Driving pet peeves

One thing I've noticed is that laws and regulations intended to stop illegal activity end up inconveniencing and pissing off innocent people...

Checkpoints of any kind, with the exception of actual border checkpoints (not the stupid citizenship checkpoints within our country but the legit ones at the Canadian and Mexican borders), are unconstitutional and a bloody waste of time!

 

A close member of my family got in a serious accident because he reacted to another driver. Rolled his truck 3 or 4 times and ended up with 9 broken/fractured ribs, broken collar bone, and broken scapula.

I drive like a damn turtle even more now because I know I have the tendency to react exactly the same in similar situations.

Just gotta take the high road and let them be. No sense in an additional risk to life and property because someone is distracted or whatever the case may be. The risk they pose is great enough already.

Besides, little 2.7 5spd on 285s doesn't get up and go enough to be aggressive anyway.

Being aggravated also puts undo stress on your family and friends. It makes everyone uncomfortable or upset and rage leaves lasting emotional scars.

 

Seriously...

I had my driver's license for just over 6 years and never got pulled over in that time. I got my license on May 19th, 2011. I got pulled over, I believe, on either May 24th or May 26th of 2017. This was barely over 2 months after my first (and hopefully last) encounter at a DUI checkpoint, and about six months after I'd been aggressively followed and tailgated by a cop on the same stretch of road where I ended up getting pulled over, no doubt because it was late at night and he was trolling for drunks.

So, I was kind of a dick to the cop, and I regret this, but hear me out...

1. I have Asperger's syndrome, which is a high-functioning form of autism. Aspies have a lot of trouble dealing with changes to their normal routine (in this case getting pulled over on a road I've been driving for years without issue, when I didn't think I'd done anything wrong and I knew my truck was totally legal).

2. My neighbor and I had just installed a $250 GPS/NAV touch-screen head unit in my truck that evening and I'd only found out after hooking it up that it did not have built-in iPod control, so I was pissed about that.

3. As stated above, I'd had two encounters with police in the last six months where I felt I was arbitrarily harassed for "suspicion of DUI."

4. I saw the cop in my rear view mirror, but he was such a great distance away I figured he was just responding to a call. I didn't realize he was pulling me over until I pulled over to let him by and he pulled in behind me.

Basically, all I said "I don't know why the hell I got pulled over!" and it got me a $180 citation that would have resulted in 4 points on my license if I'd just paid it.

The owner of the bar where I work is a damn good lawyer and he represented me at a greatly reduced cost. I apologized to the cop at the court date and we shook hands. The offense was reduced from 43 in a 25 to 5 hour, which was akin to a parking ticket and did not cost me any points. The total for lawyer fees, court costs, and the reduced fine was $650. My dad paid it all for me since I couldn't afford it at the time and it was my first ticket...

Now, imagine if I were someone who didn't have amazing parents and know a really good attorney, who lived paycheck to paycheck. Most people probably would have had the money for the ticket, but not the lawyer. They would have paid the ticket, and then they would have gotten 4 points on their license and their insurance rates would have gone up. PennDOT knocks 3 points off your license a year as long as you don't get more points. If you wrack up more than 6 points at once, then there's a good chance your license will be suspended for weeks or even months, so that poor person loses their ability to drive to work and take their kids to school.

What pisses me off is that the justice system targets lower-income people...

 

@Gr8fl

Entitled douchebags...

Doylestown seems to be overstocked on 'em!

 

It’s everywhere, you can’t escape it but you can live so you don’t act that way.

 

This morning, on the way to work,6:40am. Heavy high speed rush hour traffic, I trying to exit the 75+ mph traffic,and here comes this girl trying to enter the freeway doing 40 mph and get this.... she was putting her eye makeup on using the rear view mirror at the same time.

 

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Cell phone use in the vehicle is still number one problem here in GA and we have a law against it.

 

Cell phone usage is always a menace everywhere, but texting is downright deadly.

