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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:37:24 PM EDT
[#1]
I love the ones that wait till the absolute LAST second to swerve over 3 lanes to get to there exit.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:39:26 PM EDT
[#2]
No shit. Traverse 3 lanes to get off the interstate going 55 mph. Too busy talking on their cell phones in the passing lane. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:40:04 PM EDT
[#3]
+1. Drivers need to maintain Fleet Speed in their lane, or get over.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:43:02 PM EDT
[#4]
Having driven in a lot of different countries (and a lot in Chicago, D.C. and Nashville in addition to St. Louis), I can honestly say that U.S. drivers are okay. Not great (like the Germans), but certainly not bad either (like the spaniards, malaysians or nigerians).
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:44:38 PM EDT
[#5]
hahaha, thought you were talking about lane discipline at the range, and I would totally agree to that.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:45:27 PM EDT
[#6]
You obviously haven't driven in New York or Boston. 
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:45:49 PM EDT
[#7]
I agree, the Germans kick ass at driving, its a downright pleasure to drive over there, where everyone seems to actually know and obey all the rules of the road. Italy is a crazy place to drive, as is Korea, there are certainly worse drivers than us, but I wish we could all drive like the Krauts. ETA we need a nationwide media blitz and law enforcement rampage against left lane camper assholes. There should be signs every 5 miles saying slower traffic keep right, and left lane for passing only. Make it a 1000 mandatory fine to pass on the right, and a 5000 fine to obstruct the flow of traffic in the left lane, that ought to do it. 
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:46:55 PM EDT
[#8]
True  - but of my experience, I'd say that D.C. drivers were the worst.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:49:25 PM EDT
[#9]
Good point, I avoid teh Beltway if at all possible. But the Van Wyck and Belt Parkway in Queens and Brooklyn can be like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:50:09 PM EDT
[#10]
Boston Sucks to drive in, hell I wouldn't want to even be walking on a sidewalk when there is any traffic 
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:51:18 PM EDT
[#11]
When I get off the freeway near my house, I end up on a road that ends up becoming the freeway after a traffic light. Basically, the speed limit goes from 35 to 65 in just 100 feet. Then you have to merge to the right, or you end up getting stuck on the freeway which leads to a toll bridge over the SF bay. It seems like EVERY SINGLE TIME I get off at that exit, some retard is going 35mph on the freeway. It's tough merging when traffic on your right and left is going 65-75 mph, and the asshole in front of you is going 35.
 I also hate people who are too much of a pussy to merge on to the freeway properly. I have seen people STOP when they get to the acceleration lane. It's a nightmare to deal with that in this traffic congested area. I also see quite a few people going 45-50, but at least they are USUALLY in the far right lane. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:54:24 PM EDT
[#12]
Now having driven in Malaysia a fair amount, I'd have to say they are good drivers generally. They, however don't allow themselves to be overly concerned about minor details. For example : If the road is marked for three lanes, there will actually be five lanes of Traffic. (lane markings are a minor thing). That said if the road is one way all the traffic will be going the in SAME direction. Much better than many of the surrounding countries. The only traffic going against the flow would be motorcycles, but they will be driving on the sidewalk so that doesn't count. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:55:18 PM EDT
[#13]
My wife is Lebanese. You NEVER want to get in a car with her or her relatives. Some of the roads over there aren't wide enough for two cars to pass each other, but they are going to try anyway.
She considers American drivers to be too timid.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 9:56:48 PM EDT
[#14]
The Krauts do have an amazing sense of discipline on the road. Part of it is in their nature and part of it that if you are meandering the passing lane. Some Porsche going 200 is going to be permanently implated your ass. I know Germans have a fetish for the backdoor but a Porsche coming up your ass is going to make you late for your reisling.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:03:08 PM EDT
[#15]
Very true! Their driver's training is also awesome, it takes nearly a year, and requires students to demonstrate proficiency in an actual car with the instructor in all kinds of drving situations. Just taking the USAREUR driving test is a bitch! My German friend's daughter took her driving test recently, took her three tries to pass it, and she is a very good driver! It helps that you have to be 18 to drive, and that the training is expensive, too. I think the test was about 100 euros each, pass or fail!
