One cause of road rage

[Guest Dans 77 Limited]

I dont know if this is happening more lately or if Im just starting to notice it more. But Ive had this happen to me several times since the weather got warm and after yesterday the next one that does it just may get dealt a dose of road rage.

Your driving along on a multi lane road with what would be considered a normal distance between you and the car in front of you .Next thing you know some @#%&head comes up and squeezes in between you and the car in front almost causing an accident causing you to jam on your brakes . The immediate fear is the guy behind you hitting you so out of reflex you look in the rear view ............ and there is NOBODY frickin there. Theres nothing behind you but air ...... enough room to land a 747 behind you and this ******* has just come up and jammed his way over in between you and the car in front of you. Are they ignorant or just plain frickin stupid ?

Yesterday Im out in my 77 Buick on a 3 lane section of I-79 outside of Cranberry PA. The right lane is a merge for the PA turnpike the far left lane is for passing Im in the middle ........ with out a car behind me for at least 1000 yards . This peice of @#%& in a black HHR comes barreling up the passing lane squeezes over in between me and the guy in front and then since the merge lane is going slow ....... he slows down to about 10 MPH to merge into that lane ......... I was doing $%^&*#@ 70. I swear on my mothers grave that if I didnt have some place to be by a certain time (hence the 7o MPH I was doing) I would have got off at that exit and literally dragged that idiot out of his car and did my absolute best to hospitalize him. He risked his car his life my car my life and lives and vehicles of anyone else who would have got caught up in it with an ENTIRE empty lane behind me to use to merge into the right lane with. And this seems to be happening(or Im noticing it ) more and more lately. And the more it happens the less tolerant Im getting with it. If your one of the people its happened to you know how I feel , if your one of the people that does it.......... STOP before you either hurt yourself or someone else or before the last person you did it to drags you out of your car and beats the S#$t out of you.

I dont know if this is happening more lately or if Im just starting to notice it more. But Ive had this happen to me several times since the weather got warm and after yesterday the next one that does it just may get dealt a dose of road rage.

Your driving along on a multi lane road with what would be considered a normal distance between you and the car in front of you .Next thing you know some @#%&head comes up and squeezes in between you and the car in front almost causing an accident causing you to jam on your brakes . The immediate fear is the guy behind you hitting you so out of reflex you look in the rear view ............ and there is NOBODY frickin there. Theres nothing behind you but air ...... enough room to land a 747 behind you and this ******* has just come up and jammed his way over in between you and the car in front of you. Are they ignorant or just plain frickin stupid ?

Yesterday Im out in my 77 Buick on a 3 lane section of I-79 outside of Cranberry PA. The right lane is a merge for the PA turnpike the far left lane is for passing Im in the middle ........ with out a car behind me for at least 1000 yards . This peice of @#%& in a black HHR comes barreling up the passing lane squeezes over in between me and the guy in front and then since the merge lane is going slow ....... he slows down to about 10 MPH to merge into that lane ......... I was doing $%^&*#@ 70. I swear on my mothers grave that if I didnt have some place to be by a certain time (hence the 7o MPH I was doing) I would have got off at that exit and literally dragged that idiot out of his car and did my absolute best to hospitalize him. He risked his car his life my car my life and lives and vehicles of anyone else who would have got caught up in it with an ENTIRE empty lane behind me to use to merge into the right lane with. And this seems to be happening(or Im noticing it ) more and more lately. And the more it happens the less tolerant Im getting with it. If your one of the people its happened to you know how I feel , if your one of the people that does it.......... STOP before you either hurt yourself or someone else or before the last person you did it to drags you out of your car and beats the S#$t out of you.

