Driving PMO's

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Just wondering what dirving error made out there is the biggest concern to all of you around the country/world...some say is DUI..some say speeding...What is the biggest most important concern of you drivers on the highways today?...As a retired truck driver, I have seen just about everything and some things I still cant believe I have seen people do.
My biggest PMO is crossing the center line while rounding a bend. They divided the road in 1/2. One side for me, the other for you. Each side is big enough for one vehicle..so if you put yours on my side, where do you think I should go?..It boils down to lazy driver...just don't want to trun the steering wheel..How many times does a tire have to roll over the center line in order to wear out the paint?. Ever notice no paint on the bends? I have survived everything from the stop in your tracks head on to getting run over by a 70mph tractor trailer...whew..that one was tough...


have a nice day...stay on your side of the center line.

[Steverino]

Good thread Skeeter!

I used to be of the school of thought that the maniac speeders were to blame for the majority of automobile accidents, however, I've since come to the conclusion that it's the pokey drivers that cause everyone to react.

My pet peeves? (I'll try my best to keep the list short Selfishness! If you want to poke at 10 mph under the speed limit, fine....just do it in the far right lane. Merge ramps...how about speeding up to actually merge with traffic instead of putzing at your pokey speed and leisurely come traipsing across three lanes of expressly traffic to resume your poking speed while the rest of us poor slob drivers have locked up our brakes to accomodate your slow moving vehicle.

Cell phones????I wish I had a nickel for every nickempoop that cut somebody (or me!) off in expressway traffic while busily yacking on their cell phones. Sometimes I've seen folks using both of their hands waving in the air to articulate a point in their conversation that has naturally caused me to wonder how they're steering their cars???

Ohhhh I could go on and on but will stop here. You're a retired truck driver Skeeter so I know that you've seen it all and that I'm "preaching to the choir." In a nutshell though, I believe it really all boils down to selfishness-people wanting to drive how they want with no thought or concern for their fellow commuters.

[Rocky Raab]

Ditto on the cell phone, and also ditto on crossing the center line.

Skeeter, the reason people dive across the lane line isn't that they are too lazy to turn the wheel, it's because they turn it too soon.

Imagine you're on a straight section of road. There's a curve ahead. If you turn the wheel a quarter mile before you get to the curve, you'll cut across the painted line (in one direction or the other). That's an exaggeration of distance, but it's what those lane-divers are doing: turning too soon. If they'd turn when the road does - but no sooner - they'd stay right in the center of their lane.

I also shake my head at those idiots who drive as if they were the only car on the road. Come storming around a blind corner, drive diagonally across parking lots (staring straight ahead), turn or change lanes without signalling or even looking - then they look up with big eyes when they hear the squeal of tires, absolutely astonished that there might actually be another vehicle in the universe. Sheesh.

[M.T. Pockets]

Careless passing would be on top of my list.

Cell phones a close second. I saw a clever bumper sticker on an old farmer's pickup. "Would you drive better with that phone up your...?"

[GoodOlBoy]

We have ALOT of those road splitters in East Texas. Most of them drive pulpwood trucks. . . . . . Thats why I had to by something I could drive in the ditch at least twice a week.

GoodOlBoy

[Aim to maim]

Originally posted by GoodOlBoy
We have ALOT of those road splitters in East Texas. Most of them drive pulpwood trucks. . . . . . Thats why I had to by something I could drive in the ditch at least twice a week.

GoodOlBoy

If you like that, you'd love eastern Kentucky. Roads are narrower, hills steeper, curves sharper.... and coal trucks weigh more than pulpwood trucks. To make matters worse, there's usually no ditch, just a cliff to drive off of or into.

[Skyline]

CELL PHONES!!!!!!!

I can't believe how people drive when they are talking into a cell phone. Crap!!! They drive worse than most DUI's. When they have that phone burried in their ear they drive like they are the only one on the planet. It amazes me how bad they are. And, unlike drunk drivers.....which is illegal of course and makes up a small precenage of the drivers on the road at regular hours...............the cell phone users are by the millions.

A severe case of head up a&% when that phone gets in the equation.

[Valigator]

Oh what a can of worms...I figured mine out a while ago...you know when you have a ton of traffic and things get backed up..especially in a busy intersection...its a 4 way light...and those last piss ant cars want to get thru the light? The get backed up in the middle of the intersection and my light says turn left but I cant because some jerk is blocking the intersection...I think I could get out at the point and put a 20 guage to his back window...

[gd357]

While I don't speed excessively, I get really irritated by people who don't pay attention and refuse to attempt to reach the speed limit. And dittos about those morons who don't use the ramp to catch up to traffic speed (or around here, they use it to stop and see if there's any traffic coming ). It amazes me that more of these people aren't killed annually from bad driving. I've noticed the tendency of aggressive drivers to be much more aware of their surroundings, and therefore be able to react in a positive manner to the idiocy around them. And throwing PC to the wind, if you're not used to driving in this country, learn how before attempting to switch lanes in rush hour while yakking on the cell phone (the next asian woman to cut me off is gonna get run over). Living in a large city has taught me one major lesson, the more the population increases, the more morons are within driving distance.

gd

[huntingvet]

Road rage! I hate it when people think that a plate of glass, some sheet metal and asphalt passing by at 30-60 miles an hour exempts you from courtesy and respect. Can you imagine if people treated eachother the same in the grocery store while shopping or waiting in line as they did while in their cars?

