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Poll

The absolute most infuriating thing on the road is...

The guy who won't pass anybody in the passing lane.
- 11 (12.1%)
The tailgater.
- 10 (11%)
Speeders.
- 2 (2.2%)
Old people who think the speed limit is half what's posted.
- 8 (8.8%)
Gigantic White Pickup Truck Driver
- 8 (8.8%)
The Geo Metro.
- 1 (1.1%)
9.3 years of construction THAT NEVER GETS WORKED ON.
- 14 (15.4%)
Stop signs.
- 0 (0%)
People who ignore stop signs.
- 8 (8.8%)
THE FUZZ
- 5 (5.5%)
Phone/food/makeup users.
- 13 (14.3%)
Road-ragers.
- 7 (7.7%)
Anybody who passes me.
- 4 (4.4%)

Total Members Voted: 48


Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 16

Author Topic: Driving Can Be Frustrating  (Read 33755 times)

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Sharkey

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #20 on: May 13, 2008, 08:22:28 PM »

As someone who avoids driving absolutely fucking religiously I had to go with fuckers who ignore stop signs and self absorbed psychopaths who eat/phone/whatever while driving. As a pedestrian I've almost been killed by more than a few of those. Doubleplus awesome in SF, where the hills are steep enough that you frequently have no fucking idea if there's going to be something in front of you when you come over them without stopping.

The worst was some chick in a Lexus who didn't just run a red light, requiring me to literally make a running leap out of the way, but who STOPPED TO YELL AT ME OUT HER WINDOW AFTERWARD. Seriously. No fucking fooling. In too much of a hurry to avoid killing people, but not too much to pass up a chance to be the very fucking definition of an asshole.

I'm still embarrassed to admit this. I'm always the one to climb on the high horse and knock any initiation of violence as the action of an idiot or an animal. But in that second, yeah, I was a pissed off animal. I'm glad all I did was kick in her tail lights until she raced away. Then again, some rotten part of me wishes I'd pulled her fucking head off and kicked it into a sewer.
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Thad

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #21 on: May 13, 2008, 11:29:02 PM »

out of state college students that came from somewhere where the last snow was during the ice age. they either Drive INCREDIBLY SLOWLY or slide all over the fucking place.

Shit, man, I went to Northern Arizona U.  That's a university in the mountains populated almost entirely by people who have spent their entire lives in the desert.  Forget out-of-staters; that's just within 150 miles.
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sei

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #22 on: May 14, 2008, 01:17:47 AM »

Nothing for people with no intention to turn, sitting in the right hand side of the right hand lane, such that they can't be passed for a right-on-red?  Pff.

Just. Fucking. Turn. For the love. Of your own life. Because. 30-40. Is almost worth it. I can plead. Insanity. And do a stint at a mental hospital. Even.
Nice, white room.  Plastic-covered bed secured to the ground.  Well-encased cameras.  Ah, the high life.

Though, er, people slowing down well in advance of their turn piss me off too.  I'd say "thanks for the reminder," but I get a couple per day.
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SCD

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #23 on: May 14, 2008, 02:56:51 PM »

I hate dumb pedestrians. 

Living in a tourist town, I usually have to bike between the cars to the left of me and the curb, which does not give me all that much room for manouevre. 

So you get these dumbass pedestrians who jaywalk when the cars are stopped because they can probably cross between them.

And they don't look both ways.  Hit one the other day:  The twenty-year old type who wears long purple hair, bondage pants and a fishnet stocking shirt under a tshirt.  He cried, but he wasn't hurt in a permanent or debilitating fashion, as his fat female companions cooed him down the road.  Of course, despite my command MOVE, or my attempted braking.
--

T Sharkey:  In my childhood home, there was a busy 4-lane road that was notorious for killing pedestrians, despite having a marked crosswalk - where by law the cars must stop for pedestrians.  My old man got me into the habit at age seven of carrying rocks while crossing that road.  If they weren't that concerned of a big thing like breaking the law or potentially killing a human being in neglect of the law, then by logic they should care less about things like windows.

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Arc

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #24 on: May 14, 2008, 03:05:46 PM »

marked crosswalk

Also useless, and in need of banishment. Did this intersection ever bother with lights, or did they simply pile up the corpses as a warning?
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SCD

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #25 on: May 14, 2008, 03:18:39 PM »

they reduced the lanes to two in 1993, and threw an island in the center of the road.

I agree though that if its purpose is not protected by law, it should go. 

That is not the case here, and in all other parts of town where they exist, the law is followed to the letter.  This particular one, however, was an oddity.
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Guild

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #26 on: May 14, 2008, 03:18:54 PM »

When I was a kid my cousin and I would haul rocks up a tree with a rope and bucket and throw them at cars.

