Stupid Driver Stories

There is one thing I don't understand:
(snip)

What I don't understand, then, is why they are still allowing those blocks of concrete set exactly in the middle of the road. It is clear that they are dangerous and that people will continue to crash into them, regardless of everything else, so why are they still there? Why has driver's safety become an option?

The whole point of them is to make you slow down and drive slowly around them.

And if people keep crashing into them, when they are clearly visible from at least two blocks away, (I've driven past them quite often), then they need to either have a vision test, or a mental accuity test, or just publicly shamed.

That's almost like saying:

"I'm sorry officer. I have no idea how I hit that train."

"Well, you see those flashing lights? And the barriers that swung down and blocked your entire lane? And you heard the really loud shrieking horn? That was what we call a hint to, oh, I dunno..STOP CAUSE THERE'S A TRAIN COMING, DAMMIT!"

"Yes, I did see those. But there's still a gap, so I just drove around them. Honestly, something should be done about them. Every day at this time, they just drop down, and because of them, I have to really floor it to squeak by the train!"

".....!!??"

"I mean, really. If they wanted me to stop there, they should have told me..."


*Officer shoots himself*
 
Heh, reminds me of the adverts they're showing here at the moment about trains. What fucking idiot sees the flashing red lights and often a boom gate that swings down and decides 'nah fuckit, I'm gonna keep going'. A 1000 metre long freight train travelling at 100kph is not going to stop. It'll ruin your shit and in most cases will escape almost completely unscathed. People who willingly ignore those signs deserve everything they get.
 
^What's more is that with a large enough vehicle (like SUVs that everyone loves in the states) you could derail a train. So not only are you an idiot who is endangering him/herself but you could potentially endanger a large number of other people. It reminds me of this Darwin award where two cars tried to go around the gate one from one side the other from the other side and had a head on collision. To make it funnier the train missed both.
 
I used to live in a heavily railed city, and the problem was a noticeable percentage of the time the damn warning arms were malfunctioning. So you'd come to a crossing and the arms are down. Park your car, sip your coffee, and 10 minutes later STILL NO TRAIN. A couple of times I had to drive around them and I think a few times I drove out of my way to a tunnel instead. I also had someone lay on the horn behind me because I stopped at a crossing when the train was in plain sight and moving towards me. People are morons.
 
In yet another installment of "simple concepts that local drivers can't understand," on a street in town there are two lanes. One lane you access through the roundabout. The other lane you access through an exit. The purpose of the exit is so you don't have to stop at the roundabout. So, if you see a vehicle exiting the roundabout, you don't have to PANIC STOP ON ICE TO AVOID IT. HE IS IN A DIFFERENT LANE. If you stay in your lane, you will not hit him. Old man in the Taurus, this is not difficult to understand.
 
Now now, let's be fair.

He only crashes every other time he drives. Then he blames it on deer. :mrgreen:

I think I hurt his feelings :)

What is it with people creeping up at traffic lights and then going slow? I see it pretty often but yesterday was the most extreme example I have ever seen. Some van was in front of me first stopped on the stop line, creeped up a little, then a little more, by the time the light was green he was a full car length ahead of me. Then proceeded to drive 25mph.....I made up the distance in a second, wtf?
 
The whole point of them is to make you slow down and drive slowly around them.

And if people keep crashing into them, when they are clearly visible from at least two blocks away, (I've driven past them quite often), then they need to either have a vision test, or a mental accuity test, or just publicly shamed.

That's ok, but they are dangerous for me too. We are having a problems here because roads are built to be slow and narrow and dangerous on purpose.

They put sharp bends, they put blocks of concrete in the middle of the road, they put chicanes, they narrow the streets down so you HAVE to slow down, and if you go too fast you crash, but how is that in the name of road safety?
How is helping people crashing going to increase safety?

I met some of those concrete blocks in the middle of the roads, they were designed and placed to narrow the road down. It has soon become a test of skill to pass through it at the standard 50 km/h instead of 30 or less (yes, roughly 32 mph instead of roughly 19...), but... where is the safety? Where is the safety if someone doing something wrong will get his car destroyed and himself injured? Whose safety is that?

I insist that safety is made by education, patroling and more education.
 
