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mad_machine
mad_machine GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
3/31/13 12:59 p.m.

sounds like driving in NJ

wbjones
wbjones UberDork
3/31/13 1:43 p.m.

come on folk .... any large city with multi-lane high-ways .... Atlanta , Boston, Detroit, Washington, LA, Dallas, etc. ......

icaneat50eggs
icaneat50eggs Reader
3/31/13 3:22 p.m.

Again, try other countries. Imagine all the bad habits you' e described here, but on unpaved roads with IED craters and everyone has an ak47 In the vehicle, and shares the can with goats and chickens

fritzsch
fritzsch HalfDork
3/31/13 3:48 p.m.

I was just in Israel and Jordan. The driving definitely doesn't follow traffic laws per se, but it manages to keep moving relatively incident free. If there was an opening, drivers kind of just put their car there and the other cars on the road would yield, without all the honking and rage that would result in America. Overall more chaotic but it works for them. Couple years ago I was in Cairo, and that traffic was terrifying. Apparently ever since Arab Spring though the traffic problem isn't as bad in the center since roads have been closed due to protests that happen often.

Anti-stance
Anti-stance UltraDork
3/31/13 4:00 p.m.
moparman76_69 wrote: That happens here a lot. Funny thing is when someone cuts you off and you catch them at the next light. I had a guy yell at me once because I pointed out the fact that cutting me off and speeding away did him no good.

That's the way I look at it.

I am much happier with my morning Atlanta commute now-a-days. I drive on back roads from Woodstock to Johns Creek/Alpharetta everyday. Only thing that slows me down in the mornings is school buses and school zones. I pass 8 schools on the way to work every morning. Two lane roads with minimal traffic.

Now my former commute, Marietta to Norcross via I285 northside, that was a blood boiling angerfest daily. I never want to commute on 285 again. Ugh.

wbjones wrote: come on folk .... any large city with multi-lane high-ways .... Atlanta , Boston, Detroit, Washington, LA, Dallas, etc. ......

^^^ This is true. It's just any big city that sucks. I really want to move away from the city. Woodstock isn't so bad, just far enough from Atlanta.

benzbaronDaryn
benzbaronDaryn Dork
3/31/13 4:12 p.m.

I'm in the bay area I've had people act like they wanted to trade paint before driving my toyota pickup with shell, people hate the little truck. If you start tailgaiting me I slow down and dare you to hit me. Trust me that my truck can't get much uglier. Think I need to put a tube front bumper as the front end is kind of flimsy on toyotas.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand UltimaDork
3/31/13 4:46 p.m.
benzbaronDaryn wrote: I'm in the bay area I've had people act like they wanted to trade paint before driving my toyota pickup with shell, people hate the little truck. If you start tailgaiting me I slow down and dare you to hit me. Trust me that my truck can't get much uglier. Think I need to put a tube front bumper as the front end is kind of flimsy on toyotas.

Exposed structural metal makes a BIG difference in how much caution people use with you on the road. When I bumper-deleted my Samurai there was an immediate change.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
3/31/13 5:14 p.m.
RealMiniDriver wrote: Toronto. I've never been scared, driving, until I got into Friday afternoon rush, in Toronto. Cities that have bumper-to-bumper snail's pace “rush" hour have nothing on Toronto. Those berkers are bumper-to-bumper, also, but do it at 135kmph. Being in a mini van, pulling a loaded trailer only made it worse.

Heh i've been in that same sort of thing in Toronto. And Montreal, and Quebec. I'm not sure what the deal is. While i appreciate getting places on time, holy E36 M3 is it scary.

iceracer
iceracer UberDork
3/31/13 5:35 p.m.

