Freeway WTF



  • Ugh. I know bitching about traffic is not cool... but here we go anyway.

    Today traffic on the freeway was a little slow, and I mean like some slowdowns to maybe 20 MPH but generally keeping up around 30-40 MPH, which is good for "slow" traffic. Now, I'm one of those people that does crazy things like [i]give a car length or two in front of me[/i] and [i]stop at stop lights and signs[/i]... so maybe this guy was totally justified and did the right thing, but anyway... Traffic had been really slow and was finally picking up again. I was in the right-hand lane, and I had left about two car lengths in front of me. The guy behind me, however, left about 1/10 of a car length between us, and was positioned so that the center of his giant-ass SUV was aligned the right-hand edge of my car. At some point he decided he just [i]couldn't take it anymore[/i] and passed me. On the shoulder. Half-way on the grass. Passed [i]me[/i], not just all of the slow traffic in a mad dash to the next exit... but [i]just me[/i].

    Congratulations asshole, you are now 1.5 seconds ahead of me in the race to get to whatever cube farm you spend your life as a worthless VP in. I'm sure you have an important PowerPoint presentation to give. Go kill yourself.

    I've seen a [i]lot[/i] of stupid stuff on this freeway. People always jump off onto the shoulder and drive on on-ramps (not OFF ramps, mind you... ON ramps, where other traffic is merging ON to the road) when it slows down. I've been nearly killed in ten different ways by people who are just absent minded. But I've never seen something so aggressive, stupid, dangerous, and [i]completely and utterly worthless[/i] all at once.



  • I think most of us who do any commuting can attest to the same thing. I've seen people cut three lanes almost hitting people, trying to get on an On ramp, cutting through the white line halfway up the ramp (when the line of people waiting to get on the ramp goes back a half mile).  I've seen idiots that don't worry about waiting for you to let them in (and not even using their blinker). They just inch closer to you til you finally see them and slam your brakes on (if you see them, since some of them come from the side).

    The rudeness of these people is aggravating, but an uncontrollable fact of life, so....

     However, recently on a near interstate two motorcyclists got off into the emergency lane because it was raining. They were putting on their rain gear when a pickup truck slammed into them.  I mean golly, what is up with people. I think we should make it a law that if it is possible, you should give anybody (not just emergency vehicles) a one lane clearance. If you ever talk to a traffic cop, they'll tell you that their fear isn't of somebody shooting at them, but of people hitting them in the emergency lane.



  • So where do you live?

     

    One time, I was driving in  Denver in heavy rain (temperature near freezing) on a four lane road, approaching a large intersection that is stopped for a red light. I'm being tailgated by a blonde woman in a brand new Bimmer, but like any good driver I just ignore her and coast up to the red light.  Apparently, this wasn't fast enough for her, so she floored it to drive around me.  To give you an idea of how unnecessary this was, she had to turn into my lane and BRAKE at the same time to avoid hitting the stopped car in front.  Now, since I drive an '88 Nissan 300ZX, I don't have what you would call... anti-lock brakes.  So I had to slam, then pump my brakes to avoid hitting her.  She literally saved zero time; even initially... no time saved.

     

    I was going to flash my bright lights at her, but her rear view mirror was pointed at HERSELF. Figures.



  • @Pap said:

    So where do you live?

     

    One time, I was driving in Denver in heavy rain (temperature near freezing) on a four lane road, approaching a large intersection that is stopped for a red light. I'm being tailgated by a blonde woman in a brand new Bimmer, but like any good driver I just ignore her and coast up to the red light. Apparently, this wasn't fast enough for her, so she floored it to drive around me. To give you an idea of how unnecessary this was, she had to turn into my lane and BRAKE at the same time to avoid hitting the stopped car in front. Now, since I drive an '88 Nissan 300ZX, I don't have what you would call... anti-lock brakes. So I had to slam, then pump my brakes to avoid hitting her. She literally saved zero time; even initially... no time saved.

     

    I was going to flash my bright lights at her, but her rear view mirror was pointed at HERSELF. Figures.

    You should have honked your horn. And hit her car. Traffic continuing in its own lane (you) has the right of way over traffic changing lanes (her), so you wouldn't have been at fault.



