You should not drive

[medusae]

if you think that merging onto a freeway at 30 miles an hour is safe and wise. Especially with three people waiting to merge behind you.


%(&*#()%*(@*%$@)(*$)(*@)(!!

[Jared_T]

So you've been behind my grandma... Anyway been there. Usually when I hit the freeway its 60 mph or up.

[Chloe1987]

I agree, i cba with it. Bus cheaper.

[Siertes]

I hate the very idea of driving. 21 years old and no license.

[medusae]

You guys are crazy, I love driving. I just hate the idiots that also drive. :[

[astuarlen]

On 2007-01-11 20:52, Siertes wrote:
I hate the very idea of driving. 21 years old and no license.



A man after my own heart. Driving scares the shit out of me. ;( Funny how it's "wierd" not to drive or want to drive past a certain age, but I bet if you asked anyone two hundred years ago, they'd all think the idea of barreling down the road in a metal box was batshit crazy. Take me back to 1800!*


*With internets, of course. Always with internets.

[Cav]

I think going 65 in the fast lane is a much worse crime than this

[Siertes]

On 2007-01-11 22:30, astuarlen wrote:

On 2007-01-11 20:52, Siertes wrote:
I hate the very idea of driving. 21 years old and no license.



A man after my own heart. Driving scares the shit out of me. ;( Funny how it's "wierd" not to drive or want to drive past a certain age, but I bet if you asked anyone two hundred years ago, they'd all think the idea of barreling down the road in a metal box was batshit crazy. Take me back to 1800!*


*With internets, of course. Always with internets.



Haha, that's true. I once told someone at my last job that I didn't have my license yet and he stared at me like I was crazy. Then he grilled me with questions for the next 30 minutes about driving and why I wasn't.

I just wish everything was within walking distance. I like walking.

[Kent]

I don't have my license yet... But I hate driving.

It makes me want to go hug the nearest feline.

Of course, my dad already bought me a car. >_> He's going to give it to me after I get my license, though... Until then, I get to drive his junker, that'd probably be about $50 in damage if I totalled the thing.

[Fleur-de-Lis]

I have so many issues with driving it would be a waste of time to get into it. Long story short: I am with you and then some.

[Mixfortune]

I love the ones that sit and wait with their turn signal on while sitting inside one of the cement turn lanes, as if to yield to oncoming traffic, except said turn lane gets its own lane (thus not having to merge), all because they want to cross over to the next lane and merge right away instead of merging while driving down the street.

Then you have four cars sitting behind this person that essentially is blocking traffic... yeah.

[KodiaX987]

Driving rule of thumb: if the driver in front of you is wearing a hat and his hands on the steering wheel happen to be above his head level, OVERTAKE AND RUN THE FUCK AWAY.

[Wyndham]

i can not stand the idea of me driving. even being in a car on a mountain scares the crap out of me. And I live on the side of a mountain.
eck.

[medusae]

Driving rule of thumb: if the driver in front of you is wearing a hat and his hands on the steering wheel happen to be above his head level, OVERTAKE AND RUN THE FUCK AWAY.

???
I don't think I have ever seen that, but it sounds pretty bad.

[Banish]

I can't picture myself driving, it is really not a issue right now.

But driving sounds very dangerous...

[Sinue_v2]

but I bet if you asked anyone two hundred years ago, they'd all think the idea of barreling down the road in a metal box was batshit crazy.

They were also largely ignorant people back then. They thought that going over 40mph would rend the flesh from your face. They would also find the concept of computers, television, radio, flight, and other modern contraptions as batshit crazy.

"What? You're going to give mold to someone to stop an infection? You're crazy! We need to slit their wrists and purge the infected blood out of their body immediately! Get the leaches!!"

As far as driving goes, I love driving. The only thing that makes me nervous is going into big cities. I don't like being boxed in (expecially on overpasses where construction is going on) by semis and being forced to go 75mph+ with only about a foot of leeway on either side.

[Mixfortune]

I love driving in places that are not considered downtown or actually follow a grid pattern for the most part.

