Topic: Idiot drivers piss me off!

[olds-cool]

I just had to vent about the number of idiot drivers that I've noticed over the last few weeks.  I am constantly seeing people flying out of side roads trying to get in front of me.  I also love the people that start pulling forward just before I get to where they are!  Pull out 1 second earlier and I'll be your new hood ornament!  Damn near got hit by a restaurant on Sunday as an old guy started pulling out without even looking.  I also have a fondness for those that swerve towards me while going down a straight road.  Is it that hard to hold the wheel straight?  Todays experience was the icing on the cake.  I was approaching a stop light, probably 1500' ahead.  It's 5:00 so traffic is a little heavier.  I just downshifted to 4th, anticipating the stop ahead, and started up the small incline to the stop light.  Out of nowhere, the woman in front of me slams on her brakes and swerves towards the side of the road.  The car ahead of her had slammed on their brakes too but hadn't swerved.  The angle of the incline blocked the tail lights of the car ahead of them so I had no prewarning.  Luckily I was already covering my brakes and the clutch.  I locked up the back wheel, let it go, then locked it again, all while swerving around the car in front of me.   The back of the bike started to swing sideways both times it locked up.  I almost went up an embankment but managed to not lay it over.  Thank god for my younger dirt bike years, and the buffer zone I leave in front of me, or I would've been down for sure.  All of this because some idiot 2 cars ahead was probably digging in their purse, changing a cd, swigging their $5 coffee, or most likely talking on the damn phone during the one time they should be paying the most attention, an intersection.  It's the phone people that piss me off the most.  If it is so necessary to talk on the phone while driving, buy an earpiece!
I'm sure you all have been annoyed at these same people.  Maybe those of you who have ridden much longer than me come to expect this behavior.  I'm close to buying a huge lot of bumper stickers with a phrase like "DUMBASS DRIVER ON BOARD".  Maybe I can follow these people to their destinations and stick one to either end of their cars.  Sorry to rant so much about a topic that I'm sure has come up 1000 times but at least I feel a little better now.

[nickjtc]

Yes, we've discussed these scenarios many times before. But that does not stop them from being a common occurence, unfortunately. Operating a motor vehicle has become secondary to other tasks at hand to the average driver (such as talking on a cell phone, texting, eating breakfast or lunch, adjusting ones coiffure or just interacting with other people in the vehicle) so it's no wonder that we see poor driving habits.

As a driver/rider examiner I get to have a little input into the future driving habits of many novice drivers, which can be a positive thing. I also get the wrath of older drivers who have to be re-examined and then fail their test miserably because of bad habits accumulated over time. The biggest tragedy is that they honestly believe that they were 'good' drivers. Ah me...

[droopy]

Yes, we've discussed these scenarios many times before. But that does not stop them from being a common occurence, unfortunately. Operating a motor vehicle has become secondary to other tasks at hand to the average driver (such as talking on a cell phone, texting, eating breakfast or lunch, adjusting ones coiffure or just interacting with other people in the vehicle) so it's no wonder that we see poor driving habits.

As a driver/rider examiner I get to have a little input into the future driving habits of many novice drivers, which can be a positive thing. I also get the wrath of older drivers who have to be re-examined and then fail their test miserably because of bad habits accumulated over time. The biggest tragedy is that they honestly believe that they were 'good' drivers. Ah me...

 >:(just had two idiots today try to kill me both reading newspapers

[nickjtc]

I lament that there are not more standard transmission vehicles on the roads of North America. As least with a 'stick' the driver is constantly reminded that they have to interact with the vehicle.

[neil young]

I lament that there are not more standard transmission vehicles on the roads of North America. As least with a 'stick' the driver is constantly reminded that they have to interact with the vehicle.

how true.iv been driving stick for about ten years now (last two vehicles)you have to many other things to do instead of reading the paper,adding makeup and talking on a phone.but there is the odd person that tries it all anyway

[mrbreeze]

I lament that there are not more standard transmission vehicles on the roads of North America. As least with a 'stick' the driver is constantly reminded that they have to interact with the vehicle.