  • @Random832 said:

    You should have honked your horn. And hit her car. Traffic continuing in its own lane (you) has the right of way over traffic changing lanes (her), so you wouldn't have been at fault.

    I'm not sure I necessarily agree.  While I echo the sentiment (slam right into the bitch), an extended horn blast might make me feel almost as good without the paperwork. 



  • @belgariontheking said:

    @Random832 said:

    You should have honked your horn. And hit her car. Traffic continuing in its own lane (you) has the right of way over traffic changing lanes (her), so you wouldn't have been at fault.

    I'm not sure I necessarily agree.  While I echo the sentiment (slam right into the bitch), an extended horn blast might make me feel almost as good without the paperwork. 

    Four words: acetone filled water balloon.



  • It's humans, what do you expect?
    Not once have I seen a TCP packet do such a illegal thing like people in traffic.

    Can't wait until computers drives for people.



  • @henke37 said:

    It's humans, what do you expect? Not once have I seen a TCP packet do such a illegal thing like people in traffic. Can't wait until computers drives for people.

     Until you lose your network connection and CRASH !



  • @djork said:

    acetone filled water balloon.

    My God... It's, brilliant!

     

    What a fabulously devious plan. I need to stock up  (and hope the acetone doesn't eat through the balloon)



  • If I remember right, acetone will remove the paint.  Hope they don't drive a Delorean.



  • I watch similar types of things daily at work.

    It's incredible the amount of time (up to 2 - 3 minutes) people will spend trying to fit their huge-ass SUV in tiny parking spaces when they could just park 5 spots down, walk an extra 30 seconds and have actually saved time.

    I'll admit, I have passed some people aggressively in my time.  But always on the left, in a complete lane, when it was clear, and there was no oncoming traffic if that was relevant.

    However, on the impact thing, I got hit by someone when I was changing lanes and she sped up to try to make it so I couldn't do so.  It ended up being my fault :(  I was really frustrated because it was plainly obvious that the lady who hit me was just being an ass.  I was over 3/4s in the lane when she rammed her SUV in to me, but there was little I could realistically do.  I just wanted to park my car :(  The cop sympathized but kept giving me the "I just enforce the law" stuff, which I can understand.  Only doing his job after all, but meh.  Sucks when it's your fault that someone else is a moron.



  • I avoid commuting problems by using a 2-byte "MOTORCYCLE" transport packet instead of the common 4-byte one. The 2-byte packet can make use of sub-channel traffic pathways, effectively doubling the bandwidth of any road, and has a wider choice of routing. There are some problems, like the overhead of the additional processing required to predict packet collisions in case a large, badly implemented packet decides to change channels without broadcasting an appropriate signal, and the chance of data corruption is greater because of a lack of error recovery information. On the other hand, it arrives to destination much more quickly and avoids frustration leaks that seriously hinder operation all the way up until the next nightly reboot.

    Now, I bet I'm not the only one that thinks of roads like of networks... 




  • @Sunstorm said:

    I avoid commuting problems by using a 2-byte "MOTORCYCLE" 

    (snip)

    avoids frustration leaks that seriously hinder operation all the way up until the next nightly reboot.

    Not to mention the financial leaks that result from the 4-byte packet's tendency to hog system resources. 

    I meant gasoline.  I'm not good at this.



  • I have to take public transportation and I must admit, there's this one bus driver that can:

    a) Make a full-length bus turn 90 degrees at 80km/h.

    b) get tires to squeal while doing something as simple as turning into the bus depot.

    Fortunately my trip with him was brief, so I have little to report.

    Also on a slightly related note, one tuesday evening at 8:00PM I took the back roads parallel to our primary highway, the highway was significantly less busy.



  • @Lingerance said:

    I have to take public transportation and I must admit, there's this one bus driver that can:
    a) Make a full-length bus turn 90 degrees at 80km/h.
    b) get tires to squeal while doing something as simple as turning into the bus depot.
    Fortunately my trip with him was brief, so I have little to report.
    Also on a slightly related note, one tuesday evening at 8:00PM I took the back roads parallel to our primary highway, the highway was significantly less busy.

