Hey road warriors!

... is from RI and constantly complains about Western drivers. I've found the best cure is to take him to Boston and take several taxi trips in one weekend - it usually stops his complaints for several months. ^_^

I *love* the in a hurry drivers - especially the ones who can't be bothered to stop at a stop sign to let a pedestrian cross the street in a blizzard or driving rain. They are in a warm dry car and can't bother to obey the law while this miserable schmuck tries to get across the road without dying...

...drove his vehicle through the DMV building. I hear there is a very high rate of stress-related illnesses among driving test instructors.

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1 think Germany has a requirement that the headlight bulb can be no further than either 100 or 120 centimeters above the road surface. Makes it nice; if you get a faceful over there, you know it's an American truck that some rich poop imported.

Every truck I ever saw in Europe had a big chrome front bumper with the headlights mounted in it.

This page (http://tinyurl.com/hserh) summarizes the "keep right" laws in the 50 states. Your speed limit statement is in fact correct...for Georgia and North Carolina. You'll get a ticket (or a digital salute!) in many other states.

I'm speaking from my experience with Rechtsfahren (literally "Right Driving") on the Autobahns. You must be in the right lane unless you are about to overtake, are overtaking, or have just overtaken another vehicle. Even at 320 kph in your Ruf Porsche, if you are the only vehicle on the road, you must be in the right lane.

It's amazing how much safer these roads are than ours, even with more than twice the vehicle density.

:D

Too many people yield at STOP signs and STOP at Yield signs.

My car's back bumper got wrinkled shortly after I got here to South Carolina. The sign said STOP, so I did. The guy who hit me asked "Why'd ya stop?" ?:|

Bill Engvall had just hit the charts (http://tinyurl.com/jgqxa), so I took the opportunity to point him in the right direction and say "There's the sign." :D For some reason, he just didn't see the humor... :^0

Edit: Habit

When I see skid marks on barriers around ramps, I pay very close attention to speed signs, because, obviously, somebody didn't!

We average about one semi-trailer a month laying on its side at Malfunction Junction, the intersection of I-20 and I-26. The cloverleaf ramps are decreasing radius bends, so you can't accelerate throught them like you would a constant curve.

based on why they bought a SUV. I have a Nissan Xtrail. I know 38 people with SUVs and only 2 actually bought a 4WD to do 4WD driving, the rest bought the car as it was the only thing, short of a light commercial vehicle, that had the right seat height, ground clearance, or could comfortably seat 4 adults. Most sedans today are too low, too cramped in the back, and the seats are about the height of mid shin, giving back aches to get in and out of.

BTW the average SUV owner is just as smart/dumb as the average sedan or van owner.

I always just thought SUV buyers did it for the status thing, and the fact for people carrying in comfort. But why didn't they buy a van?

I ask this for a reason to. I have a friend, big guy. 6 foot 4 and goes around 300 pounds. He bought his van partially because of him just being more comfortable in it. That and the fact he taxi's his 2 daughters, mother, and wife around. But, when I had an SUV. He still thought his van was more comfortable.

Shoot, this guy even use to work for the state highway department plowing snow. So, he was use to driving a huge vehicle. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised he didn't own an SUV just so he could get back and forth to work till the roads were plowed.

Dan

My partner drives an SUV. We live in a snow state so the 4WD comes in quite handy over the winter months. We hunt, which means that we are out on fire access roads in both game seasons (deer and small game) and 4WD comes in very handy.

Partner is 6'0' so enjoys the additional headroom and we frequently drive others so it is nice that the truck seats 5 adults quite comfortably. It also has enough room to carry a lot of gear. This is good.

By comparison, my "speed bump" Saturn seats one, two in a pinch. I would never let anyone try to ride in the back seat as it would be quite uncomfortable and I don't think that an adult would fit back there.

One thing though. My partner has said that he finds that people tend to get out of his way in the truck and that he has had to be careful of not being aggressive on the road.

I was discussing the differences between the sort of SUVs we see here in Australia, sedans, light commercials, and passenger vans - the little economy things weren't even in it as they're worse than the sedans for driver room and ground clearance, and seat height. All 4 to 6 cyl 2.5 litre and up, large is about 3.5 litre and up.

