Other Drivers

[The_bobb]

Today, some chick almost t-boned me in the parking lot (that sounds HAWT). It was this little old chick, probably 70 something, driving this BIG ASS escalade. She was talking on her phone and looking in the opposite direction as i passed i front of her. I drive a little Hyundai Elantra. it was scary.... her grill was like right in my face (sounds dirty too). Scary....

[Gribble]

Wait. Why did you pass in front of her like that? Did you have right of way?

[The_bobb]

Sure did, she even had a stop sign and everything =) Didn't care tho, cuz she's in a big ass suv AND she has a cellphone, MUCH too important for petty traffic laws

[The_bobb]

My head hurts =( Real bad....

[Gigabitch]

Aw, you made me sad =( And here i was looking for some acceptance. someone to love me.... and possibly, hate other drivers =( Maybe even spoon? =}

Oh, you do NOT want to spoon with raver. He pokes his thingie in your back and, well, it's not exactly comforting.

[The_bobb]

Or maybe that's EXACTLY what i need?! =P

[Gigabitch]

Only if you want to end up with an empty liquor cabinet and sore spots in places you never expected them.

[bloodtippedrose]

Oh My... GOD!!! Have you SEEN the way some of these people drive?!!

Ohhh I nawyamean. Whats really been grinding my gears lately is that NO ONE seems to check if their brake lights are working. And have you ever noticed 90% of minivans have dents in them? I have yet to meet a minivan driver here that didnt go under the speed limit and brake unnecessarily..

[bluesummer]

I hate other drivers. I've only been in one accident in my life and it was some lady who rear ended me while I was stopped behind a vehicle turning left in front of me. She didn't even touch the brakes, she ran into me full speed and totalled my car. Bitch.

Anyways, I drove around the city this week and was cut off, tailgated, nearly t-boned, and had some idiots run in front of my car in the middle of the street downtown. I am convinced 75% of people out there should be banned from driving for life because they're too stupid to operate a vehicle.

You have no ****ing idea how stupid some people are. I take my life in my hands every time i strap on my helmet and turn the engine. People are oblivious and I have had 5 occasions that would have probably killed me on my bike had I not been on the ball when another driver payed no attention.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a moment. Now, I do agree that people don't watch out for bikes as well as they should. BUT! If I could tell you how many times this summer alone I had bikes shoot past me at 140+ km/hr (have no idea what that is in miles but 100 km/hr is the LIMIT here).....it's unbelievable. Not only that, they ride up the middle lane between cars, drive down the shoulder when traffic is 'too slow' for them, and weave in and out of traffic with NO SIGNALS. Yeah, no wonder they almost get killed. I'm not saying they're all like this, but the handful I've experienced in the last two months alone don't represent the riding population very well.

[Yggdrasil]

Are you guys talking about blondie with her rear view mirror tilted towards her face so she can put her lipstick on with her right hand, while yapping on the cell phone she's holding with her left hand, meanwhile balancing a hot coffee between her legs and steering with her knee?

Yeah.. I see her every day swirling over the road.

I also see this one guy every day, who appearantly doesn't have a watch or an alarm, and is so stressed out about not having enough time to get to work, that he has to swirl from one lane to another to gain a car lenght, while flashing his highbeams and swearing at all those idiots who drive so slow and don't let him pass when he's in such a hurry because he overslept (again). Usualy he drives a truck.

Then there is also this one kid, who has a really nice car, but direction indicators are optional on his vehicle and I don't think he wanted to spend any extra money on those.

[bluesummer]

Are you guys talking about blondie with her rear view mirror tilted towards her face so she can put her lipstick on with her right hand, while yapping on the cell phone she's holding with her left hand, meanwhile balancing a hot coffee between her legs and steering with her knee?

Oh, I know her. She was driving in front of me two days ago. Looking into the rearview the whole time. Speeds varied between 40 and 70 kms/hr at any given moment.

I was actually frightened and wanted to pass her, but she was swerving so much I was afraid she'd run me off the road.

