my vision got so bad that at night I had to “feel” my way around the curves on poorly lit roads at night. I’m not proud of having driven like that, but even though I realized I was having vision problems it wasn’t until I got my surgery that I realized how bad my vision had really become. I also only drove home from work at night and nowhere else, having realized that I was losing my vision.
at one time I had 20/10 vision. no more, but I still see well except for my arms getting too short to read.
I have always had one problem tho, for some reason at night, when it raining,i just can t see the darn lines. I just don t drive at night when it s raining. my grand mother had the same problem I think.
A couple of thoughts:
When I used to call on Ford, the opinion of the ride engineers there was that 0.3G’s was the typical cornering limit for most drivers. Yes, 3/10ths of a G. Needless to say this was factored in when they did ride and handling evaluations. (and so you know, No!, it did not affect their work on limit handling. They let it completely hang out.)
Also, While severe understeer can produce discomfort, I have found that oversteer produces much more discomfort. Even a little oversteer seems to produce panic in the average joe.