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Gweenz
Jan 27, 2011

Nitramster posted:

Prius Drivers. They are bad.

My aunt drives a Prius, her 2nd. My uncle, who bought both of them for her and is completely aware of the irony, desperately wants to get "SMUGCAR" personalized plates for it. If I saw her driving it while I was riding, I would not get within a quarter mile of her. There is way too much sensory deprivation going on with those cars, they are the equivalent of automotive Soma. You're not in a car, you're in a controlled environment completely detached from the outside world, so might as well get a few things done while you're there. The driver always seems to be texting, eating hummus sandwiches, reading magazines about recumbent bicycles, or some other poo poo I don't understand.

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Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.
What baffles me are the Prius drivers who drive the things like bats out of hell. Like, 30 or more over the highway limit. Why would you buy a hybrid just to drive it like a GT? I hate getting passed by these guys because I know the moment we come to any kind of incline or turn that they will inexorably return to the cruel rules of physics that govern wimpy cars with skinny tires.

astrollinthepork
Sep 24, 2007

When you come at the king, you best not miss, snitch

HE KNOWS
Stuck on the side of the road cuz some dumbass on a Harley thought that he was too cool for gear. I have no idea what happened, but there's a bagger in the ditch on the of the road. Looks like he went wide into the opposite lane. A helicopter showed up 15 minutes ago, but it's just sitting here idle so I guess the guy croaked. It's really hard to feel any sympathy when my rear end is in full gear.

Also gently caress every cop here. I don't think you need three troopers and three deputies to do traffic on a rural road.

Finger Prince
Jan 5, 2007


Snowdens Secret posted:

What baffles me are the Prius drivers who drive the things like bats out of hell. Like, 30 or more over the highway limit. Why would you buy a hybrid just to drive it like a GT? I hate getting passed by these guys because I know the moment we come to any kind of incline or turn that they will inexorably return to the cruel rules of physics that govern wimpy cars with skinny tires.

well, I had one as a ZipCar rental once, and let me tell you, those pieces of poo poo can sure move if you cane them. Driving like a dong in a Prius is actually pretty fun. Instant torque is pretty useful in traffic, as anyone with a ~650 single can attest to.

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.

Linedance posted:

well, I had one as a ZipCar rental once, and let me tell you, those pieces of poo poo can sure move if you cane them. Driving like a dong in a Prius is actually pretty fun. Instant torque is pretty useful in traffic, as anyone with a ~650 single can attest to.

It's instant torque at city speeds, not when you're doing 80 in the hills.

ReelBigLizard
Feb 27, 2003

Fallen Rib
Yesterday I got stopped by a motorcycle officer for riding down a closed road on my bicycle.

It was Saturday so there was no-one working on it (it's being resurfaced). I've been riding down it every morning this week on my way to work. The guys working on it are more than happy to let cyclists through, because they're not colossal assholes.

Police officers like this make me want to commit crimes.

Skreemer
Jan 28, 2006
I like blue.

astrollinthepork posted:

Stuck on the side of the road cuz some dumbass on a Harley thought that he was too cool for gear. I have no idea what happened, but there's a bagger in the ditch on the of the road. Looks like he went wide into the opposite lane. A helicopter showed up 15 minutes ago, but it's just sitting here idle so I guess the guy croaked. It's really hard to feel any sympathy when my rear end is in full gear.

Also gently caress every cop here. I don't think you need three troopers and three deputies to do traffic on a rural road.

If the guy did die they have to get pictures and accounts on scene. Even if it was "just a traffic accident" there's a huge amount of BS cops have to do immediately if anyone invloved shuffles off their mortal coil. It does suck though.

(Source: One of the instructors I teach MSF with is a county sheriff's deputy and their traffic investigator. I can't imagine that being somehing I'd want to combine, more than once he's been called to a scene where the kid he taught in a class was the one being picked up.)

astrollinthepork
Sep 24, 2007

When you come at the king, you best not miss, snitch

HE KNOWS
Not around here. Deputies refuse to touch traffic accidents, instead pushing them over to troopers. The deputies were doing nothing more than gawking.

its all nice on rice
Nov 12, 2006

Sweet, Salty Goodness.