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:04:37 PM EDT
[#16]
I thought you were talking about gun range lanes.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:06:40 PM EDT
[#17]
True, the malaysians are not really BAD per se. However, when I took my driver's exam in Malaysia, I remember being amused that the only thing they cared about you checking before you started was if the horn worked ! It didn't seem to matter that the car I took my driver's test in didn't have any mirrors. As long as the horn worked, you were good to go. Plus, if you could parallel park, you'd pretty much get your license. Whereabouts were you in Malysia? My family lived in Kluang (plantation country) about 1/3-1/2 way between J.B. and K.L. I miss the food. 
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:08:16 PM EDT
[#18]
Its also abnormally clean. Trash and garbage you see in other countries is non-existant. But I guess if you get caned and fined for not flushing a public toilet, you tend to be a little anal. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:31:16 PM EDT
[#19]
Well, you guys have never been to the Philippines ... have you....
. . . . . . . . You have not seen "undisciplined" until you've been or driven in the streets of Manila.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:36:51 PM EDT
[#20]
From what I've heard, India is pretty bad. I have heard of people getting hit by cars and just laying there until animals eat their remains.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:41:56 PM EDT
[#21]
If you think Americans are bad, you should go to a communist country like New Jersey or Chicago. Those fuckers can't drive for shit.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:49:57 PM EDT
[#22]
That was not totally uncommon in Nigeria either. Every once in a while the reason for a "go-slow" (traffic jam) was a fresh corpse in the street.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:51:24 PM EDT
[#23]
Probably dalits, nobody is going to move a dead one unless they are family. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 10:59:05 PM EDT
[#24]
people from cali really need to pull there head out of there asses. fuckin horrible drivers.
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Posted: 3/12/2006 11:00:35 PM EDT
[#25]
Tell me about it, lol. Between immigrants, women on cell phones, and high school kids, it's pretty bad. Isn't it like that everywhere though? |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 11:43:53 PM EDT
[#26]
I always heard about how terrible L.A. traffic was, and then I spent some time out there. From downtown to Glendale, even in rush hour traffic, was really quite easy compared to being on the south leg of I-435 in Kansas City at 5:00. The drivers in L.A. seem to obey common rules of the road (left to pass, flash to pass, zipper-method merging, etc.) that Kansas City drivers are totally ignorant of. Perhaps the L.A. drivers fear being shot at the next traffic jam... Jim |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 11:48:14 PM EDT
[#27]
Get in a cab in Mombasa.
It is a religious experience. |
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Posted: 3/12/2006 11:56:19 PM EDT
[#28]
Hah, I was in Algeria a couple of weeks ago, people will straddle the lanes even when there's no traffic. The lines are merely a suggestion over there. Mexico City is total shit too. If the guy on the right lane wants to make a left turn, he will start turning left at the intersection blocking 3 lanes of traffic just to make his turn with absolutely no regard to others. I agree though, driving slow in the passing lane should be ticketed regularly, that's (the) one good thing you can say about NJ is they'll ticket for that.
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Posted: 3/13/2006 12:11:56 AM EDT
[#29]
You can add Mexicans, Koreans, Italians, Iraqis, Kuwaitis, and Saudis to that "bad" list. I think it all boils down to what is accepted by the enforcement authorities. If we ticketed drivers for being passed on the right, they would eventually catch on to stay to the right unless they were passing. I've met people in their 30s that had no concept of the "passing" lane! |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 4:46:58 AM EDT
[#30]
Ever been to a country in the Far East (excepting Japan)? India, Taiwan, China .... ?
