Automotive peeves

Appleseed wrote:

Vigo wrote:

People who tailgate motorcyclists

Defensive driving dictates motorcyclist speed up or get the berkeley out of the way. If they get tired of being paranoid they can always drive a car. Actually, i'll just go ahead and add "half the motorcyclists ive ever seen" to my list of peeves. The whole idea that the sentence "people who tailgate" needs the word "motorcyclists" on the end is just more evidence to me that motorcyclists expect their CHOICE to ride a ridiculously unsafe machine somehow REQUIRES everyone else to give them extra deference.

Wow! Um...just...wow.

Wow indeed.

Tailgating a car is reckless endangerment, but tailgating a motorcycle is attempted homicide.

I give motorcycles more deference for two reasons: 1) because if confronted with a panic-stop situation, the bike very likely can stop quicker than I can... Especially so if I'm driving as if it was an SUV in front of me. And 2) the rider may be asking for trouble or whatever was said about them but I don't want to be the one to teach him a lesson by running him over and taking someone's son or dad away from them because he had the nerve to ride a motorcycle. (And I'm not a fan of most of the riders I've seen)

Edit: I understand females ride bikes too

Vigo wrote: Defensive driving dictates motorcyclist speed up or get the berkeley out of the way. If they get tired of being paranoid they can always drive a car. Actually, i'll just go ahead and add "half the motorcyclists ive ever seen" to my list of peeves. The whole idea that the sentence "people who tailgate" needs the word "motorcyclists" on the end is just more evidence to me that motorcyclists expect their CHOICE to ride a ridiculously unsafe machine somehow REQUIRES everyone else to give them extra deference.

I'm a motorcyclist and I approve this message.

Zomby Woof wrote:

Vigo wrote: Defensive driving dictates motorcyclist speed up or get the berkeley out of the way. If they get tired of being paranoid they can always drive a car. Actually, i'll just go ahead and add "half the motorcyclists ive ever seen" to my list of peeves. The whole idea that the sentence "people who tailgate" needs the word "motorcyclists" on the end is just more evidence to me that motorcyclists expect their CHOICE to ride a ridiculously unsafe machine somehow REQUIRES everyone else to give them extra deference.

I'm a motorcyclist and I approve this message.

Really?

If I'm already doing 15 over on the freeway and some prick is tailgating the E36 M3 out of me I should NOT have to go even faster to stay out of their way...especially since, as mentioned before, I will certainly be able to out-brake him if anything happens. I'm not asking for EXTRA deference, I'm asking to be treated like any other vehicle - you wouldn't hang out 6" from the back bumper of a semi at 85MPH so how the hell is it okay to do it to a bike!?

Knurled wrote: Tailgating a car is reckless endangerment, but tailgating a motorcycle is attempted homicide.

Thank you.

I don't expect special treatment when I ride but stay the fuc* off my ass, people. I will, if followed by one of these azzholes, get off the main drag so this obliviot prick can go on stabbing buttons on the smartphone or whatever. Like the saying goes, I ride as if I am invisible.

I guess to Vigo, I would be invisible. Or at least there'd be no need for tears if he squashed me.

I don't like tailgating anymore than anyone else, but even less I like somebody in my way. If somebody is on your ass, move the berkeley over.

I've had vehicles so close to my rear bumper that I couldn't see their grill ... and there was NOWHERE I could go ... right lane full (moving at a pace several mph less than the left lane) and the left lane bumper to bumper .... and the shiny happy person behind me flashing his lights WTF

if you're in that much of a hurry, leave earlier (not referring to you ZW)

Curmudgeon wrote:

Knurled wrote: Tailgating a car is reckless endangerment, but tailgating a motorcycle is attempted homicide.

Thank you. I don't expect special treatment when I ride but stay the fuc* off my ass, people. I will, if followed by one of these azzholes, get off the main drag so this obliviot prick can go on stabbing buttons on the smartphone or whatever. Like the saying goes, I ride as if I am invisible. I guess to Vigo, I would be invisible. Or at least there'd be no need for tears if he squashed me.

I've found that I'm not invisible when I ride. Apparently, I am highly visible and someone has a hundred-million dollar bounty on my carcass so everyone is actively trying to kill me. At least that's the way it usually seems...

Yes, I choose to operate a vehicle that is at a big disadvantage in a crash. No, I don't expect you to completely rearrange your life to accommodate me. However, tailgating another vehicle is against the law and when you're tailgating a motorcycle it's quite reasonable to assume that when you rear-end it, your unlawful and negligent behavior is likely to result in a pretty bad injury to the motorcyclist. So I'll avoid breaking the law and only use the left lane when I am overtaking, allowing traffic to enter the highway, or when the right lane is unsafe for some other reason, and I'll just ask the other drivers to also avoid breaking the law and leave a prudent stopping distance between our vehicles.

