Stupid Driver Stories

I have never seen anyone indicate to leave a roundabout. The odd one will indicate to enter, but never to leave.

Of course, this is Canada, where they are a novelty.

Traffic lights are an endangered species around here. On my way to town there is one left but it'll be killed and made into a roundabout when the road administration find some money in their cupboards.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEjIesMwENY[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O4uMJPugPY[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90fz_N0_gbU[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1-0ks4gj_U[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRG6YpHJUhQ[/YOUTUBE]
 
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It could very well be that whatever you have in your B6 is what I have in my B5 right now as replacement equipment that doesn't annoy me nearly as much as what came with it. It's considerably more tolerable. I wish I could remember what all they replaced, but it was a while ago. I remember picking the car up and immediately thinking "oh wow this is SO much less annoying!" I hadn't expected the noise to change and was surprised. Or it could also be that I'm OCD and have huge issues with anything that makes a ticking noise which has led me to removing the batteries from 2 clocks and giving away a perfectly good watch because of the racket. :-D

After consulting the omnipotent Wikipedia it looks as if it's more accurate to call my car a B5.5

The tick in my B6 is actually pretty quiet, its loud enough so that you don't forget that you have it on but quiet enough so that its not annoying even with a headache. My mom's car (08 Camry) its so quiet I keep yelling at her for not indicating when I'm in the car only to be wrong.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O4uMJPugPY&feature=player_embedded[/YOUTUBE]
This one reminds me of an old Russian game
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BvVlAXbZzI[/YOUTUBE]
 
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This is more of a homicidal driver story, but back in California, I was heading back to Richmond (incidentally, one of the most dangerous cities in the US) after class. I'm on the bike, and I exit the freeway, and stop in the middle lane from the exit ramp.

Now this exit ramp is notorious for drivers running wide when they are on the left most lane on the exit ramp. Most drivers run wide, so Blind and I learned to just assume and take an outer line.

2kuib.png


So this one day, I pull up next to a ratty arse pickup truck in the left most lane. The guy looks over, sees me on my bike, and grins and starts nodding with an attitude. I ignore him, but as the light turns green, I go and he follows behind.

In the middle of the turn, he speeds up and proceeds to kick out his entire back end for a sideswipe. :mad: WTF?! Thank-fucking-god I was already taking an outside line, but even with that, his truck missed my thigh and bike by just a few inches.

Of course, I speed up to get away and he gives chase. Great- I have a crazy arse mother fucker chasing down in Richmond. And the best part? Down the road, the light turns a-o-red! So I blow it in order to gain some attention by the usual patrolling officers in the area. *facepalm*

I didn't check whether he followed through that or not - I was lucky to catch another car through the complex's gate. Gargh, I hate crazy drivers.
 
^ I hope you don't indicate while driving around a roundabout? You should only indicate when you exit one.|


I meant to say 'through' a roundabout. Just turning the wheel to go around the middle island rather than over it while continuing in my current direction causes the ticker to go nuts. It's also done it when I'm not moving the wheel at all. Stupid electrical gremlins!
 
While I was recording some vids for my next personal car review, I encountered a situation on a Saturday morning. I won't post this video as part of the review, since afterwards I found out that the camera was pointed too low and therefore the view outside the windscreen too bright, but nevertheless this contains a typical stupid driver situation, starting at time index 5:05 and therefore fits perfectly into this topic.

It doesn't look so dramatic in the video but the driver in the Hyundai SUV first cut me off, so that I had to brake hard, then almost ran over a cyclist at 5:28 while attempting to overtake a VW Golf II on the right, forcing the cyclist to swerve into a junction to avoid being killed, then kept jumping the lanes from right to left and vice versa, almost running into the opposite traffic at 5:56.

In the end I still could overtake while keeping my lane and saw that it was a woman -- a blonde middle-aged one, as I may add.

And yes, it's a prejudice confirmed again: When men drive recklessly, they do so with calculated risk, still maintaining car control (not counting drunk teenagers now). When women do it, however, they play Russian Roulette almost with a kind of death wish :rolleyes:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1zk6kcVGg[/YOUTUBE]
 
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You count that as being cut of in germany? That is called normal traffic here. Look they used a directional, and speed up afterwards! That would be very polite on roads here.
 
Apart from the fact that I was doing nearly 60 km/h and she practically was at a standstill, when she pulled out in front of me...

