Unprovoked road rage

[Benesesso]

Way back ~'75, my buddy and I were on the NY State Thruway, just north of Spring Valley.  I was on my much-modified '72 Kaw 750 two-stroke triple, and my bud was on a 450 DOHC Honda.  We missed the exit and pulled over ~ 1/4 mile past it.  Rather than go ahead a few miles to the next exit, we decided to turn around and ride back on the shoulder.

Hadn't gone more than a few feet when we saw an approaching trucker ~1/8 mile in the right lane move over onto the shoulder, aiming right at us.  We had to pull off the shoulder onto the grass to miss this a-hole.  

But this was well before cellphones, and I had taped a couple of large steel nuts to my clubman bars-two turns of masking tape.  As he went by, barely 10' from us blasting his air horn, I ripped one of the nuts off and let him have it right in the windshield.  He slammed on the brakes, but it took a long time for him to stop and we were back to the exit ramp before that. Adios.

I still ride with steel nuts or old spark plugs--haven't used one in quite a while now.

[ragtoplvr]

You know those "hows my driving call 800 XXX XXXX this is truck number XXXX things they paint on the back of a truck.

I had a route truck put me in the ditch once.  I was out running an errand at lunch.  He was going towards me, passing up hill, I got a surprise as I topped the hill.  He happened to be making his delivery where I worked.  They will not unload at lunch.  So he was there when I returned.  I checked the time when he arrived.  It matched, this was the idiot that ran me off the road.  So I called the 800 number.  Ended up talking to the owner.  

He was fired that evening when he returned to the lot.

Rod  

[SpitfireTriple]

There are pig-ignorant drivers in every country. I will say though, reading the posts on ST-N and ADVrider, you do seem to have it worse in the states.  Why that should be, I have no idea.

I think I should create this helmet-cam product.  
...

I think that this is the future of "civility": everyone keeping everyone else in line with video cameras and the internet.   I was watching the news the other night... there's this website were women who are sexually harassed on NYC subways post pictures of the perverts flashing them.  They've actually gotten guys arrested, thanks to cell phone cameras.  It got me thinking... we all need cameras.  Everyone filming everything that everyone does.  Through modern technology, we'll return to the "small town", pre-industrial concept of everyone knowing what everyone else is doing.  Too much anonymity is a bad thing, IMO.

When they were introduced, I didn't like the idea of CCTV cameras in British town centres. But they seem to have reduced the incidence of (mostly drunken) yobbery. I have no problem with the cameras now. Speed revenue cameras, however, are a different matter

[evilted]

Americans don't have duties, just rights.  Including the right to shameless ignorance apparently:

http://www.gmacinsurance.com/SafeDriving/PressRelease.asp
 

There are pig-ignorant drivers in every country. I will say though, reading the posts on ST-N and ADVrider, you do seem to have it worse in the states.  Why that should be, I have no idea.



When they were introduced, I didn't like the idea of CCTV cameras in British town centres. But they seem to have reduced the incidence of (mostly drunken) yobbery. I have no problem with the cameras now. Speed revenue cameras, however, are a different matter

[et]

Americans don't have duties, just rights.  Including the right to shameless ignorance apparently:

http://www.gmacinsurance.com/SafeDriving/PressRelease.asp
 

The fact that NY and NJ are on the bottom doesn't surprise me one bit.
The influx of NY drivers moving to NJ was one of the reasons why I moved out of NJ.

Have you ever seen NJ's written exam ? It has nothing to do with how to drive.
Instead it was all about the cost of tickets.
A co-worker of mine had a wife who had moved to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic.
She showed us the questions on her written exam. They were all questions such as: "How much is the fine for parking too close to a fire hydrant ?"
No questions such as: "Who has the right of way at an intersection ?" Or: "What should you do when approaching a stopped school bus with it's red lights flashing ?"
My co-worker; originally from New York; said his test in NY was about the same as his wife's NJ test.

Plus; NJ allows people to take the written exam in as many as 50 different languages. WHY ?! All the roads signs in NJ are in English !

[Craigart14]

Don't anyone jump on me for posting a bicycle story here; just thought I would add my two cents about road rage.