Dan

[Bhigdog]

Don't sugar coat it, Dan. How do you REALLY feel? .......Bob

[DizzyDale]

Hey Dan:),I feel your pain on a daily basis,as most days i drive at least a hundred miles.GOTTA love the youngsters that sqeeze in with no directionals and then:mad: flip :mad:you off.Like WHAT did i do wrong?????I had to learn to calm down,probably has something to do with bein 56.You gotta take it easy,YOU are the one that's goin be on the side of the road with chest pains and they are just going to continue to drive without any regard for anyone BUT themselves.diz:)

[Guest sintid58]

Try it sometime in an 80,000 pound truck, I work very hard at not tailgating in all kinds of traffic but it never fails some moron just has to get into that space in front of the truck. And what you are talking about happens at least a dozen times a day because of the perceived slowness of all trucks. One thing that really gets me going is that I always drive using the cruise control and I will catch some moron and pull over to pass and THEN they speed up after I am in the passing lane. Usually if I spend more then a minute in the passing lane then some other idiot will pull up and try to pass me on the right blocking me from pulling over. And one more thing while I am on my soap box, what is with the complete idiots that will drive beside a truck for miles passing them, don't they realize just how dangerous that can be. First of all there are all kinds of blind spots when you are driving a truck, then consider that one front tire carries 6,000 pounds and is aired up to over 100 psi cold. If anything goes wrong while you are beside that truck it is not a good place to be and it make me nervous to have a car beside me for any longer than needed to safely pass. The truck we drive is governed at 68 MPH and I drive 65 most of the time for one reason, so when I catch someone and want to pass I can speed up a little and get around them. I know there a some idiot truck drivers out there that seem to think if they are driving against their governor and going 1 MPH faster than the truck in front of them they have to pass. If I know it is going to take me a long time to get around someone I just tap the cruise down a notch and stay back, in my car, on my bike or in our truck.

Edited July 11, 2010 by sintid58 (see edit history)

[Guest Skyking]

Yesterday my son and I trailer-ed two Mets in his 28 foot trailer to a show at the Larz Anderson Museum. Coming back on 95 the same thing happened twice where idiots passed on the right lane and squeezed in front of my son. My son has got to be the calmest person I know because both times he didn't say a word, unlike myself. This is one reason I don't drive Metropolitans on the freeway. Times have changed and people don't even realize what's at stake. They are 100% brain dead.................!!:mad::mad:

[Guest Straight eight]

Yeh sure, I'm just an old koot, BUT when I learned to drive, the formula was one car length for each 10 miles an hour.

It seems to me in the cases above that would be seven car lengths, plenty of room.

I know they've changed all the old rules, but this one seems to really work for me, and much less conflict with other motorists.

[trimacar]

Read the book "Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt. There are a couple of sections that are tedious, but overall it's a good read and a fresh take on something we deal with on a day to day basis.

While I feel your rage, and have felt it before on the highway, to the guy doing it to you, it's not personal, as we take it. To him, your car is just an obstacle, something in his way, or in a place he wants to be. He doesn't think of it as a person or family, it's just a thing.

The problem is that we've lost our personification, encased in a steel and glass bubble. When you can see the human form, such as a bicycler or a motorcylist, you're much more apt to treat them in a "human" way.

Now, what get's me p-o'd, and I've seen this numerous times, when two young kids get their little sedans, with spoiler wheels and muffler added, and two of them play tag on the Interstate. I was with my wife and son, right hand lane being passed by a car on the left, when two cars went by on the shoulder (right side of me) at easily over 100 miles per hour. Now those are two guys I'd like to have a walk around the building talk with, any little mistake, and they kill my family.

[Guest Skyking]

Yeh sure, I'm just an old koot, BUT when I learned to drive, the formula was one car length for each 10 miles an hour.

It seems to me in the cases above that would be seven car lengths, plenty of room.

I know they've changed all the old rules, but this one seems to really work for me, and much less conflict with other motorists.

In today's driving, this formula, ( which BTW was taught to all of us) is impossible to keep. You'll get rear ended for sure!

[wildcat1562]

hit a guy with the bumper on my truck that way, there is no way of slowing down with a trailer and a car ontop of it when they do that, smack, and the guy just kept going, never stoped, i could see both his tail lights where done and the rubber bumper was folded and the trunk lid looked flater, my bumper took it all on the old 93 ford one ton, just bent it a bit more than what it was

but he kept right on agoing, kind of amazed me

Greg

[JohnD1956]

Until you said no one was behind you, I immediately thought that it was an insurance scam.

While it may be an injustice, we all need to go back to practicing the basic rules on an individual basis. I always leave several car lengths to the car in front of me, because I have had brakes go out on me a few times, and I know I need the space to stop. If someone pulls in that spot, I just back off. It won't do me a bit of good to pick a fight with someone who doesn't have enough brains not to pull a stunt like this in the first place. Now my wife.... well, those people doing that stuff are getting the verbal lashing of a life time when she sees it.