You got that right Nick!!! I prefer manual trans and always have. Automatics to me are boring and expensive to replace. My current ride is a 95 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 and I never would have bought it if it had an auto trans. To each their own though.

[Shenanigans]

I think one of the worst and most infuriating parts is when they make eye contact and it still does not click. What else is gonna work besides me tackling your door? I have to use my horn way too much.


There is a roundabout on a tucked back road that I take every now and again (kinda odd for AZ) and the last 4 out of 5 times I have taken it, what do you know the person to my right NEVER yields.

[Joel]

I lament that there are not more standard transmission vehicles on the roads of North America. As least with a 'stick' the driver is constantly reminded that they have to interact with the vehicle.

You got that right Nick!!! I prefer manual trans and always have. Automatics to me are boring and expensive to replace. My current ride is a 95 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 and I never would have bought it if it had an auto trans. To each their own though.

I agree that autos are boring.  So many vehicles aren't even available without one anymore though.  It's disappointing.

[DarkRider]

i usually notice the idiots after i have gotten off of the bike for the night and run around somewhere in my cage to get something i couldnt get when i was riding. earlier this summer i had such a night...got off of the VF and went somewhere in the little car i had at the time an idiot in a super duty ford decides hes gonna move to the lane i was in when i was half way past his truck..i back off of it..move the idiots drivers side and tear him a new one verbally...of course hes trying to say im lyin and causin bull#$%*...yea ok buddy..lets see if you are so lucky if you try something like that when im in the Sierra that replaced the car..i wont back off this time...and chances are...my truck will still be moving after the confrontation...Ah the joys of old american iron..punch through some idiots new 50G plastitruck while your $400 80s sierra keeps on rollin....

sorry for the rant..the one reason i got rid of my little car was because of things like this...i actually started to feel safer in the chaos on my bike then i did in the car...at least on the bike a safe zone is a twist of the throttle away in most cases...

[oldfordguy]

Cell phones are definitely the worst!  The other night I was following a car going about 35 in a 55 zone, swerving back and forth across the double yellow line on a 2 lane in front of me.  It was an unmarked Highway Patrol car with an "officer" talking on his cell phone! (Probably to his mistress.)  On my cage I have a bumper sticker that says "I wonder if you'd drive any better if I shoved that cell phone up you butt!"

[Einyodeler]

  

[johnny-from-bel]

You will find idiots everywhere. At work, on the road, in the pub,... you name it.
I live with it, it does not make me hot nor cold. I just try not to get killed by one of them.

BTW. I drive a chevy automatic, love the car and allways keep an extra eye out from MC riders.

[jdigga]

Damn near got hit by a restaurant on Sunday as an old guy started pulling out without even looking.

Those crazy restaurants always come out of nowhere!

Kidding aside, bad drivers will disregard everybody, not just bikers.  I think we as motorcycle riders will notice it more when we're riding because we're exposed--nothing between you and some idiot's bumper except your pants.

A couple weeks ago I saw what could have been a major wreck on the highway.  I was riding in the 2nd of 4 lanes, medium traffic.  Way up ahead I saw lots of brake lights so I started to slow down and pulse my brake.  I was down to maybe 30mph when this lady flies past me in the 3rd lane still going 60 or so.  I'm looking at her go by and the nearly stopped traffic in front of her.  She locks up the brakes, fishtails a bit, and somehow recovers.  Apparently she missed the fact that every other car around her was slowing down.

I drive both an automatic and a stick (stick is much more fun).  I enjoy driving for its own sake and also pay extra attention to motorcycle riders.

[dusterdude]

with the high cost of rebuilding an automatic transmission nowadays,i wont have nothing but a stick.

[UnCrash]

Idiot drivers drive me mad too.

I always vent by imagining strafing their car with a paintball gun that I pull out of my windjammer fairing as I roar by them.

No, I don't have a paintball gun.  But it's fun to imagine 

[medic09]

Yep, came within a few feet of death today - again.

Idiot chick in a RAV4 signals left for a lane change.  I guess here in NM that automatically confers the right of way, because simultaneously she starts her lane change RIGHT ON TOP OF ME.    Doesn't matter that I was next to her, occupying the lane.

I am very grateful for those two discs on the front of my Triumph.  Even at 70 mph they slowed me enough to drop behind her.  When I'm back just behind her quarter panel, she suddenly realizes the lane is occupied.  She puts a hand to her mouth, and giggles to her passenger.     The ditz nearly ran me right over, and giggles...

I'm actually surprised that I wasn't angry and shaking by the time I reached work a few minutes later.  It is a bad sign when I'm getting used to these idiots.

[nickjtc]

Idiot chick in a RAV4 signals left for a lane change.

Riding rule 53c. Even if you do not think you are in their blind spot you probably are because they will not shoulder check.

[upperlake04]

The ultimate urban vehicle

[oldfordguy]

I was always a manual transmission kind of guy, too, until I built a C4 using TCI's "streetfighter" transmission rebuild/upgrade kit to put in my 60 Falcon Ranchero drag car.  It has an dual-gate manual/automatic valve body, and is the hardest shifting tranny I've ever seen.  It will get rubber in all three gears in drive, with a locker rear end and 3.55:1 ring and pinion.  There is no way a manual car can out-shift me on the strip with this setup.  And by the way, all the cost in rebuilding an automatic is in the labor, the kit for this tranny was <$100.  So if you rebuild it yourself, its a lot cheaper than rebuilding a manual tranny.  It's not that hard, either, just make sure you have a long workspace to lay everything out in order as you take it apart, only took me about 4 hours from start to finish, and I'm slow.

[mikedialect]

Sadly, I joke with a few of my buddies about this a lot. I have a theory that someone will try and kill me twice every time I ride. When those situations happen I always joke that I'm glad I got those out of the way for the day. Without fail, though, I do almost get killed at least twice.

[Joel]

I was always a manual transmission kind of guy, too, until I built a C4 using TCI's "streetfighter" transmission rebuild/upgrade kit to put in my 60 Falcon Ranchero drag car.  It has an dual-gate manual/automatic valve body, and is the hardest shifting tranny I've ever seen.  It will get rubber in all three gears in drive, with a locker rear end and 3.55:1 ring and pinion.  There is no way a manual car can out-shift me on the strip with this setup.  And by the way, all the cost in rebuilding an automatic is in the labor, the kit for this tranny was <$100.  So if you rebuild it yourself, its a lot cheaper than rebuilding a manual tranny.  It's not that hard, either, just make sure you have a long workspace to lay everything out in order as you take it apart, only took me about 4 hours from start to finish, and I'm slow.

It definitely takes a good driver with a good manual tranny to outshift a good auto.  But I still prefer the clutch and shifter interaction.  Keeps me engaged.   I just wish mine were attached to something better than a 4-banger Cavalier.

[Jugghead]

 

 
As an all-american, constitutional rights supporter, I NEED THIS BUMPER STICKER!!!!
awesome

[olds-cool]

I once had a girl tell me that she could smoke a cigarette, drink a coffee, talk on the cell phone, shift, and drive at the same time.    I hope I'm never riding near her!

~Todays idiot driver comment has been brought to you by Preparation H.  Preparation H, because sometimes life hands you a pain in the ass.~

[jdigga]

My friend's father-in-law has a strange lane shifting technique.  He puts on his signal, then starts to slowly creep into the lane he wants to go into.  If he hears a honking horn, he moves back.  Otherwise, if there's no retort, he'll complete the lane change.  Who needs mirrors or head checks?