Driving Gripe Just Because

[ColinV]

So we have cars that park themselves, warn for lane departure, slow for cornering to fast, and now....

Got to see a commercial the other day for some import SUV that will stop you if you don't react to stopped traffic or stationary objects. In it, a mom with two kids in car seats in the back is looking everywhere and anywhere except at the road. Traffic stopped in front and the car slams on the brakes and stops, then she looks forward and crushes the brake to the floor after the car stopped. The Pity here is that this is the norm and not just a car ad. I see this & worse everyday usually minivans, SUV's (suddenly upside-down vehicles, here in BC) or cars with "baby on board" stickers or just car seats in the back being driven like they are vying for pole position. In real life this 2 watt bulb may get herself and her kids to driving age without killing them all, then turn around and teach her kids to drive herself. I drive for a living and can't even begin to wrap my head around the idiocy I see every moment of every day on the highways. I don't know what happened but somewhere it became a right to drive and not a privilege. We really need to get back to the days when a license was granted because you proved you had a functioning human brain, and are therefore given the privilege of getting from point A to point B on your own terms. For the rest of the 5 pound water-heads who taught themselves to drive by playing video games, TAKE THE DAMN BUS!

Sorry had to get that off my chest! RANT OVER!

[Deaf Bob]

How about the dill heads who pull out in front of you on a 55 mph highway in the same distance as they would in town?

[Schtauffer]

For what its worth, I think a driver's license should be difficult to get and easy to lose.

[silver_bullet]

let's not even mention the multi-taskers(phone/text, reading, whatever)

[BlueCuda340]

One of the problems in my area is merging on the highway. People expect the highway to slow to them so they can take there time getting up to the speed limit. FLOOR IT PEOPLE! ITS THE SKINNY PEDAL ON THE RIGHT!

[NewEnglandRaceFan]

I like how people don't use turn signals, I blame those right or left only lanes at lights for this getting as bad as it has in the last 5 years..
All this new tech,(park itself,stop itself/etc) should be pissa in a few years, I see tons of dopes at night with their lights off, because they are so used to the automatic sensor turning them on. and when it fails, they drive around with lights off..
I can see dopes not looking ahead because the car will stop, and get used to that, and then be driving another vehicle that doesn't have that, or it fail. and cause wrecks..
Only new tech I like is the backup camera, no idea why they don't turn the rearview mirror into a screen for the camera.. and two screens at the corners of the dash for the side mirrors, the MPG they could get with cars not having "ears" would be huge at the Automaker fleet level.

[JOES66FURY]

I could go on for days...everyone else sucks pretty much sums up how I feel driving here in Tucson...Put me back in Pittsburgh and I am fine...but here...if I had a bazooka and could shoot someone everytime I am forced to pass on the right....there would be thousands and thousands of blown up cars....

[Grumpy]

I live in Central Illinois and all that we have to watch out for are Farm Tractors, Possum's and old Geezers like me!

[STINEY]

The possums are getting darn bold this year too! Too bad for them that BOLD does not equal LUCKY.

[Loren]

Last week a gal in town backed over her five-year-old, then suspecting she'd run over something she put it in D and pulled forward over the child again. Girl did not survive. Next day a radio talk show host railed on about it for an hour, with all callers agreeing people should know where their children are so that sort of thing wouldn't happen.

Question: WTF about other people's children? Or dogs, or trash cans? I was taught you are not only responsible for the space inside your car, but the immediate area around it including front, sides and rear. Anything in that space, you are the one in charge and that space increases with speed (which is why we do not like "tailgaters"). It's not just about where your kids are, it's about where YOU are and how you should know and track anything that is nearby.

[Barry Donovan]

502 bad gateway.

its computers pretending to flow with nature, like the drivers that need them.

I just posted a truckers rig slammed into pizza hut after it ran him over yesterday. The most primitive brake setting going, and he somehow had no brake set.


It does need brains, people version.

the world is tilting to another winter... I wonder who does not notice.

[Bamfster]

I used to get a kick outta the people that would demand a "community" meeting about the traffic problems in their neighborhoods. I'd get beat up pretty good about not doing proactive enforcement .... when I would start doing enforcement at their request, 9 out 10 times I ended up writing the same people that were at the meetings complaining .... funny how that worked !.....

[68scott385]

I am confused at how driving has become a secondary activity but the statisticians and auto manufacturers keep making vehicles with less and less required driver input while complaining about inattentive drivers.

Put the phone down, and the make up, the newspaper is obsolete, and do you really need to eat a double cheese burger from Wendy's while drive 90mph going east on I64 between Louisville & Lexington?

[milner351]

I took out a ground hog on our driveway this year.... I've noticed since hitting one - the rest decided to vacate the premises.


Please don't get me started on idiot drivers - turn signals are NOT optional equipment, hang up and drive, don't drive in the left lane unless you're passing, and for God sakes if you put those stupid blue headlights in your car don't drive around with the brites on all the time!

anyone else notice how many relatively new cars have tail light / turn signal / brake light bulb failures?
bean counters apparently got a hold of the bulb suppliers

[daved931]

let's not even mention the multi-taskers(phone/text, reading, whatever)

I have to make a concerted effort to put my phone down. I have to tell myself NO and put it in the console. Every damn day.

I am also the first one to throw a fit when I'm behind someone in traffic that is obviously texting.