I think I may be becoming a Grumpy Old Man.....(Rant)...slightly off topic.
06-06-13, 05:20 PM
#51
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Momento mori, amor fati.
06-06-13, 05:24 PM
#52
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No, you're just wondering the same things I wonder about, on an almost daily basis. Namely, how did people get so stupid, and how do some of these stupid people even manage
to dress themselves in the morning. While driving the other day, I got behind a young woman, who was driving a rather junky looking chevy. She was clearly not paying attention.
She was on the cell phone, and futzing with something, or maybe someone, in the car. She drifts way over to the right, and puts the passenger tires up on the sidewalk! Then, off the sidewalk, and she swerves back and forth several times. There were two other young-ish females in the back seat, and it looked like they all burst in to laughter.
Yep, totally funny.
There is another one I see when I drive up 128 in the morning, usually twice per week. This guy's weapon of choice is a Jeep Gran Cherokee. He cuts in and out, using the horn
with great relish, before he finally makes into the far left lane, and floors it. Lovely cloud of blue smoke emerges. More testosterone then grey cells, I guess. And I'm thinking,
why, oh why, can't a statie come along right now? (Here in MA, we refer to the state police as "The Staties") This nitwit clearly needs to be pulled over and given a good dressing down.
Not just driving, but lots of other stuff as well.
You need to unwind. I'd suggest some nice, Foreign Films. Foreign Films explore the depth of the human soul. Here is one I think you'll enjoy.
to dress themselves in the morning. While driving the other day, I got behind a young woman, who was driving a rather junky looking chevy. She was clearly not paying attention.
She was on the cell phone, and futzing with something, or maybe someone, in the car. She drifts way over to the right, and puts the passenger tires up on the sidewalk! Then, off the sidewalk, and she swerves back and forth several times. There were two other young-ish females in the back seat, and it looked like they all burst in to laughter.
Yep, totally funny.
There is another one I see when I drive up 128 in the morning, usually twice per week. This guy's weapon of choice is a Jeep Gran Cherokee. He cuts in and out, using the horn
with great relish, before he finally makes into the far left lane, and floors it. Lovely cloud of blue smoke emerges. More testosterone then grey cells, I guess. And I'm thinking,
why, oh why, can't a statie come along right now? (Here in MA, we refer to the state police as "The Staties") This nitwit clearly needs to be pulled over and given a good dressing down.
Not just driving, but lots of other stuff as well.
You need to unwind. I'd suggest some nice, Foreign Films. Foreign Films explore the depth of the human soul. Here is one I think you'll enjoy.
06-06-13, 05:46 PM
#53
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After reading your sad story I remembered I had to go to UPS and ship my pants. On the way some big gas truck driven by this big gas truck driving lady cut me off. After evasive action I continued without a problem because I learned almost 50 years ago to expect the unexpected at all times not only when driving but with life-itself. Not being caught in some time-warp due to old age I just let stuff roll off my back like a duck in water.
Learn to let things slide and you will feel better. Trust me as I know what I'm talking about because I slept in a Holiday Inn Express once.
Learn to let things slide and you will feel better. Trust me as I know what I'm talking about because I slept in a Holiday Inn Express once.
06-06-13, 05:48 PM
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Keep in mind that half of all drivers on the road possess below average driving skills.
06-06-13, 06:33 PM
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In all seriousness, this thread got me thinking about my car commute. 32 years on the job (still working), Long Island to Brooklyn, 25 miles ea. way, roughly 10,000 miles per year commuting. I have yet to see everything imaginable for two reasons. 1) I keep seeing things happen that I never could believe could happen and 2) It get worse every year, which somewhat explains #1.
Brooklyn in particular has residents from every country on the planet. I think it's the only area/city in the US (possibly in the world if National Geographic is to be believed) that can lay claim to that, thus the driving "techniques" of the residents, not only in Brooklyn but also in the surrounding metro area, are challenging. Enough so that my wife and I found Rome to be a breeze in a car. Italians are actually good drivers, crazy as that seems. New Yorkers are not, or at least maybe they are but choose not to display their skills, instead tend to display their total disdain and lack of social respect for others, choosing the car as the method of choice to indicate their total hatred of everybody impertinent enough attempt to share a highway with them.
I hear that NY does not have the worst traffic congestion in the country. We're like # 4 or some such. I cannot imagine anyplace worse.
My wife commented about 20 or so years or so ago to let go the anger towards other motorists doing stupid things. "You'll have forgotten them in 5 minutes, so why bother". Good advice, though after 300,000 + miles later the well of patience seems to be completely dry at times.
06-06-13, 09:54 PM
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I drove I-15 to I-94 in San Diego for years and can't count the number of times I locked em up to avoid contact. 25 years ago I found the solution. I moved to Washington. The drivers aren't any better, but there are fewer of them and they're further apart. 
Good Luck.
Good Luck.
06-06-13, 11:12 PM
#59
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I'll go with something else. Don't want to put sticky tape on my Lexus hybrid dashboard. That car has to last me for a long time and I don't want to mess it up, if at all possible. Thanks for the suggestion.
06-07-13, 04:45 AM
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06-07-13, 04:51 AM
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06-07-13, 05:37 AM
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Then in your case it gets even worse: Fully half the drivers in NYC have below average driving skills FOR THE AREA.
06-07-13, 07:44 AM
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Just remember tho what many perceive as grumpyness in old people is our tendency to make pointed statements. But the thing to remember is the fact that we have many decades to form our opinions. We have learned by trial and error. We have found for instance that peeing into the wind just gets us wet. When we see a youngster peeing into the wind and getting wet we just laugh. The youngster gets mad and calls us know it all old farts.
