Another Stupid Drivers Thread

Appleseed said:

If you can't see the point I and others are trying to make, well then...

As I've said several times, I fully understand the point and the frustration.  My point is that from a strict liability standpoint, you'd be dead wrong if an accident happened while you're frustrated with the slow driver.   Rant and rave about it all you want (and I'd get it from a common sense standpoint), but when the lawsuit is filed against you, your insurance is paying.  Not because they're shiny happy people, but because it's a stone cold loss if they try to fight it.

I had an elderly lady in a minivan stop for a green light in front of me this morning. On a 4 lane major road. In the inner travel lane.

I was just about to go around her when she started moving again. The light changed to yellow as I just passed the stop line, which of course turned red while I was in the intersection.

Thanks lady.

Here in my smallish city, I'd say the biggest issue is lack of assertiveness behind the wheel. Mostly from elderly drivers. I'd much rather have an aggressive driver since they tend to move with the flow of traffic or faster. And if/when they do pull out in front of you, they get up to speed quicker and generally don't get in your way.

At my last job, one of the tow truck drivers was t-boned at an intersection by an elderly woman who failed to stop at the stop sign. Nailed him right behind the cab of the huge bright red rollback truck.

She didn't see him 

dculberson said:

Klayfish said:Just going on decades of experience....  People who drive 40mph in a 55 zone are very annoying, I've had that happen plenty and it frustrates me too.  But they aren't the ones getting into nasty accidents.

Gonna disagree here. If it was true that all they did was drive below the speed limit that's one thing, but the vast majority of people I've seen driving that slow also make unsignaled turns, last-minute cross-lane dangerous maneuvers, stop in intersections for no reason, cut their turns off too sharp so they're into oncoming traffic or crossing into parallel travel lanes, etc. They're not driving safely and slowly, they're driving slowly and badly.

All this. It's why I haven't ridden the bike since the last encounter. Nothing like driving in the wrong lane (oncoming) and then whipping over speeding up and then panic stopping at a green light only to zoom off again somewhere between 30 and 60 in a 45.

Yup. On a motorcycle I won't have to worry about the impending lawsuit. I'll be dead.

dculberson said:

Klayfish said:Just going on decades of experience....  People who drive 40mph in a 55 zone are very annoying, I've had that happen plenty and it frustrates me too.  But they aren't the ones getting into nasty accidents.

Gonna disagree here. If it was true that all they did was drive below the speed limit that's one thing, but the vast majority of people I've seen driving that slow also make unsignaled turns, last-minute cross-lane dangerous maneuvers, stop in intersections for no reason, cut their turns off too sharp so they're into oncoming traffic or crossing into parallel travel lanes, etc. They're not driving safely and slowly, they're driving slowly and badly.

+2.  It's one reason why I won't drive my classic cars to work in PA.  The speed limit on the PATP is 70 MPH. Flow of traffic is typically much faster (I often hit 90 and I'm not the fastest car on the road).  Even if I'm sitting in the right lane going 65 (about as fast as my Spitfire or GT6 is comfortable with), I'd still be a rolling hazard the rest of the world doesn't need.  Kinda sucks... today would have been a nice day to drive one of those to work.  While my TP stint is only about 11 miles of the commute, it's pretty much the only way to get here that won't add 30 min (at least).

In reply to Ian F :

Dear God.  My daily driver is a 1983 Mercedes 240D.  A car that, on a good day, makes 68 horsepower, and weighs somewhere around 3400 pounds with me in it.  I commute in the Baltimore area, and regularly hit 75 mph.  If I can do that, with _that_ car, surely, you can manage to drive a British sporting car with a much better power: weight ratio on your daily grind once in a while.

Alternatively, find other routes. On days when I drive my Corvair in to work, I generally take back roads in.  It takes me an extra 10 minutes, but it's much more pleasant cruising along some 2 lanes, top-down, than interstating it.  

When we drove from Baltimore to Columbus, OH, we realized that taking US-30 instead of the PA-turnpike added an hour to the trip- for the whole trip.  I don't see how 11 miles of the PA-TPK would save 30 minutes.  

It's hard to explain without a map. My office is pretty much due west of my house. The TP is literally the only road that goes due west that is anywhere near me. All others run in a meandering NE/SW or NW/SE direction. And are massively congested with traffic. Saying a back road route would take 30 min longer is actually an optimistic estimate.

I have driven the car on the TP before. I do it every year going out to Carlisle. But I try to time it so it's not during rush hour and traffic isn't quite as thick or hectic. 

It'snot just the speed difference, but also the visibility. An old MB wagon may as well be a full size truck compared to a Spitfire. It's a small, very low car and easily lost in traffic.

unfortunately, this whole scenario came into focus last weekend when a well known LBC club member was killed in his MGB on 287 in NJ. Details are still murky, but from what we do know, it sounds like he was in the right lane, minding his own business when a speeding car tried to make a right lane pass and didn't know he was there until it was too late. He hit the B so hard, he flipped it.

Having extensive experience on both roads, 287 is a sedate parking lot compared to the PATP during rush hour. Driving a Spit would be playing Russian Roulette. Most likely, I would be fine, but eventually there will be a bullet in the chamber. More so than usual.