[Guest Straight eight]

Agree with John!!

[NTX5467]

Anybody that does a lot of freeway driving has seen these things . . . and more! The old "10mph/car length rule was upgraded to the "2 Second Rule" for the safe following distance. Sometimes, this works out pretty well without looking like its a football field between the two vehicles.

Even before cell phones became so popular to use while driving, people were doing bone-headed traffic moves, many times without looking to see who might "be watching" or, rather, who was around. Enterring traffic at too slow of a merge speed, then no signals or a glance in the mirror--some people are so trusting!

What really seems "disconnected" was what I saw one day. A man was driving a work truck-type vehicle and carefully changed lanes in a normal fashion. A guy in a shiney Jag S-type was talking on the phone and felt that he got cut-off, when he really didn't. Now, you'd think that a guy with a really nice car would not risk it, but after the work truck did the lane change, the Jag guy sped up, passed him, and then cut-in right in front of the work truck, causing sudden braking. Then the Jag guy started using "hand signals", as if what he did was justified for what he perceived happened to him. It would seem that if he really liked his car as much as it appeared he did, he would not risk getting it damaged just to satisfy his ego? After that, the work truck guy gave him space, which was the logical thing to do.

In another time, a younger couple in a F-150 did an easy lane change, no drama. Coming up from an on-ramp, a guy in a C1500 was on the phone or diddling with his fancy radio. I was in the middle lane about to have a ring-side seat for what I was expecting to happen. At the last minute, the C-1500 guy looked up, nailed the brakes and went onto the right shoulder of the freeway, thinking the F-150 had cut him off, when it was his inattention that was the root cause. After the C-1500 guy got "collected", he then set out to harass the F-150 guy by doing the pass, cut-in, and slow down . . . as if trying to make the F-150 guy run into him for "payback". The F-150 guy probably didn't know what was going on and tried to slow down and otherwise not engage the C-1500 guy, but the C-1500 guy was intent in getting back for what he thought the F-150 guy had done to him. This went on for several miles on a moderately-packed evening freeway! I was getting ready to make a cell phone call when the C-1500 guy's exit came up and he exited the freeway.

Bad thing is that you can't educate other drivers or tell them how they just screwed-up and might have caused a massive problem . . . at 70mph. Sometimes, I think a high-powered bull horn hidden behind the grille (IF there's enough space!), not unlike what some earlier CB-users had, for communicating with other drivers, hehe, that might be too much fun.

Many don't realize the special issues relating to OTR trucks and their performance capabilities. Much less blind spots! A four-wheeler can be as much of a friend or foe, depending upon the driver.

Unfortunately, these drivers didn't perceive THEY did anything wrong or hazzardous . . . no wrecks, so all is good? Or might it be about them demonstrating their driving and vehicle control skills? With a captive audience, too. Just hope they don't get a text message when they are in the middle of such a driving exposition!!!!

Be cool, keep some "neutral" music on the radio, watch your mirrors in regular rotation, be cognizant of where you are in the traffic mix at that particular time, and (another way of dating many of us) "Watch our for the other guy".

Happy . . . and SAFE . . . trips to y'all!

NTX5467

Edited July 12, 2010 by NTX5467 (see edit history)

[JohnD1956]

Here's my offering of today's bonehead move:

One exit off of Rt 87 in Saratoga Springs NY dumps drivers onto a divided 4 lane, 55 mph highway. Within 1,000 feet or so is an intersection with a traffic light and a left hand turn lane carved into the road divider. Naturally the left turn lane is stopped while the thru traffic has a green light.

On the side I was traveling there is a gas station on the right with a one way entrance off the highway. The stations' exit is onto the intersecting side road. But today, two girls in a 4 door Chevy pull out the entrance, and block both thru lanes while waiting for the left turn lane light to go green.

Honestly, if the exit your on curves into the line of approaching traffic, wouldn't you think you should not be there?

Dumb dumb dumb...

[Thriller]

JD - I see similar moves all the time...we now live in an "instant" society...everyone else be damned. When there is never any enforcement, people will continue to take risks.