Buglord
Prius chat: I was riding to ocean shores this weekend and got stuck in a line of cars behind an RV just before entering some twisty bits. Wait, what's that? The RV is actually stuck behind a Prius. You'd think that when you have an RV an your rear end and almost a dozen cars behind it, you'd pull over or speed up, especially when there are "Delay of 5 cars illegal. Slower cars use turnouts," signs posted.

ReelBigLizard posted:

Yesterday I got stopped by a motorcycle officer for riding down a closed road on my bicycle.

It was Saturday so there was no-one working on it (it's being resurfaced). I've been riding down it every morning this week on my way to work. The guys working on it are more than happy to let cyclists through, because they're not colossal assholes.

Police officers like this make me want to commit crimes.

I was in downtown Seattle headed for the ferry and being held up by a traffic cop; we were down to one lane due to construction. A cyclist rode past all the cars and into the coned off area, where they were actually working and had heavy equipment. The cop stops him and tells him to "get [his] rear end to the back of the line." I chuckled at that.

its all nice on rice fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Aug 12, 2013

Deeters
Aug 21, 2007


Seeing a car in the oncoming lane of a back road almost wreck is now one of the most terrifying things I've seen while riding. A guy in his Audi must have been doing over 60, hit a crest with a slight turn that unloaded his suspension and spit the car sideways. I'm really glad he saved it.

ReelBigLizard
Feb 27, 2003

Fallen Rib

Pope Mobile posted:

I was in downtown Seattle headed for the ferry and being held up by a traffic cop; we were down to one lane due to construction. A cyclist rode past all the cars and into the coned off area, where they were actually working and had heavy equipment. The cop stops him and tells him to "get [his] rear end to the back of the line." I chuckled at that.

I'm a hooligan on my bicycle, but that is pretty stupid.

I rode through the closed road again today. I was riding past guys with flamethrowers torching the new tarmac (I don't know what the purpose of this is, I can only assume it is because it looks metal as gently caress). A couple of the workmen, including the one I asked for permission to pass through on the first day, gave me a friendly nod.

gently caress THA POLICE

Shimrod
Apr 15, 2007

race tires on road are a great idea, ask me!

The torching the new road thing is about melting the tar so it sets in properly, or so the traffic guy told me one time.

its all nice on rice
Nov 12, 2006

Sweet, Salty Goodness.



Buglord
They should play some speed metal during that process. Would make it so much more awesome.

Moral_Hazard
Aug 21, 2012

Rich Kid of Insurancegram

astrollinthepork posted:

Stuck on the side of the road cuz some dumbass on a Harley thought that he was too cool for gear. I have no idea what happened, but there's a bagger in the ditch on the of the road. Looks like he went wide into the opposite lane. A helicopter showed up 15 minutes ago, but it's just sitting here idle so I guess the guy croaked. It's really hard to feel any sympathy when my rear end is in full gear.

Also gently caress every cop here. I don't think you need three troopers and three deputies to do traffic on a rural road.

For the cop thing, that's nothing. Here in CT, two high-school kids got into a shoving match on a school bus right in front of my office and nine cop cars showed up with the cops bellowing orders, stopping traffic, and generally acting like they were in Fallujah. Too many times recently, I've seen cops behave in a way that makes me shudder to think of how they would react to a really bad situation.

HenryJLittlefinger
Jan 31, 2010

stomp clap


Pope Mobile posted:

Slower cars use turnouts.

gently caress every soggy-brained doucheknuckle who ignores those signs and continues at 25 mph up or down the canyon in their rental Camry, slowing to 15 mph in turns that I can take my Silverado towing a motherfucking boat through at 55, because they don't have canyons in Wisconsin, yes that's another loving elk over there, stop and get out of the drat car to take a picture of it you loving dingdong, there's 17 cars behind you, a bunch of whom are trying to get to work.

Chris Knight
Jun 5, 2002

me @ ur posts


Fun Shoe
loving guy in my neighbourhood with some custom orange cruiser and what must be open pipes since it's absurdly loud, sounds like a loving wet fart when he keeps gunning the throttle at stop lights. WE GET IT.

