Things that bug you (spin off of Goldmoon's thread)

[Thornir Alekeg]

Yes, but Seattle has a lot of them. It's a matter of commentary from out-of-town visitors.

Hmmm, I must have missed them when I visited Seattle a couple of years back. Of course I was there for my gay friend's wedding, so perhaps I was just in the wrong areas to see pretty girls. I seem to remember my wife making a couple of comments about the number of nice looking guys...

 

[Aeson]

The traffic theme deserves a thread of its own!

People who try to block me from getting into their lane when two become one. The quickest way for everyone is to merge alternately. There's a tunnel near me that has signs up telling you to use both lanes and merge where the lanes merge but some people are adamant to stick to the bumber of the car in front and not let you in. It's more dangerous and slows everyone down.

I've been known to not let someone over. It's often in situations where it's not an actual you must merge. It's two lanes were one continues and the other ends in a turn. They had warning to merger earlier yet they choose to go as far as they can ahead then stop the turning traffic while they wait to cut in line.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Hmmm, I must have missed them when I visited Seattle a couple of years back. Of course I was there for my gay friend's wedding, so perhaps I was just in the wrong areas to see pretty girls. I seem to remember my wife making a couple of comments about the number of nice looking guys...

Ha!

Ok! So things that I have found that bug me (a sample):

Left lane is for PASSING.

No, I do not have spare change. Now please get off my doorstep.

Let me get this straight. You've paid over $500.00 for Gore-Tex waterproof boots and Gore-Tex lined knee-high gaiters and you STILL walk around mud puddles? YOU HAVE MORE MONEY THAN YOU DESERVE.

Flush, then wash your hands. How is this hard?

 

[jonesy]

There's really just one thing, but it covers a lot and it's driving me crazy.

Definitions.

Humans give names to things so that we can talk about them. So why can't we leave them alone?

This can get extremely political so I'll try to be vague. And that's part of the problem.

Some words get bad connotations because people use them accidentally wrong or intentionally as insults. So those become "unusable" and we have to start using other words in their place. But because it's still pointing at the same thing now the new word gets "tainted". Oooh, we can't use that, that's a bad way of saying it. So now we have to find a new word for it. Sheesh. How the hell are you going to talk about it then? No, don't say it, I get it, you don't really want to talk about it at all, you just want it to go away. Well it's not going to.

Some words get muddled by people who want to use their good reputation to their advantage. "I stand for this issue and anyone who doesn't stand for this issue is clearly stupid". Well sure, but you know what, no you do not. You are using the wrong word so that people get confused about what you are talking about. Then you go on tv and because everything on tv is true, oh look what happened now, everyone starts getting it wrong. And what ever happened to the original definition then? How are we going to talk about that now. Oh that's right, that was your intention all along. Well thanks a lot.

It's bad enough that we have a million different languages, we can't even agree to use the ones we do use concisely.

 

[nerfherder]

I've been known to not let someone over. It's often in situations where it's not an actual you must merge. It's two lanes were one continues and the other ends in a turn. They had warning to merger earlier yet they choose to go as far as they can ahead then stop the turning traffic while they wait to cut in line.

Oh yeah, I know what you mean - have one on my commute home. I get into lane early but several people will always undertake to get a couple of car lengths ahead, often blocking the traffic behind them wanting to continue on for their turn off.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Understanding how scary this event was requires an understanding of my vision. It's poor and I am very sensitive to light... especially when it's dark. The regular lights of traffic in opposite lanes are frequently enough to cause me trouble driving at night - which is why I try to avoid it.

However, I was recently driving home at night on I-95 here in Maryland. I was in the far left lane cruising along at the speed of traffic (about 75). There was a car a few lengths in front of me and a car to my right.

Suddenly some jerk in a giant SUV gets behind me and decides that 10 miles over the speed limit is not fast enough and starts flashing his brights and honking.

Now, there are several things to consider:
(1) I cannot speed up. I am going the speed of traffic. To speed up would mean running into the people in front of me.
(2) I cannot switch lanes. There is a car to my right.

I quick flipped up my rear-view mirror to avoid being totally blinded, but the guy just didn't stop. Honk honk! Flash flash! It went on for a mile or two when, without warning, he pulled onto the shoulder and sped up to about 95 mph and passed me and the several cars ahead of me.

Sad thing is, it's not the first time that's happened to me.

The next day, I was driving down a residential street headed home after work. I was going between 25 and 30 and a car pulls up behind me and starts flashing the brights. When I stopped (a full stop) at a stop sign, they started honking and yelling out their windows! Way to bitch at me for being a responsible driver. Ugh.

 

[Aeson]

I won't tell you how many times I've slowed down to piss off drivers that are chomping at the bit for me to speed up. I'm already at or above the speed limit. You want to go 20 over then you have to pass me. Until you can you can sit there and eat my exhaust.

 

[nerfherder]

I won't tell you how many times I've slowed down to piss off drivers that are chomping at the bit for me to speed up. I'm already at or above the speed limit. You want to go 20 over then you have to pass me. Until you can you can sit there and eat my exhaust.

You want to be careful doing that - if they're right up your exhaust pipe then they're more likely to do something reckless if you do something that pisses them off. I saw an SUV ram the car in front of me into a barrier at about 60mph in a road-rage incident a couple of years ago...

 

[kenobi65]

It's even worse here.... no one knows how to drive in them, because I don't think anywhere else in the States has them. Tourist season is hell around here...

We have a few around here (including one about 4 blocks from my house), but you're right, they're not common, and too many people have no idea how to use them. I think they're a little more common in the Northeast.

I've seen people drive the wrong way around them (forcing people off the road), I've seen so many near-misses it's scary.

 

[kenobi65]

It seems to me that old people do this {gapping} more than anyone else. I don't know why. :|

I have two theories, because, yes, I've noticed that most Gappers are older folks.

1) These are people with respiratory issues, and they've decided that not stopping near the car in front of them reduces the amount of exhaust they have to breathe. (Though it does nothing about the exhaust from the hundreds of other cars...)

2) They want to leave a space, in case they need to maneuver out of the way, if some unforseen accident starts occuring behind them.