Stupid Driver Stories

Nah, quite easy to get used to. I don't even think about it anymore. They switched because they put the cruise control in its place.

It is technically better to have lights control on a stalk but I like the separate switch for some reason.
 
To the driver of the maroon Buick Lucerne in Lowell on Thursday:

When you see a hearse followed by a bunch of vehicles with purple flags on them. It's something called a funeral procession. Don't try and cut in front of one of the cars you idiot. You made it even more stressful for a family that was already grieving the loss of someone who died way too young. Take the bus.
 
So I had a genius to deal with at my last track outing.

One thing to note, my chosen class at track days is where you are only allowed to pass on the straights, generally with point by.

So at Streets of Willow going counter/anti-clockwise there is a straight before you hit "the bowl" and the turn going into this straight makes it kind of hard to see whats behind you. I'm in a 1.6l Miata, not much for straight line speed but in this case I'm stuck with 8 other cars in front of me, all of us fairly tightly packed so it doesn't matter. Coming up behind me, where I can't even see because of the shape of the course, is a very new CLS AMG 63 with "11-99 foundation" plate frames* and his license plate planked off with tape. This fucker jumps RIGHT into my braking zone at one of the fastest parts of the course.

On the track you don't have the normal insurance coverage, and pulling a move like that damn near caused me to plow into his ass end since he stole my fucking braking zone. Thankfully he took the beginner line and it wasn't an issue other than the damn momentary fear of "oh fuck I'm about to wreck into a car costing $100k+"

* the 11-99 plates are plates that used to be issues to people who made quite large donations to the CHP for families of killed police officers. These plates are worth about $10k on the open market and are no longer allowed to be given out by the CHP as they are generally considered "get out of speeding ticket" plates for obvious reasons.
 
It is technically better to have lights control on a stalk but I like the separate switch for some reason.

Mostly because a separate switch is 1589% better.
 
Mostly because a separate switch is 1589% better.

I prefer the stalk myself, in the event that you have to deal with "deer stuck in the head lights" moment it's easier and quicker to pull on a stalk than to take the hands off the wheel to hit the switch.
 
I prefer the stalk myself, in the event that you have to deal with "deer stuck in the head lights" moment it's easier and quicker to pull on a stalk than to take the hands off the wheel to hit the switch.

I agree.

Couple of years ago a friend of my dad let us borrow his '03 Ford Expedition. Got a chance to drive it and I didn't like the knob it had for the lights, among other things. I find the stalk to be much easier (all of our current cars have stalks for the lights).
 
"Yesterday on my way to work"

Weather: Dry and cold, perfect visibility. Nearing a crossing at the edge of town. Usually very busy crossing at this time of day but only 1 car in front of me today: A guy in a BMW 3series estate with a D?sseldorf number plate. Probably a travelling salesman or service technician of some company. This particular crossing has very long phases. The lights stay green for about a minute for each direction. So if you miss the green, you lose 2 minutes on your way to work, which is much, when you only have 10 minutes to drive to work.

The following scene unfolds:

The crossing is 400 meters away. Lights are green. 100 km/h are allowed. The guy in the BMW goes 60 km/h.

The crossing is 300 meters away. Still green. 100 are still allowed. The guy in the BMW goes 60.

The crossing is 200 meters away. Still green. 70 are allowed. The guy goes 60.

The crossing is 100 meters away. Still green. 70 allowed. The guy slows down to 50! I wish I had a rocket launcher!

The crossing is 20 meters away. Turning yellow! Yellow phase in a 70 km/h zone is about 5 seconds! We would have both made it easily with going 50 km/h. But the guy hits the brakes. Hard.

To avoid rear-ending him, I swerve to the left and overtake him on the turn-left lane, while the lights are still yellow. Was a split-second decision. My reflexes are still working.

When I pass him, I look into a face that says "Oy, you're not playing fair!"

Sucker...
 
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I prefer the stalk myself, in the event that you have to deal with "deer stuck in the head lights" moment it's easier and quicker to pull on a stalk than to take the hands off the wheel to hit the switch.

Yes of course, but Ice's Audi has the ON/OFF-switch in the stalk as well. I don't get the point of that, so a conventional switch to activate the lights and stalk pull to turn on full beam is 1589% better I think.
 
Old Audis (my Audi 80 B4, too) have a separate stalk for ON/OFF which does only that. High-beams and headlight flasher are on the stalk where the indicators are (pull the stalk: flasher; push it: high-beams).

I think Audi moved it away from the steering column because routing of the wires is easier when you have a switch in the dashboard instead of routing yet another wire up the steering column (which is adjustable so the wire has to be flexible to accommodate that).
 
To the driver of the maroon Buick Lucerne in Lowell on Thursday:

When you see a hearse followed by a bunch of vehicles with purple flags on them. It's something called a funeral procession. Don't try and cut in front of one of the cars you idiot. You made it even more stressful for a family that was already grieving the loss of someone who died way too young. Take the bus.

One would think someone who drives a Lucerne would be very familiar with funerals... or will be soon.
 
Old Audis (my Audi 80 B4, too) have a separate stalk for ON/OFF which does only that. High-beams and headlight flasher are on the stalk where the indicators are (pull the stalk: flasher; push it: high-beams).

I think Audi moved it away from the steering column because routing of the wires is easier when you have a switch in the dashboard instead of routing yet another wire up the steering column (which is adjustable so the wire has to be flexible to accommodate that).
The wires are not really affected by it being adjustable, I was in there running some wires for my head unit install and they way its wired basically makes no difference whether the wheel is adjustable or not.
 
*shrug* I don't think either is better. They're in the same rough position and perform the same function (apart from the added fog lights).
 
