So I drive, a lot. I put in huge miles a year in my work truck both in town and on the highways. Mix that in with lot's of travel time to different races I feel I have the hours banked on the road to be able to complain. People drive like absolute shit now a days. I know I'm so old, when I was growing up they still had, see that line can't work since we still had cars. What I wonder is why has our driving skill in general decreased.
First up, let's start with he lack of common courtesy and self realization problem. How often have you seen it where another driver, cuts you off, illegal lane changes, does something in a stupid matter and when you honk at them just thinking they didn't see you as a warning they give you the finger or more. This of course brings up the other side of things that someone trying to merge and doing it properly, signal, accelerated to the same speed etc and the car that could allow that person to move over speeds up and closes the gap. Nice. I could go on about people that block an intersection, a mall entrance, for hours but that's just the minor in the city stuff that annoys me.
My trip to and from Ottawa happens to put me on some great driver type roads. I take this way because I love the roads so much. Normally there is not a lot of traffic but of course this past weekend was just a little different. SO the car is a modern day marvel, the dam things can almost drive themselves. Huge horsepower, power steering,anti lock brakes, traction control, stability control. So with all this technology why is it that everyone lately happens to have a fear of curves????? It's not just me that noticed this, even Mom complained about it after her drive home. I can understand if it was winter, hell I live in the snow belt or if it was pouring rain etc but this is in day to day driving in perfect dry conditions. Of course people have no fear of going straight and make life difficult but mashing their foots to the floor when they stop turning.
I watched a truck go from 100 km/h down to sub 80 on every corner this is just one of many examples I can bring up in a day to day drive. Of course the acceleration made it very difficult for most cars to try and pass, a mini drag race after the corner so the line up continued to grow longer and longer. Back to the courtesy thing, do you think he looked in his rear view mirror and thought, hmmm maybe it's me that's hold up traffic. I should pull over and let them go by. Of course not. Ever wonder why my last car was twin turbo'd Audi and the SE-R I currently have is faster than I really need, it's for situations like this.
So why is there a fear of curves? Is it based on the video game life where we see everything in 2D and that 3rd dimension freaks us out? Have people been watching to much racing on tv and feel that because Dale Jr has to do it into turn 4 that they need to do it on the roads, I wonder if they realize that at 200 mph he needs to but most north American roads are designed for much higher speeds than what's posted. Is it the high obesity's rate of north Americans and their lack of physical strength is over powered by those huge g-forces created when going left and right that they couldn't hold on to the steering wheel? I really don't know but it frustrates the hell out of me.
So my random thought for this, be nice what ever speed you drive the corners at. Stay at that speed. Stay consistent, use your cruise control. That amazing device is one of my favorite things ever added to the car and I use my constantly, I wish more did, that would lead me to the rants about people's speed issue on the major highways which are almost straight as an arrow. HMMM out of time, more coffee then it's off for a day in the Element on major roads. Fun Fun Fun!!!
I knwo that I'm not the perfect driver, I know I bend a few laws, this is just my opinion.
4 comments:
iam sure you are really good driver Matt, butyou don't know if that truck was loaded with hanging meat or steel coils both loads can be preeeety scary at 100 km/h,but not bad at80,and trust me even on relatively small curves,and nobody is stopping to let the cars go(too much time to get up to speed from 0 )we don't have all day to get to Ottawa,I am not saying the truck driver was doing good job,maybe he was total looser,there is enough of them too.
I should have been more clear on the truck. It was an empty pickup truck. Chevrolet 1500 extended cab. Very capabable of maintaining speed. I know I had one. Transports are understandable for sure. I feel bad for them being restricted to 105km an hour now
I should have been more clear on the truck. It was an empty pickup truck. Chevrolet 1500 extended cab. Very capabable of maintaining speed. I know I had one. Transports are understandable for sure. I feel bad for them being restricted to 105km an hour now
This post expresses everything I hate about driving! Why people can't take curves at speed in their very capable up to date vehicles, and why they can't decide on one speed and do that consistently until the next traffic signal or turn, I will never understand. It drives me crazy though - my 20 minute commute winds me up more than any other thing in my life, which can't be healthy.
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