That's ok, but they are dangerous for me too. We are having a problems here because roads are built to be slow and narrow and dangerous on purpose.

They put sharp bends, they put blocks of concrete in the middle of the road, they put chicanes, they narrow the streets down so you HAVE to slow down, and if you go too fast you crash, but how is that in the name of road safety?
How is helping people crashing going to increase safety?

I met some of those concrete blocks in the middle of the roads, they were designed and placed to narrow the road down. It has soon become a test of skill to pass through it at the standard 50 km/h instead of 30 or less (yes, roughly 32 mph instead of roughly 19...), but... where is the safety? Where is the safety if someone doing something wrong will get his car destroyed and himself injured? Whose safety is that?
Let me introduce another factor into your equation. How about vehicles that need to go fast? Like say emergency service. These vehicles NEED to be able to get through roads quickly, that is the reason they have EMERGENCY lights and why people pull over to let them pass. Introducing roads like that endangers people OTHER than drivers.
I insist that safety is made by education, patroling and more education.
And taking warning labels off of everything. I agree with you people need to learn to drive properly until we have self driving cars this is a skill that is paramount to everyone's safety.
 
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In a 55mph zone, it's fast enough to put you in a world of hurt, one way or the other. You go break the law in your own city.

I seem to recall a videoblog of someone overtaking 2 ppl on a blind left hand corner. :mrgreen:
 
Yeah it is true that even with a hands free kit you won't be as focused on the road, but it's still a bit better than having to hold the phone in your hands. I try to stop whenever I can to answer the phone but sometimes you're on a good straight piece of road and you can manage to put the hands free stuff and be quite safe while talking for a few minutes :)

First and only time I tried to talk with the phone in my hand, I nearly crashed after 30 seconds :-D
It's not hard, you just need practice. My old roommate can text on his iPhone while driving. He loves his phone, won't put it down to put his seatbelt on.
 
It's not hard, you just need practice. My old roommate can text on his iPhone while driving. He loves his phone, won't put it down to put his seatbelt on.

Do your roommate a favour, grab his iPhone, and drive over it repeatedly. He clearly can't handle having one.
 
Hell, I'm the most awful abuser of the talk-on-the-phone-in-the-car thing (it comes from the hour-long commutes at odd hours, sometimes those are the only times available to talk to certain people in other timezones), and even I know better than to bother with texting. Just fucking call me. If I'm driving I've got either a headset or a handsfree kit.

And if you're going to yell at me about *talking* (not fiddling with a stupid phone, I mean hit a big damned two-inch button on the sun visor and speaking my native tongue) and driving, you're just as un-fun and unlikable as this one douchebag friend-of-a-friend who refuses to allow anyone in the car to talk when he's driving (and he also makes an attempt to impose this rule on every car he gets into as a passenger. I made that fucker get out and walk.)


Also irritating is the people who TRY to do the right thing, but don't have the handsfree and the phone auto-pair, so they end up fiddling with the god damned bluetooth settings while driving. I mean *REALLY* people.
 
And if you're going to yell at me about *talking* (not fiddling with a stupid phone, I mean hit a big damned two-inch button on the sun visor and speaking my native tongue) and driving, you're just as un-fun and unlikable as this one douchebag friend-of-a-friend who refuses to allow anyone in the car to talk when he's driving (and he also makes an attempt to impose this rule on every car he gets into as a passenger. I made that fucker get out and walk.)

I prefer that people don't talk to me much when I'm driving through really bad conditions like freezing rain at night or a bad snowstorm. Of course, that's a matter of me staying 100% focused so I can keep everybody safe, not being an anti-social douchebag. :)

But geez, yeah, that'd be pretty f'ing awkward if some dude demanded that people follow his rules when he's a passenger.
 
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Okay, here's a slightly different sort of stupid driver story, from my wife.

Our A3 has Ontario plates on it, but she does a lot of driving in Michigan for work. Yesterday she stopped at a traffic light in Ypsilanti, and some dudebox in a middling 3-series pulls up next to her, rolls down the passenger window, and waves at her to get her attention. My wife rolls down her window, and the guy says, "Hey, nice Ontario plates, wanna know what it's like to have some American dick in you?"

The light turned green, and to quote my wife, "I showed him how a turbo works and left him in the dust".

Hehehehe
 
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