Not only on the road. the other day at the gas station, I had finished filling up, went inside to pay. When I came out there was a pickup parked right behind me. Other pumps were open. So I got in the car , started the engine, fastened my seat belt, reset my trip meter. Truck driver blows his horn. One of the few times I used my middle finger as I pulled away. As an after thought, what I should have done was get out of the car, walk back to he truck and ask him if he wanted something. That may have not been a good idea.

poopshovel
poopshovel UltimaDork
3/31/13 5:45 p.m.
ls1fiero wrote: I have a 32 mile commute into town 6 days a week. Rush hour in the morning and usually after 9 in the evening. Evening is my fave as you can actually see the mindless @#$% trying to kill me by the glow of his and her phone. Abrupt moves in the rain without looking and no signal? Got em. Dead F$%^&* stop on the interstate fast lane to drool at the flashy lights six lanes over? Oh yes. Mindless pacing of the vehicle in the next lane that is preparing an omlet in his yaris? Only if we are thirty under the limit. Twenty five under the limit on the no passing zone two lane? Ya shoor. Hey its a school zone right. Even at 10pm Saturday night. Keep Moving Sign? Nah. Got to cross four lanes at once for no reason Ill just sit here until Mike tries to get home from work. Sigh. No guns in the car. No guns in the car. No guns in the car.

Um. Wow. It's like I wrote this myself 15 years ago. We lived on Roswell Rd. 1/8 mile south of 285. I had a short commute, but mrs. poop drove 30-40 miles or so to Canton every day. She said she just felt like she was waiting for her turn (for her car to get totalled.)

If you think downtown is bad, head east on 20. Drive in that area long enough and you WILL die by the hands of a fat black woman in a dodge intrepid or chevy lumina. It's not racism, it's statistics.

jere
jere Reader
3/31/13 6:21 p.m.

Just missed this 75 car pile up on the way back up from Florida today 75 car pile up NC today . Spring break traffic is worse than anything I have seen yet, idiots everywhere.

On the way down there it was raining pretty hard there were cars up on guard rails, truck with boats doing 180s at 70MPH in the middle of the road and wrecked cars every couple of miles on either side of the highway. You would think if you can't drive in rain you would slow down or something, maybe stop cutting each other off... nope. Oh and this is good proof that the hazard lights on because it's raining helps I haven't even seen people do that before, and half of the idiots driving were doing it WTF

phillyj
phillyj Reader
3/31/13 9:05 p.m.
gjz30075 wrote: Why do drivers here (I'm a transplant) treat a flashing yellow at an intersection that just lost its traffic signals as a need to stop as if it were a flashing red? KEEP MOVING!

Wait a second. This happened today to me. I just slowed as I went through. When I came back to the light on the way home, I saw a car trying to make a left turn into an apartment complex. It looked like they were waiting a long time, so I stopped and let them turn. Only, the guy in the other lane didn't bother to stop for the turner. Common courtesy?

Anti-stance
Anti-stance UltraDork
3/31/13 9:58 p.m.
poopshovel wrote: If you think downtown is bad, head east on 20. Drive in that area long enough and you WILL die by the hands of a fat black woman in a dodge intrepid or chevy lumina. It's not racism, it's statistics.

Yup! Chambodia is a dangerous place to commute through without a E36 M3ty car. I wouldn't dare commute there if I had a nice car that I liked.

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
4/1/13 6:38 a.m.
iceracer wrote: Not only on the road. the other day at the gas station, I had finished filling up, went inside to pay. When I came out there was a pickup parked right behind me. Other pumps were open. So I got in the car , started the engine, fastened my seat belt, reset my trip meter. Truck driver blows his horn. One of the few times I used my middle finger as I pulled away. As an after thought, what I should have done was get out of the car, walk back to he truck and ask him if he wanted something. That may have not been a good idea.

Nah, shut the engine off and go back inside for an ice cream.

Mmadness
Mmadness Reader
4/1/13 7:31 a.m.
jere wrote: would think if you can't drive in rain you would slow down or something, maybe stop cutting each other off... nope. Oh and this is good proof that the hazard lights on because it's raining helps

Well, we all know that there is about one traffic fatality per hour so obviously, if you can make the trip in say 9 hours instead of 10, you are 10% safer. Right? I think it's probably a good idea to use your hazard lights if you are driving bellow the speed of traffic but often, people driving 45mph (in a 65) will turn on their hazard lights even though everyone around them is also driving about 45mph.

