Minor driving rant...
 

Today I had to drive through Worcester, MA to get to Route 146. I expected it to suck. Often, it does. Today it did not suck.

I got on 146 and that's when stuff began to suck. Traffic wasn't heavy but every one of the few drivers was driving like a jerk. Not severely so.

The limited access freeway portion of 146 has had its surface ground in preparation for new pavement. It is by far the smoothest grinding job on which I've ever driven. It's better than most RI roads are when they haven't been ground up.

I'm doing approximately speed limit +3mph. A Prius passes and continues zooming along. I'm getting 44mpg, which is the best I ever get, and I rarely get it if I do any highway driving.

I pass a rest area. The Prius comes accelerating out of the rest area just in time to cut me off and go speed limit -15mph. I DFCO, not tailgating but not leaving my usual huge following distance, while I wait for two cars in the left lane to clear so I can pass. The Prius driver immediately sprays his washer fluid, obviously for my benefit.

The left lane traffic clears and I pass. My wife in the passenger seat reports that the Prius driver is laughing at me. I'm wondering if he has managed at least my 44mpg. I get in front and give him a rearward squirt from my modified rear window washer.

I've forgotten the rest of the string of mild annoyances until after I stopped at a pizza joint to pick up some late supper. Once again I'm on ground pavement, only this is RI-style - very rough, with tire-busting manhole covers sticking up four inches. No tires will be busted today, though...I'm in 1st gear behind a line of traffic following a construction crew rolling along picking up orange cones.

Freed from that annoyance, I'm driving along and behind me comes a late model full size pickup with what appear to be the brightest non-HID OEM low beams I've ever seen. Eventually another lane opened up; when the truck passed I saw that it was a Toyota Tundra.

Sounds like you had an awful day...

lol toyota > YOU

It wasn't awful. Those were mild annoyances...

Actually, the part where I was in 1st gear for ten minutes was awful -- because it was 8pm, I was starving, and I could smell the food I just picked up in the car.

yup, those ARE just minor inconveniences. those happen to me on a daily basis. of course, having a large vehicle around brings out the worst in drivers.

sometimes i'll play w/ them when my truck is empty. if they try to pass me, i get on it, and often times keep them from getting in front of me. :p you'd be surprised how fast my truck is when the turbo kicks in.

I think you did that to me (tried) on I-4 a couple months ago near the rest stop eastbound, didn't work did it? MY turbo spools quicker. :p
I love when people want to play "not in front of me" on the road. :p

I'll slide the 14'6" Mazdaspeed into a 15' hole!

Jim

could have been me. problem is, my truck is governed for 62mph :mad: , so i have limits in how much can be played.

it's just senseless when they just HAVE to get in front of me, and then brake for a turn. if they only realized the physics involved in stopping a heavy vehicle.

I don't mind if people pass, but 90% of the time (or more) I'm using the cruise control. I'm going a STEADY speed. Don't pass me then slow down.

I hate when people pass and then slow down.

I do like when they pass and continue driving faster than me. I prefer it instead of having them wait behind me.

OMG where do I start
 

Driving between Phillie and D.C., Baltimore and Virginia, I'v seen it all. On ramp traffic doing 35 in the number 4 lane. A bus speeding at 75-80 in the number 3 lane. That person who always does 53 in the number 2 lane and of course 95 MPH in the fast lane. Where oh where can I find a space to cruise?

Why do 18 wheelers go for the pass at 72 in the number 1 or 2 lane, then as always get stuck on a grade and now be it the fast lane or next to the fast lane, they're doing 48. Sometimes it can be like trying to drive a road course in a straight line.

I feel your pain trying to get around them, or them trying to get around you. There are the gutter ballers who believe that they have to drive at fast lane speeds in the slowlane. Can't people see the blue light on thier dash that indicates HIGH BEAMS?

My stereo gets louder and louder to try and drain the day away.

My game is to set the cruise control and never have to leave it. Usually, I sashay along at 66/67 and nap. But when traffic slows to a crawl I remember that I am being paid to be in it. That helps.

A lot of days I will drive I-4 at 68-72 on cruise and I'm constantly amazed at the freaking idiots that will;

1. Drive up my azz (middle lane) and park there despite me doing the limit and brake checking them usually lights only but full on slowdowns for the total asshats. I had one woman stay on my azz to 35 mph in a 70 zone!

2. I'll have the cruise control set and pass a car, then it passes me, and then I pass it and so on. PICK A SPEED MORON!

3. People that insist on gluing themselves in what is usually a blind spot (I have my mirrors set further out than most) on my car and staying there. A couple "oops I musta drifted accidentally's" usually roots them out.

4. The distracteds. The idiots that are texting, talking animatedly to passengers, applying makup, so on. I creep up into thier blind spot, get real close and then lay on the airhorn and swerve back and forth like they just missed you. What a hoot!

5. Boy-racers in fartcan equipped Honda's that see the Mazdaspeed3 emblem and proceed to redline thier POS next to me. I did goad one into hauling thru a green light in Orlando right in front of a Sheriff. Now THAT was funny! On the highway its a different story but, I still try to restrain myself as I don't wan't any dumbass's blood on my hands if he crashes his POS.

These things plus good music, and a GPS that talks to me in cantonese makes my trips bearable.

Jim

Too much time on your hands?

Just go about your driving and don't worry about what the others are up to. It'll save gas too. ;)

on the way home from work one day, i had a guy behind me that was so impatient, he tried to pass me in the right lane...

we were both behind a really slow car, when i (and he) took the opportunity to move left and pass the guy. he was so focused on getting around me, as we both made our lane change, he whipped back into the slow lane, and passed me then he bumping the slower vehicle at 70+mph. what a scream!

Did he actually hit the other car?

YES! he had plenty of time to slow or return to the left, but he was so preoccupied w/ me that he forgot to...look where he was going! i guess he was angry and thought that "i" was the slow driver?

my guess would be he hit the other car that was going ~60mph, while traveling more than 70mph. would physics dictate a less than 10mph impact due to the fact that he likely pushed the other vehicle?

Yeah, given that scenario I would put the impact at around 10 MPH.

what i was trying to convey is that the impact wasn't at 10mph stopped, w/ foot on the brake, leaving less energy to be absorbed.

When 2 vehicles collide traveling in the same direction, the impact speed is the difference of the vehicle's speeds. If 2 vehicles collide traveling in different directions the impact speed is the sum of the 2 vehicle's speeds.

Physics lesson for the day is over... Class dismissed... lol

didn't feel the need to start new thread so here's my self condemning rant...

today i received the jack a** of the month award. i'm doing a delivery and pick up at a grocery store, when a young lady comes out to the dock. she mentioned to her supervisor that she would get the pick up while he checked in his delivery.

well, she came back out w/ a pallet having some difficulty driving the electric pallet jack, when she asked her boss to take over and load it for her. meanwhile, i'm giggling at her apparent lack of skill(more on that later) on the machine, when she informs me that she has "robo" hands.

i failed to notice under her gloves that she had prosthetic hands. :o don't you think i wanted to get away, like the commercial goes (asks)?

to TRY to make amends, i explained to her that when i first received my pallet jack, it was like Days of Thunder(the movie). the part when Duval tells Cruise to get back out there and hit the pace car. Cruise says huh? Duval returns, well ya hit EVERYTHING else out there, and i want ya to be perfect!

yup, i used to hit anything that didn't move and some that did! so i'm officially (pallet) jack a** of the month.