[Thelovedoctor]

Oh well. I almost ran over some stunned broad who darted out in front of my truck the other day.

what happened was that I stopped at the stop sign, went through, and then, some stunned broad comes darting out of the store and across the street when I was literally only a foot away from the crosswalk across the street. She didn't look both ways, probably completely obvivious to the fact she almost became road pizza from her stupid darting action. luckily, it's a 3 way stop this happened at, there was no traffic, and I was paying attention.

On the same day, some old granny in a van was blocking the entranceway to the grocery store ,trying to do a three point turn in front of it, so instead of holding up traffic, i just went around the block and used the other way in.

[Cbrider]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a moment. Now, I do agree that people don't watch out for bikes as well as they should. BUT! If I could tell you how many times this summer alone I had bikes shoot past me at 140+ km/hr (have no idea what that is in miles but 100 km/hr is the LIMIT here).....it's unbelievable. Not only that, they ride up the middle lane between cars, drive down the shoulder when traffic is 'too slow' for them, and weave in and out of traffic with NO SIGNALS. Yeah, no wonder they almost get killed. I'm not saying they're all like this, but the handful I've experienced in the last two months alone don't represent the riding population very well.

Its a little eerie to look back at how I use to feel about riding prior to my accident and how I view it all now.

I use to be this guy, I would ride down the freeway in the fast lane, passing people doing almost double the speed limit. It was too easy though, all it took was a twist of my wrist in second or third gear and I could go from 70 to 120 in a matter of seconds. Its a lot of fun being able to do that, but you take on a huge responsibility with that kind of capability. I was an idiot that refused to let anything slow me down or get in my way.

My accident shook me up sometime after the actual events. I had nightmares about it, frame by frame in my mind looking down into that ravine at my friend pinned under his bike, unconscious and bleeding. My bike laying nose down off the side of the road, me standing on the shoulder in total shock, bleeding and completely battered from the asphalt. I remember it all, the pain, the disbelief, the wind of the helicopter rotors and I just stood there, not really knowing what to do.

Its been 2 1/2 months, I have had a lot of time to reflect on where I went wrong and what needs to change in my life. I realized that I have finally found what separates good riders from dangerous riders. There's a little part of me that misses the high speeds, the wheelies on the freeway and the general terror involved with owning a bike. What separates precrash me and post crash me is the ability to just not do those things. They were fun and I will miss that kind of stuff, but if I don't stop it will kill me. There's no point in being the fastest one out there if you're dead.

I use to complain about how bad people in cars were when driving around me. I have to ask myself though, what did they think of my driving? I never realized how hypocritical I was being, I could have just as easily have gotten someone killed out there. Every time I pass a mirror now I am reminded of my foolishness, my road rash left a pretty decent reminder.

[bluesummer]

Jeez, sounds like you had a really bad accident. I wish other bike riders could hear your story.....but still, they'd probably just think "oh that won't happen to me."

Had another one today, zip up the cars in between two lanes and pull in front of the first car in the left hand turn lane. I was SO pissed off. I was the car behind the first one, and lucky him. I would've rolled down my window and told him what a mindless prick he was.

[Cbrider]

Jeez, sounds like you had a really bad accident. I wish other bike riders could hear your story.....but still, they'd probably just think "oh that won't happen to me."

Had another one today, zip up the cars in between two lanes and pull in front of the first car in the left hand turn lane. I was SO pissed off. I was the car behind the first one, and lucky him. I would've rolled down my window and told him what a mindless prick he was.

You can't talk someone into changing, all you end up doing is talking in circles. You either grow out of the recklessness and /or stop riding all together, or you crash and get hurt. Those are the only two ways to really get the point across.

90% of all the people I know that ride bikes and crashed, hung their helmets up for good after their ordeal. That's probably the most frustrating part of it all. Watching a good rider walk away from the sport because of a mistake rather than learning from it and hoping back in the saddle.

Oh well, statistically, hanging up the helmet is ultimately safer

For the record, I have never lane split with a car. I have made some less than brilliant passes and lane changes, but even I was never dumb enough to lane split.