So I don't like bad drivers, nobody does. For me it goes beyond just not liking them, it frustrates and disappoints me when otherwise sober, sane, normal individuals make an ass of themselves acting like a thumb sucking ape just because there in their little "safety" zone behind locked doors and glass. In all the hours of driving and watching drivers, I've learned a few things and classed the bad drivers into a few groups. Here they are:
1 The head-on-fires. These are by far the most annoying group of people. They're the ones who speed everywhere, take off like a bat out of hell at lights, ride up on your bumper on the interstate, and use the turn lane to get ahead of a few more people at a light. When there's construction, these are the people who use the lane that is about to end, driving in it until the last second to try and get ahead of as many other drivers as possible. There is no excuse for the behavior of these worthless scum, they are inconsiderate, rude, and childish.
2 The huh-whats. These people drink, eat, talk on their phone, text, shave, read, adjust the radio, and oh yea, drive. They can't maintain their speed, stay in their lane, or be bothered with trying to actually operate the motor vehicle their "driving". Most of them are to important to be bothered with knowing what's going on around them. These are also the people that drive for 72 miles in the left lane beside a truck going 0.005 MPH slower than their cruse control setting.
3 The strange-new-worlds. Unlike the huh-whats, they pay attention, it's just so hard to figure out all these complicated signs, and colored lines on the roads, and other drives. Expect to do well under the speed limit with the occasional burst of speed. They'll also brake for every single intersection, sign, tree, house, weather change, oncoming car... And of course, my favorite, stop for yields, gock around with their jaw slapping the steering wheel, then pull off without touching the gas in a fit of ready-to-be-hit at any second fear.
I've also "profiled" some of these drivers and more often than not, I'm right.
1. Big-man-on-campus.
Driver=Male, white, middle income, middle aged. Look for signs of balding and other middle management or oppressive blue collar jobs. Usually in the later stages of a good hard mid-life crisis.
Vehicle=This will either be a "look at my better than you" yuppycar, most often bright red, black, or silver, or a giant truck(small penis), Fsomething50, dualie, diesel, double cab texass bigboy pickup that may have once hauled a small sewing table.
driving style=Mostly head-on-fire with some I'm better because I sit higher/payed more/have more toys on my car than you. Almost always in a hurry and speeding, riding bumpers, and doing "the look" over onto the shoulder in the left lane of the interstate.
2 Contractor trucks and vans. Somewhere in doing all that vocational schooling, their knowlage of driving must have been forced out. Look for all of three groups of stupid mixed with sports car like driving in a vehicle with ladders on the roof. Sometimes you'll get lucky and find one eating and talking on the phone while driving to their next job, oh, and driving. It's "the company's" gas so speeding like there no tomorrow is par for the course.
3 The ricer. Not nessarily the worst drivers on the road. In fact, I often look for their "work in progress" late model four cylinder inport coupe as a source of never ending entertainment. The variations of 'dupid are endless, but look for multi-colors/primer, APC stickers, body kits, and trunk deck ironing boards. That "phat" part-time job at McDonald's hasn't left them with much money, so look for them to be on the phone "wit their homes" about getting a apartment and finally moving out of mom's basement. You can sometimes also find them in traffic using their car's radio to ultrasound submarines off the coast of Alaska. The typical driver will be a skinny whiteboy who has trouble dressing himself in the morning. Another dead givaway will be when their windup toy passes you on the highway, bouncing around on wagon wheels and sounding like a small, out-of-tune tuba. Even if ricers are good drivers, their at a natural disadvatage because of the modifications that have left there without suspension, airodynamics, and sidewalls.
Old. They'll never get wherever they think their going and when they put the car in gear and let automatic transmission propel them to a break-neck speeds of 15 or more miles per hour their scared outa their mind, sending them hunkering behind the steering wheel. When they were your age, they drove uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow, in a time when anything over 30 MPH would squish your eyeballs into the back of your skull.
Foreign. Now I see why car have those funny little symbols instead of just words. Too bad signs can't be the same way.
I try to drive like a normal human being. Yes, I make mistakes like anyone else, but I don't take stupid risks. My car is not a status symbol, it's not an extension of my penis, or sign of my excessive wealth. It's a car, and it gets me from point to point. I like racing, drag, rally, and F1 are all fun to watch and in another life I might have been a competetitor in some form of motorsports. But those actions are for the track, and for cars specially built or modified for that purpose on tracks with safety designed for performance. I do the speed limit because no matter how Johnny Rebel you think you are for speeding, it's stupid, risky and if your lucky enough to get there without wrecking or being pulled over, you might save three minutes. At the same time, I don't have much tolerance for the Huh-whats and the Strange-new-worlds that drive their free-range-Subarus like a leasurerly stroll in the park. It isn't hard to just drive like the normal person I know you are. Focus, be safe, and drive like your grandma is in the car. It isn't hard if you think about it.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment