Tuesday Rant, effing bad drivers again!!

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Steve_R

Are you really that paranoid while driving, or just acting that way for this thread? If the former, you should sell your car and walk everywhere. If the latter, troll on.

Not trolling, and maybe while being paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. I like to think of myself as someone who fortunately is becoming wiser while becoming older. I’ve been around long enough, and seen enough to realize there’s a lot of really bad drivers behind the wheel these days.

Some people apparently want to blissfully go through life, trusting divine providence will always cast a protective net over them. I’m not one of them.

[6spdC6]

We have way too many roundabouts in my area, with more coming (NYS). The problem is IMHO only about 1/2 or less of the drivers out there know how to drive them. Course texting and playing around with their electronic toys helps **** things up.

A couple weeks ago I was approaching a roundi and the car ahead of me did not have a clue to roundi etiquette or law. Passed up a lot of chances to get in the circle, just sat there. I'm not a horn person but was getting ready to put it to use.

Finely this dofus puled into the circle, got about 1/2 way though and saw a approaching car and slammed on his breaks.. Almost caused a few vechicles to hit as we all had to aggressively hit our breaks. That did generate about 4 horns to go off.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

Come on dude, quit being so obtuse and try to work with me a little bit here. I’m not worried about the good drivers who are following the laws and are generally not a problem. Please realize just because the cross traffic has the red light, doesn’t always make them *stopped* traffic.

What I am wary of is certain scenarios presented by cross traffic which could lead to disaster, such as:

~ A drunk or stoned driver who flat out blows through the red light.

~ A distracted driver, especially a younger kid busy fiddling around with their phone rather than paying attention.

~ A vehicle which has developed a mechanical issue, such as a truck which has lost its brakes.

~ A vehicle trying to escape the police in a pursuit situation.

~ A police car or other emergency vehicle responding to an emergency situation, just because they’re the *good* guys doesn’t mean they’re always a good driver.

~ Just any asshole driving like a maniac without regard to any one else around him.

Face it, some times shit happens and accidents occur. What I attempt to do is minimize my risks, and by not placing myself in a potentially dangerous situation is one of them. The chances of someone being involved in an accident while sitting in an intersection, no matter how unlikely, are still much greater than someone like me, who’s not sitting in the intersection to begin with.

Again, this is in a heavy traffic situation. The cross street traffic is stopped. Any blind drunk coming from that direction will have to hit a line of cars before he gets to you.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by 6spdC6

We have way too many roundabouts in my area, with more coming (NYS). The problem is IMHO only about 1/2 or less of the drivers out there know how to drive them. Course texting and playing around with their electronic toys helps **** things up.

A couple weeks ago I was approaching a roundi and the car ahead of me did not have a clue to roundi etiquette or law. Passed up a lot of chances to get in the circle, just sat there. I'm not a horn person but was getting ready to put it to use.

Finely this dofus puled into the circle, got about 1/2 way thought and saw a approaching car and slammed on his breaks.. Almost caused a few vechicles to hit as we all had to aggressively hit our breaks. That did generate about 4 horns to go off.

I've been behind that same guy.

Rounds have been coming into heavy use in NC for the past ten years. I've talked to DOT engineers and they are hot on them. Since I grew up in Massachusetts I'm an expert driving through them. Dumbasses will eventually figure them out. It took about a month or two.

Two dangerous intersections where I live now, 200 yards apart, nearly blind curves and lots of vacationer's traffic: flatlanders who have no clue where thy are going, staring at their navigation screens.

People here want traffic signals for them. That would be a disaster due to limited sight distance. Two round-a-bouts would solve the problem, be less costly in the long run with much less delay.

[Onebadcad]

Originally Posted by Steve_R

Anyone driving slower than me is an asshole. Anyone driving faster than me is an idiot. Old people driving Buicks are worse than both of those.

I am up for some LeSabre action, IIRC the 1975 coupe was like 30+ feet long, a real land yacht.

[Onebadcad]

Roundabouts / reacharounds, jug handles, speed bumps, bike only lanes, speed limits all need to go.

Speed limits should vary among drivers!!
Should be based on your skill levels, with some bonus points for your car's performance level, and second bonus points based on not having an accident for 20+ years.

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by 6spdC6

We have way too many roundabouts in my area, with more coming (NYS). The problem is IMHO only about 1/2 or less of the drivers out there know how to drive them. Course texting and playing around with their electronic toys helps **** things up.

A couple weeks ago I was approaching a roundi and the car ahead of me did not have a clue to roundi etiquette or law. Passed up a lot of chances to get in the circle, just sat there. I'm not a horn person but was getting ready to put it to use.

Finely this dofus puled into the circle, got about 1/2 way though and saw a approaching car and slammed on his breaks.. Almost caused a few vechicles to hit as we all had to aggressively hit our breaks. That did generate about 4 horns to go off.

*dufus

*brakes

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

Again, this is in a heavy traffic situation. The cross street traffic is stopped. Any blind drunk coming from that direction will have to hit a line of cars before he gets to you.

Ok, I guess so, but I didn’t realize our little discussion involved heavy traffic that would provide a safety buffer, silly me.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by GTOguy

*dufus

*brakes

*doofus

A dufus sounds like what you would call a stupid dindu.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

Ok, I guess so, but I didn’t realize our little discussion involved heavy traffic that would provide a safety buffer, silly me.

If you don't have heavy traffic, then you should be able to hang a left without waiting.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

If you don't have heavy traffic, then you should be able to hang a left without waiting.

Maybe, but heavy traffic isn’t guaranteed in all 3 other directions, oncoming traffic could be heavy while cross traffic could be light or empty, thus not providing the protective buffer you mentioned previously.

