I drive to squeeze as many mpg as I can out of my '95 Camry: I accellerate gradually, I coast down hills, if I see a red light ahead, I coast up to it. By doing this I average around 35 mpg (not exceptional, but good). However, I seem to invoke road rage in a lot of people who are in a hurry - has anyone else experienced this - how do we diffuse this aggression?
I SEE A DEAD HORSE - AND IT'S BEING BEATEN TOO DEATH.
judging by all of our blogs we are all over the board in this one. but lets face it as long as your legal we all have just as much right to the road as each other. now i don't want to be killed by someone driving too aggresively, but neither to i want to kill someone by driving that way myself. im not sure which would be worse. we all need to give this a little thought. the machines we drive can easily cause serios injury or death, either by driving too slow or too fast. so we all need to find a way to get along.
1 treat the other drivers as you want to be treated.
if your driving to fast let the person in front of you know, in a non threatening manner you wish to pass.
if your driving under the speed limit try to let other people get by.
2. driving above the speed limit is illegal, i personally don't care if you do (i do myself) but don't indanger other persons, give them a chance to get out of the way.
3. be flexible - keep up (or down) with the flow of traffic
4. as to the min speed posted on highways - i don't think it's a guideline as to how slow you can drive if your too affraid, drunk, tired etc etc to drive the limit. it was intended as a guide for those vehicles that can't attain or maintain a hwy rate of speed. IE: vehicles under tow, low cc motorcycles, farm equipment, vehicles not in proper running order.
remember we all have to share the road - i understand wanting to save gas, as i said in a previous post, buy a motorcycle or a more fuel efficient car. i also understand in our complicated lives the need to get more accomplished. maybe get a little more organized, or leave earlier. i know what i do - when i want to drive fast i head to farm country where the only thing in front of me is the occasional cow or farm impliment.
good luck to us all, cause if we can't all work together it just ain't gonna work.
I think part of the problem is the cars themselves. The reason motorcycle riders call them cages is that being sealed off from the world isn't likely to make you more humane. Cars enable rude behavior in the same way the internet does. Inside your car or sitting at your computer, you don't see the faces with which you interact, and that seems to bring out the worst in some people. I don't think I need to name names. Just go back and re-read this thread and you can see for yourself who spews the most hate. There seems to be limited accountability for the manner in which we treat other people on the road and on the internet. If you could see the faces of all the people who drive around you, or if you rode a motorcycle, you might come to appreciate that we all share the roads. Why does the act of driving a car seem to make some people adobt a jailhouse mentality where they only care about themselves?
Jeremy, you are so right. People behave differently in their vehicles than they would if face-to-face with another human being. Can you imagine shouting at someone or flipping the bird at them in a store? The same people who don't think twice about behaving rudely in their car wouldn't dream of doing so outside the relative anonymity of the vehicle. What does that say about us as a society? Last winter I was turning into a store parking lot, and there were 6-10 foot tall piles of snow all around from the plow. There's a yield sign there, since you have cars coming from two directions into the same roadway. I couldn't see above the mounds of snow, so I had to come to a complete stop to make sure there wasn't any traffic entering the roadway. Some guy in an SUV (well, he's in a tall vehicle, maybe he can see but I sure can't) goes completley nuts because I stopped for all of 2 seconds. Blows his horn, flips me the bird, tailgates me into the parking lot, and roars past me. I see the same guy ten minutes later on line at the checkout, but he doesn't recognize me. Polite as can be on line.
Everyone is in a hurry. I actually had a guy pass my stopped bus, with my red lights flashing, on the right, in the breakdown lane, just as a child stepped off the bus. I slammed the door shut on the kid's face, but it stopped him from taking that last fatal step that would have killed him. The driver never stopped.
We all have somewhere to be on time, we all have children and pets, and we are all in this silly world together. A little consideration and patience goes a long way...and it's better for your health not to become enraged over what is really, in the grand scheme of things, unimportant. Treat the elderly driver as you would want your mom or dad treated, pretend it's your child on the bus, your residential street, your pets by the side of the road. It's the little courtesies that make life nicer for us all.