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester
Oct 3, 2000
You obviously don't get it or you'd be grateful for his obnoxious antisocial noisemaking.

ReelBigLizard
Feb 27, 2003

Fallen Rib
Only 10 days until I get my license back, it's dragging exponentially slower as the date gets closer :negative:

Chris Knight posted:

loving guy in my neighbourhood with some custom orange cruiser and what must be open pipes since it's absurdly loud, sounds like a loving wet fart when he keeps gunning the throttle at stop lights. WE GET IT.

Read this as "loving a guy in my neighbourhood" the first time around.

Wootcannon
Jan 23, 2010

HAIL SATAN, PRINCE OF LIES
Argh. Got my bike back today, am waiting at a pain-in-the-arse four-way junction to go right, and in oncoming traffic there's a line of panel vans waiting to do the same, obviously they've got traffic crawling up the left of them to go straight on so I just wait, as I'm not going to be able to see them until they're already in the junction because of the vans. Cheeky boot behind me had the loving audacity to beep and start gesturing furiously at me to go. I turn round, do the whole "what the gently caress do you want me to do" hand gesture, and then when the vans move and I can take the right safely, I did it then pulled over to have a wee word with this lady. She cottoned on and did that whole "looook at meeeeeeeeeeee" thing of flooring her shitey 1l hatchback past me in second gear at a whole 20mph, but I really wish I'd just followed her up to the next traffic lights and said "I want a word", because I've got L plates on.

Now, I've got a good chunk of confidence, I don't give a gently caress about beeping which I haven't ever really got anyway, I'm not moving till I'm fully satisfied I'm clear to go. Some wee 17 year-old on their first scooter or whatever, however, is gonna panic at an arsehole like that and get flattened. Raging, because she has no way of knowing which is the case and much as I hate to admit it the big red L does point towards the latter, which makes it quite a bit worse that she'd do that whole performance.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


People in general don't give a poo poo. It gets even worse when they're in traffic.

Anyone getting in the way of their imagined progress is considered fair game. They're "in the way", "impeding traffic", "a hazard to other motorists" and "people who should have taken the bus", while the impatient driver obviously considers him/herself the paragon of efficient driving and rationality. Couple this with a latent streak of aggression and perhaps a bad day at work and some people snap. Then you get road rage or in most cases, people who act like the lady in your story.

Thankfully it seems that people at least give driving school cars some extra space and time, but around here we have no way of indicating who's a completely new and inexperienced driver, and who's been on the roads every day for 20 years.

The only way to win at traffic is to not be a part of it, as far as I'm concerned.

Synonamess Botch
Jun 5, 2006

dicks are for my cat
When I was in my first month of riding, I was taking a right (US) from a stop sign onto a slightly busier road. I had the audacity to come to a complete stop, and not even for very long, because after I was already accelerating onto the road a guy in a van behind me blared his horn at me, I can only assume for not running the sign faster. It startled me so much I almost went wide into oncoming traffic. People are assholes in cars, and bigger assholes around motorbikes.

Deeters
Aug 21, 2007


Speaking of dumb drivers, do you guys have people wave you through stop signs before you get a chance to stop? It seems like 90% of the time I get to an intersection with another car, they give me the "go ahead" wave. I know some are just being nice, but it's really weird when they're waving like crazy and I haven't even gotten to the sign yet.

TheNothingNew
Nov 10, 2008

Deeters posted:

Speaking of dumb drivers, do you guys have people wave you through stop signs before you get a chance to stop? It seems like 90% of the time I get to an intersection with another car, they give me the "go ahead" wave. I know some are just being nice, but it's really weird when they're waving like crazy and I haven't even gotten to the sign yet.

Yeah, and it throws me way the gently caress off. Especially when I know there's someone on the opposite side of the intersection from them that isn't waving me on.

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.

Deeters posted:

Speaking of dumb drivers, do you guys have people wave you through stop signs before you get a chance to stop? It seems like 90% of the time I get to an intersection with another car, they give me the "go ahead" wave. I know some are just being nice, but it's really weird when they're waving like crazy and I haven't even gotten to the sign yet.