As I said: it doesn't look so dramatic in the video, probably the lack of 3 dimensions and no sensation of braking. However, the really dangerous parts were almost killing the cyclist and almost running into the opposite traffic. Three very dangerous situations within a minute - that has to be bad even for American standards ;)

And if not, well... it could be an explanation, why the death toll on the road over there is more than twice as much as over here :D
 
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yeah that would still happen over here and really happens to me daily. I however would have my brake covered before they even hit the directional because at this point you expect it :lol:
 
Screw the lady driving, how the hell do you k now which direction traffic is supposed to be going? Are all the lines the same color or can I just not see it?
 
If you are referring to my video: There are 4 lanes. 2 for each direction. It's simple math :)
 
My boss has the same car, and drives in the same way.... so it's nothing to do with being a woman... It's down to the car
 
You might have a point there...
 
Doddery old guy meandering about slowly on and off the road in a beige Camry = annoying.

Dodderly old guy meandering about not so slowly on and off the road with the bullbar of his Landcruiser seemingly centimetres from my back window when I'm about to turn into a side street = fucking scary! :blink:
 
forcing the cyclist to swerve into a junction to avoid being killed
If that cyclist had been driving properly instead of too far right, the SUV driver would not have had the idea of overtaking him/her at that spot. That doesn't make the driving of the SUV woman better, of course.
 
I was amused by "Ach, it's a voman." :mrgreen:

Yes, I liked that comment very much. Despise was hovering all around strongly. And I somehow love the German accent in English.

A little tip: if you want to have a better perception of the speed at the cut off, just vocer with your hands your field of view so that you can only see the part of the screen containing the video, and watch it in this way starting at least 30 seconds before the moment. You will have a better understanding of what has happened.

Bad move, surely, but not so terrible, in my opinion. I see that (or worse) happening very often, and like Katwalk said, after a while you expect that to happen and it becomes even less dangerous. This does not make her a better driver at all, clearly.

The almost crash into oncoming traffic is similar. Dangerous, mainly because of the head-on risk, but not THAT dangerous. Again, this happens quite often here, especially at traffic lights, with mopads, bikes or even cars (very few times, luckily) going straight down the opposite lane to overtake the queue or a series of slower vehicles, even in case of oncoming traffic.

The cyclist one was the worst, and that was really dangerous, but I won't say it was completely her fault. If you look at the footage in the seconds before, you can clearly see the cyclists starting to turn into the road to the right and then changing his/her mind and going back to your road just in front of the SUV. The SUV lady should have stepped on the brake hardly and leave the bycicle resume her road, that would have been the safest way, while she stepped lightly on the brake, and squeezed the SUV between the cyclist and the Golf, but the cyclist did a lot to create the danger.

Lane changing, as long as indicators are used correctly and no danger is created, is legal, in my opinion.

EDIT

The oncoming traffic one was more risky than I thought: it is a clear sign of lack of attention to the road.
 
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Screw the lady driving, how the hell do you k now which direction traffic is supposed to be going? Are all the lines the same color or can I just not see it?

they should do sth about that! i've had a few times that at the lights, i go line up next to a car waiting...turns out to be opposite direction lane :mad:
 
How does colour of the traffic markings relate to direction?
 
Apart from the fact that I was doing nearly 60 km/h and she practically was at a standstill, when she pulled out in front of me...

As I said: it doesn't look so dramatic in the video, probably the lack of 3 dimensions and no sensation of braking. However, the really dangerous parts were almost killing the cyclist and almost running into the opposite traffic. Three very dangerous situations within a minute - that has to be bad even for American standards ;)

And if not, well... it could be an explanation, why the death toll on the road over there is more than twice as much as over here :D

It really isn't that bad by US big city standards. Here the same thing would happen when I would be no more than a meter off her rear. Also I see nothing wrong with trying to kill a cyclist :D
How does colour of the traffic markings relate to direction?
Here white markers mean that all lanes are moving in the same direction, to separate lanes moving in opposite directions we use yellow/orange.
 
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If you are referring to my video: There are 4 lanes. 2 for each direction. It's simple math :)

How does colour of the traffic markings relate to direction?

Here white markers mean that all lanes are moving in the same direction, to separate lanes moving in opposite directions we use yellow/orange.

^This. Here a road with 4 lanes divided by hashed lines all of the same color is a one way street. We also wouldn't have a hashed line (which indicates passing is allowed) between lanes of opposite direction in that situation at all because you wouldn't go into the opposing direction's lane to overtake when the lanes are like that.
 
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