Interesting MORONS seen on the way to work

[Giant Dwarf]

In the theme of "Interesting things seen..." and "Interesting license plates ... " I thought I'd add a third installment to the series.  This could give us an ongoing opportunity to vent about the moronic things we see on the highways and byways all the time.  Those of us in larger centres (ie. Van, Cal, Tor, Mon) will probably have more than our share of daily installments.

In trying to put a slightly positive spin on this thread, let's try to illustrate the 'offense', but (when it's not obvious) point out why this has caused you to get fired up about it.  Hopefully this way for the casual readers that wander through the site from time to time, we can use this as an opportunity to help educate the mindless masses on the roads to smarten up a bit.

Undoubtedly some of these will be real head-smackers that will astonish us by the sheer stupidity of some folks on the roads... others, (like my first example below) will be minor annoyances...

***

Last evening on the QEW Niagara-bound, a 4-5 year old, dark-colour Chrysler minivan was in the left lane of 3-4 lanes of Niag-bound traffic.  Traffic volume was pretty light and as I had just passed one or two cars doddling along at around 100 km/h, I came up in the left lane behind the minivan.  I slowed down to discover that s/he was actually travelling at ~90 km/h in the LEFT LANE.  Keep in mind, this is a stretch of highway that typically sees a LOT of people moving along at 130-140 in the left lane; 120 in the middle lane (in fact, I've travelled at between 115-120 in the right lane before to have even transport trucks pass me in the middle). 

I followed for another 30 seconds or so before finally giving a quick flash of the high-beams to give a hint that they should move over.  No luck... instead, they slowly sped up to about 110... and started to pass another vehicle or two we had come upon travelling at about 105.  After finally getting past the middle lane of slower traffic, the minivan pulls over... I accelerate to approx. 120 to pass, then pull in front of the minivan in the middle lane (leaving the left clear for faster traffic should any come up).  As soon as I"ve passed, minivan driver decides s/he needs to be in the left lane again and pulls back into the left... despite NOBODY else being around to pass!  As I continued to pull away I shook my head wondering what possibly could possess the person to NEED to sit there in that left lane.

Given that traffic can often travel at considerably faster speeds than that, for someone doing 120 -140 km/h (while true, it isn't legal), closing in on the dolt in the left lane doing 100 or less is going to pose some problems.  Brake lights come on... triggering a chain reaction of traffic slowdown behind them... and for what reason?  Because someone is too ignorant to know to keep right except to pass.   

[mdxtasy]

Saw a transporter truck moving a crane on its bed.  Arm extended and smacked the pedway overhead. 

[Bullet Blue]

I have a feeling that this thread good give the interesting things seen thread a run for its money when it comes to the amount of posts. A lot of morons out there 

I was on a two laned road today and a white GMC Safari was in the right lane, I was in the left. The left lane turned into a left turn only lane up ahead, while the right lane remained a "through traffic" lane. I did not want to turn left, so I sped up to get ahead of the GMC in order to get into his lane because I was right beside a beige Honda Accord. As soon as the GMC saw me accelerating, he did so also to block me from getting into his lane.  ..... I am right beside him at this point and probably could've passed him if I had sped up some more, but I was already well above the limit and the lights ahead were red, so I slowed down to try to merge in behind him. When the GMC sees me slowing down with my signal on, he then slams on his brakes and slows down as well to my speed, ensuring that I could not merge behind him. WTF. So, I just stay in my lane and we both stop in our respective lanes at the lights side by side. It was raining today, so windows up, but I would've given him an earful had it had been better weather. Instead I looked over and gave him a good stare. He looks over at me and is smiling. He says something to me, but I can't tell what it is due to both our windows being up. I see that the lights have now changed green for us out of the corner of my eye, so I accelerated hard ahead of him before he has time to try and do the same thing again to me, merged in front of him all while giving him the finger as I do so. 

[Panzer]

Saw a transporter truck moving a crane on its bed.  Arm extended and smacked the pedway overhead. 

But I thought I was changing radio station!   
(ie: pressed wrong button)

[wing]

Some think driving is a game....

[UmroAyyar]

Some think driving is a game....

Physically grown-up mentally still a child.......a game for them.

[Snowman]

In the theme of "Interesting things seen..." and "Interesting license plates ... " I thought I'd add a third installment to the series.  This could give us an ongoing opportunity to vent about the moronic things we see on the highways and byways all the time.  Those of us in larger centres (ie. Van, Cal, Tor, Mon) will probably have more than our share of daily installments.

In trying to put a slightly positive spin on this thread, let's try to illustrate the 'offense', but (when it's not obvious) point out why this has caused you to get fired up about it.  Hopefully this way for the casual readers that wander through the site from time to time, we can use this as an opportunity to help educate the mindless masses on the roads to smarten up a bit.

Undoubtedly some of these will be real head-smackers that will astonish us by the sheer stupidity of some folks on the roads... others, (like my first example below) will be minor annoyances...

***

Last evening on the QEW Niagara-bound, a 4-5 year old, dark-colour Chrysler minivan was in the left lane of 3-4 lanes of Niag-bound traffic.  Traffic volume was pretty light and as I had just passed one or two cars doddling along at around 100 km/h, I came up in the left lane behind the minivan.  I slowed down to discover that s/he was actually travelling at ~90 km/h in the LEFT LANE.  Keep in mind, this is a stretch of highway that typically sees a LOT of people moving along at 130-140 in the left lane; 120 in the middle lane (in fact, I've travelled at between 115-120 in the right lane before to have even transport trucks pass me in the middle). 

I followed for another 30 seconds or so before finally giving a quick flash of the high-beams to give a hint that they should move over.  No luck... instead, they slowly sped up to about 110... and started to pass another vehicle or two we had come upon travelling at about 105.  After finally getting past the middle lane of slower traffic, the minivan pulls over... I accelerate to approx. 120 to pass, then pull in front of the minivan in the middle lane (leaving the left clear for faster traffic should any come up).  As soon as I"ve passed, minivan driver decides s/he needs to be in the left lane again and pulls back into the left... despite NOBODY else being around to pass!  As I continued to pull away I shook my head wondering what possibly could possess the person to NEED to sit there in that left lane.

Given that traffic can often travel at considerably faster speeds than that, for someone doing 120 -140 km/h (while true, it isn't legal), closing in on the dolt in the left lane doing 100 or less is going to pose some problems.  Brake lights come on... triggering a chain reaction of traffic slowdown behind them... and for what reason?  Because someone is too ignorant to know to keep right except to pass.   

I had a similar situation last week with a POS GMC truck that was in the left lane on Highway 55 during the rush home. What made it worse is he just came from having the truck undercoated so it was spewing smoke from the hot exhaust. I made several unsuccessful attempts to pass on the right, as he was not moving over. I was trapped behind this moron and he seemed to be enjoying the havoc that he was causing.

I finally had an opportunity to pass albeit a very tight one and I came very close to his front bumper with my rear. The ensuing hand gestures escalated into verbal abuse as he came up beside me at a light. At the next light he became more vocal and I could not resist anymore and opened my passenger window to remind him of his obvious care and concern for fellow commuters.

His limited vocabulary and intelligence was much too tempting to belittle and because of that he eventually called me out of the car for further discussions. I guess he should not judge the size of the man by the car as I out sized him considerably. You should have seen the look on his face. Despite the size and intellect advantage he continued the verbal barrage and began to taunt me into a fight. I stood my ground but did not make an aggressive move in front of the many witnesses observing the antics of the moron.

He became increasingly frustrated with my non-action he worked up some saliva and motioned to spit on my car. I quickly placed myself between him and the car and he then spat on the ground. At this point he finally gave up and got back into his truck ad sped off. I was left at the intersection with the sound of honking horns of drivers trying to get home including one of my neighbors. My work related head squishing courses are working. I want so much to pound the sh!t out of him.

This week I now drive in the rush home and place myself in a position where I wont be temped to get upset……. But night some moron leaving Home Depot in a Corolla has a chunk of eavestrough extending 6’ out the front passenger window and another 6’ out the rear driver side. He had to straddle lanes to position himself so not to hit things….WTF?

[wannabe4x4ing]

How about on the way to school?

To get into RDC (heading west on 32nd), there's two left turning lanes. The outside turning lane is also for drivers going straight. I was in the outside turning lane this morning, and some jackarse on the inside lane cuts right in front of me (out of the turning lane!!!) to get back onto 32nd and go straight. I had to slam on my brakes. Thank God it was before it started snowing, otherwise I think I probably would have cruised right into him (and lost...he was in a big pickup).

[quadzilla]

Location: Grocery store parking lot that also has an underground section plus a traffic light to re-enter the main road.   