So one day I was riding along a four-lane bypass around my little town.  I'm in the right lane, even though I know there's an interstate on-ramp not far ahead.  I've always found that drivers become confused if a bicycle is in the correct lane (that would be the left lane in this case), so I generally stay in the right lane.  A pick-up comes up behind me.  I look over my shoulder and see his right blinker. He's heading for the on-ramp.  He had plenty of time to pass me on the left, then change lanes again to make his turn onto the ramp, so I'm puzzled by this over-the-top, well, courtesy. So, being a courteous soul myself, I move into the left lane and prepare to return what I am sure will be a courteous wave.  Look over the shoulder again and he's right behind me, closing fast.  I duck back into the right lane.  The bastard's right behind me again.  I move as far as I can to the right, and he rips by me on the left, cutting hard back to the right for the on-ramp.  I'm braking, trying to keep the rear wheel from coming up, and manage to miss t-boning the truck by inches.  Really, it's so close I can count the hairs in his old lady's mustache.  Her raised middle finger has a hangnail.  He goes down the ramp and I screech to a stop, shaking my fist at him and shouting.  He stops at the foot of the ramp and gets out of his truck, shouting back at me.  I'm so pissed I'm wishing I had a gun.  Just before I head down the ramp to beat some sense with this homicidal maniac, I realize that a: I'm wearing cycling shoes that are nearly impossible to walk in, let alone fight in; b: I'm a wimpy college professor and his frickin' wife has a mustache; c: he probably does have a gun--pick-up trucks in Georgia generally coming standard with gun racks.  So I make one last rude gesture, then go on my way, steaming.  He does the same.

It wasn't until later that I figured it out.  Every time I changed lanes to get out of his way, he thought I was trying to block him.  I was wondering why he was being such an asshat, and he was wondering why I was.  It should have been funny; it would have been had we been walking through a mall or something.  But in what should have been a harmless misunderstanding that lasted only a few seconds, he got pissed enough to run me off the road--if his truck had clipped my front wheel I would be sending this message from the Other Side--and I got pissed enough--or nearly so--to get in a fight with a complete stranger.  True, I thought he had just tried to kill me, while all I did was hold him up a few seconds.

I wonder if he ever figured it out.  Or if he's got it in for long-haired, bearded guys on bicycles.

Craig

[SpitfireTriple]

Americans don't have duties, just rights.  Including the right to shameless ignorance apparently:

http://www.gmacinsurance.com/SafeDriving/PressRelease.asp

quote from that link:
the 2009 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test released today found that 20.1 percent of licensed Americans - amounting to roughly 41 million drivers on the road

Only 20%? I'm impressed. I doubt whether 80% of British drivers would pass a driving test if they had one tomorrow. I include myself in this doubt. Especially if irrelevant questions like the ones mentioned by evilted were included. Though, as far as I'm aware, there's nothing about the price of parking in the current British test. But the British test does include questions on braking distances. Okay, this is important, vital actually, but I'm not convinced that learning a list of (metric) stopping distances makes you a better driver. It's more important to develop a feel for braking distances than to learn a table of numbers parrot-fashion.

Oh, and whilst in America you have the nonsense of being able to take the test in 50(!) languages, you do at least stick to English for the road-signs. In certain corners of Britain, signs are now in a foreign language spoken by less than half of one per cent of the population. All of whom can speak English perfectly. Well, apart from a funny accent and a few funny phrases. All in the name of Political Correctness.  "Every time I see "Gweff" written on the road it takes me an extra fraction of a second to realise that they mean "Slow".  As all motorcyclists, and most drivers know, a fraction of a second can be critical.

[SpitfireTriple]

Don't anyone jump on me for posting a bicycle story here; ........ I'm so pissed I'm wishing I had a gun...... I thought he had just tried to kill me, while all I did was hold him up a few seconds.

I wonder if he ever figured it out.  

There's a lot of this about. Because we feel (and are) vulnerable, we become paranoid. (On a motorcycle this is healthy of course). We sometimes feel that others are deliberately out to get us. The truth of course, is that most incidents of this kind are about lack of concentration, misunderstanding, and misjudgement.

[Craigart14]

quote from that link:
the 2009 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test released today found that 20.1 percent of licensed Americans - amounting to roughly 41 million drivers on the road

Only 20%? I'm impressed. I doubt whether 80% of British drivers would pass a driving test if they had one tomorrow. I include myself in this doubt. Especially if irrelevant questions like the ones mentioned by evilted were included. Though, as far as I'm aware, there's nothing about the price of parking in the current British test. But the British test does include questions on braking distances. Okay, this is important, vital actually, but I'm not convinced that learning a list of (metric) stopping distances makes you a better driver. It's more important to develop a feel for braking distances than to learn a table of numbers parrot-fashion.

Oh, and whilst in America you have the nonsense of being able to take the test in 50(!) languages, you do at least stick to English for the road-signs. In certain corners of Britain, signs are now in a foreign language spoken by less than half of one per cent of the population. All of whom can speak English perfectly. Well, apart from a funny accent and a few funny phrases. All in the name of Political Correctness.  "Every time I see "Gweff" written on the road it takes me an extra fraction of a second to realise that they mean "Slow".  As all motorcyclists, and most drivers know, a fraction of a second can be critical.

I'm not sure I could pass the written test.  40 years of driving have convinced me that many of the rules aren't exactly relevant to real world situations.  Besides, I don't much care what the fine is for parking too close to a hydrant; I'm not parking anywhere near a hydrant because I know what they're for.  My MC test way back when asked me how high I could legally have my handlebars.  I still don't know the answer.

Craig