Stupid drivers are one of my biggest pet peeves. I try to not be the angry driver guy but some times the Mr Hyde in me comes out when I’m driving..
I just got back last week from vacation and a family reunion in Colorado which is about a 1300 mile round trip for me here in Phoenix to my parents house and back. Which let me see a lot of things to complain about/drive me nuts. I need one of those shirts “WARNING: do not annoy the crazy person!!” Better yet I need a bumper sticker on both ends of my truck in huge letters. More explicitly the 6’3″ 225 pound irritable guy who almost always has a Glock 23, 40 Caliber hand gun with him.
This is one that I see a lot on the interstate and have had truckers do it too. I’m trying to driver slower with gas prices and my pick up only gets 17 MPG on average. Still I tend to driver faster than everyone else seems too, as fast as I can with out getting a ticket. Picture this you are driving down the interstate and are over taking group of vehicles. It takes you a while to do so and when you catch up the rear most vehicle pulls out to pass them cutting you off and takes several minutes to SLOWLY pass the vehicles they have been following for many miles until you caught up with them!
The second one is similar, a vehicle rapidly catches up to you so you let them pass but when they get along side of you they slow down so they trap you behind a truck going under the speed limit. I had two convertibles that were obviously traveling together I wanted to run off the road for doing this and then messing with me. One was a Corvette and the other a Mustang. I got tried of playing games with them and passed them again and really pushed getting a ticket, it was either that or shoot both of them..
If your going to pass someone, DO IT and don’t doddle!
One thing that really pisses me off are people who speed up so you can’t pass them when it is clear to do so and then slow down when traffic is too heavy to let you pass them. This seems to be a popular sport in New Mexico!
I hate driving in that state, I’ve encountered the worse weather there, the worse drivers, lousy sign age and they always seem to have the roads tore up some where along they way. They spent over a decade tearing up the highway tough Albuquerque. They do stupid stuff like keep changing the speed limit on the interstate from 75 to 65 and back. Generally it goes back up just as you start up a steep hill.. BTW, their highway patrol cars are dark brown.. I checked the New Mexico website for construction on the route and it only showed restrictions in 1 area, but I ran in to several areas where the interstate (I 40) and (I 25) was down to one lane for several miles and the speed limit was 45 MPH. US 285 is in such poor shape that the lines on the road are nearly non-existent. I almost drove off the road on a curve in the dark because there were no lines, the only reason I knew there was a curve was the growth along the side of the road curved. When you cross the Colorado state line the road improves so much it is like you crossed in to a MUCH better country from the third world..
One year I drove though Espanola on Christmas Eve and they were driving around in the dark with their headlights off so they could see the luminaries. I especially hate driving though Espanola, they keep changing the route of the highway though town and their signs suck. There is one part of the trip though town that the sign for 285 north directs you down this road which a couple of blocks later comes to an intersection that T’s and their is no sign that tells you which way to go.
One year I hit black ice between Gallop and Grants and then it was icy all the way to Albuquerque and it is up hill nearly the whole way. Then there was one year it was so foggy in Albuquerque all I could see was the guard rail and the truck I was following.
It used to be to get though Sante Fe from I25 to US 285 you had to know to get off on Saint Francis Drive because their were no signs that told you that. Now they have a bypass road (599?) that goes around Sante Fe and I don’t go though there any more, their loss I used to get dinner there.
When I drove though there last winter I saw more creatures on the road than you will see in any zoo because they salt the stupid roads. At Christmas I saw; rabbits, coyotes, a wolf I think, elk, deer and antelope.. They let the forest grow right up to the edge of the road and put reflectors along the edge of it. Which look a lot like the eyes of animals and then they post signs like “Elk Crossing”. If animals cross in that area or any other area the brush and trees should be cleared at least 50 yards on either side of the highway so you can SEE them BEFORE they step out in front your car. This trip during the summer I only saw about 100 rabbits, Jack rabbits and cotton tails, more of the former. I have those things that make ultra sonic noises to scare animals which seem to work because most of them I see are moving away from the road The ones I have two horns each that make different tones.