    I live in Atlanta (known for long commutes), and have a longer highway drive than most. I know "other ways" to get from point A to point B because it's necessary. When we get the double tractor-trailer tangle or another all-lanes-closed problem, I can still get where I need to go.  It will take longer, but I'll get there.



  • yeah, thats one good reason to not live in atlanta. Almost every time I've been through, or in atlanta, the commute time was aweful



  • @Random832 said:

    You should have honked your horn. And hit her car. Traffic continuing in its own lane (you) has the right of way over traffic changing lanes (her), so you wouldn't have been at fault.

     

    This is entirely untrue.  A friend of mine was going about 20mph on a snowy freeway with probably a mile of empty lane in front of him, with noone behind him.  The lane to his right was stopped for some reason.  Some teenage girl pulled out of the right lane, right in front of him.  He had maybe half a second to respond.  Because it was snowy, his swerve turned into a slide, and his front light ended up bumping in to her side door (not her driver door, but the one behind it).  It was a slight dent.  The cop said it was my friend's fault.  She got off without so much as a slap on the wrist.  My friend's ticket was for 'not maintaining control of his vehicle' - of course he only lost control because of the snow, and because she pulled out in front of him.  Had she waited maybe five seconds to pull out, there would have been no problem.  He wasn't even speeding.  It is our opinion that the cop didn't blame the girl because she cried.

    Contesting the ticket didn't help either.  The cop didn't even show up, and nothing came of it.

    Last I heard, they each had to pay for their own repairs.  If he "wouldn't have been at fault", as you say, her insurance should have paid for his repairs, because it was, in reality, her fault.

    Our traffic law system doesn't work nearly as well as you seem to think it does.



  • @Heron said:

    @Random832 said:

    You should have honked your horn. And hit her car. Traffic continuing in its own lane (you) has the right of way over traffic changing lanes (her), so you wouldn't have been at fault.

     

    This is entirely untrue.  A friend of mine was going about 20mph on a snowy freeway with probably a mile of empty lane in front of him, with noone behind him.  The lane to his right was stopped for some reason.  Some teenage girl pulled out of the right lane, right in front of him.  He had maybe half a second to respond.  Because it was snowy, his swerve turned into a slide, and his front light ended up bumping in to her side door (not her driver door, but the one behind it).  It was a slight dent.  The cop said it was my friend's fault.  She got off without so much as a slap on the wrist.  My friend's ticket was for 'not maintaining control of his vehicle' - of course he only lost control because of the snow, and because she pulled out in front of him.  Had she waited maybe five seconds to pull out, there would have been no problem.  He wasn't even speeding.  It is our opinion that the cop didn't blame the girl because she cried.

    Contesting the ticket didn't help either.  The cop didn't even show up, and nothing came of it.

    Last I heard, they each had to pay for their own repairs.  If he "wouldn't have been at fault", as you say, her insurance should have paid for his repairs, because it was, in reality, her fault.

    Our traffic law system doesn't work nearly as well as you seem to think it does.

     If the cop did not show up did you not win by default?



  • 99% of the people that pass me in such methods... wind up literally 2 cars in front of me after 30 minutes... because there usually is something to stop them. Hey they wearing their car down and their s*it while I'm having a relaxing drive.

     

    People who go wrong way on on-ramps... Well... Let the local cops know about it they will most likely park a car out there. That sounds pretty evil though.



  • @kswanton said:

     If the cop did not show up did you not win by default?

    Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.
     



  • @kswanton said:

    If the cop did not show up did you not win by default?

     

    That's when the cop catches you for something, he is the prosecution's witness. Without him, the prosecution (The Man) has no case, so you kindly ask the judge to throw the case away since you aren't able to question the only witness.

     

    In this case, the cop isn't the witness.



  • in many US states, in an accident where fault is not EXTREMELY obvious the fault will be split 51%/51%  (yes, that's right, 51/51!).

     

    When I say extremely.... I mean extremely.  My grandma many years ago hit a parked car, and she told the cop that the car was parked to far away from the curb (it was in-fact parked illegally far from the curb) and it ended up being 51/51 split. 



  • @Heron said:

    @Random832 said:

    You should have honked your horn. And hit her car. Traffic continuing in its own lane (you) has the right of way over traffic changing lanes (her), so you wouldn't have been at fault.

