Learn How to Drive/Passenge/Pedest

[4X4]

The other thread got jacked by mechanics and physics professors, and the last driving thread is a year old, so here's a new place to rant about crappy drivers, passengers, and pedestrians.

This morning I was driving down a narrow residential street with cars parked on either side, and plenty of un-plowed snow. Just as I was passing a car going the opposite direction, some dumb bitch in a parked minivan about one car length in front of me opened her driver's door and got out of the vehicle. I SLAMMED on the brakes while she went deer-in-headlights and stared at me bearing down on her. My truck stopped about two feet from her...feet.

People, don't be ignorant. Look in your mirror before swinging your door open and jumping out on the street. Doesn't matter that I'm only going 10kph, it's a fricken pickup truck on snow. It's gonna slide. Think about your safety before leaping out into traffic you bunch of morons.

[burn_this_city]

I got a good one, stupid people loading and unloading their kids on the drivers side. Its a stupid idea on a nice day, throw in snow and ice and its a tragedy waiting to happen.

[Kybosh]

Some RWD truck in front of me decided to gun it and spray my windshield with gravel. Thanks for the chips, jack ass.

These guys make the rest of us truck drivers look bad.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

Some RWD truck in front of me decided to gun it and spray my windshield with gravel. Thanks for the chips, jack ass.

These guys make the rest of us truck drivers look bad.

I FU****NG HATE THAT. You're right, it's jackasses like that that make other pickup drivers look bad.

Another thing that is about to come into play for the next few days are the ######s that drive on the bunched up gravel instead of in the lanes and spray rocks and dirty water all over the cars behind.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Anyone ever notice that usually the guys who claim to be the best drivers have way more stories about how someone almost caused them to be in an accident than most people.

Just something to think about.

[Ramsayfarian]

I was heading east on 12 ave the other day and was stopped at the lights on Olympic Way. There was a car to my right, in the RIGHT HAND TURN ONLY lane and no one behind me. Light turns green, she goes straight. I'm beside her and she mouths "F U" because I didn't yield to her. "F Me? F U "

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Anyone ever notice that usually the guys who claim to be the best drivers have way more stories about how someone almost caused them to be in an accident than most people.

Just something to think about.

It's usually guys that spend half their work day driving to various sites that have lots of driving stories. I bet you have a lot of badass pencil/paper stories, eh?

[3 Justin 3]

So I was making this pizza right at my job when out of no where a Ferrari plowed right into the glass and exploded killing 2 customers.

True story.

Those crazy drivers.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Anyone ever notice that usually the guys who claim to be the best drivers have way more stories about how someone almost caused them to be in an accident than most people.

Just something to think about.

On the flip side, many bad drivers have no stories to tell because they never notice the near accidents they get into. There are way too many oblivious drivers out there.

[Red Potato Standing By]

the worst pedestrians are the ones that walk on the side of the road while playing on there frickin cell phones.had one person walk in the side of my truck while waiting at a stop sign.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by 4X4

It's usually guys that spend half their work day driving to various sites that have lots of driving stories. I bet you have a lot of badass pencil/paper stories, eh?

No offense, but you holier than thou attitude towards your driving skill is a little annoying. There is a big difference between being able to follow the rules of the road, and having driving "skill".

Participate in something like the Porsche driving experience or ride I 170 HP motorcycle around a track hitting speeds in the high 200's and then start claiming what an excellent driver you are, because they are entirely different things altogether. I have done both, and been to numerous track events, and until you are in a situation on the absolute edge of control, you don't know what good driving really is. Especially when you are shotgun to a proffesional.

Being able to follow rules does not require skill, just awareness to your surroundings. Also based on a lot of posts I have read of yours over the years, you sound like an arrogant "I own the road" tunnel vision driver, not a good one.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by 4X4

It's usually guys that spend half their work day driving to various sites that have lots of driving stories. I bet you have a lot of badass pencil/paper stories, eh?

Sometimes sure, but not everyone on here who always gets in a huge huff about not being able to speed in the left lane becuse there is someone driving in it doing the speed limit has a job that involves driving.

But there definitly does seem to be a pretty strong correlation between between talking about how good someone is at driving/how bad everyone else is/how they are safer speeding than doing the speed limit, and stories about how other crappy drivers almost caused accidents that could only be avoided by the story teller's smart thinking/keen driving skills.

On an unrelated note, you sure did get touchy about my comment about connection between someone claiming they're a great driver (which usually involves justification of speeding beyond, "I just want to get somehwere quicker"), and yet for some reason having an inexplicably high near miss rate. Weird.....

[Knut]

I was turning left from 50th avenue onto Southbound crowchild and some idiot bus driver decided to stop and let someone out in the middle of the on-ramp. Only 2 cars got through the light and the car behind the bus almost slammed into the back of it because of the icy roads and the bus' sudden stop on the on-ramp. All because some idiot likely missed his stop.

[Tinordi]

Being able to follow rules does not require skill, just awareness to your surroundings. Also based on a lot of posts I have read of yours over the years, you sound like an arrogant "I own the road" tunnel vision driver, not a good one.

Disagree almost completely. If it didn't require skill then there wouldn't be so many idiots on the road. I would like to think I'm a skilled city driver. I'm not a race driver what you're describing but I can navigate my city roads efficiently, quickly and safely, and that does require skill.

[jammies]

Save the clocktower!

I watched a semi nearly change lanes into a car that was about to pass him yesterday on the QEII. As in I'll bet there was no more than 6 inches between the trailer and the car's left front before he jerked the wheel back; obviously he didn't check his mirror properly as that car had passed me (because I was in the right lane and not pretending I was the speed police) about 5 seconds before and wasn't sitting in his blind spot for a while or anything.

I'll bet the guy in the car had a near heart attack - but it didn't stop him from getting back up to 130 km/h once he was sure the semi wasn't going to crush him. Other than that, I let a guy in whom I noticed too late was on his !#@%ing phone, but people seemed to do pretty well yesterday - all the bad drivers probably have their cars at the body shop or something.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Had an incident this morning where a jackass thought because it was -4 and roads are semi-dry, he can gun it, weaving in and out of traffic going 20 above the limit. And thanks to the idiot, I got a sprayed with gravel pretty good. Thankfully not enough to damage my windsheild.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

On the flip side, many bad drivers have no stories to tell because they never notice the near accidents they get into. There are way too many oblivious drivers out there.

Yup, that's true too, but I wouldn't think there is a reverse correlation between driving ability and the number of near misses one is involved in.

Seems to me I hear a lot more near miss stories being caused by idiots from self professed great drivers (who usually also talk about how they are safer speeding than they are at the speed limit) than one would expect if they actually were such a great driver.

This is how the continum seems to work in thier mind:

Totally crappy oblivous driver: No near misses reported(for lack of knowing what they've done)
Below average driver: Many near misses reported (almost cause more accidents, and realize it)
Average driver: Average number of near misses reported (cause that's how stats work)
Better than average driver: Few near misses reported (good driving skill reduces incidents of near misses)
Self professed great driver: A whole freaking lot of near misses reported (Inexplicable statistical anomaly which is clearly caused by those other idiots who don't know how to drive???????)

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Another thing that is about to come into play for the next few days are the ######s that drive on the bunched up gravel instead of in the lanes and spray rocks and dirty water all over the cars behind.

Isn't that what the slow drivers do on the far left/passing lane to ward off the tail gaters?

[mrkajz44]

Is pedest even a word?

[SeoulFire]

I predict a whole lot of the same.

I also agree that the majority of the stories are from know-it-all aggressive drivers who constantly put themselves in those kind of positions.