I walk a mile to work. Thankfully, some of it is through a park-like setting. On a daily basis I see red lights run (at least 90% of them are on the phone - illegal here with a hand-held unit as of Thursday) and illegal left turns (restricted during rush hour).

Another good one is restricted parking zones. We have them here during rush hour when it is a no stopping zone. It is amazing the number of folks who will park 10 minutes ahead of the "safe" time or if this is where they park at home, they'll sit in the car for 10 minutes until it becomes legal to park. No stopping means no stopping.

I think more drivers should be taught by old farmers. They have their issues, but they tend to drive with courtesy and common sense...and they'll make you get out and walk if you are misbehaving or just give you a butt-kicking.

[TexRiv_63]

If stupid driving behavior tees you off to the point of road rage, you better give up driving in this day and age. I learned to drive in the Chicago area and thought the expressway traffic and dumb-ass driving was a local thing - then I moved to DFW in Texas. (NTX5467 knows!) The egotistical drivers here have raised mayhem on the highways to a high art. The only good thing is that you seldom see the bird flipped at you because so many drivers have a gun on the seat next to them no one wants to tempt fate. At first it drove me crazy but I soon realized the best way to deal with it was to always assume that every driver around you will do the dumbest thing you can think of - and most of the time they do, so you are prepared! My wife and I make a game of predicting what the drivers will do and get a lot of laughs when we are right. You definitely cannot let yourself get rageous and join the crazies.

Take it easy out there.

[Reatta Man]

Agree with the comments offered.

There are now companies that offer an affordable dashboard camera for personal vehicles and may help stop a lot of this garbage. I suspect a LOT of this crazy driving if the fool/idiot/drunk notices you have a round camera lens mounted on your dash and they know they are being recorded.

My one problem with this kind of stupid driving is if the person cutting in front of you suddenly hits their brakes and causes an accident, YOU are considered to automatically be at fault by most courts and by most insurance companies. If you had video proof that the person CAUSED the accident with their careless driving techniques, a lot of court (spelled $$$$$) cases would turn out differently.

I jsut found this link, one of many companies that sell dashboard cameras:

http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/car-camera.html

Also, if you live in high-crime areas (almost ANY apartment complex in San Antonio, for example) and hid this in your car, you would have a great record of Mr. Gangbanger stealing your $2,000 factory nav/stereo system. Yo!

Joe

Edited July 13, 2010 by Reatta Man (see edit history)

[NTX5467]

When I started driving the freeways of Dallas in the middle 1970s, it was a pretty civil place--at least during the day. Less conjestion, even at peak hours.

One KEY thing was that, back then, the students had to do some sort of formal driving classes, either at school or a private contractor. In later years, that requirement has been expanded to allow parents to teach their own kids with a prescribed text and driving time--the honor system. YIKES (with all due respect)!! If the parent didn't understand "WHY" some things were done as they were . . . you can then suspect that part of the class was probably not covered very well, I suspect. Parents are supposed to be decent driving role models, but sometimes they might not be quite as good as they need to be . . . by observation.

As time has progressed, things have worsened with more people in the mix on the same freeways that used to be nice to drive on (and still can be at off-hours). Not to forget the construction delays that sometimes seem to be as bone-headedly done as the drivers who don't like them, doing further bone-headed things as a result.

DFW, like some other areas, has seen too much growth for existing roads. Many should have been upgraded 10 years ago (as in sections of LBJ/I-635), but were delayed due to funding or oppposition from neighborhoods it adjoins. Now, with more people on the same concrete lanes, it's getting to be so much of a "MESS" that it's hard to not get somewhat enraged at things--one reason to move to an outer suburb/ex-burb where the infrastructure was generally planned for what's there now and in the near future.

Across from my workplace, there used to be open fields with a street bisecting it. Then came a Sonic on one side of the street, then a RaceTrac fueling station on the other side, both huge generators of traffic activity. For a while, there was usually one rear-end type accident each afternoon with people slowed-down for a Sonic visit and traffic behind them not paying attention. Then came the RaceTrac!