1. Sedans - 4 to 8 cyl 4 door car. Cost about A$26K to $40K without going to the high end luxury jobs (they can go double those figures). Bottom of car is about ankle high, seat about half way up shin. Driver is expected to lay back in seat, no room to sit upright (hips at 90 degrees) unless under 5 feet high. Most have motor out front. All petrol motors.

2. Vans - passenger vans, like the Toyota Tarago, usually can seat upto about 8 or 10 adults if multiple rows of seats fitted. Coast about A$50K to A$60K. Bottom of vehicle is about half way up shin, seat is about posterior height on average person. Driver expected to sit upright (hips at 90 degrees). Most have motor under seat or in back. Mostly diesel motors now, as they're usually based on a delivery van body, ie panel van type.

3. SUV - small Nissan Xtrail to large Toyota Land Cruiser, or Range Rover. Bottom of vehicle about knee high, seat about posterior height on average person. Driver sits upright, hips at 90 degrees, motor out front. Most cost about A$35K to A$50K. Big ones a re usually diesel motor, small ones can be petrol or diesel.

4. Light commercials - mosty bigger motors than SUVs and vans. Driver sits upright. Come as flat bed back, or ute type back. A bit bigger than most sedans in length and width. Bottom of vehicle about knee height of ground, seat at posterior height. In the movies we see teens and farm hands with what they call 'pick up trucks' and mates hopping in the back all the time - down here we call them light commercial trucks, most around the 1 tonne size to 1.5 tonne. Cost about A$28K to A$40K. By law diesel motors now.

Most larger SUVs are about the wheel base of a light commercial truck, but much more comfortable, and hanlde better. Most small SUVs are about the wheel base of a sedan, same level of comfort (if you can get comfortable in those squashed cans) and handle about the same.

My Xtrail is the same size motor (2.5 litre) and wheel base as most medium sedans, same motr, I get a bit better economy than most (I think that is mostly driving style - I don't pretend I'm on a raceway), and handles the same or better than most edium sedans. I'm just a lot higher off the ground. Some sedan I pull up beside, I look down on the roof of their cabin.

When I bought the Xtrail the options were a dual cab utility style light comemrcial A$30K on the road ready to go. Xtrail A$39K on the road, with cruise control, CD player and a lot more comfort. Tarago Passenger Van A$54K on the road, comfort level about the same as the Xtrail, but longer body, more room space. I chose the Xtrail for performance and cost.

That is, unless rush hour is so slow that it takes 3 seconds to go half a car's length. :) Then your fine.

In the short amount of time she had, she did what anyone would have done, myself and yourself included. There was no time to asses that the semi in the rear is to close. If she were paying attention, then she knew there was a semi but at that moment, who has time to think? She's screwed either way. Hitting a deer would bring her car to a stop just as quick thus starting the incident with the semi anyway. And if she swerved instead of stopping, the guy in the semi would have reacted the same way by jamming on the breaks. This was a no win situation for her with the fault pointing to the semi driver. Best she could hope for was a glancing blow but then someone else may have hit it. Who knows. A deer in the highway isn't good for anybody.

There are plenty of conditions where the deer could have come out of nowhere. She may have been paying very well attention.

I couldn't find national statistics, but this link, http://tinyurl.com/fffdd, provides 2004 statistics for Wisconsin. I expect most northern states have equivalent statistics.

This is page 1 of about 328 on Google, searching for "collision with deer:" http://tinyurl.com/jqvrx

This story give a different perspective on a motorist hitting a deer: http://tinyurl.com/zvnxv

It's bad enoungh when someone does something idiotic and you can write it off to daydreaming or just being stupid. But when they do it on purpose...
I was making a right turn at a light. Looked left, nobody was coming, went ahead and made my turn. Suddenly here's this a$$hole in a big black pickup blaring his horn at me. Of course, I blared back. So this idiot follows me into the parking lot I was headed for, stops nest to me and proceeds to tear into me for not making sure the intersection was "clear" before I made my turn. Said he was a fireman. Then he gets out of his car like he wants to fight and, sure enough, he's wearing some kind of badge. I told him what I thought of his playing policeman and that I wasn't about to get in a fight with someone wearing a badge. I guess he felt brave, was about half my age. I should have got his badge number and turned him in but the adrenalin was pumping so hard I couldn't even think of anything but what I might do if I had a big board. It's been a few years ago but still makes my blood boil to tell it...