CT is full of people giving inappropriate 'go aheads.' I don't get why, because half the time it seems they could just keep moving and go and you could go right behind them even quicker, rather than waste time trying to decode if they're stopping or turning without signals (another CT delight) or they've just died of old age mid-drive or what. The other half of the time they're trying to wave you into traffic with thirty cars behind them and people trying to pass them on the shoulder, again because no one can figure out what the gently caress they're trying to do.

I've actually yelled at people for coming to a crashing halt in the middle of the street and nearly causing an accident behind them, just to wave me past, when I was in no rush to go and could've safely turned if they'd just loving followed traffic patterns and kept going

I could and probably will eventually fill this thread with tales of inexplicably dumb and dangerous poo poo CT drivers pull

NitroSpazzz
Dec 9, 2006

You don't need style when you've got strength!


Snowdens Secret posted:

I could and probably will eventually fill this thread with tales of inexplicably dumb and dangerous poo poo CT drivers pull

I flew up to CT to buy a car...gently caress CT drivers. How that state operates I don't know. I expected NY or some of the other states up there to be terrible but no CT was the worst I saw. It was also raining and rush hour by the time I hit the road.

TN drivers are mostly just over cautious, don't understand merging and ignorant as hell when it comes to operating a vehicle.

Deeters
Aug 21, 2007


I know CT drivers are the worst, but I never noticed this waving thing as much before this year. It's at intersections out in the middle of nowhere with no other cars around too.

CT isn't Russia bad, but this isn't that surprising anymore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kko2zLYqMjQ

its all nice on rice
Nov 12, 2006

Sweet, Salty Goodness.



Buglord
Hello fellow biker across this busy intersection. Allow me to take my attention from all the other vehicles, the traffic lights, and operation of my motorcycle to acknowledge your existence and give you a bro wave. No, I'm also not going to wave when you're going the opposite direction on the interstate.

slidebite
Nov 6, 2005

Good egg
:colbert:

Deeters posted:

Speaking of dumb drivers, do you guys have people wave you through stop signs before you get a chance to stop? It seems like 90% of the time I get to an intersection with another car, they give me the "go ahead" wave. I know some are just being nice, but it's really weird when they're waving like crazy and I haven't even gotten to the sign yet.

Oh god, yes. The worst is when it's a 4-way stop. You get a good flow going and then someone who gets there ahead of you tries to "be nice" and waves you through, but it totally fucks up the flow of traffic.

Also know a guy that stopped for a pedestrian at a crosswalk (as he should). The pedestrian waved him on, so on he went. A cop almost immediately pulled him over and said he had to yield for pedestrians. He said he did and was waved through and cop said "it didn't matter" :wtc:

DJ_Ferret
May 1, 2006

The living pipe cleaner
Some motherfucker with the same name as me had the audacity to file medical bills for compensation with my insurance company the same day that I reported a minor accident that resulted in no claims on either side. I've been called and had messages left with me for WEEKS by my insurance company. They always call while I'm riding or while I'm at rehearsal, and my calls to them always hit voicemail so it took a while to finally figure out what was going on.

Maybe, in the weeks of harassment, you could have checked the date of birth of the Thomas M who filed for compensation against the Thomas M on the policy? I wasn't born in 1972. I'm barely old enough for cheap insurance at 26.

Nidhg00670000
Mar 26, 2010

We're in the pipe, five by five.
Grimey Drawer
I nearly killed some dude on a Fireblade today (with my car). I had stopped to make a left turn, and the car coming from the other direction stopped as well since traffic was packed in his lane on my side of the intersection. The other car was a big station wagon with tinted windows, with a large trailer attached. Since he'd stopped, I started turning slowly across when I just see *something* in the small visible gap between the trailer and the car passing him on the other side from me. I instinctivly mash the brake and out comes a Fireblade at maybe 40mph flying past in front of me. He was so close that I was convinced he was going to hit the front corner of my car, but he just flew by and kept going on the shoulder.