Funny thing is . . . people coming south on the side street, wanting to go east on the highway, seem to treat that intersection like a four-way stop with the highway's two left turn lanes. Some adamantly so! As if it's their "right"! If they'd go north on the street for one block, then turn left or right, continue for a long block, then turn south, they'd find themselves at a red light where they can easily go whichever way they might desire--that obviously takes too long or is not on their internal "nav" disc. Many offenders are older people, who are used to crossing traffic when it was not that heavy (in their earlier years of driving) or females, by observation.

In many newer areas, street/highway design and zoning orientations can make traffic move smooooothly and efficiently. In other, older areas, what used to be "good" is now not that way due to traffic density issues and "less vintage" drivers who might not realize that probably they shouldn't try to do what they desire to do AS they want to do it. I guess they need some more drama in their lives???

On the other hand, if traffic lights are timed better, it can make a huge difference! Even allowing for some "space" so that "those people" can do what they might desire with a certain amount of privacy, hehe.

In one respect, this whole thing is a "generational issue", but in a different time and place than in prior times? A continuation of the "stupid so-and-so did what???" cycle, but with more people around to "dodge" them as they do it. And it's not going to get any better for a good while, I suspect.

Used to be that a cell phone (when they were not nearly as numerous as they now are) was the "feared" citizen enforcement tool. Now, it's the fear that that person that just did something stupid near your front or rear license plate might have a loaded weapon at his side. Not quite the same thing as when rural people might keep one or two rifles in the add-on gun racks in the rear window of their pickups! Or in the center gun holder of their Jeeps!

Take care, be calm (even when it might not be "fashionable"), and let the crazies have the space to keep them out of trouble on the roadways. Sometimes, though, you've got to adapt your driving style to be more like theirs' in order to have a smooooth flow of traffic.

Each metro area has its own traffic idiosyncracies. When I was planning to go to Houston in 1997, EVERY travel book I found said "Count to three, then proceed when the light turns green." That was good advice!

A work associate went to Washington, DC last year. They were advised to NOT signal their intention of a lane change, just do it. Otherwise, the other drivers would speed up so you couldn't do it. THAT turned out to be accurate, too! Such a deal!!!!

Enjoy!

NTX5467

Edited July 14, 2010 by NTX5467 (see edit history)

[buick4547]

"Always expect the unexpected from the other guy, but don't do the unexpected yourself".

That's what my Dad always told me when he taught me to drive as a youngster some 50 years ago, and I still remember and practice that advice to this day. The only problem is that the unexpected seems to happen today much more frequently at an increasingly alarming pace.

[Dandy Dave]

Having driven large trucks, and being an old farmboy myself, and seeing a lot of stupid stuff I think every vehicle with a sensible driver should have a giant swatter attached to it to swat the ones who have no commonsense. First to give them a warning to stop being an A H and driving like an idiot. Then to flip them off of the road when they flip you the Bird even after they are wrong. Mediums should be always full of mud so they are good and stuck after they have been swated off of the highway so they can not chase you or cause more problems.

I would sure like to have one of them Phaser Guns like they had on Star Trek. Then we could eliminate all the bad drivers, and have only curtious ones left. We could set it on stun to wake up the offender, or disintegrate for the real nasty and out of place drivers.

Of course everyone know the bigest problem on the highway is Dizzy Blonds and Drugs. Drugs makes the Dizzy Dizzy's Drive Fast and wreckless. ... ... Dandy Dave!

[Ron Green]

While driving to work this morning from Harrisburg to Hershey PA on a insane stretch of expressway that has many accidents per day, I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a guy using his electric razor and rearview mirror to shave with. I estimate it took him approximately 6 miles to get a nice clean shave while weaving down the road.

[NTX5467]

Remember when the Remington Lectric Shavers could come with a cigarette lighter plug-in, for the "busy executive"??? Of course, the husband would be backing out of the driveway in a fancier car, obviously with power steering and an automatic transmission, and living in a upscale middle-class house. The cord would probably get tangled up in the manual transmission's column shifter. Those were the days when "Keeping up with the Jones'" was something of an honorable thing to do--especially if the Jones' drove a Buick.

Take care,

NTX5467

[Thriller]

That reminds me....

I've seen an old Bakelite (I think) cigarette holder / lighter. It was kind of like an ammo magazine with cigarettes loaded and a spring loaded cradle - pushing on the cradle and letting go would let a cigarette out and there was a filament at the end that would heat up and light the cigarette. I forget if it mounted on the steering wheel or column.