     

    This is entirely untrue.  A friend of mine was going about 20mph on a snowy freeway with probably a mile of empty lane in front of him, with noone behind him.  The lane to his right was stopped for some reason.  Some teenage girl pulled out of the right lane, right in front of him.  He had maybe half a second to respond.  Because it was snowy, his swerve turned into a slide, and his front light ended up bumping in to her side door (not her driver door, but the one behind it).  It was a slight dent.  The cop said it was my friend's fault.  She got off without so much as a slap on the wrist.  My friend's ticket was for 'not maintaining control of his vehicle' - of course he only lost control because of the snow, and because she pulled out in front of him.  Had she waited maybe five seconds to pull out, there would have been no problem.  He wasn't even speeding.  It is our opinion that the cop didn't blame the girl because she cried.

    Contesting the ticket didn't help either.  The cop didn't even show up, and nothing came of it.

    Last I heard, they each had to pay for their own repairs.  If he "wouldn't have been at fault", as you say, her insurance should have paid for his repairs, because it was, in reality, her fault.

    Our traffic law system doesn't work nearly as well as you seem to think it does.

    It varies by state.  In some states, all accidents are "no fault".

    It probably also varies by the mood of the cop involved, to some extent.

    Long story short, it's best to avoid an accident entirely, rather than assuming the law will fall on your side.



  • If it's a hot and sunny day, bologna works well on car paint as well if it gets to dry.

    And if it's not hot and sunny, you have a meaty snack. 



  • Also if you intentionally hit someone, it is your fault.



  • @phithe said:

    Also if you intentionally hit someone, it is your fault.

     
    There's a law that needs changing:

     

    <Dumb driver> He ran into me on purpose!

    <Cop> Did you?

    <Me> Yeah, but she was driving like a moron - talking on the phone and cut me up for no good reason.

    <Cop> Ok, cool. 

     



  • @merreborn said:

    @Heron said:
    @Random832 said:

    You should have honked your horn. And hit her car. Traffic continuing in its own lane (you) has the right of way over traffic changing lanes (her), so you wouldn't have been at fault.

     

    This is entirely untrue.  A friend of mine was going about 20mph on a snowy freeway with probably a mile of empty lane in front of him, with noone behind him.  The lane to his right was stopped for some reason.  Some teenage girl pulled out of the right lane, right in front of him.  He had maybe half a second to respond.  Because it was snowy, his swerve turned into a slide, and his front light ended up bumping in to her side door (not her driver door, but the one behind it).  It was a slight dent.  The cop said it was my friend's fault.  She got off without so much as a slap on the wrist.  My friend's ticket was for 'not maintaining control of his vehicle' - of course he only lost control because of the snow, and because she pulled out in front of him.  Had she waited maybe five seconds to pull out, there would have been no problem.  He wasn't even speeding.  It is our opinion that the cop didn't blame the girl because she cried.

    Contesting the ticket didn't help either.  The cop didn't even show up, and nothing came of it.

    Last I heard, they each had to pay for their own repairs.  If he "wouldn't have been at fault", as you say, her insurance should have paid for his repairs, because it was, in reality, her fault.

    Our traffic law system doesn't work nearly as well as you seem to think it does.

    It varies by state.  In some states, *all* accidents are "no fault".

    It probably also varies by the mood of the cop involved, to some extent.

    Long story short, it's best to avoid an accident entirely, rather than assuming the law will fall on your side.

    Yeah - Illinois, for example, is a fault state.  The determination of fault usually rests on the cop since recieving a traffic citation is basically an assessment of fault (although legally it's not, in the previous situation my insurance company tried to assess blame, but for naught.  Comparative Negligence in Illinois is a civil thing so nothing you do regarding your ticket (including contesting and winning) impacts it unfortunately).  The way Illinois works is that you have to be less than 50% at fault in order to collect damages from the other party.  Usually the officers are pretty cool and won't write a ticket if it's a 50/50 thing or if you were less at fault than the other guy to avoid mucking up the insurance situation.  Normally they just try to find the person who was more in violation of the law and they end up with the ticket.  The time it was my fault, they asked me whether I wanted "Driving too fast for conditions" or something else regarding failing to yield the right of way.  Nothing like having a choice in which $75 you want to pay.

