I drive a lot. I admit it. I've put 220,000 km on my little car in the last five years. Very unGreen of me. Of course for the five years before that I didn't really drive at all and to make up for it I'm moving back down to the city - no more commuting for this girl. Anyway, in all this driving I have seen a lot of bad driving.
My three pet peeves:
1. People who are driving 10-30 km/hr faster than me on major highways. Seriously, if I'm moving at 120 km/hr should I have to speed up to pass a semi? Or get passed by one? Or be tail-gated by some git in a black SUV who thinks that the real speed limit (at least for them) is 140? I really wish the government would bring back photo-radar and set it at 130.
2. People who do not pull over for emergency vehicles. I have had people honk at me and pass me when I pull over because a fire truck, ambulance or police vehicle is coming. Maybe you could turn down your music and use the rear view mirror. Really, it has a purpose.
3. People who 'butt in' on off-ramps to skip the line or who move into the merge lane and zoom past on the right to get that little bit further ahead of traffic. I'm pretty sure that it is not only rude but illegal. It's also dangerous. The place I get to experience this most is the off-ramp from the 401E to the 400N in the collectors. People come screamin' along and swerve into the exit lane at the last moment - long after the white line has become solid. I had it happen to me yesterday: a beige SUV tried to merge at the very last second and ended up getting stranded about two feet from the crash barrels. Git.
I know I'm not innocent, and I'm not perfect. But I try not to be an ass. That's all I ask.
Be nice when you are out driving this long weekend.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Driving Rude
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4 comments:
oh man! you are posting like wildfire (or something like that)! how am I supposed to keep up ??!!
my 2 cents: i think that, like trucks, every vehicle that comes off the lot should have a speed inhibitor. Maybe set at 125 or something ...
I'm sure the posting pace will taper off eventually. Look - I missed two whole days already!
I agree, the speed limitor is an excellent idea. I'm also a big fan of the photo radar - set maybe to 125 or 130. To avoid the issue of who pays the fine (y'know, the "it was my son, daughter, next door neighbour, employee, customer, etc. excuse) just send the info straight to the car insurance company to adjust the insurance rates directly. Since it is the car they are insuring I figure they have a right to know what is happening to it. I love being evil... :-)
Did you ever notice that almost everyone you meet thinks they are a better than average driver?
The fact that this is statistically impossible doesn't seem to register.
I have many pet peeves with drivers. One is what Albertan friends of mine once called the "Larry Turn" (No offense to the Larry's reading this post!) which is a driver who makes a turn into the wrong lane of a multi lane street. I hate that!
I love it! The 'Larry Turn' - I am certainly guilty of that one. Although I do try to make up for the rapid lane changes by using my signal as I move. ;-)
I rationalized the statistical conundrum like so: while most people are probably pretty okay drivers we all suffer from brief periods of inattention/brain freeze where we do something stupid. If that is even 1% of the time then at any given time on the road there are a lot of people acting like idiots.
So you see, we can all still be good drivers but still have loads of bad driving.
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