Hi, friends!
Helpful tips if you have forgotten how to drive or are just stupid.
When it’s a heavy downpour of rain (bad enough for standing water on the highways)
- Definitely don’t use headlights
- For suresies you want to right up on the ass of an 18 wheeler
- Blinkers are for quitters
- Speeding is a fantastic idea
- Staying in your lane is totally overrated
This theme brought to you by a stressful and long commute home.
How did your day go?
Helpful tip: When it doubt…don’t.
If Lindsey Graham wants to show you his ladybugs, run!
Whyyyyyy bring up that traumatizing story again???
Licky icky 🐞🐞🐞.
Hope I repaid you in kind with that visual.
When the rain is really coming down hard, one of my favorite maneuvers on the Interstate is to drive just behind the spray zone of a big rig, maybe four or five car lengths back.
I figure the truck has the visibility to drive at a the appropriate, steady pace, if the truck needs to hit the brakes I have plenty of space to react, and nobody ever tries to jump into the gap between me and the truck to get a windshield full of spray from the rear wheels of the truck.
If I drive behind a car and leave a similar gap, someone always tries to cram into that space, and cars are much more erratic in terms of reacting to traffic in front of them when the weather is crummy.
We have too many trucks carrying rocks or gravel around here so I never drive behind trucks for long. I’ve gone through at least 5 windshields in the last 10 years. The worst was a truck running over a baseball sized rock which I watched it kick up & hit my daughters windshield at the very top & spiderweb it. I was proud she didn’t freak out & stayed in the lane. I will never own a convertible after seeing what that rock did.
I still think about Alan Pakula. The Long Island Expressway no less. I hope that he was at least coming or going from a Hamptons home.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-nov-20-mn-45681-story.html
That nearly happened to me. A piece of 2X4 flew off a dump truck with an unsecured load (I wish I had that asshole’s license plate.)
If I wasn’t changing lanes to exit off the highway then the 2X4 would have flown right into/through the driver’s side of the windshield. It put a good size dent on the driver’s side of my car instead.
When I was in grad school, one of the star tennis players for my school was heading to the beach. A construction truck carrying cinderblocks was coming toward her, and the cinderblocks were stacked high and unsecured. One flew off and into her windshield. She died a few days later when her parents took her off life support.
The only silver lining is that laws were passed to secure truck loads. When you see a truck carrying cinderblocks now, the blocks are covered by metal grates and strapped down.
It is no one else’s business where I’m going.
Ope, how am I supposed to know to slow down and let you in and give the 1 finger Midwest wave if ya don’t use yer blinker?
You wouldn’t have time to let me in…I’d weave my way around you at 140/hr before you had the chance.
Also, I’d lie if anything happened and be like…
Will Smith: how timely!
A friend of mine who doesn’t use blinkers says this: “Why reveal your plans to the enemy?”
I felt that way in Atlanta. They’d see your signal and accelerate to block your way so you didn’t get “in front” of them. Worst drivers I’ve ever seen, and I’ve driven in LA.
I am always surprised by how pleasant (I think) it is to drive in LA. You’re given plenty of warning about exits, for example, and the people seem to drive pretty defensively, because they all know that one fender bender on one freeway will gridlock the entire region for hours. And left-hand turning lanes: what a remarkable innovation! And copious parking. And plentiful, legible street signs at every corner. Mind you, I’ve never had to commute in LA so I’ve never been under any time pressure.
I think the worst city by far is Boston. The streets are narrow and compact but so what, so is Greenwich Village. It’s the attitude of the drivers that is so frightening, and the lack of signage. I got pulled over once when I drove down this narrow street (in Cambridge) and when the light turned green I took a left onto what looked like a small avenue, certainly smaller than the avenue I lived on at the time. It was the fabled Mass. Ave.
I said to the cop who pulled me over for taking a left, “You’re joking. There’s no sign or anything. It’s not like I’m trying to go down I-95 the wrong way.” He then wanted to write me up because my (NYC) rental car didn’t have a “winder stickuh.” I said, “In New York those are on the license plates. See? Plus, this is a rental, so if you have a problem you can contact Hertz, here are the documents, the phone number must be on there somewhere.” I’m lucky I didn’t wind up in Cambridge’s version of Riker’s. I think the only thing that saved me was that the cop was superannuated and looked like he lived off a diet of Camels and Four Roses.
I’ve never tried to drive in Boston. Walking there is enough of a challenge for me.
That story made me nervous. You’re lucky you’re not a BIPOC person. You could have been shot.
eh..i pootled about the garden some….then broke the quarantine rules we used to have by getting my grocerys….i tried getting them delivered..and i could have… next week
thats fucking helpful
i also learnt i can take a sleeper train to bolzano and back for $250..a night trip there and a night trip back with 2 nights in a hotel in bolzano included in the price
thats really quite tempting