People suck ass at driving on the highway?

[marshallnoise]

Traveling in the HOV/Carpool lanes here in California is an experience. Everyone gets 15 feet from everyone else's bumper and drafts like it's the Daytona 500 at 85 mph. Another reason I quit riding the bike.

[2mAn]

Once you drive on the Autobahn, you will lose all hope in American drivers

[J.Rizo]

LA is life, but LA is also death.

this is how I feel lol. I always tell people traffic is the non glorious side of living in Los Angeles that no one like to admit/talk about.

idk man, I've gotten used to it though. I kinda just zone it out, play music, try to enjoy being in my car, and accept my shitty traffic fate.

sidenote: we should start a poll in the SoCal section on which freeway is the worst lol. I vote the 5. fuck the 5. its bad 24/7 and 10X worse by stadium way on days the Dodgers play.

[straight6pwr]

it definitely varies by state/location. WI drivers are freaking terrible at it. Bunch of cheese sucking left lane squatters. IL drivers are much better at it (although they don't know what a blinker is)

generally when I've been on road trips, states west of here are pretty good.

[Swendog]

I grew up in Long Island but have lived in NJ for over 25 years. I've also spent lots of time in New England. LI drivers are just plain rude. There is a "I'm more important than you which gives me the right to speed up and cut into a mile-long exit lane". I can't STAND those a-holes!! By comparison, plenty of inept drivers in NJ as well, but overall less attitude. The thing that scares me most is the distractions from cellphones. I was heading to work one day on the Garden State Parkway...tooling along at 65 MPH in the middle lane was a 20-something girl putting makeup on with one hand and talking on her cell on the other! Presumably she had long legs...

Because that's how she was steering!

[FL318is]

Welcome to the world of "car owners vs car DRIVERS." In Florida we have the snowbirds, the tourons and the transplants. Each group bringing with them their own idiotic interpretations.

Frankly I believe a driving test should be given every 2 years. If you don't understand a Stop means STOP, you loose your license. If you text while driving, you loose your phone, you use your flashers during a Florida summer thunderstorm you aren't allow to drive during bad weather, you stay in the left lane on the interstate and don't move over for passing traffic,you can no longer drive on the interstate. And the list goes on.

Personally I don't give a shit if you are a car owner and not a car DRIVER. Your ass has NO business behind the wheel if you can't DRIVE it.

A drivers license is a privilege not a F--k--g right!:hitler:

[edaddy]

and FL 318is wins the trophy for first to break out that Emoji....

[FL318is]

edaddy, I thank you sir for that nomination. I would also like to thank all the idiots on the road for inspiring my rant and the justified use of the Emoji.

[e30onBBSs]

Honked at some fuckers today sitting in the left lane, they jetted ASAP. Also read every response and it seems pretty wide spread. There needs to be a nationwide PSA about how to drive on the highway and especially blinkers. So dangerous, like switching from left to middle I look over and if there is a car in the far right what if they want to switch to the middle but have no blinker on? Scary shit.

And tell me if this has ever happened to you. You are sitting in traffic, at a time of day where there usually isn't traffic. Probably an accident right? NO. You drive by to see someone's car that broke down getting towed, and it added 15 mins to your commute because people wanted to sit there and watch! Unreal

[UlrichFennec]

You drive by to see someone's car that broke down getting towed, and it added 15 mins to your commute because people wanted to sit there and watch! Unreal

Rubbernecking.

Fuck that. You wanna see the aftermath of the accident? Watch the news when you get home. I got places to go!

[LJ851]

People don't want to actually drive, they want to be sheep and follow the ass in front of them.


I think everyone should be required to ride a not very fast motorcycle for the first year or two of getting a license to learn situational awareness and personal responsibility.

[E30 Wagen]

Every now and then there'll be a clueless driver going slow in the left lane, but it generally seems like everyone loves to speed in Michigan. If everybody else isn't already doing at least 85+, no one is going to stop you except the cops.

[Jon325i]

Having read all the posts here, it appears that universally there are bad drivers to be found anywhere you go. The issues of lane squatters in the fast lane, not using signals, and tailgating have been around for years (I've seen plenty examples of this in my 25+ years behind the wheel). The biggest issue we face now is distracted driving....and it seems to be getting worse with each passing day. Whether its a cell phone, infotainment systems, eating, shaving (yes....I've seen Mr. Commuter using a Norelco on his way to work!), the vast majority of motorists are simply getting distracted from the task at hand....DRIVING. Combine that with minimal or lack of skills and you've got a lethal problem in the making as it travels down the road.

Our society as a whole....along with our government and its infinite wisdom.....are addressing the issue by demand safer cars. Don't get me wrong, safe cars are a good thing for lots of reasons, but I feel a lot of the issues we are discussing here can be more effectively addressed by overhauling the driver's education program in this country. The system that exists today makes it woefully easy for anyone to obtain a license and the training you go through (if you can actually call it that) to prepare you for life on the road is inadequate at best. A program with more effective training methods, placing a HUGE emphasis on safety and the consequences if they are not adhered to, needs to be drilled into every person who wants to obtain the privilege (notice I didn't say right), to drive in this country. I look at countries like Germany or Finland and their drivers training system as very good examples of how this responsibility to the masses should be approached.

Sadly - I know we won't see any change to the drivers training here in 'Merca. Instead of our government making the investment for improved drivers, they will let the auto manufacturers make the improved cars the government mandates. And then there's the (eventual) autonomous cars in the pipeline. In a way I think these are a very good thing since it will take the task of driving out of the hands of the unskilled, distracted, etc. driver....leaving that person to shave, post online, eat, masturbate, or whatever on their way to work without putting other people in harms way.


Jon

[estoguy]

Canadian drivers aren't much better... people don't know how to merge (my favorites are the ones who don't use the merge lane to speed up, but instead pull into the right lane at under 60 KM/H), hog passing lanes, don't signal, cut off, don't drive to conditions, etc, etc.

One thing I'm noticing a lot lately is people driving with their high beams on and won't turn them off when you're coming at them. Drives me nuts... they usually get turned off quick when I throw on my H4/H1 combo... THERE... ARE... FOUR... HIGHBEAMS! ;D

Another thing that bugs me... when you hear a traffic report on a bad weather day and they talk about driving to the conditions, etc.... I'm sorry, but if you have a driver's license, you should know when to change up your driving based on the prevailing weather conditions. Have people really gotten THAT stupid that they NEED to be reminded?

It's always rich up here when we get the first snow of the winter and we get all kinds of accidents, cars in the ditch, etc... We have winter at least half the year in most parts of Canada. And they blame it on the weather. NO! It's fuckwit drivers who won't adapt when they need to.

[TobyB]

because people wanted to sit there and watch! Unreal

I made the mistake of being on I5 when the fireworks were going off one 4th of July.

They didn't pull over to stop, they just stopped to watch. Wherever they were.

It was surreal. I turned on the brights, and went autocrossing. With real autos...

t