Paul Jay's Ponderings

Some things when driving irk me... Because there are people behind the wheel that shouldn't be, simply because they have no f'ing clue. Or to tell them more politely, "You're doing it wrong!"

Some examples I can think of today:
1. People who don't understand merging. There's a road that merges down to one lane. I try to follow the "let one car ahead rule" if I'm positioned far enough back where its easier to do so. (If enough people do this right - which seems to be rare, the zipper effect can actually come into play making merging actually go nicely.) So I slow down a bit to let the car over, since they're more in front. But what does the other person do? They start slowing down such that they don't clear. Hello? If that person should do anything, it's speed up a bit to give more space. About 4 seconds pass of this slowing down B.S. And the room for both lanes is starting to run out. Thus I figure the person is too damn clueless about the concept. So I'm thinking "F' it! If I get behind this person they're going to be a bit of a lamer in driving since they're already showing signs of it anyways." Thus flooring the gas to scoot ahead. I tried to start out nice, but because someone is just too dumb - I felt like I came off as a bit of an a-hole. Oh well!

2. Next are the people who don't know where to stop at an intersection. They're another annoying thing I've noticed when driving. It's not that hard to do it right. The solid line that goes across your half of the road is the "stop line". You line up your front wheels or bumper to the stop line when you stop at the intersection. The dashed lines going all the way across the intersection are crosswalks. You're not supposed to stop on those. But rather stop where you can see about a half-foot of space or so between the front of your vehicle and the crosswalk. Coincidentally, if you stop correctly at the stop line you also should clear the crosswalk properly. But what do I see? People too damn stupid to understand the difference between the two. Either it's someone stopped almost a car length behind the stop line (which can screw things up if there's a left turn lane involved.) or some jackass stopped on the crosswalk. (It's one thing to get up there if inching forward to see for a right on red, but consistently stopping on them is idiocy.) Remember if you stop on a crosswalk, you deserve to have your hood banged on in an urban environment. (You're in fact blocking the pedestrian right of way, so you're literally asking for it.)

3. People who cut corners when making turns. Just because you're making a left does not mean you should cross into the oncoming lane of the intersection. Widen that turn a bit, someone might be coming up from behind that bus there.

4. People who let other cars out of business parkways. Yeah, you might be trying to be nice. But in reality this act of what seems like kindness really makes you an asshole. (Sorry, but it's the truth!) First of all, that car you're letting out is going to be in the path of traffic. It's really bad when they're turning left and obstructing multiple lanes. The other part is that the person is coming out blind, creating a hazard. All it takes is another car coming by not noticing the gap you left and BAM! Thanks for the accident you just caused. Yeah it sucks to have to wait to get back on to the road in traffic, but there's plenty of precident and good reason why it's the car on the parkway that must yield to the traffic on the main road. Don't ever consider anyone's "act of kindness" unless you're going for a right or in a suicidal mood.

*If you haven't figured it out,I'm going with stateside rules btw. Figure it out if you're one of those backward driving island countries.