Driving slowing to get into line for the traffic light (as I hate people that drive fast in parking lots) I get to the end of the lane and checked if the way was clear so I could into line for the traffic light.  I start to go and then catch this car approaching fast which came out of the underground section.  I stop, he stops and we exchange glares.  He pulls up beside my car, leans over and rolls down the manual window to yell some obscenities at me, then proceeds to manually roll the window back up and then drives ahead of me to the right turn lane to be 6 feet ahead of me in the left turn lane. We both sit in traffic waiting for the light to change.

Because he actually made the effort to lean over and manually roll down his window to cuss at me, I really had nothing to return.  We all gave him an “A” for effort as most people would only lift a finger to show you it.

[haris]

Road rage leads to shooting - from Toronto Star

Nov. 8, 2006. 12:54 PM
TAMARA CHERRY
STAFF REPORTER

It started with an unsafe lane change and quickly escalated into a shooting on a Mississauga highway yesterday afternoon.

A 23-year-old Toronto man was driving a delivery van on Highway 401 westbound onto the ramp at Mavis Rd. when the driver of a tractor-trailer pulled in front of him without signalling, forcing him over, he told police.

He caught up with the tractor-trailer, pulled up beside him and began an ill-advised confrontation.

"(It) started with back and forth gestures and yelling and screaming at each other through the window," Woodford said.

The truck driver rolled his passenger side window down, pulled out a handgun and shot at the man, police were told.

"It didn’t look like it hit anything that we can see on the delivery van," Woodford said.

The van driver pulled over and called police.

About a half hour later, police stopped a 34-year-old trucker from Detroit, Mi. in the Cambridge area.

The sudden violence of the incident surprised the police.

"Sometimes you get a firearm, which could be a replica or something, but never a shot being fired," he said, adding even pulling out a fake firearm is rare.

"We do get some calls for more serious (road rage incidents) when they pull over and an assault takes place on a pretty frequent basis, a couple a month," he said. "Road rage is quite frequent in the area, but not to this extent ... It’s sort of scary."

Charges are pending further investigation, but police are looking at such charges as mischief, endandering life, uttering threats to cause death, pointing a firearm, discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a firearm for dangerous purpose, Woodford said.

The fact that their suspect crossed the border with a firearm is worrisome, he said.

"We know that the gun was not registered and he didn’t have a license for a firearm, so how did it come in from the States? That’s the big question we asked ... Maybe we should be doing more checks."

In March of last year, an inconsiderate driving manoeuvre and a serious case of road rage apparently preceded a brazen daylight shooting in Toronto’s east end.

It started when a 27-year-old man driving north on Pape Ave. cut off another vehicle with two occupants heading in the same direction in the afternoon of March 18. The driver of the second vehicle shouted at the first and made an obscene gesture before all three men got out of their vehicles and got into a shoving match at Pape and Gamble Aves., police said.

After the fight, the two men continued taunting the 27-year-old driver of the first vehicle and followed his car until he pulled over again. The passenger in the second van then pulled out a gun and shot the man in the stomach while he sat in his car, police said. He was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

In July of last year, a traffic stop, noise complaint and a road rage episode led to the seizure of weapons and six arrests.

On July 22, two drivers traveling east on Finch Ave. W. got into a dispute before a passenger in one of the cars pointed a handgun at the people in the other car. Police were called and found the suspect’s vehicle. Two men and a teen were arrested and two handguns, along with ammunition and crack cocaine, were seized.

[nefcanuck]

Had this happen to me on Monday while driving out of town for work and figured that it seemed appropriate..

I'm going westbound on the 401 just outside of Guelph, doing about 110km/h in the middle lane when I come upon two semi trucks with trailers, one in the middle lane, the other in the right lane doing about 105km/h each (There is no attempt being made to pass by the driver in the right lane and no exit)

So, rather than stay trapped behind the middle lane truck I signal and pull out to pass on the left...

So what does Mr. Rocket scientist in the middle lane truck then do?  He proceeds to SPEED UP! matching me until I hit 130km/h and finally overtake the truck, signalling to move back into the middle lane doing about 115km/h now with about a kilometre between us.

Well, apparently Mr. Rocket Scientist thinks my dinky little Focus pasing him is an affront to his manhood as then then proceeds to catch up to me in the middle lane and BLAST his horn at me, I stayed in front of him for about 10 seconds before I realized that this maniac seemed bound and determined to make my compact a sub sub compact and bolted into the right lane which was free and clear by this time...

Mr. Scientist proceeds to pass me doing about 130km/h, I give him a blast of my horn in response to his attempts to render me flat and he dissapeared off into the distance...

