I was driving back from TC tonight, and a green Pontiac Grand Prix passed me going significantly faster than me. When he merged back into the right lane he merged a little too far and almost made an unintentional exit off the freeway. So, OK, he’s a moron, but I guess it didn’t really endanger me and I’ve never been one to discourage stupid people from endangering their own lives.
Anyway a decent while later, a cop of some form – I believe a local sheriff comes flying by me. Now, I was going 75 and very slowly gaining on the only person visible in front of me, but that was apparently not his concern. A few miles later I saw him and his partner with the Grand Prix pulled over.
Now, what’s my point? I hate cops that are more of a danger than the people they’re stopping. I mean, who thinks that speeding down a freeway (my estimate is 90 or up) at 12:30 am is a good idea. Hello, intelligence to dipshit, do you read me? – it’s completely dark out and you’re in an area known to be heavily deer infested.
In other bitchings… I find that a great many things that I dislike happen while driving.
First and foremost are still the people who don’t fully comprehend roundabouts – and now that I have my car, the just-go-and-screw-them method doesn’t work so well.
Secondly people who try and draft me on the highway at night. During the day – alright, I don’t really care. At night, when it’s dark and I can’t see as far and you’re now on my ass with headlights in my mirrors, it’s not such a brainy idea. So, here’s how to both detect and eliminate such dinks. Assuming you have a speed you want to go, slow down a couple miles per hour for a few minutes – long enough for them to pass. If they don’t, speed back up to your desired speed. Odds are good they will speed up also. Continue this until they either back off or pass. If possible slow down w/o brakes too, because then they don’t have the lights to tip them off.
Next up, people who pull out in front of you when you’re going down the highway, when there is no one else for miles behind you, and then fail to speed up quickly enough.
People who speed up in passing zones. I’ll be gaining on someone slowly for the last few miles and as soon as I get in the passing lane, I’ll speed up by 5 MPH and they start pulling away from me. Come on, we both know you don’t want to go that fast – are you that insecure that you can’t be passed? This is even worse when there’s a lineup and other than the lead car, you can’t tell how fast anyone really wants to go, but they’ll all go 15 over while in the passing zone.
People who get to 4 way stops first, then wait for you to come to a complete halt before they’ll start considering going through.
The excessively large and confusing intersection of Bogue and Service roads.
People who have dims bright enough to permanently blind someone. If other people flash their brights at you often when you’re brights aren’t on, take a hint an lower your dims. This generally comes from the same attitude that says “well, I’m a shitty driver, so to be safe I’ll get the biggest vehicle on the road” entirely selfish and earning the person a place on the list of people who need to be shot in the head.
People who linger for 10 minutes attempting to pass while you’re both approaching some other guy in the right lane going 5 MPH slower then either of you. If I’m going 75 and you want to pass, 75.1 is not the proper speed to do so, get on with it.
People who don’t use cruise control and pass / get passed by me more than 3 times in any given stretch. I know cruise isn’t perfect, but it’s accurate enough that I don’t think I’m the one who’s not keeping a constant speed.