Seattle, Vancouver BC, etc. I really hate driving around in.
Redmond tends to be a bit more peaceful traffic wise and it's nice to be able to drive in said conditions.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Mixfortune on 2007-01-12 16:31 ]</font>

[Allos]

I find driving very relaxing on certain roads at certain times of the night. The worst driving experiences I ever had were in high school though. Too many hot-head assholes cutting eachother off.

[astuarlen]

On 2007-01-12 16:18, Sinue_v2 wrote:
They were also largely ignorant people back then. They thought that going over 40mph would rend the flesh from your face. They would also find the concept of computers, television, radio, flight, and other modern contraptions as batshit crazy.


True, but that doesn't fit with my theme, does it? http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

Also, television is batshit crazy. C'mon, little people in boxes forced to prance around all day for our enjoyment? Seems like a human rights violation to me.

I'm holding out for teleportation. On second thought, I'd hate to lose half my molecules halfway between Point A and Point B. ;>

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

On 2007-01-11 20:52, Siertes wrote:
I hate the very idea of driving. 21 years old and no license.


Ditto, but I generally haven't had the support from my family to go and learn as I see others always get, especially in the teen years.

They actually scare me off from the idea more then they help me out with it.

My pops called me up last week to say someone in High School who claimed to drive me home got into a car accident and was in a coma, now paralyzed, now limited to a wheelchair. Scary stuff. Also sad, I didn't remember the person though. Someone crashed both in front of the house, and behind our house- through a fence feet from our's in the same week.

Among constant other near accidents when riding with the family.

But I'll have to get over this to help out my grandma out sooner if not later.

[Cav]

You all need to go drive in Mexico city. If you can drive there, you can drive ANYWHERE.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

On 2007-01-12 20:06, Cav wrote:
You all need to go drive in Mexico city. If you can drive there, you can drive ANYWHERE.


Heh, I heard someone say that about Tokyo, and that crazy roundabout over in France.

I don't know how they do it.

[medusae]

Sooo I think I jinxed myself with this post last night. I definitely just had 2 almost-wrecks today that were a lot scarier than the OP.

I was driving from my hometown, where it was kind of cloudy and overcast, into North Dallas this afternoon. Now, if you're from or have ever been to Dallas, you know the weather is batshit insane. It went from slightly cloudy in Garland, TX to black skies, pouring rain, and heavy lightning in about 5 minutes of freeway time.

I only had about 3-4 feet of visibility at maximum even with my windshield wipers going the max speed, but I couldn't pull over because I was in the leftmost lane and the HOV lane was on my left, with a 18-wheeler to the right and a little in front of me. Apparently the driver of the semi couldn't see either. I started trying to pass the semi so I could see a little better, and in the process of doing that, the semi start to change lanes.. to the left.. almost directly on top of me.

So yeah, hitting the brakes in a near-flash flood with no idea how fast the people behind you are traveling = not fun. Luckily he realized what was going on when I started honking :

And this is a much less dramatic story, but then some dumbass decided to U-turn right in front of me 10 minutes later.

[Cav]

On 2007-01-12 20:16, HAYABUSA-FMW- wrote:

On 2007-01-12 20:06, Cav wrote:
You all need to go drive in Mexico city. If you can drive there, you can drive ANYWHERE.


Heh, I heard someone say that about Tokyo, and that crazy roundabout over in France.

I don't know how they do it.



Well generally any crowded city streets mean you have to be an aggressive driver to get anywhere. Though I notice in America people drive slightly nicer, slightly >.>.

[geewj]

I like driving, I hate traffic.

That about sums it all up.

