tex2670

Well...I get what you are saying now. Here in Philly (and many other places, I suppose), we call that the morning commute...

But--I still don't personally find this a problem. YMMV.

psu83

I'm thinking if we can somehow get turn signals to operate via text message more people would use them. Oh and learn the difference between "yield" and "stop."

chikoo

at 70mph, even one or two flash of red lights will cause confusion, regardless of frequency. For all I know one the indicator bulbs has blown and is blinking faster.

In this given situation, the vehicle coming to a full stop with a solid red light is minimal. At best, most cars are just trying to slow down, and some trying to sneak in to the exit at the last moment.

Fizzboy7

1) When construction trucks get on the freeway right after coming out of their dirt site, kicking up rocks and stones as the wheels clean themselves at speed.
2) On two lane mountain roads, when you get stuck behind an extremely slow driver who does not use the turnouts. I've been in lines of cars 40 to 50 deep all because one person didn't have a clue what was stacked up behing him/her or just didn't care to be courteous.
3) When you are stopped with your window down at a long light or long left turn arrow and the people right next to you are smoking with their window down. Of course, the wind always has to blow it in your car.
4) When stopped with your windows down at a long light or turn lane and the people next to you are blasting their music ten times the normal volume needed. So much for trying to drive in peace and quiet.
5) When peds are waiting at a crosswalk with button, hit the button, see there are no cars, then cross on their red w/o waiting for their green. Then the light turns red for the traffic's right of way when there is now no one there to use the crosswalk.
6) Anyone who drives a motorcycle through a residential area after midnight. ***YOU ARE WAKING UP EVERYONE, including babies and children trying to sleep!***
7) Anyone who drives a classic or muscle car pre-dating the 1970's. Sorry folks, but your smog-exempt car is really a cancer-causing POS and STINKS when people are following you or next to you at a stoplight.
8) While waiting behind someone in a lefthand turn lane and the light turns green, they don't pull forward into the intersection to get a head start on the turn (for when oposing traffic clears).
9) When behind a car on an onramp to a freeway and they don't accelerate up to the speed of the freeway to merge. Now you are stuck going the same slow speed they are, trying to squeeze into the flow of traffic at a too-slow of a pace.
10) In stop ang go traffic, people who automatically put their brakes on only because the car in front of them did. It doesn't matter how much room they have or if there's a widening gap... they still and always hit the brake because the car in front of them did. This type of driving wastes brakes, causes unecessary backing up behind them, and shows a major lack of coordination.
11) Cars that parallel park three inches from your bumper, when they had plenty of space in front of them to even out the gap.
12) People who don't put their hazard lights on when stranded in the flow of traffic or after an accident. This couldn't be more dangerous, especially at night or on the freeway.
13) People who drive with bald tires or with metal shards showing. This selfish act can kill other people through their own accident.

UpSideDown

And this:

When you are stopped with your window down at traffic light to enjoy the sunny weather and the person stopped in the left lane beside you decided to wash the windscreen with full blast so the wash fluid sprays into your cabin, and on you arm that hangs outside the window...

Fizzboy7

That would suck. I've never had that happen. Just once when my sunroof was open while moving.

LexFather

Always happens with a clean car too

mmarshall

That's why I rarely use my windshield washers (I regularly clean my car inside and out by hand). Because most of the non-glass areas close to the washer-ports are painted, invariably some of the blue washer-fluid drips or gets sprayed onto paint, where the chemicals in the fluid can leave marks on the paint if they dry (SCRATCH-OUT can sometimes get them out). That's ask why I carry a well-sealed bottle of water and sponges in my trunk for emergencies like that on the road if I'm not near a place where I can wash my car. It also comes in handy for on-the-road bird-droppings, which also are corrosive and have to be cleaned off very quickly.

FrankReynoldsCPA

You'll hate me then. My dad has a 67 Pontiac Firebird with the 400 V8 that I intend to restore and drive in the future. It means way too much for me to cave into environmentalist demands. Besides, the number of these old cars still on the road is small enough to make their emissions almost insignificant.

nipponbird

The only car that "stinks" is a Diesel BMW that shoots pass at way over the speed limit. That strange smell is mostly inherent in a common rail Diesel doing high revs.

mmarshall

Not only that, but drive that old Firebird past the nearest coal-burning power-plant and you won't feel bad at all about what comes out of that Firebird's tailpipe.

nipponbird

My dad had a '53 Buick straight eight and it's on my bucket list to drive that car again. Hope they don't have a law against them soon, but no intention to inconvenience the other motorists. Very safe car, its AC Delco generator, probably weighs more than a Prius and it's no brainer who will come second in a fender bender.

mmarshall

True, that old Buick is a tank, but in anything more than a fender-bender, the Prius occupants will have a LOT of safety-gear in the car protecting them that simply was not available in 1953.

BTW, I know old Buicks well......I actually owned two of them in my youth, though of a somewhat later vintage. If your dad's car has the Dynaflow automatic transmission that a number of 1953 Buicks had, it may take forever to get rolling, allow a lot of engine-slip, and seem like a complete slug even with the straight-8. But those old Buick Super Turbine-Drive and Dynaflow transmissions had an incredible, amazing smoothness to them that virtually no modern car can match. That's because the transmissions were most entirely fluid-drive, with very few actual mechanical parts. But be careful with the brakes. The brakes on 1953 Buicks were known for fading and master-cylinder leakage...and master cylinders in those days didn't have dual-circuit systems to fall back on if all the fluid leaked out of one. If the brake fluid leaked, you were stuck with the manual parking-brake and nothing else.

corradoMR2

Definitely two annoyances of mine, but probably my biggest one is when the car ahead coming to a stop at a traffic light does not move a little to the left so you can make a right turn when you've signaled your right turn intention a while back.

nipponbird

On a serious note (and at the peril of being thrown off the thread for being off topic), there is actually no comparison between those cars and what we drive today, while at the same time it doesn't feel like it. My RX350 reminds me a lot of that '53 Buick They both say to you: "Listen I'm up to the job".
Get down to the spec sheet and it's a whole different ball game, the Buick did on a good day 130 horsepower etc etc. But we all have cars so rolled up with happy memories, that just getting again behind that large diameter steering wheel, will have us die a happy man.
Yes, they're actually far from save, but then in those days people were courteous on the road, waited and signalled other people to go first etc. etc. Nowadays I get the impression people want to score on each other, therefore cutting you off on the road, running with overloaded trolleys at the supermarket to be first at the pay point and all just to gain a few seconds - or is it to say I beat that ......hole. But rudeness has never been the sign of greatness.