Any time I see a Highlander on the road, I always make sure there is only one. I run every other Highlander off the road out of principle.
Not saying you’re wrong, just curious because I’ve always wondered (and have been too lazy to look it up…)
I’d like to know if this is the case, or if, perhaps, women are in more accidents, but they tend to be minor, whereas when men screw up, lots of stuff gets smashed and broken.
… not to mention how Asians always shoulder check you when walking down the street.
Serious reply:
as Mighty points out the insurance agencies have the statistics to disprove your anecdote… but you’re not alone in your viewpoint. My theory is that drivers actually following the rules annoy others (like driving at the speed limit in front of you when you feel like going a bit over) and since women drivers tend to stick to the rules, they get the bad rep as drivers.
… yes, I drive like a woman, so I can relate.
And like Nellie, 9 times out of 10 it’s an angry Audi or BMW on my arse flashing his lights when I’m driving at the posted limit (which doesn’t change that I want my next car to be a 3-series BMW)
They don’t. They have stats to say that women statistically have less serious accidents, more often, and men are in more serious accidents, less often.
What the statistics never say is who the cause of the accidents are. I used to work with a retired traffic cop/accident investigation cop, and he said a huge amount of the time the person who created the situation that lead to the accident wasn’t involved in the accident and simply drives away without realising anything. Then it comes down to which of the invovled parties was more wrong. And this ranges from where they’re only a very minor cause (someone driving creating a traffic jam and people try risky overtaking) to the sole cause (someone driving on the wrong side of the road and someone swerving off the road.) And the range of things in between.
If this is indeed the case (the rest is yet another anecdote) then it could also be a simple matter of men driving more often than women and thus being in more accidents… unless they correct for this.
It’s just that insurance companies are loathe to pay out money and really use statistics to make sure they don’t - and there’s a reason that young men in fast cars pay a higher premium.
It’s also logical. There are outside factors that can’t be ennumerated nor can they form the basis for remuneration, so they aren’t taken into consideration.
Enemy:
First choice, probably NSFW and banworthy as well:
http://www.stupidcarowners.com/images/2009/jan/cyclists-mexico.jpg
Oh, yes, and the young fellows in their Honda Civics with amplified mufflers (or, rather, de-mufflers), with their incessant high-speed lane weaving and their left-on-red tomfoolery. Boo-urns.
I think this is the total dark horse. People forget about them quickly but anyone with a custom skirt kit on their cheap-ass subcompact thinks they are a racecar driver, and drives like such.
IMO, I hate Escalades and Tahoes. I don’t know what it is, but I have never seen one be considerate, or fail to do something extremely assholish. There’s also not a whole lot of them on the road, thankfully.
Beyond that, fucking minivans. Middle aged men upset at where their life has landed them, taking it out on the drivers around them and trying so hard to just get that two inches further along in traffic.
My favorite jackass maneuver that I see from minivans all the time: I’m in a left lane, and someone is turning left. It’s going to take a long time. I turn on my right signal to move over and wait for a gap. Invariably, one comes, and the fucking minivan behind me jams on the gas and jerks around me, preventing me from doing the same thing he wanted to do.
The worst part of this is that we could have both easily moved in sync, but noooooooooooooooo.
The worst part about signals aren’t that people don’t use them, it’s that people ignore them.
Perhaps it’s different in the US, but here you’re taught to signal what you’re going to do… not what you hope to do in the near future.
That annoys me too. As well as people cutting in line for exit ramps that are backed up. Taxi drivers are the worst for that in this area.
But, your Rabbit can’t out accelerate a minivan? I thought it was souped up or something.
Suvs, just so wasteful.
Most Audi drivers seem to think they’re driving in a commercial (30+ over the speed limit, and constantly weaving between lanes, near Chicago on the interstates).
Expensive (+50k$US) SUV drivers, who don’t care if they hit you, because they’re too important to look up from texting.
Any driver that sends texts while driving. don’t do it, jerks. just don’t.
Another vote for SUVs. Either the people who are driving them have no idea how to drive a vehicle of that size (for example, it takes them ten minutes to park because they can’t judge whether they’ll fit in the space), or they’re complete jerks who think they own the road. Also, I have low tolerance for people who buy such vehicles, wasteful as they are, who don’t actually need the features it has.