[Guest Earl]

Maybe this isn't off-topic, but my Dad used to have a replacement for your glove box that held a 6 pack of beer! I don't know how it worked, I haven't thought about that thing for years. It must have been from the late 50's, but he kept it for years and never put it in another car. He drove Fords in those days. But I suppose that might have helped keep "road rage" from being very common in those days.... I've not seen another one since.

[bhclark]

Try it in a model T (or similar era Buick....can't afford one of those!)

Nobody seems to realize that I can only accelerate so fast and only brake so much.

Then, they ignore hand signals like they never learned what they are.

Of course, everyone wants me to wave back, but they don't realize that I'm using all 3 feet and 4 hands to drive the car, much less trying to honk the horn and signal!

[Dandy Dave]

Try it in a model T (or similar era Buick....can't afford one of those!)

Nobody seems to realize that I can only accelerate so fast and only brake so much.

Then, they ignore hand signals like they never learned what they are.

Of course, everyone wants me to wave back, but they don't realize that I'm using all 3 feet and 4 hands to drive the car, much less trying to honk the horn and signal!

Been there and done that in both a Tin Lizzy, and my 1915 Buick! Seems like back here it is the young soccer mom types with kids in the car that thinks they own the highway, or the red neck in a hopped up pickup. Some decent folks wave, and some just Blow their horn and filp the bird because I am making them late for ??? :mad: Some just blow by not realizing the car they passed is 95 years old and could care less. I had a guy pass me several years ago on the right driving across an embankment that was going up hill. :eek: Grass and gravel was flying everywhere. Idiot could have passed safley just another quarter of a mile up the road. I was hoping he would have pop a few tires on some broken bottles that he helped put there, the dirtbag that he was. ..... Dandy Dave!

Edited July 16, 2010 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[HurstGN]

On MORE than one occasion, I've seen the ladies doing the eyelashes, and not with the little brush thingie, but the metal clamping device similar to a set of vice-grips for the eyelashes...one at 50 mph!!! :eek: So not cool.

[John_Maine]

All of this is why I like living in my small town. No highways, no traffic to speak of. There's still idiots but they can't do as much damage when they're going 35 mph.

We have one light in town that has an arrow for a left turn into the supermarket parking lot. When the light turns, the arrow comes on as does the light for through traffic. Traffic coming the other way has a red until the green arrow goes out and changes to a regular green light. Once the green arrow goes out, people will sit there and wait another whole light cycle for the green arrow even when there's no traffic coming the other way, and there' s no sign that says left on green arrow only. Drives me nuts and I've gone around people even though I probably shouldn't.

[JohnD1956]

... I think every vehicle with a sensible driver should have a giant swatter attached to it to swat the ones who have no commonsense. First to give them a warning to stop being an A H and driving like an idiot. Then to flip them off of the road when they flip you the Bird even after they are wrong. Mediums should be always full of mud so they are good and stuck after they have been swated off of the highway so they can not chase you or cause more problems.....

... Dandy Dave!

Now That's just funny.. LMAO!

[bhclark]

Now That's just funny.. LMAO!

Reminds me of an old Gallagher joke.

Every driver should be issued a dart gun with little suction cup darts.

Some pulls out in front of you, you shoot them with a dart.

Some one is driving reckless, you shoot them with a dart.

when a car gets 3 darts, a cop pulls them over and gives them a ticket for being an @$$hole!

[Guest sintid58]

I just about had a Focus mounted on my front bumper the other night. Coming through Hubbard Oh on 80 there was 2 cars following a truck onto the freeway and I pulled over into the passing lane to let the truck out. The rear car stepped on the gas and went around the truck in a hurry actually with time to spare but the front one stayed behind the truck for quite aways then when I was just about on top of him he tried to pull out. I was on my brakes and horn at the same time and he ended up in between me and the truck getting on 80 that swerved onto the shoulder. I hope he had to change his (her) pants. What I really want for clowns like this isn't destructive but a gun that shoots out a large permanent sign onto their rear window. It would say WATCH OUT I DRIVE LIKE A COMPLETE MORON!!!!