I know there are good truckers out there, this clown wasn't one of them

NefCanuck

[sirAQUAMAN64]

I hate people straddling the left, especially those who just merge onto the highway and make 45 degrees left for the furthest lane. Or those insist on accelerating when you go to pass - what's the point?

I try to stay right and left to pass. Usually I go with the flow and use lanes where space is not being used - sadly the right hand lane tends to be underutilized so I often wind up passing in it.

[random006]

Small annoyances seen most every day:

People who dart in and out of lanes without signalling, assuming their taillights are actually functioning.

People who park ... at least a foot from the curb, even on narrow streets.  Such behavior can lead to the above mentioned lane darting (being fair to those transgressors).

People who are wating on a red light in a combo through and turning lane and don't signal until you've commited to lining up behind them thinking they are going straight through.


Ya know,

There are days when I swear it would be a shorter and easier job to list the intelligent drivers on the road. 

[Giant Dwarf]

Some great accounts here so far folks.  Snowman, I liked your story -- I can just imagine that little shiteforbrains' reaction when Snowman The Giant curls out of the Subie.    I'm sure he would've been less likely to instigate had you been in the GMC.    

Haris, your posting is a good one too though.  Particularly when around the GTA here, I would not for a second suggest anyone "get out of their cars" for road rage confrontations.  The potential to end up stabbed or shot is far too scary.  

Nefcanuck, your story really frustrates me.  It's one thing for some dumbass on the roadways to be an ignorant or inconsiderate prick, but for a 'professional' driver to act like that   it's both scary and disgusting.  I know those truck drivers spend countless hours piloting those beasts and I don't pretend to have anywhere near the skill to wrangle them the way they do... but sometimes it seems they really have no sense at all... tailgating cars in the middle lane -- just a few feet off the bumper at highway speeds.  How much stopping distance does one of those things need from 120 km/ h anyway?  Certainly 2-3 times more than most cars, I'd bet!

Siraqua... the best part of having a sporty machine like yours is being able to "point and shoot" through traffic when necessary.  

Bulletblue... the next time someone asks "but why do we need so much power these days in our cars?", I think we should direct them to your post.  With a small, powerful, nimble machine, it's easy to make short work of someone who is speeding up to block you.  Drop a gear, give it the gas and see ya later!

Random... you're so right.  But what fun would it be to list only the courteous drivers we encounter on the way to work?  This thread wouldn't make it past half a dozen posts! 

[Wolfe]

This thread is reminding me why I want to replace the horn on my car. Meep-meep just doesn't cut it sometimes.

[Giant Dwarf]

This thread is reminding me why I want to replace the horn on my car. Meep-meep just doesn't cut it sometimes.

I hear ya there!  Try driving a "lady's car" and having that little cricket fart of a horn when someone's about to run you over with an H2! 


***


I would find this thread very gratifying if at some point, someone sees a post here and says "Hey!  That was ME they're talking about" and defends their actions. 

[mdxtasy]

I have two Cadillac horns in the Miata.  It gets the attention of the dumbass.

[Wolfe]

I have two Cadillac horns in the Miata.  It gets the attention of the dumbass.

The problem with replacing the RAV4 horn is that the stock one is very narrow and is placed in a very tight spot behind the grille. I'd have to find a different spot to mount a larger horn.



I've had it happen that I've been driving along and had someone almost change lanes into the side of my car. This actually happens quite often near where I live. It constantly amazes me that people can drive along without noticing the tall boxy SUV directly beside them. I'd hate to think what it would be like driving a Miata around here. That won't stop me from buying a Miata but the first mod would be a new horn for sure.

[Iso Octane]

I wonder if these inconsiderate drivers experience, or have ever experienced, the frustration that we do.

Maybe they just... don't...  know.  Can't comprehend because it's never happened to them.

 

[Panzer]

Going back home from work one day, someone passed my bike on the right hand side using the space in the one lane I was in, and part of the unpaved shoulder.  I was doing 70 km/h in a 60 km/h zone so I guess I wasn't going fast enough for him.  I tooted my horn to let him know what kind of an idiot he was and HE gave ME the finger!

This thread is reminding me why I want to replace the horn on my car. Meep-meep just doesn't cut it sometimes.

What I'd like to have on my car (or bike for that matter) is a pair of paintball guns mounted to fire through the grille, à la James Bond, so I can "shoot" other idiots' cars.  Man would that ever go a long way for stress relief!