DRIVING... IN AMURICA!!!!

originally posted by: dogstar23

originally posted by: Tuomptonite
The ones who complain about others driving skills are usually the ones you gotta look out for. Don't like driving in America? Take the bus, ride a bike, start walking. Better yet leave the country, as we have more than enough complainers here already.

Heh...looks like the OP struck a nerve! The people complaining about people who text swerve, don't use signals, stare into the clouds and read books while driving, etc. aren't the problem. If we're going to boot a certain class of drivers out of the country, how about we boot you and the other bad ones out instead?

LoL, I struck several nerves here actually.

Quite honestly, you're right, most likely, they're the ones that's doing what I've been describing.

Text while driving, putting on mascara poking their eye balls while driving, looking for # under the seat, almost #ting your pants scared just even past the speed limit for an extra 5 mph, rolling up a joint while driving, can't understand car pool lanes and the lane adjacent to that is designed for people who wants to go fast, the list just goes on and on.

originally posted by: grey580
California?

Add Miami to that list.

I seen so many things that defy logic:

Making a left turn, from the right turn lane, 3 lanes over, in front of everyone.

Reading a book while driving.

Stopping completely before making a right turn.

Stopping when you have no stop sign. To let the guy with a stop sign go.

And I could go on all day long..

However this is small potatoes compared to russia.

I mean, don't you find that odd though?

How do these people ever get their license?

How can anyone possibly be allowed to own a vehicle and drive it with those kind of behavior?

That's why I mentioned about a driving simulation machine. Did you know that in California, driving test no longer require Freeway/Highway tests. It's been like this for quite some time now.

To me, this is all big automaker's lobby results, easier and easier access to automotive while they don't give a rats ass if you're truly capable or you may possibly kill someone on the road.

I'm wondering why you decided to single out American drivers in your rant. Are you from another country which has better drivers? Have you visited many other countries that seem to have better drivers? Which countries in particular impress you with their driving skills? All I can say is don't ever visit a third world country. In Honduras, drivers don't stop or even swerve to avoid pedestrians. If you're in the road, you're getting ran over. My driving style might be considered somewhat aggressive but I like to call it defensively assertive. I'm courteous and thoughtful, yet bold and unwavering in my confidence. No amount of distracted, uncourteous, crappy drivers will stop me from safely reaching my destination. Confidence is everything when navigating these hectic US Freeways. Reminds me of an old car commercial:

On the Road of Life, there are passengers and there are drivers. Which one are you?

a reply to: mamabeth
Those must have been three mild strokes.

My mom was a dangerous driver before she became a stroke victim. She has taken two driver training lessons, during the last one she says the instructor had to grab the wheel twice. I drove her around the parking lot and I had to grab the wheel too.

She'll stop driving alright, once shes wrecked the car for good. If she can't drive it nobody can.

I drive her everywhere she wants to go, have been since her stroke. You'd think having a free cabbie/chauffeur would be enough for most people.

a reply to: truthseeker84

How many times we hear older drivers accidentally kill people because they've mistaken the brake panel with the gas one?

Happened to my Dad. I was with him one time when he drove through a stop sign, my mom was with him when he ran a red light.

After knocking a bicyclist into the gutter and fleeing the scene (nobody hurt), he jumped a curb and hit a store front, also nobody hurt.

Finally he relented. My parents are the stubbornmost… now I'm cringing at what my mom may do to some future victim before she also relents and just lets me drive her.

Her excuse? "I'm fully insured!"

Edit: Defacto, license to kill…

a reply to: truthseeker84

You ought to ride in my EMS every day. Speed limits, right of ways, stop signs, yield signs, slow down school crossing, pedestrian crosswalks...are all just mere suggestions, not laws.

They go fast, tailgate, honk immediately when a light changes, turn rt. anyway when it says NOT ALLOWED.

Granted, Dearborn here is a 50% muslim population, and women are the worse. Each one has a phone to their ears, and go like hell. A lot of them are not allowed to drive in muslim countries, and when they come here...they go hog-wild.

Also. The young men in their culture(not all) are not reprimanded or yelled at, just the females....so a lot of them drive however they want...in nicer cars than Ill ever have.

Recently, we pulled next to a young lady at the light who had a breakfast sandwich and cell phone in one hand on the wheel looking in the mirror.... putting on mascara.

Ive learned that if they have a valid license from their home countries, we give them a basic driving test, and hold the one about our laws and rules of the road.....

a reply to: truthseeker84

You must have been driving in Arkansas.... Lol.

On a serious note, the amount of people who can't drive in this state is incredible. Of course, this state doesn't require Drivers Education of any kind and the "driving test" is beyond ridiculous. When both my teenagers took the test (a year apart from each other), their driving test consisted of pulling out of a parking lot onto a rarely used side street, driving two blocks to a roundabout which they used to circle back and return to the initial parking lot. Test took all of 10 minutes tops.

No wonder insurance rates are so damn high in this state....

If I got to make one rule:

1. The ass in the passing lane with his cruise control set 9 miles over the speed limit gets a $5,000 fine. The asshat behind him making no effort to pass gets to pay $10,000.

originally posted by: Tuomptonite
I'm wondering why you decided to single out American drivers in your rant. Are you from another country which has better drivers? Have you visited many other countries that seem to have better drivers? Which countries in particular impress you with their driving skills? All I can say is don't ever visit a third world country. In Honduras, drivers don't stop or even swerve to avoid pedestrians. If you're in the road, you're getting ran over. My driving style might be considered somewhat aggressive but I like to call it defensively assertive. I'm courteous and thoughtful, yet bold and unwavering in my confidence. No amount of distracted, uncourteous, crappy drivers will stop me from safely reaching my destination. Confidence is everything when navigating these hectic US Freeways. Reminds me of an old car commercial:

On the Road of Life, there are passengers and there are drivers. Which one are you?