"Yesterday on my way to work"

Weather: Dry and cold, perfect visibility. Nearing a crossing at the edge of town. Usually very busy crossing at this time of day but only 1 car in front of me today: A guy in a BMW 3series estate with a D?sseldorf number plate. Probably a travelling salesman or service technician of some company. This particular crossing has very long phases. The lights stay green for about a minute for each direction. So if you miss the green, you lose 2 minutes on your way to work, which is much, when you only have 10 minutes to drive to work.

The following scene unfolds:

The crossing is 400 meters away. Lights are green. 100 km/h are allowed. The guy in the BMW goes 60 km/h.

The crossing is 300 meters away. Still green. 100 are still allowed. The guy in the BMW goes 60.

The crossing is 200 meters away. Still green. 70 are allowed. The guy goes 60.

The crossing is 100 meters away. Still green. 70 allowed. The guy slows down to 50! I wish I had a rocket launcher!

The crossing is 20 meters away. Turning yellow! Yellow phase in a 70 km/h zone is about 5 seconds! We would have both made it easily with going 50 km/h. But the guy hits the brakes. Hard.

To avoid rear-ending him, I swerve to the left and overtake him on the turn-left lane, while the lights are still yellow. Was a split-second decision. My reflexes are still working.

When I pass him, I look into a face that says "Oy, you're not playing fair!"

Sucker...

So he was driving with care and you acted like an idiot?

I too sometimes stop at yellow lights, unfortunately my back bumper has been punished by people with shittier brakes than mine.
 
So he was driving with care and you acted like an idiot?

I too sometimes stop at yellow lights, unfortunately my back bumper has been punished by people with shittier brakes than mine.

There is such a thing as driving TOO carefully. If you have to actually stand on the brakes to get the vehicle to stop before entering the intersection, it's best to just run through the yellow. Hard braking can cause accidents.

Besides, going through an intersection while the light is yellow is perfectly legal just so long as you are clear of the intersection by the time the light turns red (if you are still in the intersection when the light turns red, then that's a violation).

Yes, MacGuffin was a little bit of a dick for doing that, but I can understand (avoiding a collision).
No one is perfect...
 
Besides, going through an intersection while the light is yellow is perfectly legal just so long as you are clear of the intersection by the time the light turns red (if you are still in the intersection when the light turns red, then that's a violation).

I always thought that as long as your car had crossed the intersection threshold before the light turned red, you're fine, even if it turns read while your car is still in the intersection. This is why, when making a left turn, you pull out into the intersection a ways. Even if traffic is heavy and you can not turn until the light has turned red, you have the right-of-way (the other cars do not because the intersection is not clear). At least, this is how a police officer explained it to me a few months ago.
 
The explanation I was given only applies to through traffic. Still occupying the intersection when the light turns red is understandable if you are turning left since you have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear...just so long as you get out of there ASAP
 
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So, driving on I-4 yesterday headed to Tampa and i was stuck in a gaggle of traffic going about 65 (its 70 there) for about 3 miles and i was getting annoyed because it was a case of everyone was going the exact same speed when i noticed a hole open up in the far right lane, there was a pack of us that were "driving together" at about 75-80 when we ran into this. well, as i was the leader of this group i went against my own rules and went for the far right lane, the plan was to gun it to make it through a hole between a large pickup truck in the middle lane and an RV in front in the right lane. as i went for it the damn pickup truck could see what i was doing and im guessing he gunned it as well to block me (because he didnt want anyone going faster than him?) and i almost found out the hard way that the RV was maybe going about 50, 50! I have never locked up my brakes on that highway before (and i bet iv dont 25,000 miles on this route in the last year) but i bet i left about 50 feet of rubber. i got past and everyone followed eventually but DAMN! on a side note, all the people that were following me were giving me thumbs up as they passed. I dont get freaked out by things like that but i do get pumped up so for the rest of the trip i had to keep checking my speed because my foot got heavy from all the adrenaline that had seemed to leak into it from that incident.

so, ill admit i should not have tried to pass on the right here and i see that breaking my own personal rule almost made me pay big time but who do you guys think was wrong here, me, the pickup or the RV or even the a$$hole that was blocking up the left lane doing 65 that caused all this? Mind you its very common for traffic to flow around 75-85 on this highway so 65 is very uncommon.
 
This just in:

I was driving on some dual carriageway with two lanes in each direction, approaching some Kia (I think it was) going a bit slower than me. I glanced at the left side mirror to see if I could overtake, saw a car in there and decided to wait until it passes.
Then some Transit entered the highway from an acceleration lane on the right. The dude in the Kia slowed down to let him enter, and the dude in the Transit slowed down to enter between the Kia and me. What resulted is that they BOTH slowed down, really rather quickly, from 90 km/h to about 40km/h, in the middle of a highway.

At least no one was behind me, it could end up much worse than me just honking at both of those idiots. >>
 
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Besides, going through an intersection while the light is yellow is perfectly legal just so long as you are clear of the intersection by the time the light turns red (if you are still in the intersection when the light turns red, then that's a violation).
Is that a PA specific law? AFAIK as long as you enter an intersection on a yellow it's legal no matter if the light has turned red while you are still in the intersection or not.

@Sik Pony,
The lot of you is retarded :p If you are leading a pack you need to consider that other people need to be able to follow your maneuvers. I always hate people who lead and don't think about the cars behind. Also trying to merge in behind an RV is not a very good idea they don't to drive slower and kill your visibility.
 
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Is that a PA specific law? AFAIK as long as you enter an intersection on a yellow it's legal no matter if the light has turned red while you are still in the intersection or not.

It's not a law, I just looked it up with PennDOT. If one cannot safely stop before the intersection when the light turns yellow, they may proceed without penalty.
 
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