JohnInKansas
JohnInKansas Dork
4/1/13 8:09 a.m.

The last really awful traffic I remember being in was between Dothan, GA and Marianna, FL at 2pm on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. I think that was less a result of poor driving and more of truly bad traffic flow design and poor timing on my part.

Thankfully, I live in a place where the worst problems with traffic are people who sit at the end of on ramps because they're too afraid to speed up and merge, people who don't remember how to drive in the rain/snow because its been 6 months since the last time they had to, and slow moving farm equipment.

crankwalk
crankwalk GRM+ Memberand Reader
4/1/13 10:52 a.m.
JohnInKansas wrote: The last really awful traffic I remember being in was between Dothan, GA and Marianna, FL at 2pm on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. I think that was less a result of poor driving and more of truly bad traffic flow design and poor timing on my part. Thankfully, I live in a place where the worst problems with traffic are people who sit at the end of on ramps because they're too afraid to speed up and merge, people who don't remember how to drive in the rain/snow because its been 6 months since the last time they had to, and slow moving farm equipment.

Dothan is Alabama. We don't claim that town here in Georgia.

JohnInKansas
JohnInKansas Dork
4/1/13 11:02 a.m.

In reply to crankwalk:

Oh. Yeah. Sorry about that. Everything was blurring together by that point in the trip.

cwh
cwh PowerDork
4/1/13 11:20 a.m.

Miami has more than it's share of demented drivers, from all cultures. But, what they do have the best ARMED drivers, which can make things a lot more exciting. Flip a bird at your own peril.

slowride
slowride New Reader
4/1/13 11:25 a.m.

No one comes to Chicago for spring break, so my commutes were mostly awesome last week. Wish it was spring break all the time.

Otherwise... the roads change, but the stories are much the same...

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon MegaDork
4/1/13 11:29 a.m.

Here in Columbia the problems associated with traffic volume are nowhere near as bad as some other places but what it lacks in volume it more than makes up in just plain stupidity. I see some of the most idiotic stuff, it's clear that the real problem is the presence of a disproptionately large percentage of low end of the bell curve intelligence.

petegossett
petegossett GRM+ Memberand UberDork
4/1/13 11:51 a.m.
dankspeed wrote:
kazoospec wrote: Having only passed through, Atlanta is third on my list of rampant crappy driving. I'd put Washington D.C. first, Detroit second, and Atlanta a distant third.
Yes! Having driven in Detroit, Atlanta, and DC I have to say Washington DC drivers are terrible.

I just spent 3-days in DC and was pleasantly surprised. Even leaving the Smithsonian area at 5:30 Friday night wasn't bad at all. I395 was a little slow going over the bridge, but sped up fine on the other side. Sure, there were a few idiots, but nothing like I've seen in Chicago.

N Sperlo
N Sperlo UltimaDork
4/1/13 11:54 a.m.

I enjoy my pre-0600 commute. Minimal traffic problems. Similar on the post-1400 commute. In case there is a traffic problem, I always have alternate routes. Downside, their through the crime capital of the U.S. Or at least every couple years they make #1.

turboswede
turboswede GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
4/1/13 1:09 p.m.

I visited the Atlanta area once for a week's work. Well, I landed in Atlanta, rented a car (if you could call that GM-built FWD crapalier a car) drove to Alpharetta where I stayed for a week then drove back to Atlanta and flew out.

Between the E36 M3ty rental car and the completely nutzo drivers, I'm not volunteering to go back there again.

A particular moment that I remember was flying along one of the toll roads (just past the toll booth) at about 90mph (just keeping up with the traffic) when everyone stopped. For. No. berkeleying. Reason. Of course the rental car's rear drums apparently had never been used heavily so one decided to work while the other didn't. Gotta say, my butthole didn't appreciate the feeling of locking one rear drum in a FWD car traveling north of 80mph.

This was of course the highlight of the complete idiots that were changing lanes without signaling, passing on the right, not staying left, going too slow, going too fast, not merging, etc.

JohnInKansas
JohnInKansas Dork
4/1/13 1:21 p.m.

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" - George Carlin

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