Too many crazy drivers in my city.

I live in a modern first world city. A wealthy city full of cashed up people driving brand new cars. I drive a crappy old car, and I drive fairly well. I tend to drive at the speed limit, and I'm aware of the road rules. It seems that others in the city I live in are not fully cognizant of appropriate driver behaviour, and it sometimes makes me crazy when I see appalling driving (like today).

Today's incident was fairly minor in the scheme of things, but indicative of how people drive in my city. My partner and myself are driving down a major highway at speed, and another driver decides to pull out in front of us with perhaps 10 metres (if that) to spare. We have to slam on the brakes so as not to have a collision, and we decide to give them a blast of the horn. The driver in question decides to raise their middle finger at us, whilst erratically swerving all over the road. This is not unusual. Just a few weeks ago a woman drove into the back of my vehicle at the traffic lights. Totally at fault, and when I got out of the car to check the state of my car she wound her windows up. When I asked her what the hell she was doing, she merely shrugged. Seriously, some people have no idea.

The behaviour that irks me the most is the egregious tailgating that goes on. Too many people feel the need to drive well over the speed limit, and drive right up the ass of drivers who are doing close to the speed limit. What's the rush? Last weekend on one day there were 5 fatalities in one day, and it's too many, because too many selfish drivers feel they have the god-given right to endanger the lives of those around them. My city is well served by freeways, but there are way too many rev-heads.

Finally, as bad as the tailgaters are the let's text and drive. One cyclist has been killed this year, and one seriously injured by people driving and texting. There should be no questions about whether this is acceptable or not, it's simply dangerous, and life threatening.

I feel the need to rant, as I've seen one too many #heads on the road today and it really makes me wonder what is wrong with some people.

I despise tailgaters. A few years ago, I had a bumper sticker that read:
Watch Out For The Idiot Behind Me

btw...I love the term "cashed up". I gotta add that to the lexicon.

a reply to: cuckooold

They are distracted by devices. Or think the rules don;y apply to them.

I was waiting at a light and saw a guy ride his bike through the intersection while texting.

He was doing the one hand on handle bars, both eyes on phone maneuver.

I see people text and drive all the time. When stopped at a light and I look around lots of heads is down in their lap.

You can tell at other times, people stop short at lights, pull away slow when the light changes, wander in their lane, ride the brakes.

That last one is great, they are riding the brakes instead keeping their eye on the road, while they look at their device.

i live in the country and often share the road with the amish whom ride in horse and buggies. you'd think that i would be without these sort of encounters. the other day im two car-lengths away from an old guy in a pick-up truck who suddenly begins pulling out into the road, placing his car directly in front of me. its noon, not a cloud in the sky, we saw each other bright as day.

i had about a second to react. no big deal.

i had to immediately twist my steering wheel to the right. i #ing drifted at least a few feet. almost hit him but somehow i didn't. I pulled over on the side of the road that he was pulling out of, my windshield wipers were going crazy, i was saying every bad word under the sun whilst trying to calm myself. this old #er drove away. didn't even roll his window down and offer some sort of apologetic wave.

i am now equally as afraid of old people drivers as i am of getting in the blind spot of a massive truck.

When a car tailgates you (on a fairly empty highway) simply ease off the throttle (no brakes lights this way.) They will get the message as soon as they slam on their brakes to avoid hitting you. You will usually get a bit of sign language as they pass or some will back off about 1/2 mile. I just make sure there are no cars close behind them and they are not being distracted while tailgating you. Otherwise, they could hit you but if they are watching, they usually get the message.

As someone from the UK now living in the US I see a LOT more bad driving habits over here. I blame it on the simplicity of the driving test and ignorance of basic highway safety rules based due to lack of education.

I see some utterly mind-bending # over here I had trouble even believing when I first came here. One that springs to mind is the idiot cyclists on the wrong side of the road all the time, against traffic and never with any kind of lighting after dark.

The tailgating idiots are the worst though. Bloody everywhere. Usually some idiot trying to bully you into speeding because you have the audacity to be driving at the speed limit instead of 20 mph over it like most of these pricks.

a reply to: cuckooold
yep theres a lot of dumba** mother****s out there, it is rather annoying, f***ing clowns

a reply to: cuckooold

Boy, I can relate just from my emergency response job. I had a woman push her baby stroller in front of 4 lanes of 45 mph traffic never looking as all four lanes were screeching to a stop.

Another one(different lady)..SHOVED her baby stroller all across the road to the other side BY ITSELF....and when traffic cleared...she crossed to the baby.

Also...daily in Dearborn Mi...they think stop signs, speed limits, no turn on red, do not enter, wrong way, stop for emergency vehicle signs...are all just "suggestions" not laws.

The worst is that they dont even pull over to the side or get out of the way for siren and light flashing ER vehicles..they just keep going.

Nothing gets under my skin worse than poor drivers. If I ever post post a Rant it'll probably be after a bad time on the road.

My biggest pet peeves: One, an utter lack of courtesy for others on the road. It's okay to yield a little bit or speed up to get the Hell out of the way. Two, use the passing lane to pass. The penalty for being in the passing lane on cruise control should be a whopper ... something like forfeit the car your driving, or you forfeit your driver's license for a few years. Three, passive aggressive drivers and the unbadged traffic patrol. These people sometimes fail to realize they're sliding down the razor's edge of fate when they're in my general vicinity. Very few people cause me to go into a state of firearms awareness. Mostly thugs and folks operating lethal weapons on the highways.