Well, that doesn’t require any additional comment.
I have a Mecury Sable and it requires moderate accelaration for good gas milage. I do not linger or drive with the quickness. I know that some drivers come from great distances out side of our Metropolis to get to and from work. That there are Moms with to many errands etc… . Keeping your distance from the car in front. I know the difference between the speed limit and traffic flow and the allowance a police officer will allow befor giving a speeding ticket or a two slow for traffic citation.
Do we now have a large group of people in this country who are no longer willing to recognize these conditions. With self government being at the center of our country and the current awarnes of politics what could these drivers be thinking, feeling or believing? That would pull them away from holding to safe driving practices, that sincer individuals, who used there time to provide insite too, so we would not dimminish our union and divisabilty on a public hyway. Should we start a no smoking law to bannish all unsafe drivers from public hyways. Or, how do you ask them nicly! Or in there current state, can we!
Drivers should not be penalized (the target of rage) because they choose to drive the speed limit. The speed limit is not a “guideline”, it’s the law, whether you agree with it or not. It’s the height of arrogance and rudeness to tailgate, flash your lights, etc simply because you want to go faster. That’s what passing lanes are for. And I disagree with that comment about NYC drivers. I drove a 70 passenger school bus for 20 years in NYC, and then moved to rural Vermont. The people here are as aggressive in their driving as anywhere else; it’s become a nationwide disease. Calculate the time you save by driving 10 mph more in a 30-minute commnute, then see if that time is worth the ticket and increased insurance rates, gas, etc.
Drivers should not be penalized (the target of rage) because they choose to drive the speed limit.
That’s NOT the point any one of us are making…It’s because they are driving BELOW (10mph or more) the speed limit. And the rage has nothing to do with them driving below the limit…but that they are blocking traffic (i.e. NOT moving over when there are a line of cars behind them).
The people here are as aggressive in their driving as anywhere else; it’s become a nationwide disease.
NE drivers are very very aggressive. I grew up in Upstate NY…and it’s NOTHING compared to NE drivers. And insurance rates account for it too. Boston has the second highest insurance rates in the country. My insurance TRIPLED when I moved from a city in NY to a city that is 3 times smaller in NH.
But if you want real real super aggressive driving…try South America. Those people are NUTS.
You don’t have to go to South America. Try any metropolitan area–Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit,-----> Well, you get the picture, eh? I even submitted this short list in alphabetical order.
Add to that the value of the dollar dropping like a rock. I heard the other day that if the dollar were at par with the Euro then oil would be around $80/barrel instead or $120/barrel. So, yes the worldwide price of oil is going up, it’s just going up faster in the US.
You don’t have to go to South America. Try any metropolitan area–Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit,-----> Well, you get the picture, eh? I even submitted this short list in alphabetical order.
Been there…I even work in Boston…and these places are NOTHING compared to places I’ve been in South America (Bogota Columbia, Santiago Chile)…US drivers seem like little old ladies when compared to these drivers. It’s absurd. Their driving style is easily 10-20 times MORE aggressive then US drivers…EASILY.
Agree; Lima, Peru has the worst traffic & drivers I’ve ever encountered. My driver knew all the back streets to race through so as to avoid the gridlock. Bogota is civilized by comparison.
I SEE A DEAD HORSE - AND IT’S BEING BEATEN TOO DEATH.
judging by all of our blogs we are all over the board in this one. but lets face it as long as your legal we all have just as much right to the road as each other. now i don’t want to be killed by someone driving too aggresively, but neither to i want to kill someone by driving that way myself. im not sure which would be worse. we all need to give this a little thought. the machines we drive can easily cause serios injury or death, either by driving too slow or too fast. so we all need to find a way to get along.
1 treat the other drivers as you want to be treated.
if your driving to fast let the person in front of you know, in a non threatening manner you wish to pass.
if your driving under the speed limit try to let other people get by.
2. driving above the speed limit is illegal, i personally don’t care if you do (i do myself) but don’t indanger other persons, give them a chance to get out of the way.
3. be flexible - keep up (or down) with the flow of traffic
4. as to the min speed posted on highways - i don’t think it’s a guideline as to how slow you can drive if your too affraid, drunk, tired etc etc to drive the limit. it was intended as a guide for those vehicles that can’t attain or maintain a hwy rate of speed. IE: vehicles under tow, low cc motorcycles, farm equipment, vehicles not in proper running order.
remember we all have to share the road - i understand wanting to save gas, as i said in a previous post, buy a motorcycle or a more fuel efficient car. i also understand in our complicated lives the need to get more accomplished. maybe get a little more organized, or leave earlier. i know what i do - when i want to drive fast i head to farm country where the only thing in front of me is the occasional cow or farm impliment.
good luck to us all, cause if we can’t all work together it just ain’t gonna work.
I’ve been to South America 5 times for a total of 45 days. Been driving in the US for 35+ years and in all the driving I’ve NEVER seen anyone drive on the sidewalk…My 45 days in South America I’ve seen it at least 10 times. And that was one of the LESS dangerous driving situations.
