Road Rules and jerks.....

[Brian37]

In my almost 18 years of online debate, and even longer time of not having a traffic violation since 1999, one thing pisses me off more than mythology, and those are assholes who bitch about others obeying the speed limit and traffic laws.

The argument from the asshole speed freaks are, "Just go with the flow of traffic". 

No, assholes. The right thing to do is to obey posted speed limit signs, and keep your distance behind anyone in front of you. 

NO ASSHOLES, I will not speed up and risk a ticket for you. It isn't my fault you didn't leave in time. You are not going to pay my speeding ticket or insurance hike if I get pulled over, so FUCKING BACK OFF AND DONT BE A DOUCHEBAG.

[GUBU]

In my almost 18 years of online debate, and even longer time of not having a traffic violation since 1999, one thing pisses me off more than mythology, and those are assholes who bitch about others obeying the speed limit and traffic laws.

The argument from the asshole speed freaks are, "Just go with the flow of traffic". 

No, assholes. The right thing to do is to obey posted speed limit signs, and keep your distance behind anyone in front of you. 

NO ASSHOLES, I will not speed up and risk a ticket for you. It isn't my fault you didn't leave in time. You are not going to pay my speeding ticket or insurance hike if I get pulled over, so FUCKING BACK OFF AND DONT BE A DOUCHEBAG.

Don't never drive in Donegal. Fuckers up there drive 120kph where I'd fear to do 60, and I'm no angel.

No wonder it leads the road deaths league by a country mile.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Top legal speed in NZ is 110kph.  This is honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

Boru

[outtathereligioncloset]

I totally agree with you Brian. The closer someone gets to my back bumper when I'm already going five to seven miles over the speed limit, the slower I WILL go. They back off? I will ease back up to between five and seven over the limit. Creep back up my ass? I will drop down to five below the limit. And maybe even tap my brakes too. However, I will NOT do any of that in the passing lane. So pass me, legally, asshole. I once saw a bumper sticker that said "The closer you get, the slower I'll go." I want one.

[brewer]

I just wave at them with my laser pointer.

[EgoDeath]

It's always been bizarre to me when people who speed suggest that those who are doing the speed limit are the ones who are the problem. There's no evidence to suggest that "going with the flow of traffic" is safe or safer in any way. However, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that speeding causes thousands of fatal car collisions every year. People will claim that those doing the speed limit "force" speeders to weave in and out of traffic, but that's simply not true. You don't have to weave in and out of traffic, just slow down. Do the speed limit. Wear your seat belt. Be safe.

Vox did an entire video on this that was patently moronic, basically claiming that those doing the speed limit are the issue. This is obviously false. No one is "forcing" speeders to do anything; it's every one's individual choice to decide to go over the speed limit. The fact is, we'd be safest if we all chose to go around the speed limit (here in the US most highways are 60-65mph or 95-105kph) and adjusted our speeds accordingly only when necessary.

People are also not supposed to coast in the far left lane (or passing lane) unless they're actively passing someone else. Unless you're actively passing someone, you should be in the middle or right lanes.

[no one]

It's the asshats that are oblivious that irk me. I don't understand how you can be waiting to make a turn on to a road, see a car coming, see that there is absolutely nothing behind that car, yet you pull out in front of it, and do 3MPH.

Also, if you are on the expressway, and every single vehicle is going around you, if a school bus full of children is going around you, you are the problem.

[fredd bear]

On my very first driving lesson, my teacher, a mate said " drive as if every other person on the road is a complete pig; this is not true, so that means you usually have pretty fair margin of safety"

In my 20's, with my spiffy little Datsun 1600 (bought new) I did a lot of driving for pleasure, even had girlfriend who lived 50 miles away. Happy times.

Today, I drive about 5000 km a year. My goal in driving is to stay alive and undamaged there and back. What really crumbles my cookies is coming back to my car at the supermarket, to discover some twerp has scratched my car. Scratches usually cost around $150 to get fixed.

I once saw some road rage; at traffic lights; 2 cars ahead: a large troglodyte got out of his car with a baseball bat. What followed scared the living shit out of me. Road rage is rare in my city and doesn't usually involve any kind of weapon..

I tend to give way a lot; don't care. As the saying goes "I'd rather be late than dead on time"

[paulpablo]

I don't usually get up close to any slow drivers incase they're insurance scammers who are about to slam the breaks on.

I've had drivers going so slow in front of me I've been able to overtake them while going past speed cameras.

In my local area it's easy for me to know where the speed cameras are but when I'm driving in an area I don't know I drive like a bitch. And I warn all my passengers I'll be driving like a bitch on this journey.

[EgoDeath]

On my very first driving lesson, my teacher, a mate said " drive as if every other person on the road is a complete pig; this is not true, so that means you usually have pretty fair margin of safety"

In my 20's, with my spiffy little Datsun 1600 (bought new) I did a lot of driving for pleasure, even had girlfriend who lived 50 miles away.  Happy times.

Today, I drive about 5000 km a year. My goal in driving is to stay alive and undamaged there and back. What really crumbles my cookies is coming back to my car at the supermarket, to discover some twerp has scratched my car. Scratches usually cost around $150 to get fixed.

I once saw some road rage; at traffic lights; 2 cars ahead: a large troglodyte got out of his car with a baseball bat. What followed scared the living shit out of me. Road rage is rare in my city and doesn't usually involve any kind of weapon..

I tend to give way a lot; don't care. As the saying goes "I'd rather be late than dead on time"

Road rage ends up with shit like this:

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Road rage is stupid and can end up with people getting seriously hurt. The guy in the video above is lucky the man in the white SUV didn't run him over and kill him. People are stupid and everyone always thinks they're right in road rage situations, even though there's usually one person who is clearly wrong. I had a woman almost hit me one time on a suburban side street after she failed to yield behind parked cars that were blocking her side of the road. I literally had to jerk my wheel right to avoid hitting her and I turned around to follow her to take her license plate down. She then slowed way down as I was following her and called the police on me as if I was the one in the wrong.

Turns out she ended up getting a ticket (or at least the cop told me) because she admitted that she didn't yield behind the parked cars and that we did almost hit one another. The cop tried to scold me for following her but I quickly shut that down and asked the officer what if she was drunk? Or legally blind and was never supposed to be driving in the first place?

All in all, I probably should've just let it go. Unless I saw someone who was really out of control on the road or unless they actually hit my car, I'm staying out of it. It's just not worth it. You never know who has a gun and a bad temper and might be at their wit's end and is ready to burn it all down because you accidentally cut them off or something. You never know what kind of nut you might be dealing with. Pride isn't worth getting shot or getting beat with a bat on the side of a highway.

Best thing with road rage, in my opinion, is avoidance and deescalation.