When you come back, you will bow down and kiss the earth, and thank heaven for the lane discipline and orderly way Americans drive. Because you haven't seen ANYTHING in terms of bad lane discipline until you've been overseas. |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 4:59:42 AM EDT
[#31]
Cairo, Egypt.
Henry Rollins did a stand up skit about their driving. The lines on the street dont mean anything, the lights are for decoration only. And if you crash it's no big deal, you just drive away. |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:03:18 AM EDT
[#32]
Amen! They have no clue what the left is designed for.
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:05:39 AM EDT
[#33]
What about Vietnamese drivers? There is (or was; it's been years now) a whole Vietnamese section of San Jose that even had Vietnamese storefronts. Those drivers were in another world. Bang-stop
 No, I don't think there can be any sort of media blitz to straighten things out. Not as long as the attitude prevails that driving is a right. There's a thing going on near here, in Buffalo, where there is a reluctance by the city to give a pay raise to the city police dept. To prove a point, they have been handing out parking tickets like they are going out of style. Even the news upset about it, as if they should stop handing out tickets. Everyone is whining about it. These people are parking illegally! The cops had been good enough to overlook much of it, and the people are now acting like spoiled little children about it. All they need to do is to park normally. Someone even went as far as to hand out a bunch of FAKE parking tickets, encouraging people to flood the court system. The news gave this a lot of free publicity on TV. |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:09:12 AM EDT
[#34]
The Germans are good not only becasue of the extensive training, but because the cops ticket for dangerous driving instead of just speed. You can get a hefty ticket for tailgating or using the left lane for anything but passing. For speeder, they have the camera boxes (straf-kasten) that take your picture: it sucks getting a quasi-mugshot of you in the car in the mail with your ticket!
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:16:56 AM EDT
[#35]
My pet pevs are:
1) Running red lights 2)Driving in the passing lane. 2)Driving slow in the passing lane 3) Failure to yeild the passing lane when someone wanting to pass 4) Not using the acceleration lane/ ramp to properly merge 5) Stopping on the acceleration lane/ramp 6) Not merging properly 7) Speeding to the front of a long line of traffic and cutting in. 8) Rubber-necking at an accident |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:23:12 AM EDT
[#36]
Add not heeding the school bus stop sign. I was talking to a lawyer-friend of mine yesterday who fixes traffic tickets for friends. He refused to take care of a girl's ticket because she drove past a stopped school bus (strike 1) that was unloading a kid (strike 2). She kind of copped an attitude and told him the reason she didn't see the school bus was because she was on the cell phnne (strike 3). |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:25:08 AM EDT
[#37]
Enforcing lane discipline would probably go a long way to prevent accidents and road rage. What's even worse than left lane campers though, is left lane campers who almost pass, but fail. They are about to pass you, just as you're about to pass someone else. So you wait for them to go by, hoping they'll pass before you catch up to the next car so you can move over without having to hit your brakes. It never fails that they slow to your speed just as they are parallel, blocking you in. I've gotten to the point where if someone is slowly gaining on me, and I have a pass to make, I'll just gun it and make the pass before they get there. Git er done or git screwed.
Chicago drivers aren't bad, you just have to keep up.  And in Chicago, you're lucky enough to not have so many blue hairs and the hippies like you do in some other places... Phoenix comes to mind. Gotta watch out for the cabbage pickers in the 'burbs though.
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:30:21 AM EDT
[#38]
How about the person a few cars ahead of us who stopped in the center lane of the thruway with their right turn signal on because they had almost driven past their exit. They waited until the right lane was clear, then crossed it and got onto the exit. Almost caused a huge pile-up. Asshole.
OR how about the ubiquitous tailgating SUV this morning in the storm when I couldn't see eff all... yeah, nobody can see the road, idiot, you think maybe we should slow down?
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:31:49 AM EDT
[#39]
I bet with a remark like that, the Spanish Inquisition will show up on your doorstep! ...and nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion! 