The cars weren't doing anything wrong. We were just fucked up kids.
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Thad

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #27 on: May 15, 2008, 01:11:36 AM »

Moved to Real Life because this thread's about personal experiences rather than politics/news/issues/etc. and because Real Life needs more threads anyway.

Other thoughts:

1. Aren't you legally obligated to stop for any pedestrian, any time, anywhere, whether there's a crosswalk or not?  That's how things work 'round here, at least.

2. Regarding throwing rocks: my dad (who I cannot use humor without mentioning) claims he used to carry around little steel ball bearings for dealing with drivers who endangered him or otherwise gave him shit when he was on his bike.  As with many of his stories, I do not know how much (if any) of this story is true, but the important thing is that in one telling he exclaimed, "Let's see you catch me in traffic, you cracked-windshield-ass motherfucker."
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Büge

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #28 on: May 15, 2008, 07:42:12 PM »

"Let's see you catch me in traffic, you cracked-windshield-ass motherfucker."

Hum. I've only ever encountered bike-haters at night and on rural roads around here. They're almost always blasting their high beams at me and occasionally drunk and shouting. I decided against carrying one of those giant halogen light-guns since they're too heavy, and eggs were a bad idea because they might break and leave me covered in noisome goo. I ruled out cartons of rotten milk and socks full of tar for the same reason.

Next time I ride in the dark, I'm bringing a pocketful of lead sinkers. Thanks for the tip, Thad's dad!
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Kazz

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #29 on: May 15, 2008, 07:48:00 PM »

1. Aren't you legally obligated to stop for any pedestrian, any time, anywhere, whether there's a crosswalk or not?  That's how things work 'round here, at least.

I knew a girl who used this as an excuse not to look for cars when walking into the street.  She said that if she got hit, it would automatically be the driver's fault, so she would make buttloads in court.

This was after Fight Club came out, before anyone draws the obvious parallel.
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Mongrel

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #30 on: May 15, 2008, 08:35:48 PM »

Some of the angriest and bitterest bike riders in Toronto carry around hammers in their belts, just to get their licks in.
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Rico

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #31 on: May 16, 2008, 11:05:51 PM »

One that's been happening in front of me more often than usual lately: Guy wants to make a turn off the arterial at, say, 31st Avenue, so he drives 10 miles an hour under the speed limit from 25th, because counting is difficult.
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sei

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Re: Driving can be frustrating.
« Reply #32 on: May 18, 2008, 02:57:34 AM »

    2. Regarding throwing rocks: my dad (who I cannot use humor without mentioning) claims he used to carry around little steel ball bearings for dealing with drivers who endangered him or otherwise gave him shit when he was on his bike.  As with many of his stories, I do not know how much (if any) of this story is true, but the important thing is that in one telling he exclaimed, "Let's see you catch me in traffic, you cracked-windshield-ass motherfucker."
    I used to park somewhere off-campus, because it was quicker to walk from there to campus than in the campus lot.  Eventually, they cracked down and started enforcing the lot's privacy.  Since I was going to be very late to class, I just stuck around and talked to the security guard who would have cited me if I'd gone off the lot.  Anyway, he mentioned the ball bearing thing too, so it might not be all that rare.

    Hum. I've only ever encountered bike-haters at night and on rural roads around here. They're almost always blasting their high beams at me and occasionally drunk and shouting. I decided against carrying one of those giant halogen light-guns since they're too heavy, and eggs were a bad idea because they might break and leave me covered in noisome goo. I ruled out cartons of rotten milk and socks full of tar for the same reason.
    On this note, I'm really fucking tired of huge trucks and SUVs with their lights built to heights that fuck with visibility of anyone driving vehicles not designed for compensation.  I've thought over vengeance a bit.  While this doesn't help cyclists, my ultimate lean towards how to handle it involves adjustable mirrors.

    Until recently, I had pretty much no particular idea how practical (or affordable) it might be to set up.  Due to having played with something similar enough that I could reuse some existing parts/code, I may have a marginally better idea, though still far from a perfect one.

