valscot

These guys don't know the first thing about road courtesy. I was a rep for 12 years and the majority of my driving experience was on the M25 and feeder routes. What I hate about here is there is no concept of switching lanes to accommodate the joinining lanes. In the UK you only undertake if all traffic is moving at the same speed or some old git is hogging the middle lane. Here it's a free for all, just think about yourself and all others be damned. Truck drivers in the UK were much more considerate in that they would get together and slow traffic down etc. they just seem to be the cause of many problems here ( I suppose they're on a clock).
Reason for the rant,I attempted to join the turnpike tonight but with two avaiable lanes, these guys were on the inside and were not moving.Dropped my speed to about 5mph and then someone moved over. I know here they're yield signs but if you're joining a "fast moving" road does it not make sense to move over to let other traffic join. Ah. silly me, that perhaps requires indicators!

Maz

Unfortunately I think that attitude is prevalent in much of the country, and not just in driving. The "the world owes me" syndrome.

dbj1000

Abso-bloody-lutely Maz! Couldn't agree more. Driving manners is just a symptom of a much more serious cultural problem.

valscot

I think the problem here ,PA, is that parents teach them, hence bad driver teaching even worse driver.
Is there any countries apart from Eyeraark and the US?

Angry White Pyjamas

You wanna see bad driving? And I mean seriously take your life in your hands bad driving....Come to Florida.

valscot

Driven in Florida, guess which part?
In honesy no worse than anywhere else (experience limited to the East) they're all selfish gits

Patrick Hasler

WELL, WELL, WELL ! ..... I had to answer this one

Being a truck driver I can tell you the reason 90% of the truck drivers and going hell for leather is not that they are on the clock. Truck drivers here drive like maniacs because they are paid by the mile, the slower they go the less they earn. Every slight delay on the road costs them money.... Put that together with the fact that 80% of them are idiots anyway and the fact that car drivers here are not really given a real training or a test that lasts more than 10 minutes. Drivers over here have no idea how to merge, use a roundabout, keep to the right except to pass.... need I go on ?... How many times I have been driving at 65 mph along a highway with 4 lanes or more each way ina fully loaded 40 ton truck and seen some fool comming down an on ramp, I have pulled over to let the person on and the twat has just driven right across the first lane and into my path doing 50 mph :scared:
Do people actually think about the difference between being hit in the rear by a truck as oppesed to a car ? .... The car could do some damage to his rear, the truck would destroy him, his family and his car !
I had a row a few months ago with an abulance driver of all people !... I was driving in heavy traffic at about 50 mph on I-95 in MA, the ambulance came down an on ramp at normal speed, there was no emergency and his ligts were not flashing, he just started pulling into my lane as I was along side him, I looked in my mirror and he must have been a millimeter from my trailer before waking up and pulling away again, a few hundred yards later he came alongside me and signalled me to pull over. Ithought maybe he hit me and so I stopped ......... He started to go off because I didn't let him in ! I pointed out that it was his job to use his F**KIN MIRRORS, accelorate or decrease his speed to merge and above all TO F**KIN YEILD ! .... not my job ! as it happened that intersection is one of the very few I know with cameras and I pointed it out to the asshole. Knowing he could be in very bad shit for driving recklessly in a EMS vehicle he backed down and pissed off.

Paul S

now i had heard this about Florida, but to be honest after driving there they aren't any worse than the drivers in the Cleveland area.

maybe i got lucky

DaveC

Yield signs here mean just drive as fast as possible from the on ramp to the freeway and let the other guy move.

You're using "inside" as a description for the far right lane? My wife and I have a contrary understandings of the inside and outside lanes. I think it's another of those UK vs US thing. Any time we're out driving and I feel like an argument I bring it up.

Duncan Roberts

I see it all every day. 3 trucks in 3 lanes, 1 going 60, 1 going 61 and one going 61.5. Last night on the way home, a school bus in the outside lane going 45. Cars driving so close behind that when there if one of the frequent immediate stop for no reason, I look out of my left window and see them sitting on the hard shoulder next to me. People who overtake and pull out in front of you despite you going faster than them thus making you slam on your breaks. Driving in pouring rain or snow with no lights on so you can't see them until you are 10 feet away. I could go on but I have to go and make the journey once again. maybe today will be different, but I doubt it.

Angry White Pyjamas

True story number 1... I was sat in the DMV and infront of me was a little old lady who must've been 90 if a day. The DMV woman calls her up for the eye test because she had - you guessed it - just moved down from Noo Yoik and needed an FL license. The little old lady peers into the machine and after a minute states in a loud Noo Yoik drawl, "Lady...I Cant see any of those letters!". The DMV woman smiles says not to worry and proceeds to issue her her license.

True story number 2... Sat on a 40 mph, 6 lane road in Boca, I'm doing 40ish. Cop car comes flying up the inside of me and stops at the lights ahead. I pull to a stop alongside...He's sat in his marked vehicle sipping coffee, mobile phine under one ear and shoulder, tapping away on his laptop in the passenger seat. Lights change...he floors it without spilling a drop of cofee, pausing in his conversation or missing a letter on the laptop....he's still doing all three things when a car pulls out infront of him....

I can only imagine what would happen if we did that whilst on duty back in blighty.

True story number 3... After Wilma last year every power line and every traffic light and virtually every tree was downed in Palm Beach County....4 million old snowbirds with no power, no Ice and nothing to do decide to hit the roads and cruise around in their caddies and Lincolns through all the wreckage. I have never, in all my working life seen such carnage on the roads.

valscot

Now you've confused me as the concept of left and right has always eluded me. I mean the lane which is at the right of the highway, but i join it to the left. A work colleague used to tell me turn left, the hand that your wedding ring is on or right the one that your wedding ring isn't on, patronising git that he was!

Angry White Pyjamas

Inside = Passenger side
Outside = Driver side

In any country

Jerseygirl

Saw a truck driver doing a U turn on the interstate at the weekend...into fast moving traffic. :scared:

vegas

Most of these people are up to their eyes in debt and a car crash would be a gift from heaven as they would be suing you for a lot of money. That is as long as they survive it.