Really?? I’ve lived in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Italy, Belgium and Indonesia and I’ve rarely experienced people simply moving to the side to let someone pass. Where have you seen this?
I remember seeing some pretty “interesting” driving techniques in the Dominican Republic many years ago. It appeared that only the rich folks had cars, and there did not appear to be any traffic rules (pedestrians were on their own to scramble out of the way).
You were expecting something else from a Virginia redneck with a mullet, a rebel flag decal on the back deck, and Black Sabbath blaring from the radio? 
The Black Sabbath part is OK. (-;
I think part of the problem is the cars themselves. The reason motorcycle riders call them cages is that being sealed off from the world isn’t likely to make you more humane. Cars enable rude behavior in the same way the internet does. Inside your car or sitting at your computer, you don’t see the faces with which you interact, and that seems to bring out the worst in some people. I don’t think I need to name names. Just go back and re-read this thread and you can see for yourself who spews the most hate. There seems to be limited accountability for the manner in which we treat other people on the road and on the internet. If you could see the faces of all the people who drive around you, or if you rode a motorcycle, you might come to appreciate that we all share the roads. Why does the act of driving a car seem to make some people adobt a jailhouse mentality where they only care about themselves?
Jeremy, you are so right. People behave differently in their vehicles than they would if face-to-face with another human being. Can you imagine shouting at someone or flipping the bird at them in a store? The same people who don’t think twice about behaving rudely in their car wouldn’t dream of doing so outside the relative anonymity of the vehicle. What does that say about us as a society? Last winter I was turning into a store parking lot, and there were 6-10 foot tall piles of snow all around from the plow. There’s a yield sign there, since you have cars coming from two directions into the same roadway. I couldn’t see above the mounds of snow, so I had to come to a complete stop to make sure there wasn’t any traffic entering the roadway. Some guy in an SUV (well, he’s in a tall vehicle, maybe he can see but I sure can’t) goes completley nuts because I stopped for all of 2 seconds. Blows his horn, flips me the bird, tailgates me into the parking lot, and roars past me. I see the same guy ten minutes later on line at the checkout, but he doesn’t recognize me. Polite as can be on line.
Everyone is in a hurry. I actually had a guy pass my stopped bus, with my red lights flashing, on the right, in the breakdown lane, just as a child stepped off the bus. I slammed the door shut on the kid’s face, but it stopped him from taking that last fatal step that would have killed him. The driver never stopped.
We all have somewhere to be on time, we all have children and pets, and we are all in this silly world together. A little consideration and patience goes a long way…and it’s better for your health not to become enraged over what is really, in the grand scheme of things, unimportant. Treat the elderly driver as you would want your mom or dad treated, pretend it’s your child on the bus, your residential street, your pets by the side of the road. It’s the little courtesies that make life nicer for us all.
Ok, this happened to me a few years ago at a parking lot as I was going to class. The lot was almost at capacity, and this is a large parking lot, easily 300 yards in any direction. But as luck would have it right as I was driving in. I saw someone backing out of his spot in the first row. The parking gods were smiling on me that day or so it would seem. So I pull up closer to the spot, and put on my indicator. And wait for the person to pull out. Nobody is behind me or in front of me. The guy pulls out of the spot and all of a sudden a dark blue Jetta comes screaming around the corner, goes around me and parks in the spot that was all of 5 feet in front of me. I roll down my window and yell at the driver for taking the spot and for nearly hitting me. The driver responded with an expletive and a middle finger. So moved my vehicle (a Bronco at the time) to block him in, and got out to confront him. Anyway I’m sure you can guess where this is going. Long story short; nobody was arrested since there were no witnesses, and I never saw that Jetta in the parking lot again.
moral of the story, people usually don’t back up their words when they are out of the car
it isn’t worth getting beat up or going to jail for beating someone else up - OVER WHAT, A PARKING SPACE. we’re at war with a country over oil, in the middle of a recession, home forclosures are at an all time high and home sales are at an all time low. my daughter starts college next year and i have no way of paying for it. i’m on permanent dissability because of a rare bone desease, not to mention gas is $4.20 per gallon (in spite of aformentioned war). and we’re all sitting here bitc---- about PARKING SPACES AND RUDE DRIVERS!!! if your rude - stop being an a–hole. if you drive too slow speed up a little or pull over, if someone takes your parking space - walk, we’re the fattest nation on earth - we need the exorcize. i challenge you all to take the first step towards a random act of kindness - it won’t kill you, might even make you feel good. don’t allow a total stranger to control your mood (day), we all have the power to laugh it off or ignore it. ok putin my soapbox away now.
In hindsight you’re probably right. But it was the principle of the matter at the time. I sympathize with your plight. I too have a something of a disability (ankylosis spondylolysis) . I’m only 28, and there are days where I have to down 8 tylenol to make it through the day.
“I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I blame you.”
Yes, you can blame all those amateur drivers out on the road for the anger you feel.