[skeeter@ccia.com]

seems to be about the same around the globe so far..and yea, even truck drivers aren't all pros..it is funny how when they come around the bend..because they started into the turn too early, they can't ease off to get back into their lane but they can when they figure you aren't moving over..they aren't that lazy then..in fact, I bet they have chew marks on the seat when they get home to go along with the guard rail marks down side of vehicle. Not just because I drove truck but another thing is the lack of respect for the bigger vehicles out there. 1 1/2 ton car vs. 40ton truck (I would rather be behind a rock going down a hill instead of in front of it) and they still just have to pass you then slam on brakes..because they don't want to get a ticket for a yellow light..( the local waiting for someone to go 5mph over the limit) oh oh..who is chewing the seat now?...how about the guy in front of you at the redlight..stops, puts vehicle in neutral to rest his poor tired leg (get an automatic)..the people in front of him are pulling out...but waits for his turn to move..then puts in the clutch, searches for a gear then the time of light is about 1/2 over..he moves on..make a turn without a signal...then make a turn and not cancel the signal...blink blink blink....or how about this one...someone heading toward you, signal on to turn right, the guy behind him, dashes head on in your lane around him while blowing the horn at him for being a dumb azz?..meanwhile, you have to hit your breaks to avoid him?....sure there are more and interested to hear...

[Dom]

Well, I'll add a couple to those above, although I do have to say driving over here is disciplined, I guess because it costs around 2 grand and 6 months classroom/road instruction to get a license. My #1 PMO:

The lights RED, I'm coasting to it, still 100 yards or so off, double lanes, and you pass me and slam on the brakes because the light is RED. Go figure . . . I wonder if part of all that training drilled into their heads is it's against the law to coast, either foot on the gas or foot on the brake . . .

But a GOOD comment to go along with that one:
Over here on the Autobahn, there is NO speed limit. You ONLY use the left lane to pass, PERIOD. If you think you can stay over there, think again, because there's at least a thousand Porsche's and Mercedes that will be 1 foot off your bumper at 100mph. You still want to poke along in the left lane? I think not, and I think you should get tickets in the states for driving slowly in the left lane -- it's a PASSING lane for crying out loud, and passing on the RIGHT is illegal, Waidmannsheil, Dom.

[fabsroman]

Good Lord, I think I could go on forever.

This happened to me a couple of months ago. I was approaching an on-ramp for the interstate and the road was fairly crowded. I left a gap in front of me so that somebody coming off the ramp could merge easily and I could merge behind them as I approached the ramp. Within 100 yards of the ramp, at about 45 mph, the idiot directly behind me pulled out of the lane and into the left lane to pass me and cut me off right before the ramp. All to gain a single car spot on the road. After jamming on the brakes to slide in front of me and slow down to merge on the ramp, he took the ramp extremely slow. Man was I pissed. He barely even sped up when he was merging on the interstate. I was completely confused at how he was in a hurry 10 seconds beforehand and now he was at a leasurely pace.

Another one I love is approaching a red light on a multi lane road. I usually ease off the gas before getting to the light, and whenever I happen to be the first car approaching the light, somebody always has to try and speed by me and cut me off so that they can be the first car in that lane (i.e., there are already cars ahead of them in the other lanes). I especially love it when I am driving my truck and they try that stuff because when my truck isn't loaded, it is pretty quick.

Another thing I hate is when I put my blinker on to change lanes and the idiot behind, but in the lane I want to change into, speeds up to try and cut me off. That happened to me yesterday as I was trying to pull behind a tractor trailer to get to an off ramp. I saw the guy coming in pretty quick in that lane, so I just backed off and let him cut right in front of me. If I had sped up, I would have screwed him because he had nowhere to go but into the back of the tractor trailer, but then I would have missed my exit. What I have noticed around here though, is that people pay attention to the blinker on my truck. I guess they don't mind getting hit by a Taurus, but think twice when it happens to be an F-350.

[Rocky Raab]

You reminded me, Fabs...

Cruising along in the right lane, at the speed limit. The only car behind me is coming up in the left lane.

Does he slow down, slide behind me and then take the upcoming exit? No. He has to floor it, zip around me on the left, then slam on the brakes and zig WILDLY across both lanes - JUST TO TAKE THAT EXIT!

[PJgunner]

All of the above and then some. I'm making a left turn. The idiot in the opposing lane is making a right turn and slides all the way into my lane rather than into the proper right hand lane.
Idiots that come into the free way and refuse to speed up past 30 mile an hour for at least a mile after entering the freeway. But the thing that probably takes me closeset to road rage is are the "High Beam Harrys" that refuse to dim their lights, regardless of how many times you blink them to do so. It's even worse now that some cars have to extremely high intensity type headlamps.
Paul B.