Ok, this happened to me a few years ago at a parking lot as I was going to class. The lot was almost at capacity, and this is a large parking lot, easily 300 yards in any direction. But as luck would have it right as I was driving in. I saw someone backing out of his spot in the first row. The parking gods were smiling on me that day or so it would seem. So I pull up closer to the spot, and put on my indicator. And wait for the person to pull out. Nobody is behind me or in front of me. The guy pulls out of the spot and all of a sudden a dark blue Jetta comes screaming around the corner, goes around me and parks in the spot that was all of 5 feet in front of me. I roll down my window and yell at the driver for taking the spot and for nearly hitting me. The driver responded with an expletive and a middle finger. So moved my vehicle (a Bronco at the time) to block him in, and got out to confront him. Anyway I'm sure you can guess where this is going. Long story short; nobody was arrested since there were no witnesses, and I never saw that Jetta in the parking lot again.
moral of the story, people usually don't back up their words when they are out of the car
it isn't worth getting beat up or going to jail for beating someone else up - OVER WHAT, A PARKING SPACE. we're at war with a country over oil, in the middle of a recession, home forclosures are at an all time high and home sales are at an all time low. my daughter starts college next year and i have no way of paying for it. i'm on permanent dissability because of a rare bone desease, not to mention gas is $4.20 per gallon (in spite of aformentioned war). and we're all sitting here bitc---- about PARKING SPACES AND RUDE DRIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if your rude - stop being an a--hole. if you drive too slow speed up a little or pull over, if someone takes your parking space - walk, we're the fattest nation on earth - we need the exorcize. i challenge you all to take the first step towards a random act of kindness - it won't kill you, might even make you feel good. don't allow a total stranger to control your mood (day), we all have the power to laugh it off or ignore it. ok putin my soapbox away now.
In hindsight you're probably right. But it was the principle of the matter at the time. I sympathize with your plight. I too have a something of a disability (ankylosis spondylolysis) . I'm only 28, and there are days where I have to down 8 tylenol to make it through the day.
Only an American would consider this a reasonable activity. "I bought a gas hog and so must impede everyone else on the road so I can afford to drive it" talk about a selfish @#$%#&&
Did you mean to insult people only in the US or every American in North and South America?
PS, I don't have a SUV, never have; never will. There are those of us here in the US that think them to be wasteful and will be happy to see them gone.
Just the US - and farther clarification - I am not inferring that all US citizens drive gas guzzlers although almost all gas Guzzlers originate in the US. Not all US drivers think the way of 2ndtiming as proved by the many replies on this site - BUT - the complete disregard for the free flow of traffic in favor of personal advantage and preference is a lifestyle that would only be defended in the US . And while we are on the subject - name another (non third world) country where it's NORMAL to drive with a cell phone or drink in your hand, where most drivers get their license without sitting a test (drivers ed. with your buddies doesn't count), where most drivers can't handle a "stick shift", where traffic circles require a level of decision making that’s way beyond the average driver, where the lack of public transportation forces the aged and infirm into their cars, where parents buy their 16 year old the biggest vehicle available “because it’s safer” – I could go on…..
It all makes sense if you just think of the US as an adolescent boy with a trust fund and a loaded gun, hopefully it will mature before doing too much (more) damage (I was going to extend the adolescent boy metaphor, but it wouldn't be appropriate for a public forum). I really do hope this process won't involve too many more decades of stumbling around without a clue, but I'm not optimistic.
simple, the same way i do! a 21" two way 72th ratchet gear wrench firmly seated in the area next to my drivers seat and the door.
no, i'm kidding. you can't diffuse a situation like this. if you drive like an ass, others are less likely to understand your reasoning. hey, you could be one of those 65 year olds that need to be retested every five years (dad, i'm talking to you!), but no one else knows that.
further more, people are less likely to care if they are in a rush. but it's not your job to know what others are thinking. you need to drive in a semi-respectful manner (wave, always!) and get from point a to point whatever. be polite always, even if you are driving like an ass. people who do stupid things are more likely to cause accidents that are their fault anyway. just note that if you are involved with them, that's the time when you reach for your cell phone in one hand to dial the police and the 21" two way 72th ratchet gear wrench...
On I-93 South this morning....Some IDIOT was driving about 50 (speed limit is 65) in the LEFT lane...just trolling along like he owned the road and everyone should bow down to his superior gas mileage. It caused a backup for MILES....effecting at least 1000 cars as we all had to maneuver around this guy. People where hoking and cursing and blowing their horn at this idiot. Yup...it's so much safer and better for everyone to drive BELOW the speed limit in the left lane during rush hour.
I remember that commute well, I lived in derry and worked in boston for a while. Even on a good day it sucked. I eventually got sick of it and started taking the train from andover (I think) to north station. I am very glad not to have to deal with commuting anymore.
That's about my commute. There's a new closer station in Lawrence right next to the New Balance distribution center. I take it every once in a while. I drive most of the time because with the big dig finished it's a lot easier driving in and it takes me only 40 minutes (when I don't have to deal with IDIOTS like this morning)...Where as taking the trainand then subway takes me almost 2 hours.
06/05/2008 6:49:08 PM