Yes, I can drive to Colorado without going through New Mexico but then you have to drive a few hundred miles though Indian reservations and there are no places to stop for long distances except when you hit small cities. It is also a hundred miles or so farther that way. I did it a few years ago because a blizzard had closed all the roads in western New Mexico for a week. I ended up going up though Tuba City, across northern Arizona, though 4 corners, Durango, Pagosa Springs and over the famed Wolf Creek Pass (10,850 ft) US-160 which requires chains to cross in the winter and is the long way around. The southern pass into the San Luis Valley over the continental divide is Cumbres and La Manga passes both about 10,200 and it is closed in the winter because they are state route (17) and not a highway so it is not maintained in the winter which would require constant snow plowing. Getting there requires you to go through northern New Mexico through Chama. Between Bloomfield and Chama is about 100 miles of nothing but tall pine trees to see and no signs. US 285 comes in to the San Luis Valley at the southern end of the valley where it is lowest, just west of where the Rio Grande River flows out of the valley on it’s way to the gulf of Mexico. It’s head waters are near Wolf Creek Pass at the other end of the valley. Instead of crossing the continental divide in Colorado where it is a lot higher you cross it in I-40 between Gallop and Grants where it is a lot lower, about 8500 feet compared to over 10,000 feet. The route from Phoenix to Sante Fe is all Interstate I-17 to I-40 to I-25.
Anyway back to what I was talking about in the first place, Stupid Drivers.
Similar to the people who cut you off when you catch up to them are those who speed up, pass you and then slow down slower than you were going when they passed you. What hell is the deal with that?? Do they think you are driving too fast so it is their job to slow you down??
Something I’ve seen mainly here in Phoenix are the stupid people who will pass you no matter how fast you are driving and then slam on the breaks and make a right hand turn in front of you.. Do this to me and I MIGHT follow you home…
Then there are all the illegal aliens who drive around with no insurance, no licenses and haven’t a clue what the rules of the road are in this country. I was making a legal left turn when the idiot at the stop sign on the street I was turning on to pulled out and made a left turn almost right into me and missed the back of my truck by inches only because I sped up. If I could have turned around I would have chased his ass down and kicked it all the way back to Mexico. When they do get in accidents they get out and run away and half the time the cars are stolen. “Their just poor people looking for jobs”, Bull shit! These are the same people who are taking American jobs, stealing our identities, crossed the boarder illegally in the first place, and probably supported criminal organizations to get them across the border in the first place. Then when they are here they continue committing crimes.
I was in the dentist office just down the street a couple of years ago and they were just preparing to drill a cavity when an illegal ran the light, hit a SUV, over turned it, took out the power pole which took out the power and then stopped when he hit a tree. Then he got out and ran away in front of several witness, no one stopped him..
Anyway long and short of it is if your one of the stupid drivers ponder this. There are some of us who would like to kill you but are too nice to do so. But there are others (at least here in Phoenix) who will not hesitate to shoot you for driving like an idiot.
I understand a lot of you are driving slower to save gas but if you are driving 5 miles under the speed limit do it in the right hand lane! You are still required to yield to the right for faster traffic.
You are also required to yield to emergency vehicles. A couple of months ago I had a woman cut around me when I was stopped at a light for an on coming ambulance just as the ambulance cleared, we started to move. She moved a little then slammed on the breaks causing me to bump the rear of her vehicle. I should have kicked her ass for driving like a moron.
If you are a pedestrian traffic is not required to yield to you if you are not in a cross walk and are jay walking. You do not have the right away over a 2000 pound vehicle driving down the road at 40 mph. If you run out in to traffic you deserve to be ran over! Especially if you are doing it in the dark and wearing dark clothes. I think we should quit protecting the stupid people from themselves. I don’t believe in evolution but I think if you are too stupid to live the rest of us have no obligation to save you from yourself. Also If you do not cross at the corner you may not be seen, there is a Circle K at the corner where I turn in to my neighborhood. I don’t know how many people I’ve almost hit because they are crossing the street in the middle of the block where they can not be seen when making the turn at the corner or step out from between parked cars with out looking. I had an idiot cross in front of me one day on the way to work recently. He was wearing head phones and I don’t think he noticed me until I honked at him.. I drive a big F150 super cab, not some little economy car, if you can’t see and hear it coming you are either deaf and blind or have your head up your ass not paying any attention to what is going around you!