Back on topic, though:

• People who find it necessary to be the first person to get from this traffic light that just turned green to that next traffic light which is red.
• +another to the "infotainment" systems. I don't really get the rear-view camera thing, although I can see how that would be somewhat useful, but having to go through a menu to change radio stations? And why would I want to buy yearly updates and all that to a GPS system when my phone is eleventybillion times better at that job?
• "Helpful" systems on cars that I can't turn off. Can I please have a switch to defeat ABS? Can I turn my DRLs off if I don't want them on? How about if I turn off traction control you just leave it off until I tell you different instead of automatically turning it on every time I fire up the car?

In reply to SlickDizzy:

I don't know... as much as I want a motorcycle, I know me and how I would ride: I'd be the fastest thing on the freakin' road. However, I've also seen how doing that can get you killed when somebody doesn't see how fast you're going and pulls out in front of you going substantially slower. While I'm uncanny at "reading" what another driver is about to do (don't ask me how...), it only takes one incident of getting it wrong to ruin your day.

In my cars I'm usually the slowest thing on the road (on I-95 in PA, this means doing 70+ in a 55 zone - and getting passed like I'm sitting still), puttering along in the right lane only venturing into the left lane to pass or let merging cars onto the road.

"For sell" and "must sale"

People who don't believe in Daylight Running Lights. You may not like the look of your car with them on, but it sure as heck makes it easier for me to spot your "blend with the road" gray/silver/beige POS on the road..

• Cars tailgating me in the left lane when I'm 1. already going solidly faster than the cars in the right lane 2. already nominally over the speed limit and 3. there is not a big enough opening for me to safely move out of the way into the right lane. This is trebly retarded given I am will make every effort to move out of the way of someone who wants to go faster than me- I just won't cut someone off or scoot over and have to slam on my brakes to not rear-end a car in the other lane.

• People who honk and yell at me when I'm riding my bicycle on the road. Local laws state that bicycles are SUPPOSED to be on the road and not sidewalks- and I make every effort to as close to the curb and out of the normal flow of traffic as I can, and follow traffic laws- often better than the cars are. And hopefully there's an especially fiery and painful death in store for those people who do these things WHILE I'M IN A BIKE LANE.

• Bicyclists and Motorcyclists who think since they're not in a car that traffic laws and common decency don't apply to them. If you blithely ignore a stop sign/traffic light or are swerving in and out of traffic at high speeds and get nailed as a result, I'm probably going to feel more sorry for the driver who was obeying the law and hit you than I am for you. NOTE: I realize lane splitting stopped/backed-up traffic is legal in many states, and while I may be jealous of that ability when in a car I'm not going to hold that against anyone.

• People turning onto a road with a fairly high speed limit right in front of me such that I have to hit the brakes hard or dodge into the next lane over, especially when there's NOTHING behind me and if they'd waited 10-20 seconds they could have pulled out at their leisure.

Re: tailgaters -- the hardest thing to teach my son about driving so far has been how to handle tailgaters. He doesn't quite get the "pull over and let them by" piece yet. Nor does he get the "back of the throttle and let them pass" piece either. For some reason, he thinks he needs to speed up in response to their (crappy) driving.

Seems simple to me. But hard for him to execute.

And I ride my bike as if I am invisible, too. Really, really defensively. Like, driving a race-prepped car with R-comps in the freezing rain, with no headlights, in the middle of no where cautious.

• Everyone
• Everything
• Most of all, people who slow to a crawl when turning right from a main road in front of my truck/trailer. Some day I'm going to put a berkeleying cow catcher on the truck and just berkeleying plow you shiny happy people down the road.

marktmv wrote: People who don't believe in Daylight Running Lights. You may not like the look of your car with them on, but it sure as heck makes it easier for me to spot your "blend with the road" gray/silver/beige POS on the road..

My problem with DRLs is if all cars have them, then the vechicles the need to stand out - motorcycles and emergency vehicles - don't as much. That said, my car has them and while they're easy to defeat I'm hesitant to disable any "external safety" feature on my car regardless of my personal opinion of it.

Of course, a large percentage of helmet-less riders on Harleys here in PA also ride around without their headlights on... Hey buddy, your "loud pipes that save lives" don't do a effing thing to notify those in front of you...

People that swerve their car left to make a right hand turn. I know lots of people do it because they feel HUGE in their SUV or stomper truck and they like to do it, but it's totally unnecessary and highly annoying to the person behind you! Especially if they don't use a signal and they're just driving a car.

As far as cyclists go, I was a bike messenger for a period of time so my biking methods were drastically different than anyone else's; I ran red lights and went the wrong way up a one way street all day every day. This was just a normal method for me to maximize my profits. I will admit that I was young and a total jerk to other drivers. I intentionally kicked car doors with my spiked bike shoes when they offended me in any way. Being older now, I realize how dumb I was, BUT, I still ride that way. Old habits die hard....