    Post-accident stuff tends to be pretty miserable, at least in Illinois.  Most Insurance companies make low-ball offers for payout and won't budge on it.  So it ends up taking 3 - 4 weeks before you get anything out of it.  Plus everyone wants to determine how much person X was at fault.  I suppose that's the name of the game, but it sucks when you're caught in the middle of it.  Some Companies, like Liberty Mutual, assess the value of the car and make payouts right away (in my two situations - 1 my fault, 1 not my fault - LM paid me out within about 1 week or so).  This is much better than other situations I've heard where people have waited months because the company wouldn't pay out until the issue was resolved in entirety.

    My wife had a person hit her car who was impaired due to medication, had no insurance, and was going way over the speed limit.  The cop let her off without any tickets and she never showed up for court after she failed to pay the damages.  And of course, the Insurance company raised her rates afterward plus she ended up being slotted with the doctor bills.  Sometimes you just end up getting shafted big time.



  • @ShadowWolf said:

    My wife had a person hit her car who was impaired due to medication, had no insurance, and was going way over the speed limit.  The cop let her off without any tickets and she never showed up for court after she failed to pay the damages.  And of course, the Insurance company raised her rates afterward plus she ended up being slotted with the doctor bills.  Sometimes you just end up getting shafted big time.

     

    My girlfriend was hit by a drunk driver borrowing a truck from a different province, so no hope of insurance there.  To get her money from her own insurance company she had to open a medical claim and refuse to close it until she got the money.  The insurance company also took her car without her signing off on it, basically stealing it.  Luckily, friend of a friend is a really good insurance lawyer and just the mention of talking with him sped up the process.

    Insurance companies (or at least mine) seem to be the ethically worst organizations I can think of.  When I sold my car they continued to charge me insurance on both cars for about half a year after I told them it had been sold.  I thought my insurance had gone up significantly because my new car was 11 yrs newer than the old one.  When I finally found out both cars were on my policy they said I should have noticed sooner, so it was my fault (they still gave me the money back, btw, just blamed me for their mistake.)
     

    Between this thread and the online banking one, I sure am filling my whining quota lately... 



  • @merreborn said:

    It varies by state.  In some states, all accidents are "no fault".



    And let me tell you how wonderful that is.  There's nothing like getting in an accident where the other person gets a ticket, then having your insurance rates raised despite the fact that there's no chance of the insurance company paying for the damage.



  • @Sunstorm said:

    I avoid commuting problems by using a 2-byte "MOTORCYCLE" transport packet instead of the common 4-byte one. The 2-byte packet can make use of sub-channel traffic pathways, effectively doubling the bandwidth of any road, and has a wider choice of routing. There are some problems, like the overhead of the additional processing required to predict packet collisions in case a large, badly implemented packet decides to change channels without broadcasting an appropriate signal, and the chance of data corruption is greater because of a lack of error recovery information. On the other hand, it arrives to destination much more quickly and avoids frustration leaks that seriously hinder operation all the way up until the next nightly reboot.

    Now, I bet I'm not the only one that thinks of roads like of networks... 


    Precisely. When will our idiotic road planners realise that larger vehicles slow traffic in the same way that large stones clog piping in cement pumps? It's just fluid dynamics.  



  • @zedhex said:

    @Sunstorm said:

    I avoid commuting problems by using a 2-byte "MOTORCYCLE" transport packet instead of the common 4-byte one. The 2-byte packet can make use of sub-channel traffic pathways, effectively doubling the bandwidth of any road, and has a wider choice of routing. There are some problems, like the overhead of the additional processing required to predict packet collisions in case a large, badly implemented packet decides to change channels without broadcasting an appropriate signal, and the chance of data corruption is greater because of a lack of error recovery information. On the other hand, it arrives to destination much more quickly and avoids frustration leaks that seriously hinder operation all the way up until the next nightly reboot.

    Now, I bet I'm not the only one that thinks of roads like of networks... 


    Precisely. When will our idiotic road planners realise that larger vehicles slow traffic in the same way that large stones clog piping in cement pumps? It's just fluid dynamics.  

    About 60 years ago. Traffic flow dynamics is a well-established field of mathematics. 