I still stick to my previous statement, i keep out of the intersection until i can immediately turn through it, regardless of any other factor concerning traffic volume. I find especially in large metropolitan areas there is a lot going on at an intersection, including traffic entering via businesses close to the intersection. Factor in dindus driving their 600 horsepower Mopar cars in typical erratic hoodrat fashion, I choose caution over concerns about intended traffic flow or the guy behind me.

What it all boils down to is the less time I spend in an intersection, the less chance I have of being t-boned, simple as.

[BRUIZER]

I miss city life.... sounds fun.

My bi-weekly commute into town hazards consist of:
Wildlife (this morning it was turkeys), falling debri and weather.



Avoiding most people is mentally refreshing and far less taxing to one's insurance company.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

Maybe, but heavy traffic isn’t guaranteed in all 3 other directions, oncoming traffic could be heavy while cross traffic could be light or empty, thus not providing the protective buffer you mentioned previously.

I still stick to my previous statement, i keep out of the intersection until i can immediately turn through it, regardless of any other factor concerning traffic volume. I find especially in large metropolitan areas there is a lot going on at an intersection, including traffic entering via businesses close to the intersection. Factor in dindus driving their 600 horsepower Mopar cars in typical erratic hoodrat fashion, I choose caution over concerns about intended traffic flow or the guy behind me.

What it all boils down to is the less time I spend in an intersection, the less chance I have of being t-boned, simple as.

Fact is, you're spending more time in the intersection, but at the stop bar with a green light above your head. This situation is likely to get you rear ended.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

Fact is, you're spending more time in the intersection, but at the stop bar with a green light above your head. This situation is likely to get you rear ended.

I don’t understand how placing oneself sitting IN an intersection waiting on oncoming traffic to clear equates to more total time, wouldn’t the actual moving time be roughly the same whether you are proceeding directly through the intersection or pausing while traversing the intersection? Proceeding directly through the intersection would most likely be faster because you would probably be moving at a higher rate of speed, not to mention factoring in the additional wait time if you choose to enter the intersection prematurely?

I guess you make a point about having your car possibly rear ended by some impatient jumpy idiot sitting behind you, but that would probably still be preferable to being t-boned in the intersection.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

I don’t understand how placing oneself sitting IN an intersection waiting on oncoming traffic to clear equates to more total time, wouldn’t the actual moving time be roughly the same whether you are proceeding directly through the intersection or pausing while traversing the intersection? Proceeding directly through the intersection would most likely be faster because you would probably be moving at a higher rate of speed, not to mention factoring in the additional wait time if you choose to enter the intersection prematurely?

I guess you make a point about having your car possibly rear ended by some impatient jumpy idiot sitting behind you, but that would probably still be preferable to being t-boned in the intersection.

Sitting at the stop bar gives you an excellent opportunity to wait for another entire cycle.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

Sitting at the stop bar gives you an excellent opportunity to wait for another entire cycle.

Waiting kind of defeats the whole purpose of going out and driving somewhere, doesn’t it? How can I get anywhere if I spend my life stopped? I might wait temporarily, but it’s not going to be a long term thing.

If I’m at the front of the line at the stop bar, I’m still most likely certain to go through the light. If the oncoming traffic is so heavy I can’t make the light, I’d rather be stuck at the stop bar versus being caught in the middle of the intersection with my thumb stuck up my ass when the light changes.

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by Louie Detroit

Waiting kind of defeats the whole purpose of going out and driving somewhere, doesn’t it? How can I get anywhere if I spend my life stopped? I might wait temporarily, but it’s not going to be a long term thing.

If I’m at the front of the line at the stop bar, I’m still most likely certain to go through the light. If the oncoming traffic is so heavy I can’t make the light, I’d rather be stuck at the stop bar versus being caught in the middle of the intersection with my thumb stuck up my ass when the light changes.

If the traffic is heavy and the phase does not include a protected left (arrow), you could be waiting there forever. However if you cross the stop bar legally, then you have the right of way even after your phase turns red. So you wait until that last car on opposing traffic clears, block the cross traffic, then you make your left turn and be on your way.

If you're a really good driver like me, you get as far into the intersection as possible, allowing one or more cars behind you to do the same move. This is not only legal, but traffic engineers expect it when they design the geometry and signal timing of the intersection.

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

If the traffic is heavy and the phase does not include a protected left (arrow), you could be waiting there forever. However if you cross the stop bar legally, then you have the right of way even after your phase turns red. So you wait until that last car on opposing traffic clears, block the cross traffic, then you make your left turn and be on your way.

If you're a really good driver like me, you get as far into the intersection as possible, allowing one or more cars behind you to do the same move. This is not only legal, but traffic engineers expect it when they design the geometry and signal timing of the intersection.

**** driving. You're really good at EVERYTHING.

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Yadkin

If the traffic is heavy and the phase does not include a protected left (arrow), you could be waiting there forever. However if you cross the stop bar legally, then you have the right of way even after your phase turns red. So you wait until that last car on opposing traffic clears, block the cross traffic, then you make your left turn and be on your way.

If you're a really good driver like me, you get as far into the intersection as possible, allowing one or more cars behind you to do the same move. This is not only legal, but traffic engineers expect it when they design the geometry and signal timing of the intersection.

What we have here is obviously failure to communicate, so I’ll try it once again. I don’t care about the guy behind me, the good intentions of traffic engineers or the smooth flow of traffic, all I care about is my survival while driving a car.

I’ve been driving this way for decades and have never missed a light, let alone waited forever on one. Now maybe the guy behind misses the light, but tough titty says the kitty, or as the say in Poland, tough shitsky.

I don’t plan on being killed by being t-boned helplessly sitting with my thumb up my ass in an intersection. I would fully expect St Peter at the pearly gates to piss his pants laughing while I stammered “but, but, but I had the right of way”.

[Steve_R]