-Hamid

AverageH wrote: I will admit that I was young and a total jerk to other drivers. I intentionally kicked car doors with my spiked bike shoes when they offended me in any way. Being older now, I realize how dumb I was, BUT, I still ride that way. Old habits die hard....

Keep working on it... for all the rest of us on bikes who are the next ones to ride past the people you piss off.

I never made my living at it, but I understand the rage. I actually tend to suffer a lot more anger riding across town than driving, with about a 20/80 split on being aggravated with other cyclists or drivers.

I'm pretty sure that teenage girls combined with smartphones are a collective plot to kill all cyclists.

Today was the first time in two years that I was really annoyed at another driver that was NOT talking on a cell phone at the time of the offense.

(I drive my patients to their appointments with an E350. While driving away from a traffic light in the middle of a large pack of other vehicles, a guy jumps out of a side street to SQUEEZE between me and the car in front.

I activated my horn while i read his lips... He's yelling clear-as-day at me to SLOW DOWN! Wtf?

On bicyclists. I don’t have a problem with a single bike rolling through a stop sign or nipping up a quiet one way street on their own, I’ve done it before and will again. What really pisses me off are the groups of riders. There’s a big group of riders who all meet in the local elementary school lot about ¼ mile from my house on Wednesday evenings in the summer. I’m talking 20-50 men and women, all on fancy bikes, all in ‘pro’ looking jerseys and shorts etc. They ride different routes around the Village. The thing is they ride as a block 3-4-5 bikes wide10-15 bikes long with stragglers behind. They mostly stay to the subdivision streets and ride like they are on the Tour-de-Frog and the roads are closed. They total disregard traffic signs and common decency and cars are looked at like Nazi staff cars in a synagogue parking lot, despite the fact they all arrived and all depart in their own cars. A couple of times a year someone (me in the past) calls the cops and they get a blocking and improve for a week or so, but then they are back to their old tricks again. One day some poor old 80 year old is going to plow through them at a stop sign I’m sure.

Ian F wrote: Of course, a large percentage of helmet-less riders on Harleys here in PA also ride around without their headlights on... Hey buddy, your "loud pipes that save lives" don't do a effing thing to notify those in front of you...

Adrian_Thompson wrote: On bicyclists. I don’t have a problem with a single bike rolling through a stop sign or nipping up a quiet one way street on their own, I’ve done it before and will again. What really pisses me off are the groups of riders. There’s a big group of riders who all meet in the local elementary school lot about ¼ mile from my house on Wednesday evenings in the summer. I’m talking 20-50 men and women, all on fancy bikes, all in ‘pro’ looking jerseys and shorts etc. They ride different routes around the Village. The thing is they ride as a block 3-4-5 bikes wide10-15 bikes long with stragglers behind. They mostly stay to the subdivision streets and ride like they are on the Tour-de-Frog and the roads are closed. They total disregard traffic signs and common decency and cars are looked at like Nazi staff cars in a synagogue parking lot, despite the fact they all arrived and all depart in their own cars. A couple of times a year someone (me in the past) calls the cops and they get a blocking and improve for a week or so, but then they are back to their old tricks again. One day some poor old 80 year old is going to plow through them at a stop sign I’m sure.

They do that here in the country too - a 15mph, arrogant as berkeley road block that acts like you are the shiny happy person for trying to get by.

I have not figured out a suitable work-around except to be going 100mph when I rip by so close that the wind pushes them around. It is satisfying but not really very responsible or mature. My other thought was to cut them off and then use an axe handle to beat them within inches of their lives but some of them are quite fit and in a pack like that I might end up on the wrong end of the axe handle. Loser fly-by it is for now.

AverageH wrote: People that swerve their car left to make a right hand turn. I know lots of people do it because they feel HUGE in their SUV or stomper truck and they like to do it, but it's totally unnecessary and highly annoying to the person behind you! Especially if they don't use a signal and they're just driving a car. As far as cyclists go, I was a bike messenger for a period of time so my biking methods were drastically different than anyone else's; I ran red lights and went the wrong way up a one way street all day every day. This was just a normal method for me to maximize my profits. I will admit that I was young and a total jerk to other drivers. I intentionally kicked car doors with my spiked bike shoes when they offended me in any way. Being older now, I realize how dumb I was, BUT, I still ride that way. Old habits die hard.... -Hamid

if you're actually still riding like that .... I feel for you ... sooner or later someone is going to catch up with you and put you in a ditch .... or worse

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I have not figured out a suitable work-around except to be going 100mph when I rip by so close that the wind pushes them around. It is satisfying but not really very responsible or mature. My other thought was to cut them off and then use an axe handle to beat them within inches of their lives but some of them are quite fit and in a pack like that I might end up on the wrong end of the axe handle. Loser fly-by it is for now.

Ever seen the tug boat-horn videos on YouTube?