  • @asuffield said:

    @zedhex said:
    @Sunstorm said:

    I avoid commuting problems by using a 2-byte "MOTORCYCLE" transport packet instead of the common 4-byte one. The 2-byte packet can make use of sub-channel traffic pathways, effectively doubling the bandwidth of any road, and has a wider choice of routing. There are some problems, like the overhead of the additional processing required to predict packet collisions in case a large, badly implemented packet decides to change channels without broadcasting an appropriate signal, and the chance of data corruption is greater because of a lack of error recovery information. On the other hand, it arrives to destination much more quickly and avoids frustration leaks that seriously hinder operation all the way up until the next nightly reboot.

    Now, I bet I'm not the only one that thinks of roads like of networks... 


    Precisely. When will our idiotic road planners realise that larger vehicles slow traffic in the same way that large stones clog piping in cement pumps? It's just fluid dynamics.  

    About 60 years ago. Traffic flow dynamics is a well-established field of mathematics. 

    Yes, but the fact remains that replacing 10-40 cars with one bus, or half a dozen vans with one lorry, will improve traffic.



  • @m0ffx said:

    @asuffield said:
    @zedhex said:
    @Sunstorm said:

    I avoid commuting problems by using a 2-byte "MOTORCYCLE" transport packet instead of the common 4-byte one. The 2-byte packet can make use of sub-channel traffic pathways, effectively doubling the bandwidth of any road, and has a wider choice of routing. There are some problems, like the overhead of the additional processing required to predict packet collisions in case a large, badly implemented packet decides to change channels without broadcasting an appropriate signal, and the chance of data corruption is greater because of a lack of error recovery information. On the other hand, it arrives to destination much more quickly and avoids frustration leaks that seriously hinder operation all the way up until the next nightly reboot.

    Now, I bet I'm not the only one that thinks of roads like of networks... 


    Precisely. When will our idiotic road planners realise that larger vehicles slow traffic in the same way that large stones clog piping in cement pumps? It's just fluid dynamics.  

    About 60 years ago. Traffic flow dynamics is a well-established field of mathematics. 

    Yes, but the fact remains that replacing 10-40 cars with one bus, or half a dozen vans with one lorry, will improve traffic.

    Yes, anybody who has anything to do with road planning knows this. What exactly are they supposed to do about it? It's not really under their control. 



  • @m0ffx said:

    @asuffield said:
    @zedhex said:
    @Sunstorm said:

    I avoid commuting problems by using a 2-byte "MOTORCYCLE" transport packet instead of the common 4-byte one. The 2-byte packet can make use of sub-channel traffic pathways, effectively doubling the bandwidth of any road, and has a wider choice of routing. There are some problems, like the overhead of the additional processing required to predict packet collisions in case a large, badly implemented packet decides to change channels without broadcasting an appropriate signal, and the chance of data corruption is greater because of a lack of error recovery information. On the other hand, it arrives to destination much more quickly and avoids frustration leaks that seriously hinder operation all the way up until the next nightly reboot.

    Now, I bet I'm not the only one that thinks of roads like of networks... 


    Precisely. When will our idiotic road planners realise that larger vehicles slow traffic in the same way that large stones clog piping in cement pumps? It's just fluid dynamics.  

    About 60 years ago. Traffic flow dynamics is a well-established field of mathematics. 

    Yes, but the fact remains that replacing 10-40 cars with one bus, or half a dozen vans with one lorry, will improve traffic.

    This is total nonsense. Every study I have seen has made some really dumb assumptions to "prove" this. Such as typical occupancy rates of buses over 60%, and that the road space occupide by one bus with 10 occupants can be validly compared with the road space taken by 10 cars (totally ignoring the FD effects and the economic realities faced by the average bus passenger). Thats about as far as they go - although mathematicians are willing to consider fluid dynamics as applied to traffic flow, nobody in road planning ever seems to apply it. In the city I live in it is quite normal to sit in huge lines of traffic behind a single half-full bus which has to stop every 300 meters.  Road planning has never been particularly rigorous, and to my knowledge (and please correct me if I'm wrong) there have been no studies which examined replacing buses with much smaller vehicles such as motorcycles/bicycles.


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