I didn't mean to single out America per say... but the title of the thread was a bit misleading I'll take that.

I live in America, so plenty of "Amurica # YEAH" songs ringing in my head, so I just thought it was a funny word to use.

I never said in any of my post that Americans are the absolutely worst drivers... maybe you read it a bit wrong or perhaps it was my fault. Either way, I just meant it as a rant, so you can totally ignore me if it doesn't fit your plate.

And yes, I do travel to third world countries, such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and even Germany.

Asia countries has Taxi drivers going to opposing traffic just to avoid a slow driver in the front. They drive as if pedestrians and bike riders are not there, literally millimeters away from killing people all the time.

However, has nothing to do with what I vented about.

I'm specifically making claims about what I see on the road each day here in America, California. I'm not here to debate with someone which country has it the worst. If the thread made you feel that way, then I apologize.

Anyhow... I think you sound like a smart individual which tells me that you are "Self Aware". So as long as you know what you're doing and what you shouldn't be doing, I think we're just fine.

Have a nice day and keep it safe on the road

originally posted by: Snarl
If I got to make one rule:

1. The ass in the passing lane with his cruise control set 9 miles over the speed limit gets a $5,000 fine. The asshat behind him making no effort to pass gets to pay $10,000.

When will you be running for President lol, you got my vote..

Dear Yanks.

Y'all drive on the wrong side of the road.

Love Australia

I a reply to: zazzafrazz

Well the water goes down in your toilets backwards.... Lol.


Psstt.... I love Australia too. My 2nd home.

a reply to: zazzafrazz

Wait, so you guys shift with your left hand?

That's....weird.

Ever notice how everyone else on the road is the bad driver. Guess what they are all thinking too.

a reply to: truthseeker84

Well, here in France, it costs more than a thousand euros, and you have to pass a difficult written test, plus a minimum of 20 hours driving lessons before taking the driving test. I had to do that, even though I had been driving for sixteen years!

What I have found is that people drive so aggressively, you can't do the kinds of things you described. You gotta be on your toes, and getting behind the wheel is like preparing to enter a crazy race. It's scary at first, but actually? People end up being better drivers. In the sense that they are very aware of everything around them, know how to make difficult manouvers, without hitting anything.

a reply to: crazyewok

Well that's just standard driving experience. No one knows how to drive in traffic circles. You should see the cluster# that is the DC traffic circles...

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Dear Yanks.

Y'all drive on the wrong side of the road.

Love Australia

Aren't you up here now? Just curious since I saw this cat-filled vehicle swerving back and forth and across the sidewalks...

a reply to: truthseeker84

When I took my test we had to parallel park.

and we had to do a 3 point turn.

So many people complained about the parallel park part of the test they took it out.

now people can't do half the things someone that knows how to drive can do.

a reply to: truthseeker84

Maybe I'm going to hell for this, but your 'number six' made me laugh.

One of the biggest things that I come across in modern driving in America is only focusing on one's self when driving; "Selfish driving," as I call it.

This includes:
- People who always run the red light so that THEY don't have to stop (disregarding how unsafe that is)--I come across that multiple times every. single. day.
- People who go out-of-turn at stops signs so that THEY can be first.
- People who don't use blinkers. Ever.
- People who swerve from the on-ramp all the way to the number-one lane on the interstate, crossing multiple lanes of traffic at once
- People who don't let people merge, as if being one or two cars farther ahead in the grand scheme of life is going to matter
- People who miss a turn and then slam on their breaks, stopping traffic behind them, trying to get over in order to turn (instead of just moving ahead and finding a safe place to turn around)
- People who mindlessly drive right next to you at exactly the same speed (it really is an unsafe thing to do)
- People who don't check crosswalks before going, as if they forgot people still walk and ride bikes.

Hell, I could keep going on and on, but I think it's just the fact that modern society has become so self-centered that it is mirrored in their driving skills. I'm still of the old-school driving style, where I let you go first at the stop sign, even if I was there slightly sooner. I use blinkers. I stop when the light is yellow (usually, unless there's no other traffic around). I let cars merge. I don't tailgate to make cars go faster. Blah blah blah.

But like some others have said, there are drivers like this everywhere. When I lived in Germany, they were there, too...all over Europe, actually. But to be fair, it did seem like either there was a higher level of courtesy, or just a higher acceptance by driver to follow the rules of the road, therefore making driving more smooth and predictable.

As with anything in life, though, I think it comes down to enforcement--we can have all of the rules and laws governing how we drive that we want, but if they are rarely enforced, they get disregarded and mean nothing. But if we lived in a society full of common courtesy, we wouldn't need them enforced, but we don't, so we do.

originally posted by: Edumakated
All I can say is try riding a motorcycle. It makes you a better a driver because you realize what asshats most driver's are when you are in a vulnerable position such as being on a motorcycle.

This is fact, people. It's like motor bikes are invisible on the road, people are always pulling out in front of you when you're on a bike, so much so that you half expect it everytime and start having to compensate for other people's stupidity.

As far as roads go for general traffic, I'm fine with the UK roads, but my god, I remember driving in France, it was almost suicidal.

I don't know why people lump Europe together as if it's one country though, there are so many different cultures and languages, we're all very different.