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But mostly I don't name them.

I call the one I have now "Speedbump" and the partner's truck "Behemoth".

In the US we tend to refer to ships, trucks, cars, etc. as "she" and "her". In Russia, it is more common to hear "he" and "him". Not sure why that is and don't know if the masculine is employed outside of Russia.

I like your truck...

I've been hit from behind twice. Both on clear days.

The summer is bad on Friday afternoon - I have to pass a number or roads (400, Allen expressway, 427) along the 401 that are used by people going to head north to the cottage.

But because of vacations throughout the summer, the regular traffic is reduced, and my fastest trips (40 mins) are during the summer, construction not withstanding.

The first snowfall is one of the most dangerous days out there. People forget to slow down. They also get jumpy. SUV drivers forget that they are not invincible. They forget that 4WD helps them accelerate but not brake and that their vehicles are heavier than a sedan.

Heavy snows gets a few people off the roads. Its a good thing. That tells me more people could use transit than do.

If I worked right downtown, I would take the train - I did for a 4 month contract a few years back - much less stress.

James

A few years ago my wife was having a gall bladder attack. It was something new and we had no idea what was causing all the pain. I broke all the speed records on a city street plus running every stop sign and light on the way. Sure glad I didn't get behind some idiot that thought he should play cop! Incidentally, didn't see a real cop either. Could have used the escort.

Unfortunately many drivers always think they can drive just as fast and idiotically just after a rain as they do the rest of the time. It's no surprise that they get in trouble and cause problems for others in the process. Incidentally the radio stations around here always warn drivers to slow down at the first rain after a dry spell. Either they don't listen to the radio or they just don't listen. The only thing to do for the rest of us is just to try to stay out of their way...

After driving in both So Cal and Washington State, I decided that California drivers thought they owned the road and you'd darn well better get out of their way. Washington drivers just don't realize there is anyone else on the road.

Unless they've changed the rules recently, the traffic circles in Seattle WA are legal either direction but you have to yield to traffic from the left. Most of ours are only on residential streets and the circles are meant to prevent speeding now streets that are on 3 cars wide.

I was behind a string of cars going 45 in a 60. I pulled over to go around and when I reached the lead car I saw a man with a cell phone tucked under his ear, the heels of both hands on the steering wheel, and holding a pen and notebook.

Well, at least he'd slowed down...and he *did* have both hands on the steering wheel. @8~0

You are so right about the 1971 Chevy Vega! What an embarrassing POS that was!

After you read these comments, take a look at the September 16th Tech Republic article about the Terrafugia's "fly and fold" personal aircraft. Then think about these people commuting as ?pilots?.

I also posted this on "Diving for the Exit" because it seems to fit in both places.

I've seen a couple of vehicles after a deer collision, although I didn't see the people who were involved. The cars were totaled, leading me to think that avoiding a deer is a sensible thing to do. (There was no doubt about the cause of the damage since the deer were both nearby, looking just as bad as the cars.)

A woman crossed four lanes of busy traffic on I5, ending up in the lane to my right. She passed about a foot in front of my bumper on the swoop over. I was ready to flip her off but she was talking on her cell phone AND putting on eye makup at the same time. Both hands busy, mirror turned towards her and she was looking up and to the right to better apply whatever she was putting around those eyes. Must have been using her knees to steer and the grace of God to see where she was going. I kept my finger in my pocket and got as far away from her as I could without getting in a wreck to do it.

I have to share an experience.
I was the victim of some minor road rage, but my payback is still implanted vividly in my mind.

A few years back, I couldn't afford my own vehicle.
I had borrowed a friends tricked out Cavalier.
I was cruising home from work, paying complete attention to all signs, limits, and laws.

A tailgater showed up in my rear view.

Rather than tapping my brakes to scare him off (my usual method), I decided to speed up to allow him to pass.
Once we were beyond any other traffic and his opportunity to pass came and went, I realized he wasn't tailgating to pass, he was tailgating to irritate.

Waiting at a red light, I noticed some construction about 3 blocks ahead.

At the first sign of green, I floored it.
The speed limit was 35mph.
My victim was about 2 feet from my bumper.
I continued to gain speed. 20...30...40
Still 2 feet from my bumper.
As the construction site approached at 45mph ,I noticed a small clearing to the right of the orange flashing horses.
10 feet before the pylons, I veered right, passed the construction, and veered back into my lane.

My tailgatting victim did not follow.

He panicked, slammed his brakes, cut the wheel to the left, spun out, and barrelled sideways through the construction zone.

My rear view mirror was filled with orange flashes, wood splinters and the look of pure terror on the face that was filled with anger just moments before.

Not sure if this makes me the victim of his road rage, or the aggressor. I just know it happened 20 years ago and I can still see the look in his eyes.

Makes me smile.

Dumbest thing I've seen:

We were driving in Colorado on a split highway where our lanes were much higher up the hill than than opposite lanes. We saw lots of cars pulled over and stopped. After 4 miles of stopped cars on the other side, we saw the reason: a little red car going the wrong way! He kept going faster and passed us. More miles up the road, we saw him coming back the other way (no exits were coming for a lonng time). He was going really slow.

http://www.antelope.org/weights/estimate_weights.htm

look at table #2

I still remember the lady that was reading a book on the interstate and ran into the back of a semi-truck.

When going up an onramp onto I-29 an elderly couple started down the onramp from the opposite direction! After I had gotten safely past them I could see them pull over half-way down the onramp.

Having long ago observed that the most aggressive & ill-skilled drivers are those most likely to end up off the road during winter's snow and ice, I propose that we use weather control as a means of culling such drivers from the highways.

Over a sufficiently long period of time with severe winter conditions, natural selection against the survival of such drivers should result in a diminuation of their reproduction so as to render their remaining numbers vanishingly small.

And, properly implemented, such can also be used to counter the effects of global warming!

Going home from work with a client from St. Petersburg. We passed a fellow just clearing the bridge, smoking, drinking coffee and looking at a map over the steering wheel. Luckily we were the only cars at the time as I looked in the rear view mirror he had swerved off the road stopped by a palm tree.

Evening rush time on I-95, 4 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic, moving 65-70 mph, just north of Philadelphia, and dark enough so that the display on his cell phone was readily discernable, I observed, along side me, in the 3rd lane from the right, a gentlemen with his left hand on the dash, holding said phone directly along side of the steering wheel, thoroughly engrossed and vigourously engaged in gaming.

I must admit that that he was quite good at doing it with only his thumb!

Granted the average driver has a tendency to only respond to situations, like the lady did in the scenario presented, instead of driving with a "what if" attitude while behind the wheel. It sure is a shame that some people aren't up on what real safety entails. The 3 second rule continues to be bantered about - while the professional trucking industry moves on with the Smith System. Professionally trained drivers haven't used the 3 second rule for the past decade, and in fact more realistically use a seven second cushion in todays traffic while also adding a second for additional speed above a certain mph. The addition of non-professionals who do not have even the basic driving licensing requirements of the United States to our roadways is a serious safety hazard. Everyone should be up to arms to increase safety by requiring non-American drivers to be able to read English if they plan on operating any vehicle on our roads, just so they can obey the traffic signs and be able to locate how and where to go somewhere. If you complain now about Professional Drivers who have to compensate for amateur drivers who bottleneck our roadways daily, then opening our roadways to foreign drivers of semis will really get you talking. So the next time, you see a big rig with a foreign name on the side of their truck doing something hazardous, report them right away, by going to this site: http://www.drivinforce.us/ or call the police right away! While the AARP indeed is a respectible organization, it needs better information for it's members and less costs for things it should be offering for FREE with membership.