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:36:53 AM EDT
[#40]
One thing I hate is the SUV mentality. They tailgate (because they can see past you) even when you are doing the speed limit, and pass without signalling despite any lane markings. I see it here all the time. They rage around you even in a no-passing zone, and they are often on the cell phone (which is illegal in NY).
Another thing I hate is the trend where people use the center left-turn lane as a way to merge when the traffic isn't clear in both directions. You can be just entering the turning lane when some yoyo will come across in front of you and meet you head on in that lane because the opposing traffic lane wasn't clear... then they have the nerve to blow their horn at you, as if you did something wrong.  I see your SUV, and raise you one big, eff-off ugly-assed pickup truck. 
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:42:21 AM EDT
[#41]
I saw a guy fail to yeild to a SC Trooper this weekend. Once the Trooper stopped the speeding car he pulled the idiot that was camping in the passing lane too. I almost stopped to watch but didn't.
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:47:55 AM EDT
[#42]
The drives between Tegucigalpa Honduras, and Soto Cano AFB were some of the most exhilarating times of my life!
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Posted: 3/13/2006 5:56:18 AM EDT
[#43]
If there is one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how stupid people are and how they drive. Tesnevo and I were JUST talking about recent incidents ( this morning ) that involved in general people and the lack of disipline or responsibility they have when it comes to driving. It gets so bad sometimes I literally want to drag them from their car and beat them into a bloody stain on the ground. Other times I would just like to have some sort of giant truck or machine that I could run them over with. |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 6:27:56 AM EDT
[#44]
uh........................sorry 'bout that dude... 
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Posted: 3/13/2006 6:42:51 AM EDT
[#45]
Like people who speed up or slow down to your exact speed right in your blind spot. "It's Dumass." |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 6:44:33 AM EDT
[#46]
Right... or they speed up as you try to pass |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 6:49:01 AM EDT
[#47]
Sir, having read through this thread I can't say that I'm amazed by what I read. American drivers enjoy some of the best driving conditions in the world but are generally to inexperienced to realize how good they have it. When I lived in Italy I learned that the key to survival on the roads goes something like the old saying that when in Rome do as the Romans do. I've flown to many airports in this world and was expected to rent a car and drive to where ever the ship I was sent to meet might be. That includes driving from Cairo to Alexendria to meet one of our ships as well as back and forth daily between the ship and my hotel. In Egypt it's actually cheaper to rent a car with a driver than a car you drive yourself. In my experience Mogadishu was the worst, but I've never had to drive a car in India. I was told to rent a car with a driver in India as it's cheaper and you personally aren't liable if the driver hits somebody.
If you intend to survive such adventures that means not only do you have to avoid running into others but also make sure they don't run into you. You have no right to expect another driver to abide by your version of the rules of the road. Anticipation is the key, and road rage won't help you survive, in fact it may get you killed. Shaking you fist at some errant driver that has somehow offended you may earn you a smoking grenade in your lap. What ever your pet peeve may be leave it at home, go with the flow and you may live to return home. One further comment, having adapted somewhat to driving in Italy, when I traveled to Germany I found that many of the Germans didn't have great appreciation of my driving skills, but I also noticed how quickly they adapted to me as well as I did to them. One thing about driving on the autobahn if you're in the passing lane and someone behind you blinks his bright lights if you don't get over immediately he'll probably rear end you. Neither of you are likely to survive a rear end collision at autobahn speeds. JMHO, 7zero1. |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 6:51:43 AM EDT
[#48]
You see it in action every single day - common sense is no longer common in America.
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Posted: 3/13/2006 6:54:37 AM EDT
[#49]
try driving in Mexico, Columbia, Honduras, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Kenya, Egypt...
Americans are polite and have extremely good lane discipline compared to most of the planet. PITSNIPE OUT |
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Posted: 3/13/2006 6:58:42 AM EDT
[#50]
I aim for the spaces BETWEEN the cars...
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