Over-the-top rudeness on the road

[TXlib]

I'm driving to work this morning. It's raining, and the roads are packed.

I'm at a traffic light, and there are perhaps 30 cars ahead of me. I'm in the left-hand lane of a four-lane highway. There's a big-ass Ford F-350 in front of me, and I can't see around it. Each time the light turns green, we creep up by about 4 cars, because everybody's too busy picking their noses to jump on the gas quickly enough.

Suddenly, the F-350 turns left (into the left lane of the opposite direction), and zooms forward a few feet, and gets back into our lane, after cutting off the F-150 that had been in front of him.

The driver of the F-150 reacts much as you'd expect, leaning on the horn, shaking his fist, obviously screaming a few choice words at the F-350 driver.

These are the rude drivers for whom highway shootings were made.

:grr: :mad: :nuke:

[GOPisEvil]

1. When I am king of the world...

...I will have flying magnets, like in the James Bond movie (one with Connery in Japan, I forget the name). These will swoop down, remove the offending vehicle from the roadway, and drop said vehicle and driver into a reducation camp.

[bearfan454]

2. Nice rally last Saturday, huh GOPisEvil ?

Austin Tx rules !

[GOPisEvil]

3. Yeah, baby!!!!

Although, I think the t-shirt I wore is STILL soaked with sweat! x(

Too bad we couldn't get together afterwards. There were many DUers there, including the author of this thread, and his wife and kids! :-)

[TXlib]

4. Yeah, it was fun to meet everybody

We'll have to try for a get-together when Will Pitt is in town.

[GOPisEvil]

9. He's coming into town on Sept. 13th.

That's election day for the Constitutional Propositions, by the way. Vote no on all of them - they all suck, particularly Prop. 12.

Anyway, I will be planning something for that evening in Austin. Maybe we can do a secondary thing in Houston when he's there.

[bearfan454]

12. Keep in touch.

If I don't have school that night I probably will go.

[bearfan454]

11. When is he coming to town ?

Hell I'll go.

[bearfan454]

8. A lot of people at work really liked the pics.

Of course there were the wannabe repukes. You know, the people that make 35,000 a year and think they are repukes. All kinds of them where I work.

[BigMcLargehuge]

5. You Only Live Twice

Bond-san.

[GOPisEvil]

6. Thank you - I thought that's what it was...

I remember someone's name was Tiger. :P

[TXlib]

7. Tiger Tanaka

[markbark]

10. Bond, James Bond

The movie of which you speak is You Only Live Twice

.... although the baddies after bond were not dropped into a reeducation camp, but the Sea of Japan (and had to spend the rest of their lives trying to grow gills :evilgrin: )


--MAB

[GOPisEvil]

13. Well, I would be a more benevolent dictator.

I am a Democrat after all. :-)

[Droopy]

14. Man, I see stuff like that every day, several times a day

I'm a truck driver and us truck drivers have been complaining about this for the past several years. Rude behavior and dangerous driving are getting worse and worse for some reason. One that gets me all riled up is people who cut in line. There's this one exit ramp on my route that's always backed up. It just so happens to be an exit that I have to take. Instead of waiting in line like everybody else some people will run all the way to the front in the next lane and then cut in line. I hate that. It's probable that some of the people doing that just weren't aware that the exit they needed was backed up, but I think most of them know what they're doing.

[TXlib]

15. Question for you, as a truck driver

When I'm commuting and see many 18-wheelers and other commercial trucks on the road at rush hour, I always wonder if they NEED to be on the road at that time.

The rush hour problem is similar to the electric power scheduling problem, or parking lot problem... it's all about managing peak load, and encouraging users to spread out their use of the limited resource.

The commuters pretty much need to be on the road at those times to get to work, and come home at a reasonable hour, but there's no 'preferred hour', as I see it, for commercial drivers.

Would it make sense for all non-commuters to avoid the road for 60-90 minutes each morning and afternoon to help reduce rush hour congestion?

Would it make sense to have a law requiring that?

If my assumptions are wrong, let me know...

[Droopy]

16. Well

I don't know about all commercial drivers, but I often hear truck drivers on the c.b. radio talking about how their going to stay at a truck stop just outside of town and wait for all the commotion to die down in the city during rush hour. Personally, I have to drive through a city during evening rush hour to keep with my schedule. I drive the same route every day and I have specific delivery times that I have to keep. Believe me, I'd prefer to run through the city at a different time to avoid all the hassle. My guess is that if you see a trucker in traffic during rush hour it's because he's trying to keep to a schedule. Those big trucks can be hard enough to drive without all the traffic.

But let me tell you something. The next time you are in a rush hour traffic jam, take a look around you and count how many trucks you see, then look at all the cars. Then ask yourself if the elimination of the trucks would really help matters. I bet the elimination of the truckers would make no significant difference on the situation.