[Nai_Calus]

I didn't get my license until I was 20. I was terrified of driving. Three days after I finally got said license I was driving home from college and some old guy in a pickup truck pulls out of a parking lot into the passenger's side of the car. Crunch. $2000 in damage to car. His truck breaks a headlight. He was nice and had insurance. I drove myself home that day. A couple of months later I finally worked up the nerve to go on the freeway! Not long after that I started viewing people who get in the fast lane and go the speed limit with disdain. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

Driving is scary until you actually learn how to do it. And by do it I mean not driving like a scared little pussy. I'm reasonably certain that me going 80 in the fast lane on the way up to Sacramento with all the other idiots doing 80 is safer than the stupid asshole who gets in it doing 60 in a 65 zone and makes us all slam on our brakes so we don't hit him/each other. Supposedly he's the one who isn't doing something wrong since he's not exceeding the speed limit, but he's the one who just caused a potentially bad situation whereas we'd all been perfectly fine before.

Interestingly, the one time I got pulled over in North Carolina(By a street cop in an unmarked car who couldn't give me a ticket, lol) wasn't the time I was going fastest. I was actually going slower than usual because there were a bunch of idiots on the road who were driving like jackasses and braking all over the place and I got fed up with the moron in front of me and honked at him while admittedly being too close. That was what got me pulled, not the speeding. The actual state troopers would sit there and watch a group of people sail past at 70ish in a 60 zone. Yeah, we were all speeding but we weren't being stupid about it. We were going at a speed reasonably safe for the conditions and the road - Sunny, dry, straight freeway. Nobody in fact was sure why the limit *wasn't* 70, it was in all the surrounding states, heh, including part of the same freeway(I-40) in Tennessee that were steeper and curvier. XP So yeah. We'd sail past the cops and the cops would wait for someone to come along being an idiot who'd get a juicier ticket anyway. XP

But yeah. I was one of those 'oh god I never want to drive' people, but where I live then and now, there is no walking or biking or public transportation. You own a car, or preferably an SUV with things like four-wheel drive. XP (Sierra foothills. I live on a badly paved one-lane side street off the main road through town. I drive a stick shift and you have to go up and come down this hill in second. Unless you don't get enough speed up the last part in which case you'll have to shift down to first and if you're going too slow even then you'll stall. XD)

I have no depth perception and I was in a few accidents with my dad driving. I was pretty scared.

I got over it.

I suggest you all do the same. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif It makes for some wonderful freedom. Like going to Sacramento or San Fransisco for the day(3 hour drive for either) for the hell of it on your day off work or taking a weekend trip down to LA. Whereupon you sleep in your car in a Wal-Mart parking lot because you're too cheap to get a motel room for the night. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Mind you, insurance sucks fucking ass, so do car payments, so does the cost of gas, and being under 25 really fucking blows because if the car breaks down or you get in an accident you can't rent a car and have to scramble for rides until it gets fixed. D<

But yeah, the only time driving bugs me now is when I'm in a big city with no idea where I'm going. Hell is being lost in San Fransisco for an hour and a half trying to find your way back to the freeway in the dark and the pouring rain. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif (Amusingly, I finally came across a Best Buy that had its own free parking lot by the freeway after being unable to find an onramp for the damned thing. I asked directions. If I'd stayed on the street I'd turned off of to get into it for another three blocks, I would have found the damned thing. XP Oh well, had to pee anyway.)

Which teaches us an important lesson: 110% of streets in San Fransisco are one-way. Get reverse directions from Mapquest as well as directions there first before leaving. >_>;

You also cannot make a left or U turn in San Fransisco. Often you cannot make a right turn either. Many times you cannot make a right turn onto a one-way street where that right turn would put you on the street going the right way. At one point I had to make three *left* turns to go right.

San Fransisco exists to make us miserable.

...And MUNI is just as bad as driving. XD

[medusae]

I'm reasonably certain that me going 80 in the fast lane on the way up to Sacramento with all the other idiots doing 80 is safer than the stupid asshole who gets in it doing 60 in a 65 zone and makes us all slam on our brakes so we don't hit him/each other.

Yeah, interestingly, when I took Defensive Driving for an insurance discount, they told us that the majority of (moving) accidents are caused by people driving too slowly.

And I sincerely agree with the rest of your post. I was afraid of driving before I got my driver's license at 16 too, but you get over it quickly and it gives you a lot more options than bumming rides or walking.