He sure didn't ride like he was invisible, more like he was invincible.

clutchpuck
Apr 30, 2004
ro-tard

slidebite posted:

Also know a guy that stopped for a pedestrian at a crosswalk (as he should). The pedestrian waved him on, so on he went. A cop almost immediately pulled him over and said he had to yield for pedestrians. He said he did and was waved through and cop said "it didn't matter" :wtc:

This is precisely why I just sit there like a lump waiting for normal traffic to resume. If you get there first and are trying to wave me through, well, we're both going to wait then.

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.
Riding to work today, I get this guy behind me, black ZX-14-looking thing, no gear, ballcap and Ray-Bans. Guy keeps zooming up on me like he wants to talk or something.

We get to a light and stop and I look back and the motherfucker is texting

-Inu-
Nov 11, 2008

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY CUBIC CENTIMETERS

Snowdens Secret posted:

Riding to work today, I get this guy behind me, black ZX-14-looking thing, no gear, ballcap and Ray-Bans. Guy keeps zooming up on me like he wants to talk or something.

We get to a light and stop and I look back and the motherfucker is texting
I was in the northeast for the past few weeks visiting family, and you guys really do have the worst drivers. I never though that I'd appreciate Georgia drivers so much.

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.
Also on my like three-mile ride to work not one but two cars got in the right lane, put on their right blinker, and then merged left

I need to start wearing a helmetcam so I can sell the footage to HNasty

ArbitraryTA
May 3, 2011
I don't get it I almost never get this kind of stuff. I will admit though it sucks living in a college town that has lots of curvy roads and hilly terrain with low visibility. I swear to god the massive surplus of 18-19 year old first time drivers sitting behind a muscle car or some poo poo that need to peel out from every stoplight like they're hot poo poo never ceases to amaze me.

Considering a biek is my only mode of transportation, September is my most despised month of the year.

the bsd boys
Aug 8, 2011
Probation
Can't post for 423 days!
I'd just like to say that getting stuck behind a group of supercars doing 10 kph under the speed limit on a great road is the single most frustrating thing in the entire world.

Shelvocke
Aug 6, 2013

Microwave Engraver
When I'm filtering and people pull out almost over the lines so I can't overtake. It's not like they lose anything from me getting through.
This morning, one such chap was talking on his phone and smoking a cigarette while stuck in traffic also while sitting on the centre line.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


I see people straddling the center line all the time, in all kinds of traffic situations. I don't know if they're just oblivious or if they're in fact not aware of how wide their vehicle is.

It's especially bad when roadworks narrow the lanes. A car must by law not be wider than 2.55m and the most I've ever seen a lane narrowed down is to 3m wide. Plenty of space, yet people panic and straddle the center line.

KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Aug 28, 2013

Moral_Hazard
Aug 21, 2012

Rich Kid of Insurancegram

Snowdens Secret posted:

CT is full of people giving inappropriate 'go aheads.' I don't get why, because half the time it seems they could just keep moving and go and you could go right behind them even quicker, rather than waste time trying to decode if they're stopping or turning without signals (another CT delight) or they've just died of old age mid-drive or what. The other half of the time they're trying to wave you into traffic with thirty cars behind them and people trying to pass them on the shoulder, again because no one can figure out what the gently caress they're trying to do.

I've actually yelled at people for coming to a crashing halt in the middle of the street and nearly causing an accident behind them, just to wave me past, when I was in no rush to go and could've safely turned if they'd just loving followed traffic patterns and kept going

I could and probably will eventually fill this thread with tales of inexplicably dumb and dangerous poo poo CT drivers pull

I get to help with the "dumb poo poo CT drivers" too you know. :colbert:

People putting on their right blinker and then turning left is probably the most annoying. That and texting.


the bsd boys posted:

I'd just like to say that getting stuck behind a group of supercars doing 10 kph under the speed limit on a great road is the single most frustrating thing in the entire world.

Only time I've crossed the double yellow is when someone was doing 15 mph under the posted speed limit on a beautiful road.

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Deeters
Aug 21, 2007


KozmoNaut posted:

I see people straddling the center line all the time, in all kinds of traffic situations. I don't know if they're just oblivious or if they're in fact not aware of how wide their vehicle is.

It's especially fun when those people actually do have wide vehicles on narrow roads:

:911:

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