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Old 04-17-2009, 07:02 PM   #75 (permalink)
MSD
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Location: CT
Even before other drivers, some things that piss me off:
-The Speed Limit: the safest speed limit is the speed at or below which 85% of drivers will drive in ideal weather and visibility conditions. Anything lower is solely for revenue generation.

-Poorly Designed Entrance Ramps: Ramps with stop signs are dangerous. If you cannot build a long enough entrance ramp for the slowest modern car to safely accelerate to the minimum speed allowed on the road, there should be no entrance there.
-Poorly Designed Exits: Short ramps are dangerous. If a driver of the largest vehicle that can legally be driven on that road cannot safely slow from the safest highway speed for conditions to a stop at the end of the ramp, or if they cannot slow from highway speed to a speed that allows them to safely round a bend on the ramp, then there should not be an exit there. Forcing drivers to drive below the minimum speed limit while still on the highway because of poor ramp design disrupts traffic flow

those two are embodied by this crossover: Google Maps

Not that traveling south, both exits 40A and 40B require a driver to begin braking well before the exit ramp. If you zoom out 4 steps, you'll see E. Rocks Road to the northeast of this interchange. On a light traffic day during rush hour, traffic will slow to below 10 mph and back up past E. Rocks Road. Pan the map Northeast until you see the intersection with Route 33. On a bad day, traffic will back up to there, the previous exit.

At the first southbound ramp, cars can get up to maybe 30mph because of the uphill slope. Most can manage 50-55 from the second. On the first northbound ramp, there's a stop sign. This brings traffic to a grinding halt all the way to exit 38, which you can find.

Here's the clusterfuck in bird's eye view. The ramp over Route 7 is the top of a huge hill, which interrupts traffic even more.
Your web browser and the Maps site are incompatible

That ramp with the stop sign brings me to my issue with drivers. Common Fucking Courtesy. Only after every 15 or 20 cars does someone leave enough distance for someone to merge. During rush hour, instead of letting one car in in front of them, people will ride the next car's bumper so nobody can get into those precious 20 feet in front of them. When someone does get in, the next few cars have to jam on their brakes because they aren't leaving a safe distance between themselves.

This brings me to my next point: following distance. I will drive at any speed I want on the highway as long as I can keep a safe distance between myself and other drivers. If I'm doing 100+, this means I'm not within at least a thousand feet of another car (I let the distance grow exponentially at higher speeds just in case.) At normal speeds, it's about 1.5-2 car lengths per 10mph I'm going. Apparently, everyone else missed this part of driving school, because there's always someone who assumes that I'm not maintaining a safe following distance for safety, I'm keeping a spot open for him to swing his 4000 pound death machine into. If I had my way, these people would be deported (If you're a US citizen, you'd better hope Canada or Mexico will put up with your shitty driving. A Canadian informed me that they'd be fine with this because they have a colony for that called Montreal.)

From safe following distance comes the natural pet peeve of tailgating. It's not safe, you cannot make any argument to claim that it is, and if you tailgate, you're an idiot. If it's not going to cause a traffic jam, I prefer to deal with these by taking my foot off the gas and possibly downshifting. By the time they figure out I want them to pass me (I only do this in the right lane, if I'm in the left and someone wants to go faster than me, I move over as soon as is safely possible,) they're usually mad enough to give me dirty looks and flash America's Favorite Gesture (TM) at me. I smile and blow kisses. I only do this because I don't have the authority to deport people over traffic violations ... yet.

Then there are the ones who weave through traffic, and the special case of the guy who will move into another lane that gets him ahead, even if it's only by six inches. They're always doing this in heavy traffic where it's impossible to move over to let someone pass, and nobody for twenty miles ahead of or behind us are going more than 5mph. The solution to these is to give them false hope. I have a nice buffer built up because of my safe following distance (in really slow traffic I expand it to 50-60 feet so I don't have to brake so much) and this allows me to fuck with them. Pull up alongside the car in front of lane switching jerk, plus half a car length. Jerk switches lanes. Take my foot off the gas to maintain my following distance. Jerk switches lanes. Repeat until bored or at my exit. My record is a guy in a riced out shitbox who changed lanes and went back 14 times (28 total.) This will keep me amused since I can't deport them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ring View Post
I wonder if most people have a grasp of what, 'horse power', truly means.
Off the top of my head, it means the amount of work done by one pound-foot of torque at 5252RPM.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Famous View Post
Very numerous things anger me on the road.

Just this week I was CLEARLY about the step on a pedestrian crossing when this cunt in a white van came tearing across and would have knocked me down if I had kept walking as I was in the right of way to do.

I hurled the (plastic) bottle of coke I was holding at the time into the side of his van. He stopped and got and a few words were exchanged, but I didnt physically strike him or anything - I guess Im a kind of a coward like that sometimes. I lose my temper but then dont back it up.

In the past I've deliberately driven into someone (at 5 MPH) because he pulled in front of me in slow traffic, I've got out of my car and kicked another cars license plate multiple times, chased after a car shaking my first, jumped out my car waving a tyre iron at someone, etc... obviously I will swear or lay on the horn or wave my fist out the window at least every other day due to the intense frustration the pillocks and fools on the roads these days cause me. Im not an aggressive driver, but I guess driving does make me aggressive. I honestly wonder if the driving test is even being applied in this country today, half the wankers on the roads seem to have got their license out of a christmas cracker.
I recall you mentioning one of those incidents here before. You have very serious anger issues and should seek professional counseling.
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