it's ya boy back again with another post about driving!

i've already said a lot about how chaotic and terrible maryland drivers can be, but goodness gracious they are really awful!

since we were in florida for so long, i slightly forgot how to drive when i got back, but i'm back into the swing of things so all good.

however, having now gotten back into driving since i decided to go back to work for 2 days between my trips, i've had to deal with more of the stupid drivers.

i won't claim to be the excellent, perfect driver, but i'm not nearly as awful as some people.

i follow most laws and road regulations, and the things i don't follow (namely speed limits), i'm still careful about. i match the flow of traffic on highways, and even then i don't go more than 10 over (i live in the right lane).

sometimes i roll up to stop signs and don't fully stop, but that's at signs i pass frequently where i can see there isn't any oncoming traffic at a distance. if it's not near where i live, then i do a full stop. if it's a busy time or lots of traffic, i stop obviously.

but i'm sitting here writing this post because some people just drive so recklessly, i don't understand it.

when i'm driving on highways, like 97 especially (as an example), every once in a while i will see some random car speeding by 10-15 mph, weaving between cars and leaving not even 3 feet of space when passing or merging in front of someone. they will be fully tailgating the car in front of them, trying to find a spot to get ahead and keep speeding.

on one hand, i am a pretty defensive driver and i don't do stupid shit like that, so maybe i can't understand it compared to someone like non (who has much more driving experience and may or may not occasionally drive in an unsafe way), but it just feels really stupid.

having such little distance between the car you're driving and the car in front of you is really dangerous when moving in general, especially though when going 70 mph, right? i'm not crazy. that's just reckless. and it makes the person being tailgated super uncomfortable, because whenever someone drives behind me with like 4 feet between my bumper and theirs, i am extremely uncomfortable.

just yesterday in fact, i was driving on central towards riva road because i needed gas and that gas station was easy to deal with, so i went to that one. as soon as i passed this one intersection, an ugly tan truck pulled up behind me, and all i could see was the very front of their car and part of their windshield. i was going slightly over the speed limit, but it was 7 am and not very busy so i had no reason to go faster/slower.

since bro was on my ass, i decided to turn on my right turn signal early (a few hundred feet more than the 100 feet they say you should do, and i didn't pass any other possible right turns before my turn so it was clear) so that they could see i was going to turn and thusly SLOW DOWN in order to turn.

i get close to my turn, start slowing down, and as soon as i get to the place i'm turning, i slow down a bit more and start turning in and the tan truck blares their horn at me, swerves into the middle of the intersection for riva road and central, and then speeds off.

dog, what the fuck is wrong with you???

it was 7 am, i did everything i could to make it clear that i was going to be slowing down so they could slow down and not hit me, and they fussed over it!

there was no reason for them to swerve like they did unless they were blatantly not paying attention while driving (which is probably what was going on) or just being a dick, but it pissed me off and put me in a bad mood for the rest of my drive.

this brings me into another thing that bothers me, which is when people pass cars that stop to wait and turn by using the shoulder.

and most of the cases i'm referring to is with one lane roads, separated by a double yellow (traffic going both directions). a car will stop to turn left for example, and legally, what you are supposed to do is slow down and (if they can't turn before you get close to them) stop behind them, wait for them to make their turn, then continue.

not drive on the shoulder to pass by them on the right. i know that's the case because i saw 2 cars do it once and the suv (following a truck) immediately got pulled over by a police car (the truck escaped).

people do it all the time when i have to turn left from central onto wayson, where they drive past me on the shoulder, practically going into the overhanging tree branches to save themselves 3 seconds.

sometimes they see me indicate, i slow down, and they immediately move onto the shoulder to pass me despite the fact that i immediately am able to make my turn! i don't even have to wait for traffic at all, i just slow down a bit and they decide to pass me!

what fucking time are you saving there??? are you trying to not slow down so you can use less gas??? i've been trying to keep my mpgs up recently but even i don't do that shit. if i need to slow down or stop i'll do that, it isn't that big of a deal.

i was kind of arguing with tar over this, i think the main issue with our conversation was that they didn't understand what my point was and i didn't understand the full case they were saying, i took them defending passing people (illegally while they wait to turn) as them defending it in all cases, which they probably weren't.

i said i hated when people did it because it's illegal (and i'm talking about the illegal cases, not when you switch lanes on a multiple lane road to not get stuck waiting behind someone) and possibly dangerous for other people, they said waiting can be more dangerous because if someone isn't paying attention, they could rear end you, but like..

one of the big things with driving is that you want to be as predictable as possible to keep yourself and others safe. that's why you drive in between the lines in your lane, or stop at stop signs, wait at intersections, use your turn signals to indicate where you are turning, it's why your car has brake lights.

the goal is to show other drivers as clearly as possible what you are going to do and what you are doing. you're supposed to follow road regulations and laws because everybody who drives should know those things and also be following them, and if everyone does, then you minimize the chaos!

imagine driving on roads without lanes or stop lights or any type of indication of who has right of way, and no one has ever said, "in this situation, this car has right of way" (so no yielding to the person right of you at a 4 way stop, there's no consistent idea of who has right of way at all). imagine driving a car without turn signals or brake lights, so other cars just have to see fully what you are doing to know what you're doing as you do it.

no showing ahead of time what you plan on doing, only showing it in the moment.

it would probably be bad, right? if there's no consistency in which side of the road to use or what parts of the road to use or who gets to turn when, then it's a lot more confusing and a lot more dangerous.

(and don't be like, "oh meverett! haven't you seen those intersections in europe or wherever where they removed the stop lights, forcing drivers to be more attentive and cautious as they drive? or places in asia where there are cars and bikes and people going every way, all crowded?" yeah, i have, i don't mean that. those are situations where it's either the norm and everyone knows how to deal with it, making it work, or those drivers know what they're supposed to do because of pre-established rules, which makes it work! i'm talking about our maryland drivers here, not other countries with different driving rules and whatnot)

ideally, if you are in one lane, you are supposed to stay in that lane until you signal that you are changing lanes.

if you can safely change lanes without your signal, then fine, whatever, i don't care, i won't do that, but if there are cars near you (especially on highways), you should use your signal! personal opinion here, but i like it when other drivers are predictable so that they don't scare me and cause me to crash when i'm going 65 mph!

do you want meverett to get into a high speed car accident? or any car accident? hopefully not!

there are obviously going to be stupid and reckless drivers regardless, and me complaining won't do anything about them being reckless, but still.

i really don't understand why people do that though, there is like one situation that i can think of for why someone would drive less than safely, and most of the time that isn't the reason (medical emergency being that situation).

ridiculus. that's just me though, i don't care if you, my dear reader, disagree with any of my points, don't tell me. i value your opinions, but i don't wanna hear it.

some people drive stupid, don't be one of those people!

cheers
_______________________________
/ \ \.
| | |.
\_ | not the cat's meow, |.
| ____ ____ |.
| / ) ( \ |.
| / ( ^_^ ) \ |.
| | { \('v')/ } | |.
| ~~~| { / \ } |~~~ |.
| |_)( /\ /\ )(_| |.
| |) (_ | \|/ |_) (| |.
| ' "__^^^^__" ' |.
| meverett |.
| |.
| ___________________________|__
| | |.
\_/_____________________________/.