 

How about this. I put a lot of miles on the company car so I've seen more then my fair share of strange and dangerous stuff on the freeways of CA. Today there was this girl pulled over in the emergency lane so her dog could pee, all with 80 mph traffic whizzing by inches away.

 

People who suddenly appear in the path of your vehicle and/or in your blind spot when you are attempting to back up, pull forward, or change lanes.

Seriously! My reverse lights are on and I've already started backing up! Futhermucking wait!

Today, on my way to work, I signaled my intent to go from the left lane to the right lane. Out of nowhere, a woman in a green Honda Accord appears right next to me. She didn't beep. She just scowled at me as she passed me, only to make a right turn into a shopping center seconds later.

 

I'm calling out the city of DeFuniak Springs,FL... did they have a course in the Drivers Ed class that taught you to wait until the incoming vehicle is mere feet away to pull into traffic from a parking lot?!

In a 2 mile stretch of road I had 5 idiots wait until I was right up in them before they pulled into traffic. And I was driving a raggity azz roll - off truck with no Jake and highly suspect brakes. ( it's our "my truck is being serviced and need something to drive that kinda runs" back up truck. Old worn out Mack)

Speed limit 45 through here...

 

No, you "futhermucking" wait. As the person backing out of a parking space it is your responsibility to yield to traffic in the driving lane and only proceed when the way is clear. Reverse lights on doesn't magically give you the right of way.

Again, regardless of whether you have your turn signal on or not, it is your responsibility to make sure the way is clear before changing lanes.

Last night leaving the grocery store some entitled asshole pulled out of his parking space without looking as I was driving by and nearly creamed the side of my Tacoma. He at least, had the decency to roll down his window and say sorry.

 

I'm talking about pulling out without looking. I'm talking about one second there's nobody there and then there's somebody there.

On the other hand, at my college almost 6 year ago, some kid in an old Ford Escort almost backed directly into my door! He would have too, if I hadn't laid on the horn.

 

This is more of a parking pet peeve, and I think I've mentioned it before...

People who think that someone else's truck bed is a garbage can.

Seriously! One time I came out of college and found an entire section of someone's bumper in the bed of my Tacoma! There was no damage to my truck, so I figure someone must have found it and was too lazy to find a garbage can...

 

And why so aggressive? You weren't in the truck with me when it happened. It was about 7 in the morning, I checked to see if the lane was clear (which it was) and signaled. Maybe I should have gotten over quicker, but this woman in the green Accord just appeared of nowhere. I guarantee you she was just in a hurry to get where she was going and didn't want the guy in the pickup truck adding another 30 seconds to her trip by getting in front of her.

 

This amuses me a lot more than it makes me mad...

People who tailgate my truck in sedans and hatchbacks. I even had a guy tailgate me on a motorcycle one time! I guess he wanted a Darwin Award.

One time, there was a Volkswagen of some sort (either a Golf or a Jetta), just riding my ass in an area of Route 611 where the speed limit dropped from 55 to 45. I did not break check them. I just slowed wayyy the hell down they finally passed me...

 

As for the motorcycle, I was driving home from a diesel truck show at Maple Grove Raceway (near Reading). I was on a two-lane road in the middle of nowhere, and this guy on a bike just roars up behind me. It technically was illegal to pass, but I think the motorcyclist should have done that...

He kept weaving back and forth and riding my back bumper. I wasn't about to purposely brake check a motorcycle, but if I'd had to stop for an emergency, he probably would have been killed. I didn't want to pull over because there no shoulder and I obviously didn't know who this guy was or what he was capable of...

I stuck my hand out the window and waved him past several times, but he just stayed right on my ass until one of us turned.

 

Cops who think they have a right to tailgate me just they're cops...

 

I don't like to be tailgated either, but I concentrate on what's in front of me, not behind.
Vehicles do not appear out of nowhere. Someone was not paying attention.

 

I worked with a guy that was a "bike" guy and I dont know how we got on the conversation but he said he would drive up on me and sling a chain through my window...on his bike!...I said you are on a bike I'll knock you into a ditch! or slam on my brakes! LOL he just looked at me like he couldnt comprehend I would win in that situation.