    I'll probably edit this later, but a vague idea of the parts needed:
    • Servos with a couple kg of torque, allowing 90 degrees of rotation aren't devastatingly expensive ($10) at the right places.
      -Two servos to control X/Y of the mirror angle would be about 20 bucks, but if one can find a mirror that looks like a tube cut in half, altitude (within like 20 degrees?) might be mostly irrelevant. (Anyone better at math is more than welcome to correct me on this.)  Maybe a kind of elliptical bowl might be better, to handle cases where the azimuthal angle is a little bit (but not entirely) off?
    • Speaking of the mirror, I have no idea how much it'd cost or where I'd find the described curvature, but I'd need one.
    • Some basic light detection stuff.  A photodiode with an up-amp and a couple resistors can be adjustably sensitive.  I think some light-to-frequency/voltage devices are also around and might not be terribly expensive, especially if one can score free samples:
      • A cheap and basic photoresistor, an up-amp, a few couple resistors, and a potentiometer all together should probably still be under $15.
      • An ADC and one of those more sophisticated light-to-frequency things shouldn't be much different in price, but the necessity of this component set is mutually exclusive with the line immediately above.
    • One more servo to sweep the light detection device.
    • Possibly (not certainly) Some kind of reflective, vertically elliptical, satellite-dish so that the light sensor only has to be horizontally aligned with a headlight, letting us ignore the vertical angle.
    • A medium breadboard, because there are going to be fuck-ups before the thing is worked out.
    • 8051 microcontroller chip to move the servos.  Cheap or free, depending on sample availability.
    • Some way to control the fucking thing from the front of the car (requires more investigation, but probably simple if asking in the right place).
    • Power source.  (Need to investigate.)

    Basic operation:
    1) Clean filthy rear window.
    2) Be somewhere where drivers sit on the left.
    3) When an offending vehicle is behind, pres butan to get the light detector diode to sweep once, getting the azimuthal angle of, let's say, the left headlight.  (Could use a 180 sweep for both and then just pick the brightest headlight.  Whatever.)  Thing stores where the offending headlight is and then rotates the mirror to face almost-but-not-quite-towards it, and then slowly pans the mirror back and forth a bit, letting us get away with not needing perfect accuracy, while still returning enough annoying reflection to the driver behind that they would like to fuck off.
    4) Figure out how to explain what the fuck is going on in the back of your car to police officers.
    5) Figure out how to mount it solidly enough that it won't pose an enormous hazard in an accident.  Fuck.  It's got a mirror.  Of course it'll pose a hazard.  Scrap project.

    ...Fuck.  This has to be my new procrastinatory high.  Back to work.

    EDIT: Fuck the attempted correction that this forum keeps trying to perform on nested lists.[/list]
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    Disposable Ninja

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    Re: Driving can be frustrating.
    « Reply #33 on: May 18, 2008, 06:17:47 AM »

    When I was in high school, I got a ticket for jaywalking. Until then, I didn't really even know what jaywalking was.
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    Classic

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    Re: Driving can be frustrating.
    « Reply #34 on: May 18, 2008, 06:56:41 AM »

    ::D: ::D: ::D:

    Your ideas intrigue me, and I would subscribe to your newsletter.
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    Mongrel

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    Re: Driving can be frustrating.
    « Reply #35 on: May 18, 2008, 08:52:44 AM »

    See the 'Shit Days' thread.  :facepalm:
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    Ocksi

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    Re: Driving can be frustrating.
    « Reply #36 on: May 19, 2008, 06:08:30 PM »

    The most annoying things while driving are tailgating trucks/suvs (vehicles that when close behind you appear to have their brights on all the time) and other drivers who just don't turn their brights off.

    Re: biking revenge: bikers around here typically use U-locks.  The latch part of a U-lock weighs a bit and you can get good leverage and range out of it by holding the U.  So if you offend a biker, it is not unlikely they will knock out a window or dent a side panel and then pull off onto a side street.

    However, this is also the most bike- and pedestrian-friendly town I've ever seen, so it's not often people piss off the bikers.

    Oh, while driving down country roads, particularly two lane roads that wind, being behind a biker can suck, but the real trouble is in particularly curvy/hilly parts, where your vision of the other lane is very limited and the cyclists won't have the courtesy to wave you forward when they can see if it's clear.
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    TA

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    Re: Driving can be frustrating.
    « Reply #37 on: May 19, 2008, 06:38:10 PM »

    Y'know, every biker i've ever seen in Baltimore, without exception, has been breaking the law or endangering those around them in one way or another.  Running red lights, going the wrong way on one-way streets, riding between lanes, weaving through traffic or pedestrians, and such.
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    Mongrel

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    Re: Driving can be frustrating.
    « Reply #38 on: May 19, 2008, 08:22:46 PM »

    Wait... you live in Baltimore?

    That's where my wife is trapped. And if you're disdainful of cyclists, you've probably tried to run her over a couple of times.  :MENDOZAAAAA:
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    sei

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    Re: Driving can be frustrating.
    « Reply #39 on: May 20, 2008, 09:36:57 PM »

    An extremely powerful flashlight seems more and more like it'd be an easier thing to a) not get caught with and b) explain to the police.

    On that note, something vaguely along the lines of bulb and battery replacement may be a start.
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