ATTN everyone who gets absolutely enraged when the person ahead of them goes into full panic stop mode – usually flashing their lights manically in a GO AHEAD I’M NOT CRAZY kind of morse code – and holds up an entire column of traffic at best or causing multiple accidents at worst. I have an idea for us all! IF the aforementioned crazy misguided idiot stops for you while you’re turning left, just don’t turn! Let the whole street grind to a halt. Let the beeping begin, then grow angrier and more insistent. It’s a perfect plan for two reasons: it’s the ONLY action which obeys the law – no matter how many times they beep or flash their brights, you’re not allowed to proceed across lanes unless it is safe and there is no oncoming traffic – and best of all, it negatively conditions every driver in sight that you just shouldn’t randomly yield your right-of-way to oncoming traffic because if you do, you may just slow absolutely everything to a standstill instead of only half the traffic.
Also, if you are the person who stops at full speed to let people in, stop doing that, it’s idiotic. You are the person who feeds bears out of your car window in Yellowstone. The entire sytstem willl not grind to a halft if you maintain your right-of-way and the other guy has to sit there passively for thirteen seconds. You are not a nice person. You are a bad person who is acting selfishly. —Traffic Activist
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2014.
how’s that vein in your forehead doing op?
Holiday road rage is the tastiest!
It seems three out five people do this for me when cycling, not so much when I’m in a vehicle. So no OB, I’m ok with this. It gets me to where I’m going faster.
Then I especially love it at four-way stops when its obviously not my turn but people will wave and sometimes give a polite honk to let me go. Then of course that screws up the other drivers so I just giggle to myself while pedalling through.
And OB, just a quick question. Would you hit a jaywalker to make the same point? It is illegal for you to stop and let them cross when not in a designated crosswalk. You know, rules are rules.
Or!
Drive a bike and pass the lot of them; knowing you’re getting to where you’re going for free and putting your money towards luxury vacations…
WHO IS A NICE PERSON?
“You are not a nice person. You are a bad person who is acting selfishly.” Traffic Activist
Clearly, the driver thinks that he is being a nice person by unselfishly allowing on-coming traffic to proceed. However, the bitcher claims that he is a bad person who is acting selfishly. Who is right? How is selfishness to be determined? Is there an internal/external tension here? Must the external perspective predominate? Why, I ask you, why?
Avatar #101: James Joyce (Another Triumph,” The Coast)
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
Anger management!
OB, I think you need to sign up for an anger management seminar. You’re just a little too tightly wound by the sound of things. And, on the way the to the seminar, could you swing by and pick up the bus stop roid rager, the OB who absolutely loaths multi-coloured houses, the person who was snubbed by the 52 bus, and, not to forget, the cop hater who thinks they should only be armed with nerf guns. Should make for some interesting conversation with that lot in the car.
Now, breath in slowly, release your breath slowly, relax your shoulders…….oooohhhhhmmmmmm!
Alrighty. I’m out of here. I keep saying I’m going to stop wasting time with this outrageous bin of silliness known as the LTWWB forum….. but then i take a peek (just for quick bit of diversion or amusement) and I’m so awestruck by the luniness of some of the posts and comments that I can’t help but comment myself.
But now I mean business. Must … resist …. the pull of ….. LTWWB….
Merry Xmas and Happy NY to all!
Why do people stop and let people in? What the fuck. Stop doing that.
common courtesy op (and cranky – living up to his name) it belongs on the roads as well as the drawing rooms.
you get mad because you may be inconvenienced for a second or two. YOU may be inconvenienced. in the meantime, a whole line of cars will get where they are going many, many seconds more effectively. all because of a bit of common courtesy. (this should not be done on one lane of a two lane ‘side’ of the road obviously – that’s not safe)
and this gets you spitting mad. you are not mad because of a law being flouted, you are mad because you got held up about 6 seconds. gee. YOU are the problem on the roads, people like you who go ballistic at the slightest delay to your barreling along. as long as the courteous person doesn’t jam on the brakes with no notice its perfectly safe. because all who are behind him/her should be paying attention anyway.
merry Christmas! ( atheist meoi has been saying this for past week on the phone at work – my little rebellion against the trend )
Its not an inconvenience, its fucking dangerous. I’m talking 3 or more lanes in use situations. Only 2 people know what they are doing, all the other traffic moving along at 50km/h does not.
re-read what I wrote about more than one lane.
MEH