06-07-13, 07:57 AM
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Just remember tho what many perceive as grumpyness in old people is our tendency to make pointed statements. But the thing to remember is the fact that we have many decades to form our opinions. We have learned by trial and error. We have found for instance that peeing into the wind just gets us wet. When we see a youngster peeing into the wind and getting wet we just laugh. The youngster gets mad and calls us know it all old farts.
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06-07-13, 08:01 AM
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It makes a lot more sense to educate a youngster than to laugh at them, that is why I taught school for years.
Bill
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I Can Do All Things Through Him, Who Gives Me Strength. Philippians 4:13
06-08-13, 07:23 AM
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It is a better education is a person learns by doing. When that youngster finds out that every time he pees into the wind he get wet, sooner or later he will be self taught that peeing into the wind is not the thing to do.
06-08-13, 11:03 AM
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Fail, If I can educate a person on how not to get wet I have done much more than laughing at them for a mistake.
Bill
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I Can Do All Things Through Him, Who Gives Me Strength. Philippians 4:13
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I Can Do All Things Through Him, Who Gives Me Strength. Philippians 4:13
06-08-13, 12:21 PM
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06-08-13, 12:35 PM
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Laughing at people who are already having a bad time isn't cool.
06-09-13, 11:17 AM
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Thanks for "Grandpa's Advice". My grands call me Grumpa. Bet you can't guess where that comes from. Just let me get on my bike and do my own thing at the end of the day and all is OK.
Last edited by Blues Frog; 06-10-13 at 03:22 AM.
06-09-13, 02:14 PM
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Of course ... by definition. But:
(1) Even 2 seconds is not enough when the person in front of you slams on the brakes from 70 MPH with zero warning. You're assuming I was following closer than that, and I wasn't. Presumably you saw brake lights, so there was warning
(2) Try driving through Los Angeles on the 405 sometime and maintaining a 2 second distance. It ain't easy. Why. It's perfectly simple in any kind of traffic/speed. If others get in the gap, drop back. It's not a race.
(3) Regardless the person that dropped the item is still obviously the primary cause of the crash.True, but a driver should always be prepared for the unexpected I'm quite certain the insurance company would have gone after them for the damage to all of the cars, should they have been identified.Identified? Most licence plates are illegible beyond about 20 feet. Unlike the rest of the world where they are legible from at least 25 yards! In fact that used to be part of the driving test in the UK: to be able to read a licence plate from 25 yards (75 feet)
(1) Even 2 seconds is not enough when the person in front of you slams on the brakes from 70 MPH with zero warning. You're assuming I was following closer than that, and I wasn't. Presumably you saw brake lights, so there was warning
(2) Try driving through Los Angeles on the 405 sometime and maintaining a 2 second distance. It ain't easy. Why. It's perfectly simple in any kind of traffic/speed. If others get in the gap, drop back. It's not a race.
(3) Regardless the person that dropped the item is still obviously the primary cause of the crash.True, but a driver should always be prepared for the unexpected I'm quite certain the insurance company would have gone after them for the damage to all of the cars, should they have been identified.Identified? Most licence plates are illegible beyond about 20 feet. Unlike the rest of the world where they are legible from at least 25 yards! In fact that used to be part of the driving test in the UK: to be able to read a licence plate from 25 yards (75 feet)
The basic problem in the US, compared with the many other countries I've driven in, is the lackadaisical approach to driving: one hand on the steering wheel, phoning, texting, fiddling with something beside you, looking at yourself in the mirror, no signals, eating and drinking, reading, random lane changing, no lane discipline etc, etc. In fact anything apart from paying full attention to driving. It's no wonder the US has one of the highest number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 miles driven than most other developed countries. And what is it due to? Poor training, easy tests and lack of commonsense.
06-09-13, 02:53 PM
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Here's some info from the UK Highway Code regarding braking distances https://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum.../dg_188029.pdf
The basic problem in the US, compared with the many other countries I've driven in, is the lackadaisical approach to driving: one hand on the steering wheel, phoning, texting, fiddling with something beside you, looking at yourself in the mirror, no signals, eating and drinking, reading, random lane changing, no lane discipline etc, etc. In fact anything apart from paying full attention to driving. It's no wonder the US has one of the highest number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 miles driven than most other developed countries. And what is it due to? Poor training, easy tests and lack of commonsense.
The basic problem in the US, compared with the many other countries I've driven in, is the lackadaisical approach to driving: one hand on the steering wheel, phoning, texting, fiddling with something beside you, looking at yourself in the mirror, no signals, eating and drinking, reading, random lane changing, no lane discipline etc, etc. In fact anything apart from paying full attention to driving. It's no wonder the US has one of the highest number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 miles driven than most other developed countries. And what is it due to? Poor training, easy tests and lack of commonsense.
06-09-13, 03:20 PM
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Possibly, but I'm not so sure. I want to see the source data for that.
It's been a loooong time since I had the motivation to compare US traffic fatalities per 1,000 miles to countries in western Europe. Back then, we were among the very best and our fatality rate has seriously dropped since then.
It's been a loooong time since I had the motivation to compare US traffic fatalities per 1,000 miles to countries in western Europe. Back then, we were among the very best and our fatality rate has seriously dropped since then.
06-09-13, 03:55 PM
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Oops. Turns out I was wrong. I only checked North America and Western Europe. UK is 3.5, US is 12.3. Sweden was the best of the countries I checked at 2.9. Greece was the worst at 14.4.