My other vote goes to any vehicle that has a “Rhode Island” license plate on it. Living most of my life in SE Massachusetts, I’ve had to share the roads with Rhode Island drivers, who are the absolute worst of the worst. Say what you will about Massachusetts drivers… they may have a bad reputation, and most of it is deserved, but when a Mass. driver speeds around you, cuts you off in traffic, and lays on the horn at you, he is at least fully aware that you’re there, and of the rest of his surroundings. Where a Rhode Island driver is more hazardous because they seem to be COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS to everything outside of his own vehicle.
They drive 10 miles below the speed limit on the highway, randomly drift in and out of lanes right in front of you and have never heard of a turn signal. They panic at any sign of rain or snow (despite being in New England) and will then proceed to drive even slower… or else they’re bump it up to unsafe levels of light speed.
I’m sure the other Mass. folks can back me up on this. ;) But moving to Seattle has most definitely resulted in the most pleasant change in my day to day driving experience.
They should be allowed to do this in every state not because of air-cooling (which is false), but because it makes sense.
Barely any. Ducati Monster is still air-cooled, lots of twins are still air-cooled. No sportbike is air-cooled that I know of.
Hate to play devil’s advocate here, but the human brain tends to not recall the countless situations where you haven’t seen someone on a sportbike drive like an asshole.
And aside from that, motorcycles weave because they have to weave to turn. Weaving quickly is not dangerous unless the rider does not do a head check. The danger present from other cars necessitates quick and visible maneuvers. It also tends to slow down people that are tailgating. So what you perceive as “asshole” behavior because it’s quicker than a car, is actually safe behavior allowed by the maneuverability and quick response of the bike, barring some situations which I definitely wouldn’t disagree with the “asshole” assessments of course.
And, finally, they do it because they can, since they’re not in a wasteful 3,000lb hunk of metal that is 6 feet wide and 10 feet long.
Harley guys tend to drive defensively, with good reason. Not these jokers.
The overwhelming majority of accidents occur at cruising speed, not at 90+mph. The local riding road around here had 6 deaths last year. 5 of them were cruiser riders that were incapable of navigating turns at a safe speed. The 6th was an asshole on a super motard (not a sportbike).
Anyways, my vote goes for a Hummer. I don’t think anything else offends me on the road as much as seeing a Hummer, any Hummer.
Anyone with a Calvin & Hobbes peeing sticker :(
…the rednecks defacing one of the best comics of all time.
At least in the US if you are in the left lane and are at the posted limit but not passing, you are wrong. I will be flashing lights at you
My enemy: most all popular white-bread car drivers. People have mention SUVs, Toyotas, etc, and I agree. They are all appliance cars, and many of the drivers treat them as such. So they are often not driving, they are texting, putting on makeup, eating a sandwich, whatever, but not actively focused on driving. I am more comfortable around sportier cars because, more often, they seem more engaged in the drive and paying attention.
I tend to drive fast, not agressive, but I’m always in the moment. If I get a cell call I have to take I pull over. I don’t eat in my car. I have both hands on the wheel nearly all the time. But if you are in the passing lane and not passing, I will flash my lights at you until you move over.
Oh, it’s the same here. You have to be passing in the left lane, if there’s no cars to the right of you, you’re supposed to pull into that lane again.
But you’re not supposed to speed even though some people will tell you that speeding “just to overtake” is somehow legal. It’s not (here).
Hahaha, you flash your lights at people? You’re a fucking douche bag.
Nor is it here Hans.
And while it is reasonable to treat the left hand lane of a two-lane (per side) highway as a passing lane when traffic is quite light, when traffic is moderate to heavy, it is just one more lane that roughly doubles the capacity of the road in question, and is for vehicles traveling slightly faster than those in the right, and/or who have no need to exit for quite some distance.
Those who view the left hand lane as their god-given passageway to blow through urban traffic at 80 mph while flashing their lights and honking their horns at any who would dare interfere may be “in the moment”, but they’re also the bane of ordinary drivers, even “white-bread car drivers”.
An immediate negative response?
White or black Ford Crown Victorias
White or black Chevy Impalas
White or black Dodge Chargers
Any vehicle parked on a median that is not flashing hazard lights.
Any vehicle pouring out smoke from its exhaust as if they filled diesel instead of unleaded.
Any vehicle pouring large volumes of smoke from its exhaust when accelerating.
I’m fine with all other cars on the road until their drivers do something stupid.